Comparisons in Global Security Politics

“This is an important volume featuring a stellar cast of contributors. It is a rare example of an edited book that is more than the sum of its parts. The contents should be of interest not only to those who study global security but anyone interested in how comparative knowledge is produced. Indeed, any scholar of international relations will appreciate this volume.” Ayse Zarakol, University of Cambridge

“A groundbreaking volume that redefines comparative practices as a crucial policy tool in global security politics and that shows how comparison influences governance across traditional as well as novel security issues.” Thorsten Bonacker, University of Marburg

Thomas Müller is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University.

Mathias Albert is Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University.

Kerrin Langer is Research Associate at the Department of Social Sciences at TU Dortmund University.

Introduction: Practices All the Way Down? Comparisons in Global Security Politics - Thomas Müller, Mathias Albert and Kerrin Langer

PART I: Teasing Out Comparative Practices

2. The Construction of Status in Security Politics: Rules, Comparisons and Second-Guessing Collective Beliefs - Paul Beaumont

3. Defence Analysis and Military Data at the IISS: How to Count and When is a Tank Modern? - Bastian Giegerich and James Hackett

4. Seeing Deterrence and Defence: Visual Representations of Military Force Comparisons between NATO and the Warsaw Pact in the 1980s - Gabi Schlag

5. What Drives Status Comparisons? An Experimental Study of Status Attribution in the Field of Space Exploration - Paul Musgrave and Steven Ward

PART II: How Comparisons Constitute Governance Objects

6. Not Yet Comparable? Maritime Security Knowledge and the Messiness of Epistemic Infrastructures - Christian Bueger

7. Framing (State) Fragility: The Construction of Imaginary Global Spaces - Keith Krause

8. Mapping the Dark and Ornamenting the Order: Comparisons in Global Crime Governance - Anja P. Jakobi and Lena Herbst

9. The Cybersecurity Ecosystem and the Datafication of Threats and Capabilities - Madeleine Myatt and Thomas Müller

PART III: How Comparisons Reshape Competitive Dynamics

10. ‘The Old World Fought, the Modern World Counts’: Naval Armament Policies, Force Comparisons and International Status, 1889–1922 - Kerrin Langer

11. Force Comparison and Conventional Arms Control at the End of the East–West Conflict - Hans-Joachim Schmidt

12. ‘Winning the Technology Competition’: Narratives, Power Comparisons and the US–China AI Race - Nike Retzmann

13. Conclusion: Comparative Ordering in Security Politics and Beyond - Thomas Müller