Post-truth politics is changing the conditions under which international politics takes place. It constitutes an important element of the crisis of the liberal international order and its institutions. The questioning of shared facts, such as climate change, undermines a fundamental basis for interstate cooperation and for the work of international institutions. This project examines the causes and implications of the rise of post-truth politics for International Relations. It explores the spread of neoliberal competition as one cause behind the diffusion of cynical attitudes toward facts and truth. It analyses post-truth politics as part of a broader process of the anarchisation of global order. Finally, it investigates the implications for critical theories that can help understand post-truth politics as an ideology and to uncover its deeper causes.
Publications
- Schindler, Sebastian (2024). Post-Truth Politics and Neoliberal Competition: The Social Sources of Dogmatic Cynicism. International Theory, 16(1), 102-121. doi: 10.1017/S1752971923000040