Mikael Baaz – författare

Of particular interest in the book is the (changing) view on the use of force as a legal/legitimate means in the conduct of international politics. Briefly put: what does the seemingly new attitude towards the use of force as an acceptable means in international relations that we are witnessing today imply for the future world order?

The second edition of the book has been updated in its entirety and features an elaborated theoretical and methodological framework as well as a newly written epilogue on the “Obama Years”.

Mikael Baaz is an Associate Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies and a Senior Lecturer in International Law at the School of Business, Economics and Law, the University of Gothenburg. He is widely published internationally and his papers appear in e.g.: Journal of International Relations and Development; International Studies Review; Asian Politics and Polity; Journal of Political Power; Global Public Health; Peace Review; Journal on the Use of Force and International Law; Asian Journal of International Law; Scandinavian Studies in Law; Leiden Journal of International Law; Journal of International Criminal Justice; Journal of Civil Society; Journal of Resistance Studies; International Journal of Constitutional Law; European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology; International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society; and Journal of Law and Society (2017, forthcoming) Baaz has also contributed to several edited books, including, Ethical Reasoning in International Affairs: Arguments from the Middle Ground, edited by Cornelia Navari (2013) and, Progressivism and US Foreign Policy: American Thinkers on Peace and War during the Interwar Period, edited by Molly Cochran and Cornelia Navari (2017, forthcoming), both published by Palgrave Macmillan.

This book discusses different ways in which the cross-roads between emotions and resistance can be theorised. While the sociological field focuses primarily on emotions that are entangled in the relationship between the individual and collective, the cultural studies field has recently started to emphasise affects as a ‘rescue’ from the deterministic aspect of the poststructuralist approach (in which language decides everything) (Hemmings 2005, 2014). Scholars promoting the ‘affective turn’ argue that affects and interpretations are inseparable. By taking affects as the point of departure, it is argued that it is possible to show how bodies move in their own ways, but still in relation to others. Departing from this, it becomes interesting to explore how emotions are involved in different power relations and how they feed resistance. If we accept that emotions and interpretations are entangled and inseparable then we must investigate emotions as powerful forces of resistance.

The chapters were originally published in a special issue of the Journal of Political Power.

This book discusses different ways in which the cross-roads between emotions and resistance can be theorised. While the sociological field focuses primarily on emotions that are entangled in the relationship between the individual and collective, the cultural studies field has recently started to emphasise affects as a ‘rescue’ from the deterministic aspect of the poststructuralist approach (in which language decides everything) (Hemmings 2005, 2014). Scholars promoting the ‘affective turn’ argue that affects and interpretations are inseparable. By taking affects as the point of departure, it is argued that it is possible to show how bodies move in their own ways, but still in relation to others. Departing from this, it becomes interesting to explore how emotions are involved in different power relations and how they feed resistance. If we accept that emotions and interpretations are entangled and inseparable then we must investigate emotions as powerful forces of resistance.

The chapters were originally published in a special issue of the Journal of Political Power.