Insuring War Sovereignty, Security and Risk [Paperback]

Insurance is a central, if until now ignored, instrument of war in the modern period. Ever since the eighteenth century, interaction between governments and insurers in Western countries has materialised in the form of war risk schemes that have contributed to the waging of war and the preservation of peace. The operation of those schemes has given rise to a curious, if not innocent, association between practices of statehood and practices of risk, which are theorised here under the label of insurantial sovereignty.

The book draws on the British experience of using maritime insurance as an instrument of war during the Napoleonic Wars, the two World Wars, and the early twenty-first century. It asks, what happens, when, under conditions of war, the sovereign adopts insurantial imaginaries and practices into its rationalities of government? In doing so the book makes a novel contribution to the understanding of liberal security and liberal governance which is central to the theory of Political Science and International Relations, the understanding of international political sociology, and international political economy.

The book follows Insuring Security: Biopolitics, Security and Riskas the second of a trilogy that analyses how concepts and practices of power, risk and security materialise in the form of insurance as a central instrument of governance in the liberal world.

1. Insurantial Sovereignty  2. Maritime insurance, the security of credit, and the British state at war during the Napoleonic period  3.Kings enemy risks, maritime insurance and strategy in the First World War  4.The War risks insurance regime of World War Two and the constitution of the national interest  5.Insurantial sovereignty beyond the state: Lloyds and maritime insurance at the start of the 21^stcentury  6.Insurantial Sovereignty and the re-constitution of the intls8