From Crisis to Hegemony

This introductory chapter brings the reader back to the heights of the financial crisis in 2008 and shows how political leaders responded by framing it as a security threat. Through speeches by Bush, Brown, Merkel, and Sarkozy, it shows how financial markets were depicted as vital infrastructures, whose failure would endanger societal stability. This securitizing narrative enabled extraordinary interventions – such as bank bailouts – to be legitimized as protective measures, bypassing democratic procedures. The chapter introduces the book’s analytical focus: The entanglement of finance and security which allows to trace how ‘financial stability’ emerged as the dominant post-crisis rationality. Already in the early days of crisis management, financial stability emerged as a central form of financial security that centred on safeguarding financial market continuity. It also highlights how this logic has extended to new domains, particularly climate policy, where climate risks are framed as threats to financial stability. The chapter concludes by presenting the central contributions of the book and the chapter outline.