Anthony Burke

Professor of Environmental Politics & International Relations
Professor

I am Professor of Environmental Politics and International Relations at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Canberra, Australia. I am an interdisciplinary scholar working across international law and international relations, philosophy, political theory, science and technology studies, and the environmental humanities. 

I am a graduate of the University of Technology, Sydney and the Australian National University. Prior to joining academia I was a human rights activist on Southeast Asia and the South Pacific (especially East Timor), and Principal Research Officer for the Australian Senate’s environment, arts and communications committee, where I led the drafting of reports on the Jabiluka uranium mine and Australia's response to climate change. I was co-lead on the UNSW Grand Challenge on Thriving in the Anthropocene. 

I have published in Nature, Review of International Studies, International Political Sociology, Angelaki, Theory & EventEthics & International Affairs, Millennium, Earth System Governance, and Critical Studies on Security. My books include Uranium (Polity, 2017), Global Insecurity (with Rita Parker, Palgrave 2017), Ethical Security Studies (with Jonna Nyman, Routledge 2016), Ethics & Global Security: A Cosmopolitan Approach (with Katrina Lee-Koo and Matt McDonald, Routledge 2014), Beyond Security, Ethics & Violence: War Against the Other (Routledge 2007), and Fear of Security: Australia's Invasion Anxiety (Cambridge University Press 2008; Pluto Press Australia 2001). With Stefanie Fishel I am completing a new book for the MIT Press entitled The Ecology Politic: Power, Law & Earth After the Holocene.

I am the founding editor of the Borderlands journal, and am coeditor of Palgrave Macmillan's Environmental Politics & Theory book series.

Books
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Burke A, 2017, Uranium, First, Polity Press, Cambridge, http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0745670520.html
2017
Burke AD; Lee-Koo K; McDonald M, 2014, Ethics And Global Security: A Cosmopolitan Approach, First, Routledge, Abingdon and New York, http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415810012/
2014
2008, Fear of Security: Australia`s Invasion Anxiety, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511720543
2008
2007, Beyond Security, Ethics and Violence: War Against The Other, Routledge, Abingdon and New York, http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203965702
2007
Book Chapters
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2021, 'From human environment to post-human earth: Troubling the nature/culture divide in the Stockholm Declaration', in Anthropocene (In)securities: Reflections on Collective Survival 50 Years After the Stockholm Conference, Oxford University Press and SIPRI, Oxford and Stockholm, pp. 101 - 116, https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2021-09/anthropocene_insecurities.pdf
2021
Burke A; Fishel S, 2020, 'Across Species and Borders: Political Representation, Ecological Democracy and the Non-Human', in Non-Human Nature in World Politics, Springer International Publishing, pp. 33 - 52, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49496-4_3
2020
2019, 'Power, World Politics, and Thing-Systems in the Anthropocene', in Biermann F; LÖVBRAND E (ed.), Anthropocene Encounters: New Directions in Green Political Thinking, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 87 - 108, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108646673.005
2019
2019, 'Foreword', in Schmidt N (ed.), Planetary Defense: Global Collaboration for Defending Earth from Asteroids and Comets, Springer, Champagne, pp. ix - xiv, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01000-3
2019
2018, 'Introduction: Asia-Pacific security legacies and futures', in , pp. 1 - 21
2018
2017, 'Security', in An Introduction to International Relations, Third edition, pp. 198 - 209, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781316855188.015
2017
2017, 'Security cosmopolitanism and global governance', in Global Insecurity: Futures of Global Chaos and Governance, pp. 83 - 100, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95145-1_5
2017
2017, 'The united nations and global security', in Global Insecurity: Futures of Global Chaos and Governance, pp. 347 - 367, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95145-1_19
2017
2017, 'Introduction: From collective to global security', in Global Insecurity: Futures of Global Chaos and Governance, pp. 1 - 19, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95145-1_1
2017
Burke AD, 2017, 'Security cosmopolitanism and global governance', in Burke AD; parker R (ed.), Global Insecurity: Futures of Global Chaos and Governance, edn. First, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 83 - 100, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95145-1
2017
Burke AD; Parker R, 2017, 'The United Nations and Global Security', in Burke A; Parker (ed.), Global Insecurity: Futures of Global Chaos and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 347 - 367, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95145-1
2017
Burke AD, 2017, 'Introduction: From Collective to Global Security', in Burke A; Parker R (ed.), Global Insecurity: Futures of Global Chaos and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1 - 19, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95145-1
2017
Burke AD, 2016, 'The ethical sources of security cosmopolitanism', in Nyman J; Burke AD (ed.), Ethical Security Studies: A New Research Agenda, edn. First, Routledge, London, pp. 145 - 159, https://www.routledge.com/products/9781138912328
2016
Burke AD, 2016, 'International Political Theory', in Guillaume X; Bilgin P (ed.), Routledge Handbook of International Political Sociology, Routledge, London and New York, pp. 60 - 70, https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-International-Political-Sociology/Guillaume-Bilgin/p/book/9780415732253
2016
Burke AD; Nyman J, 2016, 'Imagining ethical security studies', in Burke AD; Nyman J (ed.), Ethical Security Studies: A New Research Agenda, edn. First, Routledge, London, pp. 1 - 14, https://www.routledge.com/products/9781138912328
2016
Burke AD, 2014, '“Nuclear Reason: At the Limits of Strategy”', in Nuclear Disarmament And Alternative Voices On Nuclear Issues, Nuclear Politics: Volume Four,, edn. First, Sage, Los Angeles and London, https://au.sagepub.com/en-gb/oce/nuclear-politics/book242152#contents
2014
2013, 'Post-structural security studies', in Critical Approaches to Security: An Introduction to Theories and Methods, pp. 77 - 88, http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203076873-16
2013
Burke AD, 2012, 'Australia's Global Security: A Model National Strategy for a More Secure World', in Altman D; Camilleri JA; Eckersley R; Hoffstaedter G (ed.), Why human security matters: Rethinking Australian foreign policy, edn. First, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, pp. 88 - 106, http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=305&book=9781743312025
2012
Burke AD, 2011, 'Security', in An Introduction to International Relations, edn. Second, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 160 - 171, http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item6528780/?site_locale=en_GB
2011
Burke AD, 2010, 'Security as Ethics', in Burgess PJ (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of New Security Studies, edn. 2010, Routledge, London and New York, pp. 90 - 99
2010
Burke AD, 2008, 'Postmodernism', in Reus Smit C; Snidal D (ed.), Oxford Handbook of International Relations, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, pp. 359 - 377, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199219322.003.0021
2008
Burke AD, 2008, 'Cause and effect in the war on terror', in Bellamy AJ; Bleiker R; Davies SE; Devetak R (ed.), Security and the War on Terror, edn. First, Routledge, London, pp. 25 - 41
2008
2007, 'Preface and acknowledgments', in , pp. xxi - xxii, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139168557.001
2007
Burke AD, 2007, 'Asia-Pacific Security Legacies and Futures', in Burke ; McDonald (ed.), Critical Security in the Asia-Pacific, edn. First, Manchester University Press, Manchester, pp. 1 - 21
2007
Burke AD, 2007, 'Australia paranoid: security politics and identity policy', in Burke ; McDonald (ed.), Critical Security in the Asia-Pacific, edn. First, Manchester University Press, Manchester, pp. 121 - 135
2007
Burke AD, 2007, 'Security Politics and Us: Sovereignty, Volence and Power after 9/11', in Suvendrini Perera (ed.), Our Patch: Enacting Australian Sovereignty Power after 9/11, edn. First, Network Books, Perth, pp. 197 - 218
2007
Burke AD, 2006, 'Critical Approaches to Security and Strategy', in Ayson R; Ball D (ed.), Strategy and Security in the Asia-Pacific, edn. 1st, Allen and Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, pp. 152 - 159
2006
Burke AD, 2004, 'Images of Ourselves: Justice and the War on Terrorism', in Fawkner P (ed.), A Fair Go In an Age of Terror, edn. Original, David Lovell Publishing, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 106 - 115
2004
Conference Presentations
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Burke AD, 2014, 'Roundtable on the book Ethics and Global Security', presented at Oceanic Conference on International Studies, University of Melbourne, Australia, 09 July 2014 - 11 July 2014
2014
Burke AD, 2011, 'The Good State from a Cosmic Point of View, . 11-13 July 2011.', presented at “Purposes Beyond Ourselves: Power and Principle in Foreign Policy”, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 11 July 2011 - 13 July 2011
2011
2006, 'Cause and Effect in the War on Terror', pp. 25 - 41, presented at Security and the War on Terror, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, 15 December 2006, http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203028094
2006
Burke AD, 2004, 'Postmodern Peace: Against the New Internationalism', Department of International Politics, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK
2004
Burke AD, 2004, 'Tragedy and Politics and Postmodern Peace: Against the New Internationalism', presented at 5th European Conference on International Relations, The Hague, Netherlands, 09 September 2004 - 11 September 2004
2004
Burke AD; Brennan F, 2004, 'Just wars and human rights', presented at Lenten Seminar series, “A fair go in an age of terror?”, Adelaide, 09 March 2004
2004
2004, 'Freedom’s Freedom: American Enlightenment and Permanent war', Vol. 11, pp. 315 - 343, presented at Department of Politics Seminar Series 2004, University of Adelaide, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13504630500356322
2004
Burke AD, 2003, 'Just war or ethical peace?', presented at Symposium on Ethics and Foreign Policy, University of Queensland
2003
Burke AD, 2003, 'Social Science: Why does it matter?”,', presented at Creating Spaces Conference, Australian National University
2003
Burke AD, 2003, 'Violent Reasons: War, Modernity and Technology', presented at Department of Politics Seminar Series 2003, University of Adelaide
2003
Creative Written Works
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2022, Climate change: less space between one disaster and the next, The Interpreter, The Lowy Institute for International Policy, https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/climate-change-less-space-between-one-disaster-and-next
2022
2021, High hopes and hot air on climate change, The Interpreter, Lowy Institute, https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/high-hopes-hot-air-climate-change
2021
2021, Human progress is no excuse to destroy nature. A push to make ‘ecocide’ a global crime must recognise this fundamental truth, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/human-progress-is-no-excuse-to-destroy-nature-a-push-to-make-ecocide-a-global-crime-must-recognise-this-fundamental-truth-164594
2021
2021, Glasgow: a tipping point for serious action, The Interpreter, Lowy Institute for International Policy, https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/glasgow-tipping-point-serious-action
2021
2020, A dose of climate realism about China’s carbon pledge, The Interpreter, https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/dose-climate-realism-about-china-s-carbon-pledge
2020
2020, Vision for the Anthropocene: A global ecological democracy, UNSW Grand Challenges, UNSW, https://www.grandchallenges.unsw.edu.au/article/vision-anthropocene-global-ecological-democracy
2020
2020, Vision for the Anthropocene: Introducing the Anthropocene – and our need to thrive, UNSW Grand Challenges, UNSW, https://www.grandchallenges.unsw.edu.au/article/vision-anthropocene-introducing-anthropocene-and-our-need-thrive
2020
Burke AD, 2017, Australia's Misstep On Nuclear Weapons Treaty, Australian Outlook, Australian Institute for International Affairs, http://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australian_outlook/australias-misstep-nuclear-weapons-treaty/
2017
Burke AD; Fishel S, 2016, Politics for the planet: why nature and wildlife need their own seats at the UN, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/politics-for-the-planet-why-nature-and-wildlife-need-their-own-seats-at-the-un-59892
2016
2013, Narrative, Politics and Fictocriticism: Hopes and Dangers, The Disorder of Things, https://thedisorderofthings.com/2013/03/14/narrative-politics-and-fictocriticism-hopes-and-dangers/
2013
Burke AD, 2012, “Security council win a golden opportunity to fix national security at home”, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/security-council-win-a-golden-opportunity-to-fix-national-security-at-home-10225
2012
Burke AD, 2011, “A fantasy debate, disdainful of basic facts”, The Drum (ABC Online), Australian Broadcasting Corporation, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-02/burke-a-fantasy-debate-bereft-of-basic-facts/2867052
2011
Burke AD, 2010, “Lurking in the American mind”, Review of Susan A. Brewer, Why America Fights: Patriotism and War Propaganda from the Philippines to Iraq (Oxford University Press, 2010), Australian Book Review
2010
Burke AD, 2010, Remarks at opening of Michael Callaghan exhibition, ANU School of Art, Image & Text
2010
Burke AD; Gelber K, 2006, Can human rights save us?, Arena Magazine
2006
Burke AD; Gelber K, 2005, Can Human Rights Save Us?, Arena Magazine
2005
Edited Books
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Burke AD; Parker R, (ed.), 2017, Global Insecurity: Futures of Global Chaos and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke and New York, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95145-1
2017
Burke AD; Nyman J, (ed.), 2016, Ethical Security Studies: A New Research Agenda, First, Routledge, London, https://www.routledge.com/products/9781138912328
2016
Devetak R; Burke AD; George J, (eds.), 2007, Introduction to International Relations: Australian Perspectives, Cambridge University Press, Australia, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139168557
2007
Burke AD; McDonald M, (ed.), 2007, Critical Security in the Asia-Pacific, First, Manchester University Press, Manchester
2007
Journal articles
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2023, 'Interspecies cosmopolitanism: Non-human power and the grounds of world order in the Anthropocene', Review of International Studies, 49, pp. 201 - 222, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0260210522000171
2023
2022, 'Attacks on Ukrainian nuclear-power plants challenge treaties', Nature, 611, pp. 232 - 235, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03580-0
2022
2022, 'An architecture for a net zero world: Global climate governance beyond the epoch of failure', Global Policy, 13, pp. 24 - 37, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13159
2022
2021, 'Between Ecology & Indigeneity', Borderlands: Culture, Politics, Law and Earth, 20, pp. 1 - 10, http://dx.doi.org/10.21307/borderlands-2021-001
2021
2018, 'Defending Planet Politics', Millenium Journal of International Studies, 46, pp. 209 - 219, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0305829817742669
2018
Burke A; Fishel S; Mitchell A; Dalby S; Levine DJ, 2016, 'Planet Politics: A Manifesto from the End of IR', Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 44, pp. 499 - 523, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0305829816636674
2016
2016, 'Nuclear politics: beyond positivism', Critical Studies on Security, 4, pp. 1 - 5, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21624887.2016.1181845
2016
Burke AD; Lee-Koo K; McDonald M, 2016, 'An ethics of global security', Journal of Global Security Studies, 1, pp. 64 - 79, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jogss/ogv004
2016
2016, 'Nuclear time: temporal metaphors of the nuclear present', Critical Studies on Security, 4, pp. 73 - 90, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21624887.2016.1162394
2016
2015, 'Security cosmopolitanism: the next phase', Critical Studies on Security, 3, pp. 190 - 212, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21624887.2015.1065109
2015
Burke AD, 2013, 'Security cosmopolitanism', Critical Studies on Security, 1, pp. 13 - 28, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21624887.2013.790194
2013
2013, 'The Good State, From a Cosmic Point of View', International Politics, 50, pp. 57 - 76, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/ip.2012.28
2013
Randell-moon H; Anderson N; Bretag T; Burke AD; Greishaber T; Lambert A; Saltmarsh D; Saltmarsh N, 2011, 'Journal editing and ethical research practice: perspectives of journal editors', Ethics and Education, vol. 6, pp. 225 - 238, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17449642.2011.632717
2011
2011, 'Humanity After Biopolitics: On the global politics of human being', Angelaki - Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 16, pp. 101 - 114, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2011.641348
2011
2010, 'Questions of Community: Australian Identity and Asian Change', Australian Journal of Political Science, 45, pp. 75 - 93, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10361140903517726
2010
2009, 'Metaterror', International Relations, 23, pp. 61 - 67, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0047117808100610
2009
Burke AD, 2009, 'Nuclear Reason: At the Limits of Strategy', International Relations, 23, pp. 506 - 529, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0047117809348697
2009
Burke AD, 2008, 'Recovering Humanity from Man: Hannah Arendt`s Troubled Cosmopolitanism', Critical Studies on terrorism, vol. 45, pp. 514 - 521, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/ip.2008.17
2008
Burke AD, 2008, 'Life in the hall of smashed mirrors: Biopolitics and terror today', Borderlands e-journal, 7
2008
2008, 'The end of terrorism studies', Critical Studies on terrorism, 1, pp. 37 - 49, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17539150701848241
2008
Burke AD, 2008, 'Life in the hall of smashed mirrors', Meanjin, 67, pp. 88 - 100
2008
Burke AD, 2007, 'Ontologies of War: Violence, Existence and Reason', Theory and Event, 10:2, pp. 1 - 34
2007
Burke AD, 2007, 'Beyond Security in the Middle-East: An Ethics for (Co)Existence', Borderlands e-journal, 6
2007
Burke AD, 2005, 'Against the New Internationalism', Ethics and International Affairs, 19, pp. 73 - 89
2005
2005, 'For a Cautious Utopianism', Ethics and International Affairs, 19, pp. 97 - 98, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7093.2005.tb00503.x
2005
Burke AD, 2005, 'Freedom`s Freedom: American Enlightment and Permanent War', Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 11, pp. 315 - 343
2005
2005, 'Iraq: Strategy`s Burnt Offering', Global Change, Peace and Security, 11, pp. 191 - 213, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14781150500091771
2005
Burke AD, 2004, 'Just War or Ethical Peace? Moral Discourses of Strategic Violence after 9/11', International Affairs, 80, pp. 329 - 353
2004
Burke AD; Hables-Gray C, 2003, 'Dance of the In-Between: Humans, Movement, Sites', Borderlands e-journal, 1
2003
Burke AD; McInerney D, 2003, 'New Languages: Power, Feeling, Communication', Borderlands e-journal, 2
2003
Burke AD, 2003, 'Killing and Responsibility: A Dialogue with Joanna Bourke', Borderlands e-journal, 2
2003
2002, 'Aporias of security', Alternatives, 27, pp. 1 - 27, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/030437540202700101
2002
2000, 'Poetry outside security', Alternatives, 25, pp. 307 - 321, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/030437540002500304
2000
Recorded / Rendered Creative Works
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Burke AD, 2006, The Philosophy of War, ABC Radio National, Online, Published: 2006, Recorded / Rendered Creative Works, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/philosopherszone/stories/2006/1759638.htm
2006
Working Papers
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Burke AD, 2007, What security makes possible: some thoughts on critical security studies, Department of International Relations, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, What security makes possible : some thoughts on critical security studies, Working Paper 2007/1, http://dx.doi.orghttp://rspas.anu.edu.au/ir/pubs/work_papers/07-1.pdf
2007
Other
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Scott SV; Burke A, 2018, Avoiding the Strategic Shock of Climate Change: A holistic, globally-focused national response, https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/Nationalsecurity
2018
  • 2005 Australian Research Council Discovery Projects: Global Security, Strategic Paradox and Limited War ($150,000)
  • 2014 Economic and Social Research Council/Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK): Nuclear Ethics and Global Security (£250,000)
  • 2022 UNSW Sustainable Development Goals Reform Hub ($20,000)

Climate politics and governance; biodiversity governance; environmental ethics and philosophy; nuclear politics and governance

2022, Without Indigenous leadership, attempts to stop the tide of destruction against nature will fail, , https://theconversation.com/without-indigenous-leadership-attempts-to-stop-the-tide-of-destruction-against-nature-will-fail-196208
2022
Organisational units
lensSchool of Humanities and Social Sciences
Sub Theme
lensEnvironment & Governance
lensInternational Ethics