17–19 Jun 2020
Civic Centre
Europe/London timezone

SPATIAL DIMENSIONS OF THE ANTHROPOCENE: CONCEPTUALIZING CHALLENGES TO STATE-CENTRISM IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

19 Jun 2020, 10:00

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The current geological era of the Anthropocene has brought to light the profound impact of human activity on the natural environment. Establishing a meaningful engagement with this context of ecological instability involves highlighting the inadequacies of the existing concepts which define the relationship between humans and nature. This paper argues that the way in which the discipline of international relations conceptualizes the idea of space limits the possibilities of redefining the links between communities and their environment. Provided that the state is the highest form of spatial organization in international politics, the paper contends that problematizing its centrality to the discipline holds the potential to move closer to the above mentioned aim. It attempts to answer the following questions: (1) What are the ecological implications of the foundational assumptions of national security in international politics (2) Is there a contradiction between the notion of state capacity and the natural conditions which this capacity is based upon? (3) What are the alternative spatial configurations that counter the statist ordering of the political ecological space?

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