Introduction: International Relations in the Anthropocene

This introductory chapter is organised in three sections. Firstly, we introduce the concept of the Anthropocene as not merely a question of pressing problems, such as climate change and extreme weather events, but also a matter of the tools and understandings that are available to us: in other words it is a matter of how we know—of epistemology—and also of what we understand the world to consist of—that is questions of ontology. The second section provides some background to the disciplinary history of International Relations, which could be understood as moving from an ‘inter-national’ or state-centred focus during the Cold War to an increased interest in the Anthropocene, understood as a ‘planetary’ challenge to liberal universal assumptions. The third section explains the contents of the book on the basis of the distinct parts and chapters and highlights the pedagogic aspects which are included uniformly across the chapters.