Journal of Political Sciences & Public Affairs
Open Access

International Crisis Politics has Far-Reaching Consequences on Global Politics

Pertile Pertio^{* *}Correspondence: Pertile Pertio, Department of Humanities and Social Science, Arsi University, Asella, Ethiopia, Email:

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About the Study

In some ways, emergency politics has been at the heart of International Relations (IR) since its inception. War is the archetypal emergency, and the contemporary state-system was constructed on it. In the context of war preparation, state institutions, bureaucracies, and other centers of authority arose as a result of efforts to centralize power and the resistance that this created. At times of extreme risk, the monarch may mobilize an army, bring his aristocracy to heel, and defend his territory's frontiers. Republics and city-states that refused to follow this course were absorbed or eclipsed over time. War brought about emergency government, and emergency government brought about war.

But, in recent years, emergency politics has taken on new shapes. While 9/11 and the "war on terror" brought security issues to the forefront, emergency politics has increasingly found use in nonmilitary settings, including supranational and multilateral institutions where coercive authority is weaker or less visible. Both Kreuder-Sonnen and White argue that the Trans nationalization of emergency politics necessitates a reconsideration of the notion and the dynamics that surround it. To deal with more dispersed forms of exceptional authority wielded at an inter, supra, or global level, one must dissociate emergency rule from Schmitt's conception of the sovereign dictator, as a dominant leader steering the state through a period of danger. It is also critical to investigate suspensions and breaches of uncodified rules, as well as to look beyond the context of war to the governance of the regional and global economies. For White, this entails investigating how emergency powers have been created and established in the EU, as part of a broader change of executive authority with implications for populism and other parts of democracy. For Kreuder-Sonnen, this entails comparing the emergency empowerments of International Organizations (IOs) like the WHO and the UN Security Council, as well as assessing the drivers of their longerterm institutional and normative ramifications.

This Forum intends to serve as an entry point into the study of emergency politics following a period of particularly aggressive globalization, which has also resulted in heightened competition.

It addresses some fundamental problems about the ideas of emergency and emergency politics, analyses the attraction of various accounts, and investigates their potential applicability outside of the state. It investigates the historical context of modern exceptionalism and what it means for the authority and legitimacy of European and global organizations. Furthermore, it presents opposing viewpoints on the constitutional and political boundaries of global emergency politics. Finally, assuming that it is here to stay in some form, the Forum investigates whether elements merit further investigation. The transnational emergency politics has crucial implications for international relations today, particularly in the aftermath of the current pandemic, and the goal is to map out the key lines of argument.

Beyond the state, emergency politics invariably tracks the rise of political authority in international institutions, as it is both one of the means by which such authority is generated and one of the options that become increasingly available thereafter. As a result, the most connected institutions with supranational (delegated) and intergovernmental (pooled) authority, such as the EU, UN, WHO, and International Monetary Fund (IMF), are more likely to shed light on the processes and legacies of transnational exceptionalism. But, there is a good chance that the template will find future expression in different contexts of regional integration, ranging from Mercosur to ASEAN to the African Union, intertwined with particular qualities, including those formed of postcolonial relations. Furthermore, the emergency empowerment of global organizations has repercussions well beyond the West, as evidenced by the IMF's experiences in South America during the early 2000 economic crisis.

The Forum begins with a contribution by Séville, who provides a critical introduction to some of the most important notions in exceptional politics. Those of crisis, emergency, and condition of exception are highlighted.