Comparisons in Global Security Politics Representing and Ordering the World

• Main Authors: Müller, Thomas, Albert, Mathias, Langer, Kerrin
• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol Bristol University Press 2024
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Comparative Politics; Comparisons; Globalization; Governance; Interdisciplinary studies; International relations; International Relations Theory; International Security and Strategy; Knowledge; Order; Politics and government; Practices; Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects; Security; Social theory; Society and Social Sciences; Sociology; Sociology and anthropology; global security politics; ordering; comparisons; status politics; competition; knowledge production; balance of power politics; governance objects; arms dynamics; governance

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Comparative practices are integral to global security politics. The balance of power politics, status competitions and global security governance would not be possible without them. Yet, they are rarely treated as the main object of study. E...

Table of Contents:

• Part III How Comparisons Reshape Competitive Dynamics -- 10 'The Old World Fought, the Modern World Counts': Naval Armament Policies, Force Comparisons and International Status, 1889-1922 -- Status, naval power and the 'strategy of peace' -- Naval force comparisons, naval standards, status and naval armament debates -- The status hierarchy -- Naval standards -- Status comparisons and the naval arms competition -- Conclusion -- References -- 11 Force Comparison and Conventional Arms Control at the End of the East-West Conflict -- Introduction -- The initial assessment: a conventional imbalance -- Force comparison and arms control -- From parity between military alliances to rough parity between NATO and the Soviet Union -- German unification and the limitation of German armed forces -- From alliance limits to limits for groups of states -- Withdrawal of NATO proposals -- Increase of group limits in four weapon categories -- Increase of group limits for the sufficiency rule (Soviet limitations) -- Soviet weapon transfers beyond the Urals -- Exclusion of the Soviet military district Kiev from the southern flank region -- Growing nationalism -- Obsolete parity -- The Baltic states and the CFE regime -- The other Soviet successor states and the CFE regime -- Conclusion -- References -- 12 'Winning the Technology Competition': Narratives, Power Comparisons and the US-China AI Race -- Introduction -- Power comparisons, narratives and AI -- Method -- The narrative construction of the US-China AI race -- The newness of AI -- The competition for AI leadership -- Race dynamics -- The narrative of the US-China AI race and its political effects -- Conclusion -- References -- 13 Conclusion: Comparative Ordering in Security Politics and Beyond -- How is comparative knowledge produced? -- How does comparative knowledge become politically relevant?
• 5 What Drives Status Comparisons? An Experimental Study of Status Attribution in the Field of Space Exploration -- Status, fields and capital -- An experimental approach to status and fields in world politics -- Results -- Conclusion -- References -- Part II How Comparisons Constitute Governance Objects -- 6 Not Yet Comparable? Maritime Security Knowledge and the Messiness of Epistemic Infrastructures -- Introduction -- Security knowledge and epistemic infrastructures -- Epistemic infrastructures and oceanic insecurity -- The epistemic infrastructures of maritime crime -- Quantifying piracy -- Maritime domain awareness -- Conclusion -- References -- 7 Framing (State) Fragility: The Construction of Imaginary Global Spaces -- Constructing the obscure object of a 'fragile state' -- Creating the object -- Failed/Fragile States Index -- 'Banking on fragility': the World Bank's adoption of fragility language -- OECD states of fragility -- The G7+ International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding -- Comparing and contrasting fragility frameworks -- Conclusion -- References -- 8 Mapping the Dark and Ornamenting the Order: Comparisons in Global Crime Governance -- Comparing crime: the demand for and supply of numbers -- Crime statistics: mapping, ordering and assessing -- Comparative data on crime: ordering irrespective of mapping? -- Comparative data as orientation and ornament -- References -- 9 The Cybersecurity Ecosystem and the Datafication of Threats and Capabilities -- Introduction -- Representational work in ecosystems -- Three clusters of representational work -- The factors shaping the co-evolution of the three clusters -- Unequal resources -- The struggle over internet governance -- Enabling effects with side effects -- A common threat narrative, but dissimilar logics of comparisons -- Conclusion -- References
• Front cover -- Comparisons in Global Security Politics: Representing and Ordering the World -- Copyright information -- Contents -- List of Figures and Tables -- Notes on Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction: Practices All the Way Down? Comparisons in Global Security Politics -- Two approaches to the study of comparisons -- Comparative practices -- A framework -- How is comparative knowledge produced? -- How does comparative knowledge become politically relevant? -- How do comparative practices shape security politics? -- The structure of the book -- References -- Part I Teasing Out Comparative Practices -- 2 The Construction of Status in Security Politics: Rules, Comparisons and Second-Guessing Collective Beliefs -- From motivations and mapping to rules and ordering -- Who sets the rules of the game? -- Studying the rules of status competitions -- The US's SALT strategy: how status became security -- Conclusion -- References -- 3 Defence Analysis and Military Data at the IISS: How to Count and When is a Tank Modern? -- Defence and military data and the IISS -- Show me the money: defence spending -- Classifying and categorizing equipment, and moving to qualitative judgements -- Factors driving change in military data and defence assessments -- References -- 4 Seeing Deterrence and Defence: Visual Representations of Military Force Comparisons between NATO and the Warsaw Pact in the 1980s -- Seeing force comparisons: world-making and security governance -- Discourse analysis revisited -- The textual, visual and sensible site of discourses -- A visual methodology for comparing military force -- The aesthetics of force comparison -- Contextualization: disputes over military balance in the 1980s -- Technical images of force comparison: exploring five vignettes -- Seeing deterrence and defence, modernizing forces? -- References
• How do comparative practices shape security politics? -- Broadening the debate: the comparative ordering of world politics -- References -- Index