Deleuze and World Politics: Alter-Globalizations and Nomad Science

232 Pages·2011·7.32 MB·English

by  Peter Lenco

Deleuze and World Politics
The central argument of this book is that the univocal ontology and corres­
ponding immanent metaphysics of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze
(1925-1995) can provide a theoretical perspective capable of accounting for the
complex nature of world politics.
Drawing on a wide variety of Deleuze’s writings, it develops a thorough
investigation of his ontology and metaphysics as they pertain to core questions
of world politics such as power, identity, hierarchy, space, time, territory and the
state.
The book explores the dynamics of contemporary world politics and issues by
focusing on the ‘anti-’ or ‘alter-globalization movement’ (AGM). It analyses
several approaches to social and political theory which deal explicitly with the
AGM including global governance theory, international relations, social move­
ment theory, Marxism, and post-Marxism. These are contrasted with a larger
Deleuzian theory which can be of use when addressing the diffuse and often par­
adoxical aspects of world politics.
Deleuze’s work poses a major challenge to traditional understanding of global
politics and this book will be of considerable interest to researchers and students
of social and political theory, critical international relations and globalization
studies.
Peter Lenco teaches Global Governance at Bielefeld University, Germany.
Routledge innovations in political theory
1 A Radical Green Political 9 Civil Society and Democratic
Theory Theory
Alan Carter Alternative voices
Gideon Baker
2 Rational Woman
A feminist critique of dualism 10 Ethics and Politics in
Raia Prokhovnik Contemporary Theory
Between critical theory and
post-marxism
3 Rethinking State Theory
Mark Devenney
Mark J. Smith
11 Citizenship and Identity
4 Gramsci and Contemporary
Towards a new republic
Politics
John Schwarzmantel
Beyond pessimism of the
intellect
12 Multiculturalism, Identity and
Anne Showstack Sassoon
Rights
Edited by Bruce Haddock and
5 Post-Ecologist Politics
Peter Sutch
Social theory and the abdication
of the ecologist paradigm
13 Political Theory of Global
Ingolfur Blühdorn
Justice
A cosmopolitan case for the World
6 Ecological Relations
State
Susan Board
Luis Cabrera
7 The Political Theory of Global 14 Democracy, Nationalism and
Citizenship Multiculturalism
April Carter Edited by Ramon Maiz and
Ferran Requejo
8 Democracy and National
Pluralism 15 Political Reconciliation
Edited by F er ran Requejo Andrew Schaap
16 National Cultural Autonomy 25 In Defense of Human Rights
and Its Contemporary Critics A non-religious grounding in a
Edited by Ephraim Nimni pluralistic world
Ari Kohen
17 Power and Politics in
Poststructuralist Thought 26 Logics of Critical Explanation in
New theories of the political Social and Political Theory
Saul Newman Jason Glynos and David Howarth
18 Capabilities Equality 27 Political Constructivism
Basic issues and problems Peri Roberts
Edited by Alexander Kaufman
28 The New Politics of
19 Morality and Nationalism
Masculinity
Catherine Frost
Men, power and resistance
F id el ma Ashe
20 Principles and Political Order
The challenge of diversity
29 Citizens and the State
Edited by Bruce Haddock,
Attitudes in Western Europe and
Peri Roberts and Peter Sutch
East and Southeast Asia
Takashi Inoguchi and
21 European Integration and the
Jean Blond el
Nationalities Question
Edited by John McGany and
30 Political Language and
Michael Keating
Metaphor
Interpreting and changing the
22 Deliberation, Social Choice and
world
Absolutist Democracy
Edited by Terrell Carver and
David van Mill
Jernej Pikalo
23 Sexual Justice/Cultural
Justice 31 Political Pluralism and the
Critical perspectives in political State
theory and practice Beyond sovereignty
Edited by Barbara Arneil, Marcel Wissenburg
Monique Deveaux,
Rita Dhamoon and 32 Political Evil in a Global Age
Avigail Eisenberg Hannah Arendt and international
theory
24 The International Political Patrick Hayden
Thought of Carl Schmitt
Terror, liberal war and the crisis of 33 Gramsci and Global Politics
global order Hegemony and resistance
Edited by Louiza Odysseos and Mark McNally and
Fabio Petito John Schwarzmantel
34 Democracy and Pluralism 39 Dialectics and Contemporary
The political thought of Politics
William E. Connolly Critique and transformation from
Edited by Alan F inlays on Hegel through Post-Marasm
John Grant
35 Multiculturalism and Moral
Conflict 40 Liberal Democracy as the End
Edited by Maria Dimova-Cookson of History
and Peter Stirk Fukuyama and postmodern
challenges
36 John Stuart Mill - Thought and Chris Hughes
Influence
The saint of rationalism 41 Deleuze and World Politics
Edited by Georgios Varouxakis Alter-globalizations and nomad
and Paul Kelly science
Peter Lenco
37 Rethinking Gramsci
Edited by Marcus E. Green
38 Autonomy and Identity
The politics of who we are.
Ros Hague
Deleuze and World Politics
Alter-globalizations and nomad science
Peter Lenco
First published 2012
by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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©2012 Peter Lenco
The right of Peter Lenco to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act
1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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without intent to infringe.
British Libraty Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Lenco, Peter.
Deleuze and world politics : alter-globalizations and nomad science /
Peter Lenco.
p. cm. - (Routledge innovations in political theory ; 40)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Globalization. 2, International relations-Philosophy. 3. World
politics-Philosophy. 4. Deleuze, Gilles, 1925-1995-Political and
social views. I. Title.
JZ1318.L45 2011
327.10i-dc22 2011014396
ISBN: 978-0-415-59008-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-80205-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
By Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
www.tsc.onj FSC® C004839 TJI Digital, Padstow, Cornwall
Contents
Preface ix
List of abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1 World politics and the AGM 8
A challenge to theory 8
The arrival of the AGM on the global stage 12
Definitions and conceptualizations 19
Theoretical perspectives 27
Theoretical directions 39
2 Deleuze and politics as becoming 42
Points of entry 42
Difference and univocity 52
Representation 60
Immanence 68
Counter actualization 85
The philosophy of becoming 89
3 Deleuze and world politics 95
New directions 95
Space 98
Time 115
Neo-medievalism and the postmodern 118
Emergence 120
Nomad science 134
The AGM as an emergent political form 138
4 Subjectivity and political agency 144
Politics and the individual 144
The subject 146
A brief genealogy of subjectivity 148
The fold 155
De I eu 2 i an subjects 162
Post-Marxism 165
Deleuze and consequences 169
Globalization/alter-globaliiation 177
The ‘catch’ 183
Conclusion: world politics as nomad science 188
Notes 194
References 204
Index 217
Preface
The research behind this book began as an attempt to understand various subjec­
tivities of resistance using Deleuze, but during the course of the initial research I
became overwhelmed by an ever-increasing field of questions about Deleuze’s
philosophy which seemed more and more to destabilize the integrity of the argu­
ment. In searching for answers to these questions I came to see that something
much more general and perhaps practical could be said about Deleuze and world
politics; in other words, I realized that Deleuze’s philosophy was much more
comprehensive than 4just’ a philosophy of minoritarian resistances. This insight
began to steer the direction of the work towards the social sciences where it was
clear that such an approach to Deleuze was sorely needed and yet sadly lacking.
As a result of this process, the book is very much interdisciplinary, and walks a
fine line between sociology, politics, International Relations and philosophy.
Such a broad scope, however, not only reflects that virtuosic range of subjects
dealt with in the more familiar A Thousand Plateaus, but perhaps more import­
antly signals the super-theoretical nature of Deleuze’s thought. In effect Deleuze,
like all good philosophers, offers no philosophy of world politics, only philo­
sophy tout court. Amid this therefore necessary wide scope, I hope that like-
minded readers will find a resonance with their own research paths.
Since putting down the pen on this book (early in 2009) there has been an
exponential increase in the number of books on Deleuze in areas as diverse as
law and architecture. And although the present work does not directly address
these texts it is hoped that it will connect with them in various, wondrous ways
in what will surely be seen as an interesting decade of Deleuze studies and
Deleuze interventions, in the social sciences in particular. Also, although the
majority of the research and writing of this book was done between 2005 and
2008, as the final touches were being applied, many polities in the world began
to voice their dissatisfaction and challenge the status quo of seemingly intract­
able regimes. Regardless of their significance and direction, it is precisely these
kinds of well-grounded yet complex, singular yet related, wholly unpredictable
yet seemingly inevitable lines of political activity that this books seeks to
address.
This book would never have been possible without the enormous input and
assistance of others. Of tremendous support in terms of encouragement and
suggestions was the political science graduate research team at Bielefeld Univer­
sity. Of these fine colleagues I would like to single out Suna Aydemir, Jan
Helmig, Eva Herschinger, Oliver Kessler, Martin Koch, Tobias Kohl, Stephan
Stetter, and Jochen Walter for their patient open-mindedness in discussing early
drafts of chapters. I want to especially and sincerely thank Mathias Albert for his
continuous scholarly support and professional advice. Bielefeld University as a
whole was extremely good to me and I thank the Bielefeld Graduate School in
History and Sociology and the Institute for World Society Studies for their gen­
erous financial and material support.
Special thanks also goes to the people at Routledge: first of all to the anonym­
ous referees who read various stages of the manuscript for their criticisms and
suggestions, and who not only shielded the manuscript against a number of
errors, but acted as a sounding board in the difficult process of introducing
Deleuze’s philosophy to the study of world politics. Craig Fowlie deserves
acknowledgement for deftly steering the manuscript through the review process,
and Nicola Parkin did an exemplary job bringing the author through the practical
stages of publication.
Finally I would like to thank my family, in particular the unknowing contri­
bution of Arun and Ilya, and now Hanan. The book is irrevocably intertwined
with these beautiful people.
My deepest thanks go to my wife, Daniela Kempkens, who in uncountable
ways saw me through the research, writing, and publishing phases of this project
with patience and good humour. This book is dedicated to her.
Bielefeld
May 2011