Peace with the Future: How Narratives of the Anthropocene Form Relational Concepts of Peace

The polycrisis of the Anthropocene, visible in the drastic and man-made climate change, the extinction of species, the risk of global pandemics, and other catastrophes have called into question the very existence of humankind. A modernist notion of peace as an irreversible consequence of liberal politics and economics reaches its limits as it becomes obvious that its presupposition, the assertion of human autonomy in the separation of nature and culture and the extensive use of resources leads to the erosion of its own foundations. When, in the Anthropocene, humans and nature are in complex interrelations that ultimately elude human options for action, the rationally uncontrollable, contingent processes pose a challenge for peace in the conventional sense. It seems impossible because too many human and non-human actors are involved in peace-building processes. This chapter presents selected approaches to the problems that arise after the departure from the normative foundations of modernity in the Anthropocene for any attempt to ensure future peace. The second part illustrates socio-political and artistic attempts to overcome the ideas of the exclusive domain of human sovereignty and concepts of polycentric network models in light of peace with future generations.