A Response to the Millennium Forum

Abstract

In my response to the contributors to this forum on Ontological Entanglements I take a few steps down the crossroads they have explored. I reflect on the critiques they moved, on the generative potential of quantum ontological research they highlighted and sketch possible avenues for future inquiry. First, I clarify the position of Ontological Entanglements vis a vis feminist and queer theories. While my work deeply relies on this literature, its scope is different. Quantum ontological critique explores how science, as a field of truth, shapes political imaginaries, to include gender. It challenges the prevailing Newtonian substantialism of the discipline of International Relation, addresses the broader implications of scientific ontological imaginaries for the political, and proposes an ethos based on non-substantialist ontological and casual stories. Furthermore, I start exploring the generative potential of the conversations trailblazed by the contributors to this forum: the intriguing but un-easy dialogue with post-critique; and the fruitful engagement with temporality studies, affect theory and decolonial thought, in particular with regard to non-substantialist conceptualizations of time and war, radical entanglement and the ontogenetic property of practices.