Biopolitics of the War on Terror: Life Struggles, Liberal Modernity, and the Defence of Logistical Societies PDF
Preview Biopolitics of the War on Terror: Life Struggles, Liberal Modernity, and the Defence of Logistical Societies
2935 The Biopolitics 12/9/06 11:06 Page i The biopolitics of the war on terror 2935 The Biopolitics 12/9/06 11:06 Page ii REAPPRAISING THE POLITICAL . Simon Tormey and Jon Simons series editors The times we live in are troubling, and as always theory struggles to keep pace with events in its efforts to analyse and assess society, culture and politics. Many of the ‘contemporary’ political theories emerged and developed in the twentieth century or earlier, but how well do they work at the start of the twenty-first century? Reappraising the Politicalrealigns political theory with its contemporary context. The series is interdisciplinary in approach, seeking new inspiration from both traditional sister disciplines, and from more recent neighbours such as literary theory and cultural studies. It encompasses an international range, recognising both the diffusion and adaptation of Western political thought in the rest of the world, and the impact of global processes and non-Western ideas on Western politics. already published Rehinking equality: the challenge of equal citizenship Chris Armstrong Radical democracy: politics between abundance and lack Lars Tønder and Lasse Thomassen (eds) (cid:2) 2935 The Biopolitics 12/9/06 11:06 Page iii Julian Reid THE BIOPOLITICS OF THE WAR ON TERROR Life struggles, liberal modernity, and the defence of logistical societies Manchester University Press Manchester and New York distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave 2935 The Biopolitics 12/9/06 11:06 Page iv Copyright © Julian Reid 2006 The right of Julian Reid to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published byManchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK andRoom 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA Distributed exclusively in Canada by UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for ISBN 0 7190 7405 3 hardback EAN 978 0 7190 7405 9 First published 2006 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Typeset by Action Publishing Technology Ltd, Gloucester Printed in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn 2935 The Biopolitics 12/9/06 11:06 Page v The art of war deals with living and with moral forces. Carl von Clausewitz, On War 2935 The Biopolitics 12/9/06 11:06 Page vi 2935 The Biopolitics 12/9/06 11:06 Page vii Contents Preface and acknowledgements page ix 1 War and liberal modernity: a biopolitical critique 1 2 Logistical life: war, discipline, and the martial origins of liberal societies 17 3 Nomadic life: war, sovereignty, and resistance to the biopolitical imperium 40 4 Defiant life: the seductions of Terror amid the tyranny of the human 62 5 Circulatory life: 9/11 as architectural catastrophe, and the hypermodernity of Terror 82 6 Biopolitical life: the ‘war against war’ of the multitude 102 Epilogue 124 References 130 Index 141 [vii] 2935 The Biopolitics 12/9/06 11:06 Page viii 2935 The Biopolitics 12/9/06 11:06 Page ix Preface and acknowledgements The War on Terror is currently represented in International Relations and beyond as a conflict between political and social formations for which the secu- rity and promotion of human life is an abiding concern and an enemy dedicated to the destruction of the political and social conditions for the flourishing of human life. Not simply an enemy that is motivated against the interests of common humanity, but an enemy which in being so driven, is ready to resort to subhuman tactics, and which therefore requires, paradoxically, a less than human response in defence of the integrity of human life. Hence the declaration by liberal regimes and the mobilisation of their societies for a war of funda- mentally illiberal proportions and dimensions. A war deemed to require the permanent mobilisation of entire societies against an enemy which threatens their security from within. A war against an enemy which like a parasite living off its human host, breeds in the most vulnerable areas of liberal societies, waiting for the moment to release a pathological violence upon its otherwise oblivious prey. A war which requires the development of new and evermore intensive techniques with which to monitor the movements and dispositions of the life of liberal societies themselves because it is there that the enemy festers and will emerge to such devastating effect. To challenge such broadly disseminated understandings this book develops a biopolitical analysis of the War on Terror. Examining this war biopolitically means attempting to think more rigorously about the actuality of relations between the problems of life and politics which are constitutive of it. In devel- oping this analysis it is especially important that we subject to critique the claim firstly that liberal regimes do indeed exist for the security and promotion of human life, and secondly that the terrorists now targeting liberal societies are themselves devoid of human causes and aspirations. In essence, and as will be argued, this is not a war in defence of the integrity of human life against an enemy defined simply by a contradictory will for the destruction of human life. It is a war over the political constitution of life in which the limitations of liberal accounts of humanity are being put to the test, if not rejected outright. It is certainly true that the future of humanity is at stake in this conflict, but only in the sense that any resolution of it will depend on our abilities to learn to ques- tion the limits of existing understandings of what constitutes human life and its political potentialities. The instigation of such a line of questioning is integral to the biopolitical analysis developed in this book. As a struggle over the political constitution of life this war entails a substan- tial genealogy. It can be traced back, at the very least, to the origins of liberal [ix]
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