Introduction: Engaging Geopolitics through the Lens of the Intimate

Abstract

In this introduction to the special section on "Engaging Geopolitics through the Lens of the Intimate", we first locate the papers collected here in the context of developing an "Intimate Geopolitics" project at the University of Manchester. We then review the importance of 'intimacy' and the concept of 'the intimate' across an array of disciplinary studies, drawing especially on the rich body of work by critical geopolitics scholars who have long challenged categorical binaries and territorial boundaries. Our focus here is exploring what insights we can bring to understanding the nexus of intimacy and global politics by deploying the lens of the intimate-understood as a variety of processes of attachment and relationalityin six globally dispersed case studies. Collectively, the papers presented here not only engage a wide range of issues and locations, but also contribute to research engaging geographically specific contexts and practices. We note that the papers 'cluster' around issues of migration, borders, 'home', asylum and visa regimes, prompting us to suggest that the papers productively inform three foci of inquiry. Specifically, the papers 1) enrich our understanding of bordercrossing beyond simple association of this with the movement of people, things and ideas; 2) deepen our understanding of how geopolitics is constituted by forms of attachments and relationality that are integral to forms of governance; and 3) help us explore how attachments are not simply additive but productive of geopolitical concerns.

Can geopolitics derail the pandemic treaty?

“…At a minimum, the notion of geopolitics needs to include the power of corporations and private foundations, their strategies to broaden their spheres of influence through innovation and technology, and their roles not only as shapers of international rules but also as the bearers of responsibility under international law. More broadly still, the geopolitics of global health must include the geopolitics of the intimate14 and the trust of citizens in their governments and in international institutions. With the pandemic, the world has experienced how the geopolitics of global health have immediate, ruthless repercussions for the lives and livelihoods of billions.…”

Critical Geopolitics of Outer Space

“…But that is changing. This issue joins a robust tradition in this journal, bringing critical geopolitical inquiry of outer space to complement the issues of the subterranean (Squire and Dodds 2019), peripheries (Hörschelmann et al 2019), borders (dell'Agnese andSzary 2015;Raza and Shapiro 2019) and the intimate (Barabantseva, Mhurchú, and Spike Peterson 2019). The authors in this collection hope that readers will be inspired to revisit their more familiar domains of inquiry, to search for the inextricable interconnections with the outer space, and to engage in the important work of keeping the cosmos free and peaceful for all.…”

“Emotionscapes of geopolitics”: Interpreting in the United Nations Security Council

“…In sum, the roundtable discussion provided personal and emotional testimonies of “before,” “during,” and “after” lived interpreting experience in the “emotionscape” of the UN Security Council that revealed how this is “intrinsically embedded within and productive of … geopolitical processes” (Barabantseva et al, 2019, n.p.). Second, it revealed specific details of the sets of individual and communal practices and performances carried out by interpretive bodies in the “emotionscape” for the capture and conveyance of geopolitics.…”