Political Spaces beyond the Nation State: The Global Commons in Security Studies

• In Event: Rethinking Space in World Politics: States, Sovereignty, Territoriality

Abstract

Security scholars increasingly refer to the 'global commons' as a distinct
category of political space whose study is of central importance to our
understanding of international politics. Yet, the literature provides little
discussion of what exactly distinguishes the global commons from other
political spaces and therefore why it is appropriate to treat them as a
unique kind of space in international security studies. In this piece, we
argue that one can understand the concept of the 'global commons' to
denote a unique type of political space in security studies, but that a
security-focused understanding of the global commons differs in
important ways from how the concept is currently utilized in IR. We
argue that a space constitutes a global common if and only if all states
are equally free to use it for their own strategic purposes. We posit that
two factors are particularly salient in this context – whether a space is
formally recognized as part of a state’s territory and whether it is
effectively dominated – and argue that only those spaces in which both
hindrances are absent represent global commons. Our framework not
only puts security studies debates on the global commons on a sound
conceptual basis, but comes with important additional benefits: it helps
security scholars avoid the issue of causal heterogeneity which overly
broad understandings of the global commons introduce into causal
analysis; and it produces novel insights into the governance problems
policymakers will confront when seeking to maintain the global
commons’ current political status.

Authors

• Moritz Graefrath, William & Mary

• Marcel Jahn, Stockholm Center on Global Governance