School of Social and Political Science

Research interests

Theories of international relations, as accounts of planetary political order, make claims not only about a present global international order but about the boundaries of any potential world order. My research identifies the qualities, histories, and political significance of these boundaries in relation to global patterns of inequality and the changing relationship between human beings, the earth, and political authority on a world scale.

I’m specifically interested in the way these boundaries are established by scientific and philosophical accounts of order that inform the normative aspirations and political forms through which world politics is oriented and practiced. My focus at present is on ‘systemic’ conceptions of order found in Kant, nineteenth and twentieth century geopolitics, and twentieth century systems theories, including international relations. Currently I am pursuing these questions through a book-length research project:

The project investigates how geometry and geometrical figures like the sphere mediate the relationship between human beings, the earth, and political authority on a world scale. Beginning with the political philosophy of Immanuel Kant, the book traces the consequences of this systemic orientation for theories of globalisation in classical geopolitics and contemporary international relations. The project connects debates on world order in international relations to emerging questions about the relationship between international order, planetary boundaries, and world politics in geopolitics and international relations. By showing how this geopolitical orientation has determined the boundaries of earthly political life for centuries, it contributes to reorienting world politics and humans’ relationship to the earth in response to climate change and global inequality. 

See publications here: Regan Burles — University of Edinburgh Research Explorer