Emergencies and Politics

Tom Sorell is Professor of Politics and Philosophy at Warwick University. From 2008 to 2012, he led the European Union FP7 Security project DETECTER (on the ethics and human rights issues surrounding the use of detection technologies in counter-terrorism) and is now leader of several Work Packages in the current SURVEILLE project (2012-15). He is Principal Investigator of the major AHRC project, 'Responsibilities, Ethics and the Financial Crisis' (FinCris), running from 2012 to 2015, and also contributes to the FP7 IT project ACCOMPANY, on robotics and care companions. He has published monographs in history of philosophy, especially on Hobbes and Descartes; moral and political philosophy; epistemology and philosophy of science; as well as several distinct areas of applied ethics.

• 1. Private emergencies and institutions; 2. Public emergencies, black holes and sober Hobbesianism; 3. Liberalism with Hobbesian sobriety; 4. Can liberal emergency-response address threats to peoples and civilizations?; 5. Liberalism and emergency-response: national community; 6. Legislating for emergencies and legislating in emergencies; 7. International security, human security and emergency; Conclusion.

'This is an outstanding book on an under-treated and important topic. With careful and engaging arguments, Sorell develops a 'sober' Hobbesianism that supports a liberal Leviathan and a 'thin' conception of security for international politics, enabling it to speak to some of the most pressing real-world emergencies we presently face. This is Hobbesian political thinking at its best.' Catriona McKinnon, University of Reading