“Geopolitics and Planetary Boundaries”Geopolitics of Geometry: Order and Orientation on a Changing Planet“Geopolitics and Planetary Boundaries”

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Abstract

Geopolitics of Geometry examines how the relationship between human beings, the earth, and political authority on a world scale is oriented by a geometrical ideal of order. Beginning with the political philosophy of Immanuel Kant, the book traces the consequences of this orientation for theories of globalisation in classical geopolitics and contemporary international relations. The political stakes of this question concern the political appropriation of the earth at the foundation of international politics. The critical aim of the book in this regard is twofold. First, it excavates how this appropriation is enabled by a specific idea of what counts as order (systematic unity) and it recovers a question asked by Kant: By what concepts and practices can the relationship between human beings, the earth, and world scale political authority be oriented? By posing this question afresh for international relations today, the book provides a critical rethinking of key problems in international relations theory and opens new avenues for reorienting world politics in response to climate change and global inequality.

Regan Burles is Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Edinburgh