The Politics of Globality since 1945: Assembling the Planet

218 Pages·2016·2.813 MB·English

by  Rens van Munster (editor), Casper Sylvest (editor)

Few volumes confront the big questions of how we interpret our place in a
rapidly changing world as well as this elegant collection of essays. A major
contribution to the emerging field of Anthropocene studies, this volume
should be read by anyone interested in how we have come to understand our
current predicament andwhat this means for the future of humanity.
Simon Dalby, CIGI Chair in the Political Economy of
Climate Change, Balsillie School of International
Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University
In this fascinating new book, scholars from different disciplines provide fresh
insights into the concept of globality and its appropriation within anarrayof
politicalandideologicalcontextssince1945.Byexposingtheinherentambiguities
and contradictory meanings of globality, the authors offer a critical analysis
of its contemporary usage from a wide variety of perspectives. It should be
read by anyone interested in the contested foundations of globalization and
world politics.
Jens Bartelson, Professor of Political Science, Department
of Political Science, Lund University, Sweden
This page intentionally left blank
The Politics of Globality since 1945
This timely, comprehensiveand interdisciplinary volume advancesan original
argument about the complex roots and multiple politics of globality. It shows
that technological innovations and decisive developments since 1945 – from
thenuclear revolution toanthropogenic climatechangeanddebatesabout the
Anthropocene – have prompted reflections on the global condition of
humanity and helped reshape political communities by making the world
(appear) small, manageable and interconnected.
The contributors stress how human beings have transformed both their
habitat and their view of human-Earth relations since 1945. Such changes
havebeenaccompaniedbyimportantshiftsinpoliticalvisions,prompted new
forms of human association, encouraged legal and institutional reform and
spurred ideas about ecological humility. At the same time, the spatially all-
encompassing nature of globality has also informed projects of human mas-
tery and a range of practices historically associated with militarization and a
strongly statist conception of national security. This volume reflects on these
paradoxical relationships, their history and contemporary relevance.
Contributing to the overlapping concerns offour burgeoning fields of study
across the humanities and the social sciences – globality and globalization
studies; geopolitics and political geography; Anthropocene studies; global
governance and political theory – the book will be of great use to scholars
and graduatesworking in these areas.
RensvanMunsterisseniorresearcherattheDanishInstituteforInternational
Studies (DIIS). Located at the intersection of IR theory and critical security
studies, his research critically interrogates practices of security and risk man-
agement, with a particular focus on the politics and governance of
catastrophes.
Casper Sylvest is associateprofessorattheDepartmentofHistory,University
ofSouthernDenmark.Combining thestudyofpolitics,history,lawand tech-
nology,mostofhisworkhasexaminedrealistandliberalvisionsofinternational
and global politics during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
New International Relations
Edited by Richard Little, Universityof Bristol, Iver B. Neumann,
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), Norway
and Jutta Weldes, Universityof Bristol.
The field of international relations has changed dramatically in recent years.
This new series will cover the major issues that have emerged and reflect the
latest academic thinking in this particular dynamic area.
Critical Security Methods
New frameworks for analysis
Claudia Aradau, Jef Huysmans, Andrew Neal and Nadine Voelkner
The International Political Sociology of Security
Rethinking theory and practice
Trine Villumsen Berling
Reflexivity and International Relations
Positionality, critique, and practice
Jack L. Amoureux and Brent J. Steele
A Practice of Ethics for Global Politics
Ethical reflexivity
Jack L. Amoureux
The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations (2nd Edition)
Philosophyof science and its implications for the studyof world politics
Patrick Thaddeus Jackson
Nuclear Realism
Global political thought during the thermonuclear revolution
Rens van Munster and Casper Sylvest
The Politics of Globality since 1945
Assembling the planet
Edited by Rens van Munster and Casper Sylvest
Evaluating Progress in International Relations
How do you know?
Edited by Annette Freyberg-Inan, Ewan Harrison and Patrick James
The Politics of Globality
since 1945
Assembling the planet
Edited by
Rens van Munster and Casper Sylvest
Add Add Add
AddAddAdd
Add
AddAdd AdAddd
Firstpublished2016
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
andbyRoutledge
711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2016selectionandeditorialmaterial,RensvanMunsterandCasper
Sylvest;individualchapters,thecontributors
TherightofRensvanMunsterandCasperSylvesttobeidentifiedas
authorsoftheeditorialmaterial,andoftheindividualauthorsasauthorsof
theircontributions,hasbeenassertedbytheminaccordancewithsections
77and78oftheCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor
utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now
knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orin
anyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwriting
fromthepublishers.
Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor
registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanation
withoutintenttoinfringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Names:Munster,Rensvan,1977-editor.|Sylvest,Casper,editor.
Title:Thepoliticsofglobalitysince1945:assemblingtheplanet/edited
byRensvanMunster&CasperSylvest.
Description:NewYork,NY:Routledge,2016.|Series:Newinternational
relations|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2016002119|ISBN9781138645622(hardback)|ISBN
9781315628059(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Globalization.|Internationalrelations.|Worldpolitics–
1945-1989.|Worldpolitics–1989-
Classification:LCCJZ1320.P662016|DDC327.09/045–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttp://lccn.loc.gov/2016002119
ISBN:978-1-138-64562-2(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-31562-805-9(ebk)
TypesetinTimesNewRoman
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
List of figures ix
List of contributors xi
Foreword xiv
Preface xvi
Introduction 1
RENSVANMUNSTERANDCASPERSYLVEST
1 New Earths: Assessing planetarygeographic constructs 20
DANIELDEUDNEYANDELIZABETHMENDENHALL
2 Terraforming planet Earth: The age of fallout 44
JOSEPHMASCO
3 Classical realism for the twenty-first century: Responding to the
challenge of globality 71
CAMPBELLCRAIG
4 Mastering the globe: Law, sovereignty and the commons
of mankind 89
TANJAAALBERTSANDWOUTERWERNER
5 Futures of Mankind: The emergence of the global future 106
JENNYANDERSSONANDSIBYLLEDUHAUTOIS
6 Anthropocene incitements: Toward a politics and ethics of
ex-orbitant planetarity 126
NIGELCLARK
7 Climatic globalities: Assembling the problems of global
climate change 145
SAMUELRANDALLS
viii Contents
8 Envisioning ‘global security’? The Earth viewed from outer space
as a motif in security discourses 164
COLUMBAPEOPLES
Afterworld 188
PAULN.EDWARDS
Index 197
fi
List of gures
2.1 “Facts about Fallout,” Civil Defense handout 47
2.2 Map of the U.S. nuclear complex at the end of the Cold War 50
2.3 Locations of above-ground nuclear tests 51
2.4 Fallout study of Mike fallout cloud 52
2.5 Illustration of the global travel of fallout 54
2.6 Cumulative iodine contamination from nuclear detonations at
the Nevada Test Site 56
2.7 Background radiation rates for U.S. populations 56
2.8 Depiction of nuclear blast sequence for a new Panama Canal,
from Plowshares 59
2.9 Craters produced by nuclear detonations at the Nevada
Test Site 62
2.10 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration “Science
on a Sphere” visualization of sea surface temperatures
and currents 64
2.11 Still image from Isao Hashimoto’s art installation, “Nuclear
Explosions 1945–1998” 65
7.1 Calder’s projection of a new ice age 149
7.2 Warmer or colder? 150
7.3 The carbon market 154
7.4 The making of climate-concerned subjects 156
7.5 The climate-security nexus 157
8.1 NASA AS8-14-2383 (‘Earthrise’) 167
8.2 NASA AS17-148-22727 (‘The Blue Marble’) 168
8.3 US defence agencies’ emblems 170
8.4 US Missile Defense Agency ‘wallpaper’ 172
8.5.1 GMES [Copernicus] The European Earth Monitoring
Programme, still #1 (Satellite overviewof Earth) 176
8.5.2 GMES [Copernicus] The European Earth Monitoring
Programme, still #2 (Water glass) 176
8.5.3 GMES [Copernicus] The European Earth Monitoring
Programme, still #3 (Lab flask) 177