Dr Liam Moore1
1James Cook University, Australia
Biography:
Dr Liam Moore is a lecturer in International Politics and Policy at James Cook University, Australia.
Liam’s work is grounded in a broad understanding of what International Relations is and should be. His research interests span from the intricacies of politics in Oceania, through emerging debates around climate mobilities, and across discourses of normative change, contestation, complexity and international orders.
Abstract:
This project pushes back against bleak constructions of small, vulnerable, Pacific Island states, and instead works towards reanimating of ‘a view of Oceania that is new and optimistic’ (Hau’ofa, 1993). Previously, I showed how Pacific states were engaging in contestation of ideas around climate mobilities governance through a process of ‘norm weaving.’ These efforts have precipitated a nascent climate mobilities norm cluster that is shaping policy and practice across the Pacific and is likely to increase in influence as more states come to engage with the problems posed by climate change. This project extends this work, asking what this discrete example can tell us about the future of normative orders in Oceania and across the Globe. With much debate around the future of international order/s, I argue we need to pay more attention to those actors who are often overlooked. In effect, we need to shift from seeing international orders as the ‘organisation of political authority’ (Reus-Smit, 2020) and instead frame them as the distribution and organisation of legitimate political ideas. Be moving the referent object from the authors of order to the participants in ordering, we can understand more about the space between normativity and acceptability where these ‘legitimate political ideas’ exist and how they shaped and are shaped by the full range of actors in Global Politics.