The special issue, “Politics of Hope”, guest edited by Marjo Lindroth and Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen, contains multidisciplinary research on politics that appears and functions through hope. The authors contributing to the issue are Eva Ottendörfer, Claes Tängh Wrangel, Valeria Guerrieri and David Chandler. Together, their contributions demonstrate that politics of hope is present in a diverse range of events and phenomena, from transitional justice and measures of counterterrorism to the mapping of energy resources and assessing the meaning of the Anthropocene. The authors offer critical insights into the dynamics of hope and its usefulness for political power, and consider hope as not only an empowering and enabling force but also as something that can stagnate and preclude such development.

The articles in the special issue are:

• Eva Ottendörfer: Assessing the role of hope in processes of transitional justice: mobilizing and disciplining victims in Sierra Leone’s truth commission and reparations programme
  
• Claes Tängh Wrangel: Biopolitics of hope and security: governing the future through US counterterrorism communications
  
• Valeria Guerrieri: The spatiality of hope: mapping Canada’s Northwest energy frontier
  
• David Chandler: The death of hope? Affirmation in the Anthropocene

The special issue has been published in the journal Globalizations, August 2019, vol. 16, issue 5.