Power, luck, and scholarly responsibility at the end of the world(s)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12915811 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Benoît Pelopidas (0000-0002-0987-5570, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 459-470 |
| Publication date | 2020-08-07 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1752-9719 • E-ISSN: 1752-9727 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1752971920000299 |
| OpenAlex | W3032717701 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
| References cited | 40 |
This contribution argues that the concept of protean power opens a space to think about the limits of control and knowledge about catastrophic possibilities such as nuclear war. To do so, it offers the first distinctive definition of nuclear luck, which has long been acknowledged by policy and military leaders but remains unaccounted for in scholarship. It further shows that the nuclear realm is defined by two key unknowables. However, it argues that protean power perpetuates a survivability bias which has characterized scholarship so far, before suggesting ways to overcome that bias and modify scholarly ethos to acknowledge such catastrophic possibilities
Epistemology · Ethos · Law and economics · Luck · Nuclear ethics · Nuclear power · Nuclear weapon · Political economy · Political science · Power (physics · Realm · Scholarship · Sociology · Survivability · Engineering · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Nuclear Issues and Defense · Philosophy · Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
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Everyday nuclear histories and futures in the Middle East, 1945–1948
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Existential silos
Introduction to the symposium. The concept of protean power
Protean power
Addressing Humanity’s failure to establish Existential Security
Superweapons and the myth of technological peace
Theory of World Security
The Future of the World
Planetary boundaries
The Limits of Safety
The geopolitics of extinction
Uncertainty, Risk, Power and the Limits of International Relations Theory
Protean Power and Control Power
Protean Power
Technology and World Politics
Dreamscapes of Modernity
The unbearable lightness of luck
Nuclear Weapons Scholarship as a Case of Self-Censorship in Security Studies
Introduction to the symposium. The concept of protean power
The Hazards of Operations Involving Nuclear Weapons during the Cold War
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Turbo Change
The Problem of Nuclear Harm for Andrew Linklater, Lorraine Elliott and Other Contemporary Cosmopolitans
Black Swans, Lame Ducks, and the mystery of IPE's missing macroeconomy
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The Future of the World
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Defending Planet Politics
The long peace, the end of the cold war, and the failure of realism
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Planet Politics
Power, violence, and nuclear weapons
Inventing nuclear disarmament
Possibilistic Thinking
The End of the World
| Unique citing works | 11 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1.83 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |