Valerie Waldow is Lecturer and Research Associate at the Department of Political Science at Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany. Her research focuses on critical international political theory, liberal violence and democratic critique, and International Relations in the Anthropocene, with particular attention to intervention, governance, and political imaginaries. She works on critique, epistemic limits, and transformations of political thought, especially in relation to debates on hope and negativity in contemporary political theory. She is co-editor of Hope in the Anthropocene: Agency, Governance and Negation (2024, EUP). Pol Bargués is Senior Research Fellow at Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, Spain. Over the years he has developed an interest in the intersection of philosophy, critical theory and International Relations. In particular, he has critically interrogated international interventions in conflict-affected societies and explored the increasing prevalence of the ideas of resilience, hybridity, and hope. David Chandler is Professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster and edits the journal Anthropocenes: Human, Inhuman, Posthuman. His recent publications include: Hope: Shortcuts to a Big Idea (2026); Race in the Anthropocene: Coloniality, Disavowal and the Black Horizon (2025); Hope in the Anthropocene: Agency, Governance and Negation (2024); The World as Abyss: The Caribbean and Critical Thought in the Anthropocene (2023); International Relations in the Anthropocene: New Agendas, New Agencies and New Approaches (2021); and Anthropocene Islands: Entangled Worlds (2021).

• Introduction: Dark Hope in the Anthropocene Valerie Waldow (Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg), Pol Bargués (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs) and David Chandler (University of Westminster) Part One: AgencyChapter 2The Anthropocene and the Unseen: Speculative, Pragmatic and Nihilist HopeDavid Chandler (University of Westminster) Chapter 3A Hope against Hope: Scandal, Cynicism and Critique in the Wake of the Covid-19 polycrisisChris Zebrowski (Loughborough University) Chapter 4Working for 'Minor Utopias': Youth Employment in Sierra Leone and LiberiaSukanya Podder and Raul Zepeda Gil (King’s College London) Chapter 5Visualising Hope in the Radical Data Work of W. E. B. Du BoisKiran K Phull (King’s College London) Chapter 6A Feminist Ethic of Care for Orienting Utopia in Adjuntas, Puerto RicoChristie Nicoson (Lund University) Part Two: GovernanceChapter 7Enduring Hopelessness: Governance without Horizon in Pandemic TimesNicolas Gäckle (University of Groningen) Chapter 8Securing the Hopeful Subject? The Militarisation of Complexity Science and the Limits of Decolonial CritiqueClaes Tängh Wrangel (Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism, Uppsala University) Chapter 9The Hope-Colonialism NexusMarjo Lindroth (University of Lapland) and Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen (University of Lapland) Chapter 10Hopeful Times, Black Futures, and Things Quantum Technologies Tell about International InstitutionsGeoff Gordon (Asser Institute, University of Amsterdam) Chapter 11In the Breaches of Cancelled Futures: The Entropies of Modernisation and Ecological RecompositionRenan Porto (University of Westminster) Part Three: NegationChapter 12Hope and the End of Critique? Crisis and Affirmation in the AnthropoceneValerie Waldow (Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg) Chapter 13Hope in a World that will Never End? The Problem of Fanatical Hope in Critical DystopiasAristidis V. Agoglossakis Foley (University of St Andrews) Chapter 14Hope Makes Strange: Affect, Hope, and StrangenessSrishti Malaviya (O.P. Jindal Global University) Chapter 15Reimagining Hopeful Anthropocene Futures: From Entanglements to Radical OpennessIgnasi Torrent (University of Herefordshire) Chapter 16Hope As a Theopolitical Virtue: Eschatology and End of Time PoliticsVassilios Paipais (University of St Andrews) Hope: An EpilogueFleur Johns (University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney)

Hope is not commonly associated with the Anthropocene and its catastrophic implications. Without some positive hope – that is, recognition, planning, experimentation, invention and, above all, a new relation to the earth – we cannot face the unknowns that lie ahead. This book explores what a guarded and strategic hope, a ‘dark hope,’ might add to our understanding of what lies ahead.