Anthropocene, Capitalocene and Liberal Cosmopolitan IR: A Response to Burke et al.’s ‘Planet Politics’
| Published date | 01 January 2018 |
| Author | David Chandler,Stephen Hobden,Erika Cudworth |
| Date | 01 January 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0305829817715247 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0305829817715247
Millennium: Journal of
International Studies
2018, Vol. 46(2) 190 –208
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0305829817715247
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Anthropocene, Capitalocene
and Liberal Cosmopolitan IR:
A Response to Burke et al.’s
‘Planet Politics’
David Chandler
Westminster University, London, UK
Erika Cudworth
University of East London, London, UK
Stephen Hobden
University of East London, London, UK
Abstract
This article is a collective response to ‘Planet Politics’ by Anthony Burke et al., which was published
in this journal in 2016, and billed as a ‘Manifesto from the End of IR’. We dispute this claim on the
basis that rather than breaking from the discipline, the Manifesto provides a problematic global
governance agenda which is dangerously authoritarian and deeply depoliticising. We substantiate
this analysis in the claim that Burke et al. reproduce an already failed and discredited liberal
cosmopolitan framework through the advocacy of managerialism rather than transformation;
the top-down coercive approach of international law; and use of abstract modernist political
categories. In the closing sections of the article, we discuss the possibility of different approaches,
which, taking the Anthropocene as both an epistemological and ontological break with modernist
assumptions, could take us beyond IR’s disciplinary confines.
Keywords
Anthropocene, Capitalocene, global governance, cosmopolitanism, discipline of IR
Corresponding author:
Stephen Hobden, School of Social Sciences, University of East London, 4–6 University Way, London, E16
2RD, UK.
Email: s.c.hobden@uel.ac.uk
715247MIL0010.1177/0305829817715247Millennium: Journal of International StudiesChandler et al.
research-article2017
Article
Chandler et al. 191
1. The Eagles, ‘Hotel California’. Lyrics available at: http://genius.com/The–eagles–hotel–
california–lyrics.
2. Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks (London: Lawrence & Wishart,
1978), 275–76.
Résumé
Cet article est une réponse collective à « Planet Politics » d’ Anthony Burke et al., publié dans ce journal
en 2016 et présenté comme un « Manifeste de la fin des RI ». Nous contestons cette prétention car nous
estimons que, loin de s’écarter de la discipline, le manifeste présente un programme de gouvernance
mondiale problématique, dangereusement autoritaire et profondément dépolitisant. Nous étayons
cette analyse en soutenant que Burke et al. reproduisent un cadre cosmopolite libéral déjà discrédité
par l’échec, en défendant le gestionnariat au détriment de la transformation, en prônant un droit
international coercitif et pyramidal et en utilisant des catégories politiques modernistes abstraites.
Dans les derniers passages de cet article nous proposons différentes approches qui considèrent
l’Anthropocène comme une rupture épistémologique et ontologique par rapport aux présupposés
modernistes et pourraient nous amener à surmonter les contraintes disciplinaires des RI.
Mots-clés
Anthropocène, Capitalocène, gouvernance mondiale, cosmopolitisme, discipline des RI
Resumen
El presente artículo constituye una respuesta colectiva a ‘Planet Politics’ de Anthony Burke et
alii., publicado en esta publicación en 2016 y anunciado como un ‘Manifiesto desde el fin de las RI’.
Cuestionamos dicha pretensión ya que consideramos que, en lugar de romper con la disciplina, el
Manifiesto propone una agenda de gobernanza mundial problemática, peligrosamente autoritaria
y profundamente despolitizante. Construimos nuestro análisis sobre la propuesta de que Burke
et alii. reproducen un marco liberal cosmopolita ya fracasado y desacreditado al defender la
gerencia pública en detrimento de la transformación, un enfoque de las leyes internacionales
descendente y coercitivo y el uso de categorías políticas modernistas abstractas. En los párrafos
finales del artículo estudiamos la posibilidad de enfoques diversos que, tomando al Antropoceno
como una ruptura tanto epistemológica como ontológica con los presupuestos modernistas, nos
permitan traspasar los límites disciplinarios de las RI.
Palabras clave
Antropoceno, Capitaloceno, gobernanza mundial, cosmopolitismo, disciplina de las RI
Are we all just Prisoners here of our own Device?1
Introduction
Writing in the Prison Notebooks Gramsci described the moment as an ‘interregnum’
where many ‘morbid symptoms’ were evident. Whether we are now in an interregnum or
not could be a point for debate, but we appear to be surrounded by many ‘morbid symp-
toms’.2 Within the human sphere, these are taking the form of political violence and an
increased rhetorical violence amongst those who represent us. Looking out into the rest
of nature there is the day-by-day drip-feed of news reporting on the devastation of our
fellow species and landscapes, much linked to the issue of climate chaos.
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