Peter Haldén
Biographic Data
| ID | 290561 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Peter Haldén |
| GIVEN NAMES | Peter |
| FAMILY NAME | Haldén |
| SIGNATURE | HALDÉN P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Swedish Defence University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5711-4354 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Forum
This forum discusses and celebrates the career and impact of Jens Bartelson in and on Nordic academic International Relations. Through engagement with his central works and concepts, the contributions highlight the intellectual impact and development of Bartelson’s work over three decades
Worlds of Uncertainty
In recent years we have faced huge uncertainty and unpredictability across the world: Covid-19, political turbulence, climate change and war in Europe, among many other events. Through a historical analysis of worldviews, Peter Haldén provides nuance to the common belief in an uncertain world by showing the predictable nature of modern society and arguing that human beings create predictability through norms, laws, trust and collaboration. Haldén…
War, Survival Units, and Citizenship
Full-Spectrum Social Science for a Broader View on Cohesion
In October 2018, Armed Forces & Society published a special issue dedicated to broadening the perspective on military cohesion from the narrow focus on 20th and 21st Western state militaries and the microlevel. The special issue emphasized the need for a theoretical and methodological broadening of the study of cohesion: In order to understand the majority of armed groups in the world, it is necessary to investigate macro- and mesolevel precondit…
Family Power
This book demonstrates that elite families and political order evolved in symbiosis throughout European and Middle Eastern history. Kinship groups like noble clans and royal dynasties were preconditions of stability and legitimacy of political orders. There is a tradition in political theory, anthropology and sociology spanning four centuries that claims that kinship is incompatible with political order. This tradition argues that kinshipbased el…
Geopolitics in the changing geography of the Baltic Sea Region
This article outlines the possible geopolitical consequences of climate change in the Baltic Sea Region. In order to do so it also presents a framework that understands geopolitics as a dynamic rather than static field of study. One of the most important factors that determine the character of the impact of climate change on geopolitics in the Baltic Sea Region will be the kind of relations that exist between the littoral states. Still, modern so…
Organized Armed Groups as Ruling Organizations
Previous studies of the cohesion of organized armed groups (OAGs) have made great progress, but they have mostly focused on units fighting for modern Western states. I argue that the study of OAGs that contain their own legitimacy requires a broadened theoretical framework. Such groups may be conceptualized as 'ruling organizations' in Max Weber's terminology. Examples of such groups range from early medieval warbands to modern militias and guerr…
The Realm as a European Form of Rule
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Heteronymous politics beyond anarchy and hierarchy
Anarchy and hierarchy are two central concepts of International Relations theory but as conventionally defined they cannot describe political life for most of Western history. Neither concept describes the structure of medieval politics well. Rather, many different principles of differentiation existed simultaneously, both stratificatory and segmentary. The situation was closer to anarchy as understood as the absence of overarching principles of …
War, modernity, and the origins of civilization
Reconceptualizing state formation as collective power
This article deals with the importance of collective power and value consensus among elites for medieval polity formation by analyzing electoral monarchies. State formation theory focuses on the monopoly of legitimate armed force and has pushed notions of consensus and collective power into the background. This article questions material and coercive theories of state formation and emphasizes polity formation through theories of power as collabor…
New agendas in statebuilding
"This volume connects the study of statebuilding to broader aspects of social theory and the historical study of the state, bringing forth new questions and starting-points, both academically and practically, for the field. Building states has become a highly prioritized issue in international politics. Since the 1990s, mainly Western countries and international institutions have invested large sums of money, vast amounts of manpower, and conside…
A non-sovereign modernity
Social theory almost invariably equates modernity with the sovereign state. This equation must be nuanced because the modern era and modern strategies of international stability have contained non-sovereign units. In the nineteenth century, the Great Powers tried to create international stability by engineering forms of rule in Europe. These strategies built on distinctively modern ideas: the possibility of radically breaking with the past, redes…
New Agendas in Statebuilding
Republican continuities in the Vienna Order and the German Confederation (1815–66)
This article argues that the German Confederation — deutscher Bund — (1815–66)was a form of rule built on early modern republican political theory. It was a ‘Compound Republic’ form of rule constructed to prevent the emergence of a system of sovereign German states as well as a single sovereign German state. Its purpose was maintaining peace and stability in Europe and safeguarding the autonomy of its member polities. Contemporary statesmen, inte…
Fundamental but not eternal
Although the public–private distinction is a historical construction it has been deeply internalized and taken for granted in Western ways of thinking about society and politics. Therefore, we often apply it uncritically as a way to categorizing and coding non-Western societies. Doing so unreflectively may distort our observations as well as policies of state- and peacebuilding. I outline the history of the public–private distinction by emphasizi…
Universal Empire
The claim by certain rulers to universal empire has a long history stretching as far back as the Assyrian and Achaemenid Empires. This book traces its various manifestations in classical antiquity, the Islamic world, Asia and Central America as well as considering seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European discussions of international order. As such it is an exercise in comparative world history combining a multiplicity of approaches, from anci…
Stability without Statehood
This book reinterprets the EU using classical and early modern republican political theory. Bypassing the nation-state, it presents a new theory of the creation, change and demise of organizations in
Understanding the EU, the US and their external spheres of rule
Both the US and the European Union (EU) have been analysed as empires. In contrast, this article argues that a reconstructed republican theory centred on the fear of domination reveals deeper dynamics in both entities. Both entities have external spheres of influence. While the US is not dependent on this sphere to sustain internal stability, the EU is. When the EU enlargement ends and the external sphere is absorbed, the EU’s stability and legit…
A call for hermeneutical perspectives on climate change and conflict
The past, present and future(s) of environmental security studies
Research on the connection between environmental factors and conflict has received increasing attention in the past decade, in part due to the interest in the political and social effects of climate change. Environmental security in the widest sense has two meanings: securitizing the environment (ranging from ecosystems, species, biotopes to the entire biosphere) or the environment–civilization nexus (Buzan et al., 1998: 75 ff.). The former deals…
Contextualising international state-building
Systems-building before state-building
State failure is often seen as due to endogenous factors, rather than systemic ones; correspondingly, the idea that states can be built by supporting internal processes and institutions alone is prevalent in policy documents and in some of the literature on state-building. This paper calls both assumptions into question. I demonstrate that three factors were important external preconditions of historical state formation: (1) effective states and …
Laudable, ahistorical and overambitious
Security sector reform (SSR) is a concept that is highly visible within policy and practice circles and that increasingly shapes international programmes for development assistance, security co-operation and democracy promotion. This paper examines the concept and practice of SSR using theories of the state and state formation within a historical-philosophical perspective. The paper recognises that the processes of SSR are highly laudable and pre…
Laudable, ahistorical and overambitious
Security sector reform (SSR) is a concept that is highly visible within policy and practice circles and that increasingly shapes international programmes for development assistance, security co-operation and democracy promotion. This paper examines the concept and practice of SSR using theories of the state and state formation within a historical-philosophical perspective. The paper recognises that the processes of SSR are highly laudable and pre…
Family Power
This book demonstrates that elite families and political order evolved in symbiosis throughout European and Middle Eastern history. Kinship groups like noble clans and royal dynasties were preconditions of stability and legitimacy of political orders. There is a tradition in political theory, anthropology and sociology spanning four centuries that claims that kinship is incompatible with political order. This tradition argues that kinshipbased el…
Organized Armed Groups as Ruling Organizations
Previous studies of the cohesion of organized armed groups (OAGs) have made great progress, but they have mostly focused on units fighting for modern Western states. I argue that the study of OAGs that contain their own legitimacy requires a broadened theoretical framework. Such groups may be conceptualized as 'ruling organizations' in Max Weber's terminology. Examples of such groups range from early medieval warbands to modern militias and guerr…
Fundamental but not eternal
Although the public–private distinction is a historical construction it has been deeply internalized and taken for granted in Western ways of thinking about society and politics. Therefore, we often apply it uncritically as a way to categorizing and coding non-Western societies. Doing so unreflectively may distort our observations as well as policies of state- and peacebuilding. I outline the history of the public–private distinction by emphasizi…
Heteronymous politics beyond anarchy and hierarchy
Anarchy and hierarchy are two central concepts of International Relations theory but as conventionally defined they cannot describe political life for most of Western history. Neither concept describes the structure of medieval politics well. Rather, many different principles of differentiation existed simultaneously, both stratificatory and segmentary. The situation was closer to anarchy as understood as the absence of overarching principles of …
A non-sovereign modernity
Social theory almost invariably equates modernity with the sovereign state. This equation must be nuanced because the modern era and modern strategies of international stability have contained non-sovereign units. In the nineteenth century, the Great Powers tried to create international stability by engineering forms of rule in Europe. These strategies built on distinctively modern ideas: the possibility of radically breaking with the past, redes…
Full-Spectrum Social Science for a Broader View on Cohesion
In October 2018, Armed Forces & Society published a special issue dedicated to broadening the perspective on military cohesion from the narrow focus on 20th and 21st Western state militaries and the microlevel. The special issue emphasized the need for a theoretical and methodological broadening of the study of cohesion: In order to understand the majority of armed groups in the world, it is necessary to investigate macro- and mesolevel precondit…
Geopolitics in the changing geography of the Baltic Sea Region
This article outlines the possible geopolitical consequences of climate change in the Baltic Sea Region. In order to do so it also presents a framework that understands geopolitics as a dynamic rather than static field of study. One of the most important factors that determine the character of the impact of climate change on geopolitics in the Baltic Sea Region will be the kind of relations that exist between the littoral states. Still, modern so…
Republican continuities in the Vienna Order and the German Confederation (1815–66)
This article argues that the German Confederation — deutscher Bund — (1815–66)was a form of rule built on early modern republican political theory. It was a ‘Compound Republic’ form of rule constructed to prevent the emergence of a system of sovereign German states as well as a single sovereign German state. Its purpose was maintaining peace and stability in Europe and safeguarding the autonomy of its member polities. Contemporary statesmen, inte…
A call for hermeneutical perspectives on climate change and conflict
The past, present and future(s) of environmental security studies
Research on the connection between environmental factors and conflict has received increasing attention in the past decade, in part due to the interest in the political and social effects of climate change. Environmental security in the widest sense has two meanings: securitizing the environment (ranging from ecosystems, species, biotopes to the entire biosphere) or the environment–civilization nexus (Buzan et al., 1998: 75 ff.). The former deals…
Contextualising international state-building
Laudable, ahistorical and overambitious
Security sector reform (SSR) is a concept that is highly visible within policy and practice circles and that increasingly shapes international programmes for development assistance, security co-operation and democracy promotion. This paper examines the concept and practice of SSR using theories of the state and state formation within a historical-philosophical perspective. The paper recognises that the processes of SSR are highly laudable and pre…
Contextualising international state-building
Systems-building before state-building
State failure is often seen as due to endogenous factors, rather than systemic ones; correspondingly, the idea that states can be built by supporting internal processes and institutions alone is prevalent in policy documents and in some of the literature on state-building. This paper calls both assumptions into question. I demonstrate that three factors were important external preconditions of historical state formation: (1) effective states and …
Stability without Statehood
This book reinterprets the EU using classical and early modern republican political theory. Bypassing the nation-state, it presents a new theory of the creation, change and demise of organizations in
Understanding the EU, the US and their external spheres of rule
Both the US and the European Union (EU) have been analysed as empires. In contrast, this article argues that a reconstructed republican theory centred on the fear of domination reveals deeper dynamics in both entities. Both entities have external spheres of influence. While the US is not dependent on this sphere to sustain internal stability, the EU is. When the EU enlargement ends and the external sphere is absorbed, the EU’s stability and legit…
A call for hermeneutical perspectives on climate change and conflict
The past, present and future(s) of environmental security studies
Research on the connection between environmental factors and conflict has received increasing attention in the past decade, in part due to the interest in the political and social effects of climate change. Environmental security in the widest sense has two meanings: securitizing the environment (ranging from ecosystems, species, biotopes to the entire biosphere) or the environment–civilization nexus (Buzan et al., 1998: 75 ff.). The former deals…
Universal Empire
The claim by certain rulers to universal empire has a long history stretching as far back as the Assyrian and Achaemenid Empires. This book traces its various manifestations in classical antiquity, the Islamic world, Asia and Central America as well as considering seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European discussions of international order. As such it is an exercise in comparative world history combining a multiplicity of approaches, from anci…
New agendas in statebuilding
"This volume connects the study of statebuilding to broader aspects of social theory and the historical study of the state, bringing forth new questions and starting-points, both academically and practically, for the field. Building states has become a highly prioritized issue in international politics. Since the 1990s, mainly Western countries and international institutions have invested large sums of money, vast amounts of manpower, and conside…
A non-sovereign modernity
Social theory almost invariably equates modernity with the sovereign state. This equation must be nuanced because the modern era and modern strategies of international stability have contained non-sovereign units. In the nineteenth century, the Great Powers tried to create international stability by engineering forms of rule in Europe. These strategies built on distinctively modern ideas: the possibility of radically breaking with the past, redes…
New Agendas in Statebuilding
Republican continuities in the Vienna Order and the German Confederation (1815–66)
This article argues that the German Confederation — deutscher Bund — (1815–66)was a form of rule built on early modern republican political theory. It was a ‘Compound Republic’ form of rule constructed to prevent the emergence of a system of sovereign German states as well as a single sovereign German state. Its purpose was maintaining peace and stability in Europe and safeguarding the autonomy of its member polities. Contemporary statesmen, inte…
Fundamental but not eternal
Although the public–private distinction is a historical construction it has been deeply internalized and taken for granted in Western ways of thinking about society and politics. Therefore, we often apply it uncritically as a way to categorizing and coding non-Western societies. Doing so unreflectively may distort our observations as well as policies of state- and peacebuilding. I outline the history of the public–private distinction by emphasizi…
Reconceptualizing state formation as collective power
This article deals with the importance of collective power and value consensus among elites for medieval polity formation by analyzing electoral monarchies. State formation theory focuses on the monopoly of legitimate armed force and has pushed notions of consensus and collective power into the background. This article questions material and coercive theories of state formation and emphasizes polity formation through theories of power as collabor…
War, modernity, and the origins of civilization
The Realm as a European Form of Rule
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Heteronymous politics beyond anarchy and hierarchy
Anarchy and hierarchy are two central concepts of International Relations theory but as conventionally defined they cannot describe political life for most of Western history. Neither concept describes the structure of medieval politics well. Rather, many different principles of differentiation existed simultaneously, both stratificatory and segmentary. The situation was closer to anarchy as understood as the absence of overarching principles of …
Geopolitics in the changing geography of the Baltic Sea Region
This article outlines the possible geopolitical consequences of climate change in the Baltic Sea Region. In order to do so it also presents a framework that understands geopolitics as a dynamic rather than static field of study. One of the most important factors that determine the character of the impact of climate change on geopolitics in the Baltic Sea Region will be the kind of relations that exist between the littoral states. Still, modern so…
Organized Armed Groups as Ruling Organizations
Previous studies of the cohesion of organized armed groups (OAGs) have made great progress, but they have mostly focused on units fighting for modern Western states. I argue that the study of OAGs that contain their own legitimacy requires a broadened theoretical framework. Such groups may be conceptualized as 'ruling organizations' in Max Weber's terminology. Examples of such groups range from early medieval warbands to modern militias and guerr…
Full-Spectrum Social Science for a Broader View on Cohesion
In October 2018, Armed Forces & Society published a special issue dedicated to broadening the perspective on military cohesion from the narrow focus on 20th and 21st Western state militaries and the microlevel. The special issue emphasized the need for a theoretical and methodological broadening of the study of cohesion: In order to understand the majority of armed groups in the world, it is necessary to investigate macro- and mesolevel precondit…
Family Power
This book demonstrates that elite families and political order evolved in symbiosis throughout European and Middle Eastern history. Kinship groups like noble clans and royal dynasties were preconditions of stability and legitimacy of political orders. There is a tradition in political theory, anthropology and sociology spanning four centuries that claims that kinship is incompatible with political order. This tradition argues that kinshipbased el…
War, Survival Units, and Citizenship
Worlds of Uncertainty
In recent years we have faced huge uncertainty and unpredictability across the world: Covid-19, political turbulence, climate change and war in Europe, among many other events. Through a historical analysis of worldviews, Peter Haldén provides nuance to the common belief in an uncertain world by showing the predictable nature of modern society and arguing that human beings create predictability through norms, laws, trust and collaboration. Haldén…
Forum
This forum discusses and celebrates the career and impact of Jens Bartelson in and on Nordic academic International Relations. Through engagement with his central works and concepts, the contributions highlight the intellectual impact and development of Bartelson’s work over three decades
Political science (23 works) · Law (20 works) · Politics (17 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Political economy (11 works) · Economics (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Law and economics (7 works)