Interrogating the imaginary turn: Technology, war, and world politics in an era of great power competition

References to the “imaginary” have become prevalent in the study of technology and war in contemporary world politics. As an introduction to this special issue, this article interrogates the “turn” to the “imaginary” by tracing how the concept has been deployed across three overlapping research traditions pertaining to social imaginaries, sociotechnical imaginaries, and security imaginaries. The article addresses two key questions at the heart of this research agenda: what are the core analytical properties of the imaginary, and which research methods can be used to study this concept? In contextualizing the core themes examined throughout the special issue, the article seeks to spur debate on the “value-added” of imaginaries in the study of technology, war, and security in (critical) IR and Security Studies scholarship at a time of renewed great power competition.