This handbook offers a unique approach to the question: How do scholars write the future of global politics? Written in futur antérieur style, around the 200-year anniversary of the birth of International Relations (IR) as an academic discipline, the contributions engage in world-building and imagine different futures of IR. Set in a multiverse, 23 chapters draw on a range of possible themes and imaginaries, for instance post-pandemic conditions, the Anthropocene, and not least academic practices and the role of researchers. A concluding chapter anchors these explorations in contemporary discussions.

The book mirrors the format and style of existing handbooks, combining outlines and discussions of theories, structures, processes, and core issues in IR with an academic science fiction account of how these might play out over the course of the next century. In doing so, the book challenges IR and provides alternative imaginaries, rather than predicting future conditions for all humanity. The book invites readers to reflect on how thinking about the future has become an increasingly radical, but more than ever necessary act. 

Introduction 

·        Editorial written from vantage point of 22^nd century, ca 2200 (Laura Horn/Nick Kiersey)

Part 1 – Historical and philosophical dimensions of world politics

·        A history of International Relations as discipline - Luke Ashworth

·        International Relations and Philosophy of Science - Patrick T. Jackson

Part 2 - Theoretical Perspectives

·        “How We Got to Realist Utopia” - Anette Freyberg-Inan

·        The Evolution of Global Society Theory - Barry Buzan

·        World-systems and the rescaling geography of Europe - Giuseppe Porcaro

·        Still the age of man? Revisiting Feminist International Relations  - Laura Horn

·        International relations did not happen: a post-structural analysis of global politics in the 22nd century – Robin Cameron

Part 3 - Structures, actors and processes

·        Open Diplomacy in the 22nd Century: Radicalization of Liberal World Order? - Funda Hülagü

• New Diplomatic Actors and the Pluralisation of Diplomacy - Tomasz Kamiński

·        Democracy in Global Politics - Michael Strange

·        Strategic Partnerships in Twenty-Second Century Global Politics: Between Foreign Policy Assertiveness, Bilateral Alignment and Structured International Engagement - Andriy Tyushka and Lucyna Czechowska

• World religions – Giorgi Ozzano and Alberta Giorgi

Part 4 - Selected issues in world politics

• Not Yet a Global Health Ethical Paradigm: a scenario-based analysis of Global Health - Maria Ferreira
• Artificial Intelligence and the right to de-optimization – Isabella Hermann
• Government by Cyber-Directorate: The Rise of Planetary Algorithmic Rule - Ronnie D. Lipschutz

·        Now Live from Lagos, Tehran and Oceanside: 3 B7CC Leaders Reflect on Strategies for Development Cooperation after the Anthropocentric Purge – Franziska Mueller (Kassel)

• South Asian or East Asian international relations and development - Farlina Md Said
• Resistance and the Digital Pale; Irish Social Movements and the Rebirth of European Parliamentary Socialism in the 21st Century – Nicholas Kiersey
• A History of (post-)Anthropocene Democracy - Ayşem Mert and Peter Christoff
Nuclear weaponsn in 2119: Disaster, stability, or disarmament? Michal Onderco and Jeffrey W. Knopf
• The denuclearization puzzle: Squaring IR theory with the nuclear-weapon free world - N.A.J. Taylor
• International Relations in the Age of Hydrogen - John Szabó
• Genosocial Scientific Account of Genetic Extrapolation Tests’ Origins – Jakub Zahora

Conclusion