Ontological Entanglements, Agency and Ethics in International Relations

Laura Zanotti is Associate Professor at Virginia Tech, USA. Prior to joining academia Zanotti has worked in peacekeeping and peacebuilding at the United Nations.

• Introduction. 1. Questioning substantialism in unsuspected places: anarchy, empire and the power of ideas. 2. Re-thinking causality and structures: the critical materialist position. 3. Quantum entanglements: intra agential agency and the ethos of practice. 4. Entangled agency: re-thinking subjects and power. 5. Entangled norms: archives, the non-transparency of meaning and ethics. 6. Intra-agential realism and the relevance of International Relations for practice. 7. Imagining an intra-agential ethos.8. Relying on abstractions, relinquishing responsibility: Rwanda, Srebrenica, Haiti, Syria and other disasters. 9. Intra-agential agency, an ethos of responsibility and practical solidarity: providing medical care to the poor. Conclusions.

"Zanotti’s rich conversation between quantum ontology and social theory reveals that more than theory is at stake in the shift from the Newtonian to the Quantum. She boldly invites her audience to rethink the world, how we know it and how we might change it. Ontological Entanglements, Agency and Ethics in International Relations is the full package – theoretical, empirical, critical, ethical and practical - and essential reading for scholars and practitioners who have questioned the relevance of the quantum shift." -- K.M. Fierke, University of St. Andrews, UK"Laura Zanotti’s new book is a valuable contribution to the on-going discussions about the ethical and political implications of social-ontological claims. By combining insights from critical realism and Karen Barad’s notion of entanglement of matter and meaning, in part drawn from quantum physics, she elaborates a context- and situation sensitive approach to ethical and political responsibility in world politics, stressing the way we shape the world through our intra-actions and performativity." - Heikki Patomäki, University of Helsinki, Finland