Autism in International Relations 1 NOTE: This is a prior draft of a paper now published in European Journal of International Relations. The published copy has some alterations from this draft. You can find the paper online here: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1354066117698030 Introduction This paper’s goal is to help readers understand the international relations (IR) discipline’s relationship with ableism. Ableism is a sociopolitical system of narratives, institutions, and actions collectively reinforcing an ideology that benefits persons deemed able-bodied, able- minded, and normal by others and devalues, limits, and discriminates those deemed physically and/or mentally disabled and abnormal. This paper explores how scholars use disability metaphors, often seemingly without self-conscious reflection about the socially constructed meanings embedded in these metaphors, to make sense of international politics. Such use spans from how international actors have been ‘crippled’ by war, to how states suffer from various ‘pathologies’ that warp their perception of the international system, and to how arrogant world leaders are ‘blind’ to the complications of reality or ‘deaf’ to naysayers’ warnings. With the prevalence of disability metaphors throughout IR, it is puzzling that there is not a larger disability studies program—scholarship that critically challenges widely-held perceptions and assumptions about disability in order to empower disabled peoples—for studying these metaphors. Such a program could raise more self-awareness about IR scholars’ place in their societies and how the language they use can obscure the experiences and realities of disabilities. Disability studies could uncover misassumptions IR scholars make about international politics because of ableist narratives. Furthermore, this paper supports claims that IR scholars should pay attention to how the metaphors they use shape how people perceive international politics.