Rival Securitising Attempts in the Democratisation of Hong Kong
The Chinese “one country, two systems” principle is politically threatened by two emerging securitising attempts throughout the democratisation of Hong Kong.
Interview – Lene Hansen
Prof. Lene Hansen discusses securitization scholarship, developments in discourse analysis, and the role of images and the ‘visual turn’ in International Relations.
Securitisation Theory: An Introduction
Securitisation challenges ideas about the universality and objectivity of security and emphasises the ways in which knowledge is not merely ‘out there’ but is driven by interests.
The End Days of the World System? Before Armageddon the Long Nights of Ignorance
It is impossible to turn religious enquiry into a foreign policy brief or accord it much utilitarian use in foreign policy formulation as it allows no options for actions.
Interview – Holger Stritzel
Dr Stritzel discusses what it means to be “critical”, assesses developments in securitization studies, and gives some advice for young Critical Security Studies scholars.
International Climate Change Politics: Challenges and Opportunities
The path to a more effective international climate politics is paved by transition to low carbon economies that reflect the true costs of greenhouse emissions.
Making Sausage
IR scholars rarely have access to real-time “insider” data on climate summits, though it is telling that virtually all of the world leaders make claims that we would have expected.
Not quite the end of the Third World?
One of the few things to catch the imagination out of last December’s UN climate conference in Copenhagen certainly was Tuvalu, standing up to make a desperate plea for its continuing existence. But despite Clive Hamilton’s claim that this marks the ‘tectonics plates’ shifting and a rift emerging within the Third World, it is more likely that Tuvalu’s actions will come to be little more than a wistful memory.
The End of the Third World
For half a century, the Third World remained united in the face of a common threat, the influence of the United States and, to a lesser extent, the Soviet Union. But for least developed countries a greater enemy has now emerged, the threat to their survival posed by global warming, and they are no longer willing to subsume their demand that all the world’s polluters curb their activities beneath the imperative of maintaining the appearance of G77 unity.
The politics of climate change
Efforts to combat climate change will proceed apace regardless of Copenhagen; indeed, the possible shortcomings of the summit should not detract from the task that national governments have already embarked upon and will continue to face over the decades to come. This is because globalisation means that problems are precisely that: global.
