Global Governance Futures: Imperfect Utopias or Bust
Global Governance Futures
53 episodes
5 months ago
In this episode, we’re joined by Professor Simon Dalby, one of the most original thinkers in critical geopolitics and environmental security. His scholarship has fundamentally reshaped how we understand the relationship between ecology, violence, and global governance – pioneering the concept of political geoecology and, more recently, probing the incendiary entanglements of fossil fuels, statecraft, and planetary breakdown.
We explore Simon’s intellectual journey, from early work on geopolitics and discourses of security, to his provocative interventions on anthropogenic fire and the combustible politics of the climate crisis, captured in his recent book Pyromania: Fire and Geopolitics in a Climate-Disrupted World.
With characteristic clarity and urgency, Simon unpacks the dangerous inertia of existing institutions and the need to stop “governing as if the Earth were not burning.” We discuss the challenge of reimagining sovereignty, security, and governance in the context of Earth system disruption – and why a politics of planetary responsibility must begin with confronting fossil modernity head-on.
Simon Dalby is Professor Emeritus at Wilfrid Laurier University. He is a former co-editor of the journal Geopolitics and author of multiple influential books on climate, war, and the changing foundations of global order.
Simon’s profile can be found here: https://balsillieschool.ca/people/simon-dalby/
We discussed:
• Pyromania: Fire and Geopolitics in a Climate Disrupted World (2024): https://cup.columbia.edu/book/pyromania/9781788216517/
• Review of Children of a Modest Star: Planetary Thinking for an Age of Crises by J. Blake & N. Gilman (2024): https://issforum.org/roundtables/PDF/Roundtable-XXVI-24.pdf
• Firepower, Climate and the Dilemma of Security, RUSI Commentary, May 2022: https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/firepower-climate-and-dilemmas-security
• Rethinking Environmental Security (2022): https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/rethinking-environmental-security-9781800375840.html
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In this episode, we’re joined by Professor Simon Dalby, one of the most original thinkers in critical geopolitics and environmental security. His scholarship has fundamentally reshaped how we understand the relationship between ecology, violence, and global governance – pioneering the concept of political geoecology and, more recently, probing the incendiary entanglements of fossil fuels, statecraft, and planetary breakdown.
We explore Simon’s intellectual journey, from early work on geopolitics and discourses of security, to his provocative interventions on anthropogenic fire and the combustible politics of the climate crisis, captured in his recent book Pyromania: Fire and Geopolitics in a Climate-Disrupted World.
With characteristic clarity and urgency, Simon unpacks the dangerous inertia of existing institutions and the need to stop “governing as if the Earth were not burning.” We discuss the challenge of reimagining sovereignty, security, and governance in the context of Earth system disruption – and why a politics of planetary responsibility must begin with confronting fossil modernity head-on.
Simon Dalby is Professor Emeritus at Wilfrid Laurier University. He is a former co-editor of the journal Geopolitics and author of multiple influential books on climate, war, and the changing foundations of global order.
Simon’s profile can be found here: https://balsillieschool.ca/people/simon-dalby/
We discussed:
• Pyromania: Fire and Geopolitics in a Climate Disrupted World (2024): https://cup.columbia.edu/book/pyromania/9781788216517/
• Review of Children of a Modest Star: Planetary Thinking for an Age of Crises by J. Blake & N. Gilman (2024): https://issforum.org/roundtables/PDF/Roundtable-XXVI-24.pdf
• Firepower, Climate and the Dilemma of Security, RUSI Commentary, May 2022: https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/firepower-climate-and-dilemmas-security
• Rethinking Environmental Security (2022): https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/rethinking-environmental-security-9781800375840.html
45: Craig Murphy and Jonathan Rowson – Global Politics and the Metacrisis
Global Governance Futures: Imperfect Utopias or Bust
1 hour 19 minutes 11 seconds
1 year ago
45: Craig Murphy and Jonathan Rowson – Global Politics and the Metacrisis
Craig Murphy and Jonathan Rowson join us for a dialogue on global politics and the metacrisis, using as a springboard for this conversation the essay ‘Prefixing the World: Why the polycrisis is a permacrisis, which is actually a metacrisis, which is not really a crisis at all’, published by Jonathan on his Substack blog in late 2023. Craig recently participated in a panel on Crisis in Global Governance at the International Studies Association annual meeting where he engaged with Jonathan’s work in his remarks, seeing certain affinities between Jonathan’s claim that all global problems of the moment are connected to a single source, a single metacrisis and Craig’s own insights into the importance of grappling with the possible interconnections across global problems if problem solvers are going to develop the kind of complex solidarity that is likely to be essential to any adequate response to the daunting challenges of our times. We were honoured to be able to bring these two distinguished scholars and authors together for a far-reaching and deeply meaningful conversation.
Craig Murphy is Betty Freyhof Johnson ’44 Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Wellesley College and is a leading light in the fields of international relations and political science, known particularly for his pioneering research on global governance.
Jonathan Rowson is Co-founder and Chief Executive of Perspectiva, which is a collective of scholars, artists and activists who produce and publish outputs concerned with understanding the relationship between systems, souls and society in theory and practice. He was previously Director of the Social Brain Centre at the RSA where he authored a range of influential research reports on behaviour change, climate change and spirituality, and curated and chaired a range of related events.
Craig’s official website profile can be found here: https://www1.wellesley.edu/politicalscience/faculty/murphy
Jonathan’s profile can be found on the Perspectiva website: https://systems-souls-society.com/origin/people/
He tweets @Jonathan_Rowson
His essays can also be read at Substack: https://substack.com/@jonathanrowson
We discussed:
Ursula Le Guin, ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’, 1973: https://shsdavisapes.pbworks.com/f/Omelas.pdf
Geoff Mann, ‘It Was Not Supposed to End This Way’, August 2019: https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/geoff-mann-it-was-not-supposed-end-way/
See our podcast conversation Geoff Mann here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFmOtlbJPts
Craig Murphy, ‘Leadership, Global Governance, and Peace’, November 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ_nXvzcOEE
Craig Murphy, ‘Engineering Rules’, 2024: https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/11653/engineering-rules#:~:text=of%20the%20internet.-,In%20Engineering%20Rules%2C%20JoAnne%20Yates%20and%20Craig%20N.,on%20all%20of%20our%20lives.
Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry of the Future: https://www.orbitbooks.net/orbit-excerpts/the-ministry-for-the-future/
Jonathan Rowson, ‘Prefixing the World,’ September 2023: https://perspecteeva.substack.com/p/prefixing-the-world
Jonathan Rowson, ‘Tasting the Pickle: ten flavours of meta-crisis and the appetite for a new civilisation’, February 2021: https://systems-souls-society.com/tasting-the-pickle-ten-flavours-of-meta-crisis-and-the-appetite-for-a-new-civilisation/
Adam Tooze, ‘Welcome to the world of the polycrisis’, Financial Times, 28 October 2022: https://www.ft.com/content/498398e7-11b1-494b-9cd3-6d669dc3de33
Global Governance Futures: Imperfect Utopias or Bust
In this episode, we’re joined by Professor Simon Dalby, one of the most original thinkers in critical geopolitics and environmental security. His scholarship has fundamentally reshaped how we understand the relationship between ecology, violence, and global governance – pioneering the concept of political geoecology and, more recently, probing the incendiary entanglements of fossil fuels, statecraft, and planetary breakdown.
We explore Simon’s intellectual journey, from early work on geopolitics and discourses of security, to his provocative interventions on anthropogenic fire and the combustible politics of the climate crisis, captured in his recent book Pyromania: Fire and Geopolitics in a Climate-Disrupted World.
With characteristic clarity and urgency, Simon unpacks the dangerous inertia of existing institutions and the need to stop “governing as if the Earth were not burning.” We discuss the challenge of reimagining sovereignty, security, and governance in the context of Earth system disruption – and why a politics of planetary responsibility must begin with confronting fossil modernity head-on.
Simon Dalby is Professor Emeritus at Wilfrid Laurier University. He is a former co-editor of the journal Geopolitics and author of multiple influential books on climate, war, and the changing foundations of global order.
Simon’s profile can be found here: https://balsillieschool.ca/people/simon-dalby/
We discussed:
• Pyromania: Fire and Geopolitics in a Climate Disrupted World (2024): https://cup.columbia.edu/book/pyromania/9781788216517/
• Review of Children of a Modest Star: Planetary Thinking for an Age of Crises by J. Blake & N. Gilman (2024): https://issforum.org/roundtables/PDF/Roundtable-XXVI-24.pdf
• Firepower, Climate and the Dilemma of Security, RUSI Commentary, May 2022: https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/firepower-climate-and-dilemmas-security
• Rethinking Environmental Security (2022): https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/rethinking-environmental-security-9781800375840.html
