Emergency Politics After Globalization

Abstract

Exceptional times call for exceptional measures—this formula is all too familiar in the domestic setting. Governments have often played loose with their state's constitution in the name of warding off an urgent threat. But after decades of increasing interconnectedness and emerging transnational governance, today one sees new forms of emergency politics that are cross-border in range. From the European Union to the World Health Organization, from supranational institutions to state governments acting in concert, the logic of emergency is embraced in international contexts, with Covid-19 the latest occasion. This Forum offers an entry-point into this emerging phenomenon. Taking as its point of departure two recent books, it examines the origins, forms, effects and normative stakes of emergency politics beyond the state. Among the matters discussed are the concept of emergency politics, the historical context of its contemporary forms, the patterns of decision-making associated with it, the implications for the legitimacy of transnational institutions, and the constitutional and political ways in which it might be contained. Transnational emergency politics seems likely to remain a central feature of the coming years, and our aim is to further its study in international relations.

Europe and the transnational politics of emergency

“…When emergency politics moves beyond the state, it takes on forms different from those familiar at the domestic level (see also Heupel et al 2021;Scheuerman 2018). For one, it does not operate in the shadow of the monopoly of force.…”

The de-institutionalisation of power beyond the state

“…To act in an emergency is to make decisions about which parts of the status quo are to be protected or discarded. As work on transnational exceptionalism has highlighted, there are always competing goals to be evaluated even in crisis decision-making, ones hard to revisit after the fact (Kreuder-Sonnen, 2016; see also Heupel et al, 2021). The de-institutionalisation of rule obscures the basis on which these decisions are taken.…”

“…Structural features of the transnational realm create distinct possibilities for the de -institutionalisation of power, ones likely to be actualised in crisis moments. The section outlines the basis of an alternative perspective, combining recent IR scholarship on informal arrangements (Mérand, 2021; Roger, 2020; Westerwinter et al, 2021) with work on transnational emergency politics that highlights exceptional methods and the legitimacy questions they raise (Auer and Scicluna, 2021; Heupel et al, 2021; Kreuder-Sonnen, 2019; Kreuder-Sonnen and White, 2021; White, 2019).…”

Who is afraid of emergency politics? Public opinion on European crisis management during Covid-19

“…Importantly, while domestic emergency politics may seem exclusively domestic, it too has transnational features” (Kreuder-Sonnen and White 2022 , 959; cf. Schmidt 2022 ; Heupel et al 2021 ).…”