Palgrave Handbook of Global Politics in the 22nd Century

eBook

English language

Published Jan. 1, 2023 by Palgrave Macmillan Cham.

ISBN:: 978-3-031-13721-1

(1 review)

This handbook offers a unique approach to the question: How do scholars write the future of global politics? Written in futur antérieur style, around the 200-year anniversary of the birth of International Relations (IR) as an academic discipline, the contributions engage in world-building and imagine different futures of IR. Set in a multiverse, 23 chapters draw on a range of possible themes and imaginaries, for instance post-pandemic conditions, the Anthropocene, and not least academic practices and the role of researchers. A concluding chapter anchors these explorations in contemporary discussions.

The book mirrors the format and style of existing handbooks, combining outlines and discussions of theories, structures, processes, and core issues in IR with an academic science fiction account of how these might play out over the course of the next century. In doing so, the book challenges IR and provides alternative imaginaries, rather than predicting future conditions for all humanity. …

This handbook offers a unique approach to the question: How do scholars write the future of global politics? Written in futur antérieur style, around the 200-year anniversary of the birth of International Relations (IR) as an academic discipline, the contributions engage in world-building and imagine different futures of IR. Set in a multiverse, 23 chapters draw on a range of possible themes and imaginaries, for instance post-pandemic conditions, the Anthropocene, and not least academic practices and the role of researchers. A concluding chapter anchors these explorations in contemporary discussions.

The book mirrors the format and style of existing handbooks, combining outlines and discussions of theories, structures, processes, and core issues in IR with an academic science fiction account of how these might play out over the course of the next century. In doing so, the book challenges IR and provides alternative imaginaries, rather than predicting future conditions for all humanity. The book invites readers to reflect on how thinking about the future has become an increasingly radical, but more than ever necessary act.

1 edition

Justin Pickard reviewed Palgrave Handbook of Global Politics in the 22nd Century by Laura Horn

Deeply uneven, but good to think with

3 stars

Long and uneven, and I'm not sure if the overarching academic handbook x multiverse frame works as well as the editors intended, but there are several chapters that stand out, justifying the rest of the edited volume on their merits alone. Besides, it's rare enough to see anyone grappling with the possible contours of the 22nd century that the volume deserves a reparatory reading; one sensitive to its utility, generative potential, and (to my mind, effective) use of the future anterior.

Took a lot from the chapters on post-asteroid global society, Latin American degrowthers, physical twins, and neo-Carthaginian core-periphery relations – and the editors' concluding reflections provide a lot of seeds and insights to take away and build upon.

(Disclaimer: It may help to have a working knowledge of the field of international relations.)