Geopolitics and Media

In this project, we identify an urgent need for theoretically and empirically exploring the “return”, or rather expansion of, geopolitics and the particular role of media and communication, broadly speaking, in a multipolar world order. Media and communication play essential roles in emerging geopolitical relations and conflicts worldwide. This project primarily focuses on the emerging “borderization” of global media spheres, and the consequences of this process for democracy; sustainability, and the overall human and non-human (technological, material) relations/connectivity. 

More precisely, the aim is to generate theoretical and empirical results in relation to the following themes:

• political philosophical, culture studies, film theoretical, media theoretical, and/or discourse-oriented explorations of what different forms of communication geopolitics of contemporary world gives rise to  
• current geopolitics as evidence of post-globalization (through representations of space, power, identity) but also as new form of transnationalization of the nation state through media and communication
• expansion and “normalization” of competitive and/or aggressive forms of strategic communication between world powers and nation-states 
• geopolitics and preparedness communication
• the role of digital technology and AI communication for geopolitics
• Intensification of foreign interference; hybrid warfare, and the role of media and communication

Understanding geopolitics through a media and communication lens reveals how power is exercised not just through military or economic means, but also through symbols, narratives, and networked information.