CGSC Talk: 'Politics Under Conditions of Uncertainty' by Prof. Hartmut Behr

Hartmut Behr will present his book, 'Reversibility – Politics Under Conditions of Uncertainty', at a seminar hosted by the Centre for Global Security Challenges.

The book explores action-theoretical reflections based on the human experience and an ontology of uncertainty, contingency, and uncontrollability. With regards to the fundamental dilemma of human existence - namely that we must act but cannot know the future and therefore the consequences of our actions - he asks how should we respond to this troubling uncertainty in an ethical and politically valuable way? Policymakers and scholars alike are having to come to grips with this condition of uncertainty and unpredictability when climate change and other complex challenges render the world around us seemingly uncontrollable and un-knowable. The book argues that in such situations we must avoid actions whose consequences are likely to be irreversible, raising the political-pedagogical question: how to conceive of and act politically in reversible ways under conditions of uncertainty that is so detrimental to our absorbed modern understanding of a sovereign Ego (or Charles Taylor's “punctual Self”). The book suggests improvisation, borrowing from music and dance, as an action model for creative politics under named conditions, particularly with regards to political leadership and crisis management.

About the speaker

Hartmut Behr, PhD Cologne, post-doc (“Habilitation”) University of Pittsburgh and University of Jena, is professor of international politics at Newcastle University (UK). In his latest monograph (2024) and articles he discusses conceptual and methodological questions of political action under conditions of uncertainty. In line with his past research (and teaching), his recent work also attempts to establish theory-practice relationships, having explored individual empirical themes such as migration discourses, transnational democracy, sociology of knowledge formations, and questions of difference, identity, and peace. His research has received major grant funding from the UK-based Leverhulme Trust, the Germanbased Alexander of Humboldt Foundation and the German Research Foundation (DFG) as well as from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and has generated a series of international cooperations, amongst others visiting professorships at the University of Ottawa, at Virginia Tech, at the University of Tokyo, the International Christian University (ICU, Tokyo), and the University of Kiev/Mohyla Academy.

Registration is not required before attending this event. All welcome.