This process note explicates the methodological intervention of maintaining fieldnotes on government documents and its significance for historically situated international relations (IR) research. For the most part, IR scholarship treats archival documents as the neutral preserve of the state, representing its coherent national interests. Building on discussions around critical methods within IR, I argue that there is a need to reflexively engage with the writing and curating practices of the state. This process note deploys the ethnographic hallmark of thick description within IR research through critical annotations on archival documents and other government publications on India’s eastern Himalayan borderlands between 1880 and 1965. These annotations encourage a granular reading of government documents and situate them within a larger context of their production, reception, archival memorialisation and subsequent access. I propose that critical annotations help us move beyond post-hoc analyses of foreign policy in terms of success and failure. Instead, in viewing IR theorising as ‘unfinished dictionaries of the international’, I argue that critical annotations challenge a unitary view of the state and facilitate a more nuanced analysis of foreign policymaking emphasising historical contingencies within which policies are articulated and enacted.

中文翻译：

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历史文献批判：国际关系研究方法论的可能性

本过程说明阐述了维护政府文件现场记录的方法干预及其对历史情境国际关系（IR）研究的重要性。在很大程度上，国际关系学术将档案文件视为国家的中立保护区，代表其一致的国家利益。基于围绕国际关系中批判方法的讨论，我认为有必要本能地参与国家的写作和策展实践。本流程说明通过对 1880 年至 1965 年间印度东部喜马拉雅边境地区的档案文件和其他政府出版物进行批判性注释，在国际关系研究中采用了厚重描述的民族志标志。这些注释鼓励对政府文件进行细致的阅读，并将其置于更大的背景下。它们的制作、接收、档案纪念和随后的访问。我认为批判性的注释有助于我们超越对外交政策成功和失败的事后分析。相反，我将国际关系理论视为“未完成的国际词典”，认为批判性注释挑战了国家的统一观点，并有助于对外交政策制定进行更细致的分析，强调政策制定和实施的历史偶然性。