L. H. M. "Lily"Ling (14 November 1955 – 1 October 2018) was a political theorist and scholar whose work focused around the theory ofworldism within international relations. Much of her work draws from storytelling, the arts, and non-Western culture to present alternative versions of historical analysis of global affairs.^[1] She was Professor of International Affairs atThe New School at the time of her death.^[2]

She graduated fromWellesley College, and fromMassachusetts Institute of Technology with aPh.D. She held academic positions atUniversity of Texas at Austin,Syracuse University,Cornell University, andInternational Institute of Social Studies before joining the faculty at The New School in 2002 as an associate professor with the Graduate Program in International Affairs. She was an editorial board member forPolitics & Gender and forInternational Political Sociology, and an associate editor forInternational Feminist Journal of Politics.^[3]

In 2018, she was awarded the Eminent Scholar distinction by the Feminist Theory and Gender Studies section of theInternational Studies Association.^[4] Ling died on 1 October 2018, of stroke complications.^[5]

Ling was the lead advocate forworldism, atheory of international relations. Worldism posits that the dominant geopolitical order, defined as theWestphalian world/Western IR, is a singularsocial construction that interacts competitively and creatively with 'other worlds' – other social and political orders.^[6] The theory itself blends together insights fromTaoism,feminism,postcolonialism, and social constructivism to critique the militaristic focus of contemporaryinternational relations andrealist analysis of it.

The theory bases itself inDaoist dialectics to complicate the totality of Western IR and pose it as theyang element within a dialectic construction. In comparison, Ling draws upon the arts andsoft power to representyin. Together, both "co-create, co-govern, and co-exercise power."^[6] Ling encourages others to explore within the creative power ofyin to challenge theyang of dominant IR narratives to create new worlds, thus fulfilling the prophecy of worldism in the dialogue of various worlds within one another.

• Postcolonial International Relations: Conquest and Desire betweenAsia and theWest (London:Palgrave Macmillan, 2002)
• Seductions of Empire: Complicity, Desire, and Insecurity in Contemporary World Politics (forthcoming), co-authored with Anna M. Agathangelou (York University).
• The House of IR: From Family Power Politics to the Poisies of Worldism, co-authored with Anna M. Agathangelou (Wiley on behalf of The International Studies Association, 2004)
• The Dao of World Politics: Towards a Post-Westphalian, Worldist International Relations (Routledge, 2014)
• Imagining World Politics: Sihar & Shenya, A Fable for Our Times (Routledge, 2014)
• India China: Rethinking Borders and Security, with Adriana Erthal Abdenur, Payal Banerjee, Nimmi Kurian, Mahendra P. Lama, and Li Bo. (University of Michigan Press, 2016,ISBN 978-0-472-13006-1).

• "The Kitsch of War",International Affairs Working Paper 2005-02, March 2005

Ling, L.H.M (2017) “World Politics in Colour” in Millennium: Journal ofInternational Studies, Vol. 45(3) pp. 473–491. Accessible:https://doi.org/10.1177/0305829817703192

Ling's publications have appeared inInternational Feminist Journal of Politics,International Studies Quarterly,International Studies Review,Journal of Peace Research,Millennium, positions:east Asia cultures critique,Review of International Political Economy,Review of Politics, as well as various edited volumes.

• 1955 births
• 2018 deaths
• The New School faculty

• CS1 maint: location missing publisher
• CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown
• CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list
• Articles with hCards