| Summary/Abstract |
In past decades, social and cultural theory as well as international relations theory and political theory have been preoccupied with the subject of fear. In this article, I return the conversation about fear as a political factor to what may be the oldest subject in the book: the connection between fear and political authority. Today, I suggest, we are in the midst of a shift in our understanding of this relationship, prompted not least by efforts to come to terms, analytically and politically, with the challenges of climate change. The article seeks to get a clearer view of this shift by identifying and analyzing three distinct stories in academic and public discourse about fear and political authority. By way of conclusion, I venture that these mutations in our ways of thinking, speaking, and feeling about political authority and fear point toward a model of political authority for post-sovereign conditions.
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