Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T23:43:18.027Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Conjuring Uncertainty (1989–2022)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2023

Peter Haldén
Affiliation:
Swedish Defence University, Stockholm
Get access

Summary

Chapter six deals with the period after the Cold War. Social theory describes this era in terms of uncertainty. Such accounts overlook the prevalence of ontologies of certainty in politics, the steady advancement of technologies of predictability and how the current security situation was produced by acts of omission and commission. After 1991, liberal teleologies dominated Western strategy. The seeming ‘end of history’ and triumph of liberalism appeared to close off the future and justify strategies that sidestepped international institutions of predictability. Russia reacted by further undermining institutions and norms that created predictability. This downward spiral has culminated in the current security climate. Russian political world views of the period emphasize eternal political laws, conspiracies and a hostile world. The chapter analyses the starting phases of the Russo-Ukrainian war of 2022. Paradoxically, Western societies are increasingly regular and predictable in numerous ways but reproduce discourses of uncertainty. These trends feed off each other – the more regular everyday life is, the more shocking and disturbing exceptions and surprises become.

Type
Chapter
Information
Worlds of Uncertainty
War, Philosophies and Projects for Order
, pp. 205 - 270
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×