Comparisons in Global Security Politics

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.

“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

• Introduction: Practices All the Way Down? Comparisons in Global Security Politics - Thomas Müller, Mathias Albert and Kerrin LangerPART I: Teasing Out Comparative Practices2. The Construction of Status in Security Politics: Rules, Comparisons and Second-Guessing Collective Beliefs - Paul Beaumont3. Defence Analysis and Military Data at the IISS: How to Count and When is a Tank Modern? - Bastian Giegerich and James Hackett4. Seeing Deterrence and Defence: Visual Representations of Military Force Comparisons between NATO and the Warsaw Pact in the 1980s - Gabi Schlag5. What Drives Status Comparisons? An Experimental Study of Status Attribution in the Field of Space Exploration - Paul Musgrave and Steven WardPART II: How Comparisons Constitute Governance Objects6. Not Yet Comparable? Maritime Security Knowledge and the Messiness of Epistemic Infrastructures - Christian Bueger7. Framing (State) Fragility: The Construction of Imaginary Global Spaces - Keith Krause8. Mapping the Dark and Ornamenting the Order: Comparisons in Global Crime Governance - Anja P. Jakobi and Lena Herbst9. The Cybersecurity Ecosystem and the Datafication of Threats and Capabilities - Madeleine Myatt and Thomas MüllerPART III: How Comparisons Reshape Competitive Dynamics10. ‘The Old World Fought, the Modern World Counts’: Naval Armament Policies, Force Comparisons and International Status, 1889–1922 - Kerrin Langer11. Force Comparison and Conventional Arms Control at the End of the East–West Conflict - Hans-Joachim Schmidt12. ‘Winning the Technology Competition’: Narratives, Power Comparisons and the US–China AI Race - Nike Retzmann13. Conclusion: Comparative Ordering in Security Politics and Beyond - Thomas Müller