Animal-state relations: A critical multispecies geopolitics of animality

This report addresses animal-state relationships in geopolitics. It uses anthropocentrism to interrogate five classic concerns of state-building in geopolitics – identity, security, territory, sovereignty and institutions – by cross-pollinating political geographical scholarship on state structures and processes, with multidisciplinary work on animal politics. It reflects on animals’ diverse relations with Westphalian states, and the stakes of specifying these, toward a critical multispecies geopolitics that articulates animality, devoid of racial-colonial and anthropocentric imperialism, as foundational to anti-anthropocentric geopolitical orders.