Rens van Munster
Primary research areas
Rens van Munster’s research is animated by a deep fascination with the global politics of risk and catastrophe, with a special focus on nuclear issues. He is interested in how nuclear weapons shape our ideas about war, politics and technology, as well as in the historical and contemporary links between nuclear weapons and climate change. dd
Current research
Rens van Munster study how the development of nuclear weapons during the Cold War has informed new ideas about modern warfare, the nature and character of the international system, as well as novel conceptions of extinction and planetary survival. Rens van Munster also studies the relation between the nuclear weapons technology, the national security state and democracy. Finally, he explores the nuclear origins of the Anthropocene and ask what we can learn if we view the Anthropocene as the radioactive afterlife of the Cold War. For example, he asks to what extent nuclear testing can be viewed as the ground zero of the Anthropocene?
Projects
Rens van Munster is the PI for the project ’Radioactive Ruins: Security in the Age of the Anthropocene’ (RADIANT), which is funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research. Together with two colleagues, he explores the oft-overlooked nuclear origins of the Anthropocene age through three in-depth empirical studies of central Cold War nuclear test sites: the Marshall Islands, Kazakhstan and French Polynesia. By examining the everyday experiences of security at these forgotten ground zeros of the Anthropocene, this project contributes new empirical knowledge to answer a central theoretical question: What does it mean to speak of security in an age of global ruination?
Research and activites
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Journal Article2023Anders, Ballard, and the human condition in the age of extinctionRens van Munster
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Journal Article2023the Cold War nuclear arms race and its importance for critical security theoryRens van Munster & Casper Sylvest
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Chapter2022Rens van Munster & Casper Sylvest
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Book Chapter2021Rens van Munster
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Journal Article2021Reappraising Jonathan SchellRens van Munster & Casper Sylvest
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Journal Article2018Günther Anders and the Metabolism of Nuclear Techno-PoliticsRens van Munster & Casper Sylvest
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Journal Article2018realist radicalism in political theory and IRRens van Munster & Casper Sylvest
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Book2016Assembling the PlanetRens van Munster & Casper Sylvest
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Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright licenseBook2016Global Political Thought during the Thermonuclear RevolutionRens van Munster & Casper Sylvest
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Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright licenseJournal Article2015Should We Learn to Stop Worrying and Love Nuclear Energy?Rens van Munster & Casper Sylvest
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Journal Article2015Documentary Film and the Creative Arrangement of PerceptibilityRens van Munster & Casper Sylvest
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Book2015A Critical Companion to IR and Non-Fiction FilmRens van Munster & Casper Sylvest
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Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright licenseJournal Article2014Nuclear realism, the H-bomb and globalityRens van Munster & Casper Sylvest
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Journal Article2012trauma, enactment, and preparedness exercisesRens van Munster & Claudia Aradau
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Journal Article2012anticipating the "next terrorist attack"Rens van Munster & Claudia Aradau
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Literature Review2011The other war on terrorRens van Munster
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Book Chapter2010Rens van Munster & Claudia Aradau
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Literature Review2010or how not to be governed thusRens van Munster
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Book2009the politics of risk in the EURens van Munster
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DIIS Policy Brief2022Some insights from the compact of free association between the US and the Republic of the Marshall IslandsRens van Munster
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Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright licenseDIIS Comment2021Rens van Munster
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DIIS Policy Brief2018Four reasons whyJohannes Lang, Robin May Schott & Rens van Munster
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DIIS Policy Brief2018States disagree on definition of lethal autonomous weaponsJohannes Lang, Rens van Munster & Robin May Schott
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