Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.


Comparative practices are integral to global security politics. The balance of power politics, status competitions and global security governance would not be possible without them. Yet, they are rarely treated as the main object of study.


Exploring the varied uses of comparisons, this book addresses three key questions:


• How is comparative knowledge produced?


• How does it become politically relevant?


• How do comparative practices shape security politics?


This book takes a bold new step in uniting disparate streams of research to show how comparative practices order governance processes and modulate competitive dynamics in world politics.

Contributions by: Keith Krause, Christian Bueger, Gabi Schlag, Nike Retzmann, Bastian Giegerich, Anja P. Jakobi, Madeleine Myatt, Hans-Joachim Schmidt, Steven Ward, Paul Musgrave, James Hackett, Paul Beaumont, Lena Herbst