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Facing the planetary in critical security studies
Book chapter   Open access   Peer reviewed

Facing the planetary in critical security studies

Anthony Burke and Stefanie Fishel
Handbook on the Geopolitics of Sustainability, pp.261-271
Geography, Planning and Tourism 2026, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035342549.00036
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Abstract

Anthropocene Climate Change Ecological Security Geopolitics Planetary Tipping Points
This chapter considers the implications of a planetary worldview for security studies, for the bodies, beings and lifeways we seek to value and protect. As our state- and capital-centric modernity pushes beyond the planet's boundaries, we challenge the earth-blindness of geopolitics, but also pose questions about the value and form of a planetary consciousness. What lives and worlds should we seek to secure now, and what might that in practice involve? We argue against seeing the Earth as a new ‘referent object’ but rather as a physical envelope in which states, humans, and ecosystems seek to flourish and co-exist within tolerable margins of risk. As our Anthropocene civilisation acts and pushes beyond the boundaries and tolerances of a stable Earth system, it is no simple matter to restrain and govern the human impact on the planetary. Securing ourselves from ourselves seems like an irresolvable puzzle, until we realise we are not singular selves but one with the Earth through deep time.

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