The Matter of Affect in the Quantum Universe
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
| Author | Şengül Yıldız-Alanbay |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0305829820971680 |
| Subject Matter | Book Forum |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0305829820971680
Millennium: Journal of
International Studies
2020, Vol. 49(1) 151 –161
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0305829820971680
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1. Laura Zanotti, Ontological Entanglements, Agency and Ethics in International Relations:
Exploring the Crossroads (London and New York :Routledge, 2018).
2. Ibid., 1.
3. Ibid.
4. Sjoberg and Prügl in this forum give detailed information with regard to feminist engage-
ments with subjectivity and ethics in IR. For more information, see Sjoberg, ‘Quantum
Ambivalence’ and Prügl, ‘The Gender Thing: Apparatuses and Intra-Agential Ethos.’
The Matter of Affect in
the Quantum Universe
Şengül Yıldız-Alanbay
Virginia Tech, USA
Keywords
Quantum International Relations, Critical Theory, Affect Theory, International Ethics
In Ontological Entanglements, Laura Zanotti1 offers a thought-provoking reorientation
of International Relations (IR) by thinking through the political relevance of ontological
starting points, that is to say, the ways we imagine how the world is, how we fit in it, and
how ‘things’ relate to one another.2 Zanotti not only offers us alternative conceptualisa-
tions of who we are and how we relate to the world,3 but also investigates how these
ontological starting points have a bearing on the ways we formulate political agency as
well as validate ethical and political decisions. It is important to note that such inquiries
have yet to be explored in IR from a quantum perspective. In fact, from a relational and
process-oriented perspective, some feminist IR scholars have already engaged with the
questions of subjectivity and ethics in the study of the social.4 However, the distinctive-
ness of Zanotti’s work lies in its exploration of relationality beyond the social through a
quantum ontological critique. By stressing the intertwining of the social and the mate-
rial, Zanotti uniquely sets out to ontologically re-think not only the human but all sorts
of entanglements within the universe.
Corresponding author:
Şengül Yıldız-Alanbay, ASPECT (Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought), Virginia Tech,
118C Surge, 400 Stranger St, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
Email: ysengul@vt.edu
971680MIL0010.1177/0305829820971680Millennium – Journal of International StudiesYildiz-Alanbay and Yıldız-Alanbay
research-article2020
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