Transnational Encounters with the Non-Human Animal as a Refugee

Bibliographic Data

ID3948550
AuthorsA Holmberg (0000-0003-0389-6095, Swedish Defence University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume30
Issue3
Pages1479-1498
Publication date2025-05-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14650045.2024.2444640
OpenAlexW4406000258
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited56

Following the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the Spring of 2022, both traditional and new media were full of images of fleeing humans, often accompanied by non-human animal companions. Consequently, the EU and individual European states had to manage animals crossing borders, seeking safety and shelter. This article explores how animals become part of a geopolitically significant security composition as refugees. Animals and their geographies have traditionally not been theorised in relation to security, but researchers from different fields have begun to question this anthropocentric viewpoint. Three forms of encounters are explored: political, organisational, and empathetic. Crisis and war are largely transnational events, where international relations and organisations play a part. When the role of animals in this context is recognised, their power becomes transnational and they become subjects of what Hobson called an enlarged political geography. It is concluded that animals are a present and constitutive force in society because cross-species relations affect much of human action

Forced migration · Political science · Refugee · Sociology · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Human-Animal Interaction Studies · Law · Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses