Ideas and Identities in Contemporary International Relations

In this New Voices in Global Security Studies seminar, Pauline Heinrichs explores how the timing of energy crises can create harmful cycles that cause global insecurity. Rhiannon Emm explores how discussions in international relations frequently use the concept of 'home' without thoroughly examining its meaning or significance.

Speakers:

Dr Pauline Heinrichs - Energy Security, Climate Change and the Politics of Maladaptive Routines

Discussant: Dr Rob Cullum

Pauline examines how energy crises contribute to self-perpetuating cycles of insecurity. She argues that responses to crises, often prioritise certain routines over others. Using a theoretical framework focusing on the interplay of energy security, temporality, and routines, she examines how crisis representations in Germany, particularly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine create a strategic ontology that downplays climate concerns. Pauline highlights the obstacles of ambitious climate policies and the prioritisation of fossil fuel routines. Concluding with a call for theoretical reconsideration of the political implications of maladaptive routines and the conditions for breaking with them.

Pauline is a lecturer in War Studies (Climate and Energy) at King's College London. Her research focuses on international climate diplomacy and the contestation of state security narratives in the context of climate change. Pauline also brings professional climate diplomacy and foreign policy experience having worked for Germany’s foreign office and an international climate think tank.

Rhiannon Emm - 'Home' as a challenge to contemporary sovereignty: an intervention into international relations theory

Discussant: TBC

Rhiannon explores the concept of "home" in international relations, questioning its often unexamined role in shaping our understanding of global dynamics. She critiques the association of international relations with state boundaries and argues that acknowledging alternative mappings, represented by ideas of "home," is crucial. Rhiannon examines how communities like the Tuvaluans, Chagossians, and Hawaiians utilise the notion of home to contest issues of sovereignty, climate change, and colonisation, illustrating how these island mobilisations disrupt conventional global narratives and introduce alternative perspectives. Using the Chagossian case, she emphasises the significance of island-based contestations of 'home' as a pivotal space for challenging dominant global imaginaries and fostering new understandings.

Rhiannon is a third year PhD candidate in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, and Review Articles Editor for Millennium: Journal of International Studies. Her work engages with ideas of home in global context, and their interaction with sovereignty, state, and nation. She works within post structural approaches to international relations, island studies, and international order, with a wider interest in the philosophy of the social sciences.

New Voices in Global Security is an event series, organised by the School of Security Studies EDI committee, which seeks to promote new research within the field of Security Studies, as well as new and innovative approaches to teaching the discipline.

The series showcases the work of PhD students and Early Career Academics working both within and beyond the School of Security Studies.