We define and explain the basic objects and structures of a causal fermion system.

Dimitri van den MeersscheThis chapter traces the many entanglements between international organizations and private actors in the space of global security governance. By analysing the controversies surrounding the mandate of Europol and the contribution of private actors in countering terrorism online, it describes three modalities of entanglement: (i) private actors as sites of data collection and providers of sources of information that are increasingly relied upon by international institutions, (ii) enrolment of private platforms in the implementation of governance projects by international organizations, and (iii) alignment of such governance projects to the logic of tech companies and platforms – what Johns has described as a ‘lean start up’ mentality. Having traced these multiple points of influence, interaction and interdependence, the chapter proposes an infrastructural approach to the study of such public–private cooperation. This implies a recognition of how law and materiality are entangled in the production of social order and attentiveness to the role of digital infrastructures and socio-technical protocols in redrawing the public–private divide and constituting, mediating and materializing the exercise of international institutional authority. These observations crystalize in an urgent call to direct our thinking on rights and regulation towards these infrastructural formations and the political affordances that they entail.

Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East signal the return of geopolitics. This book challenges conventional approaches that ignore border change, arguing that geopolitics is driven by nationalism and focusing on how nationalism transforms the state. Using geocoded historical maps covering state borders and ethnic groups in Europe, the authors’ spatial approach shows how, since the French Revolution, nationalism has caused increasing congruence between state and national borders and how a lack of congruence increased the risk of armed conflict. This macro process is traced from early modern Europe and widens the geographic scope to the entire world in the mid twentieth century. The analysis shows that the risk of conflict may be increased by how nationalists, seeking to revive past golden ages and restore their nations’ prestige, respond to incongruent borders. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

We summarize some basics on quantum mechanics and relativity theory as needed in order to understand the physical content and context of the theory of causal fermion systems.

Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East signal the return of geopolitics. This book challenges conventional approaches that ignore border change, arguing that geopolitics is driven by nationalism and focusing on how nationalism transforms the state. Using geocoded historical maps covering state borders and ethnic groups in Europe, the authors’ spatial approach shows how, since the French Revolution, nationalism has caused increasing congruence between state and national borders and how a lack of congruence increased the risk of armed conflict. This macro process is traced from early modern Europe and widens the geographic scope to the entire world in the mid twentieth century. The analysis shows that the risk of conflict may be increased by how nationalists, seeking to revive past golden ages and restore their nations’ prestige, respond to incongruent borders. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

The cataclysm of World War I shook European academic culture: How could European culture have produced such barbarity? The greatest scientific culture the world had ever seen had used science and technology for catastrophically inhumane purposes. Cultural pessimism and nihilism were options that many took. Other academically inclined Europeans responded by rethinking the place of history and philosophy of science in academic and social life. Some of these new projects, such as George Sarton’s New Humanism, explicitly linked them to humanism. In others, such as the logical empiricism that developed in Vienna and Berlin, the connections to humanism were more implicit but no less real. This chapter considers some of the main themes of Sarton’s New Humanist history of science and Rudolf Carnap’s and Hans Reichenbach’s logical empiricism as they relate to questions of the unity of knowledge, the unity of humanity, and the responsible use of scientific knowledge.

Sebastián MachadoThe activities of international organizations have been traditionally analysed through categories which rely on classical notions of subjectivity and contractual relativity. International organizations, however, routinely engage the world beyond their own internal structure through a variety of actions. This presents a choice for their theorization, as we can characterize the relationship in ways that go beyond conventional legal types and can include broader themes such as markets, effects or costs and benefits. Within this context, this chapter takes the World Health Organization’s handling of the A1H1 Pandemic as a case-study for a (re)conceptualization that can account for the political economy of international institutional decision-making. While this opens up some research possibilities and brings the cost-and-benefit redistribution to the forefront, the reality is that international organizations have a powerful capacity to affect third parties even through non-conventional and unpredictable ways. The organization’s officials regularly engage in a balancing act where institutional activity must be seen to fit within their mission. Considering the sensibility of the different external and relevant markets, this chapter concludes by suggesting that international organizations and their officials must remain highly aware of their redistributive potential.

Chapter 4 traces the development of states in early modern Europe by revisiting Charles Tilly’s bellicist theory of how war and state formation interacted to reduce the number of states in Europe through persistent warfare. Focusing on state formation before the French Revolution, the chapter sets up a historical baseline that prepares the ground for our analysis of how nationalism affects state borders. Analyzing the external aspects of Tilly’s theory, we reformulate it as observable propositions that are tested systematically with geocoded data on state borders and interstate wars from 1490 through 1790. Proceeding at the systemic, state, and dyadic levels, our analysis confirms that warfare played a crucial role in the territorial expansion of European states, with power differentials increasing the chance of war, which let large states grow ever larger through conquest. Small states disappeared in the process, which in turn increased the average size of states.

The initial-value problem for the linearized field equations is developed.