Governmentality and Biopolitics

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin J. Muller
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The Body ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
And Behavior

Governmentality and biopolitics has emerged as a chief source of scholarship and debate within contemporary international relations (IR), particularly among those involved in the sub-disciplines, Critical Security Studies and International Political Sociology. Governmentality, first and foremost, is a term coined by philosopher Michel Foucault, and refers to the way in which the state exercises control over, or governs, the body of its populace. Meanwhile, biopolitics, which was coined by Rudolf Kjellén, is an intersectional field between biology and politics. In contemporary US political science studies, usage of the term biopolitics is mostly divided between a poststructuralist group using the meaning assigned by Michel Foucault (denoting social and political power over life), and another group who uses it to denote studies relating biology and political science. The foci of literatures on governmentality and biopolitics are particularly agreeable to many scholars critical of traditional IR scholarship and its distinct articulation of “world politics.” The shifty nature of both concepts, as defined by Michel Foucault and the subsequent use by various scholars, presents challenges to setting any specific account of these terms; yet the blurriness of these concepts is what makes them productive, contrary to the zero-sum, rationalist accounts of power and behavior so central to much of conventional IR.

THE FIRST MODERN REALIST: FELIX GILBERT'S MACHIAVELLI AND THE REALIST TRADITION IN INTERNATIONAL THOUGHT

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 681-711 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICOLAS GUILHOT
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Science ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Historical Scholarship ◽  
Global Power ◽  
The Us ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
International Thought

In the disciplines of political science and international relations, Machiavelli is unanimously considered to be “the first modern realist.” This essay argues that the idea of a realist tradition going from the Renaissance to postwar realism founders when one considers the disrepute of Machiavelli among early international relations theorists. It suggests that the transformation of Machiavelli into a realist thinker took place subsequently, when new historical scholarship, informed by strategic and political considerations related to the transformation of the US into a global power, generated a new picture of the Renaissance. Focusing on the work of Felix Gilbert, and in particular hisMachiavelli and Guicciardini, the essay shows how this new interpretation of Machiavelli was shaped by the crisis of the 1930s, the emergence of security studies, and the philanthropic sponsorship of international relations theory.

Making amends: Towards an antiracist critical security studies and international relations

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 8-16
Author(s):  
Navnita Chadha Behera ◽  
Kristina Hinds ◽  
Arlene B Tickner
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Critical Security Studies

Security after emancipation? Critical Theory, violence and resistance

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 1113-1135 ◽  
Author(s):  
COLUMBA PEOPLES
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Herbert Marcuse ◽  
Transformative Change ◽  
Current Configuration ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
The Status ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Normative Foundations

AbstractWithin the current configuration of Critical Security Studies (CSS) the concept of ‘emancipation’ is upheld as the keystone of a commitment to transformative change in world politics, but comparatively little is said on the status of violence and resistance within that commitment. As a means of highlighting this relative silence, this article examines the nature of the connection between CSS and the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. In particular it disinters the reflections of Herbert Marcuse on the connections between emancipatory change, violence and resistance as a means of interrogating and challenging the definition of ‘security as emancipation’. Doing so, it is argued, points towards some of the potential limitations of equating security and emancipation, and provides a provocation of contemporary CSS from within its own cited intellectual and normative foundations.

Harold Innis and the Empire of Speed

1999 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
RONALD J. DEIBERT
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Michel Foucault ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Anthony Giddens ◽  
The Face ◽  
Robert Cox ◽  
Per Se

Increasingly, International Relations (IR) theorists are drawing inspiration from a broad range of theorists outside the discipline. One thinks of the introduction of Antonio Gramsci's writings to IR theorists by Robert Cox, for example, and the ‘school’ that has developed in its wake. Similarly, the works of Anthony Giddens, Michel Foucault, and Jurgen Habermas are all relatively familiar to most IR theorists not because of their writings on world politics per se, but because they were imported into the field by roving theorists. Many others of varying success could be cited as well. Such cross-disciplinary excursions are important because they inject vitality into a field that – in the opinion of some at least—is in need of rejuvenation in the face of contemporary changes. In this paper, I elaborate on the work of the Canadian communications theorist Harold Innis, situating his work within contemporary IR theory while underlining his historicism, holism, and attention to time-space biases.

scholarly journals Conceptualizing Power in Dynamics of Securitization

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Art History ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Critical Security Studies

This volume addresses the ‘question of power’ in current constructivist securitisation studies. How can power relations that affect security and insecurity be analysed from both a transdisciplinary and historical point of view? The volume brings together contributions from history, art history, political science, sociology, cultural anthropology and law in order to determine the role of conceptions of power in securitisation studies, which has tended to be dealt with implicitly thus far. Using conceptual theoretical essays and historical case studies that cover the period from the 16th to the 21st century, this book portrays the dominant paradigms of critical security studies, which mostly stem from the field of international relations and see the state as a major focal point in securitisation, in a new light.

scholarly journals From International Law and International Relations to Law and World Politics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Whytock
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Private International Law ◽  
Direct Role ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
Interdisciplinary Scholarship ◽  
Private Actors

Political scientists—primarily in the discipline’s international relations subfield—have long studied international law. After considering how political scientists and legal scholars define international law, this article identifies five stages of political science research on international law, including the current interdisciplinary international law and international relations (IL/IR) stage, and it reviews three trends in political science research that constitute an emerging sixth stage of interdisciplinary scholarship: a law and world politics (L/WP) stage. First, moving beyond the “IL” in IL/IR scholarship, international relations scholars are increasingly studying domestic law and domestic courts—not only their foundational role in supporting international law and international courts but also their direct role in core areas of international relations, including international conflict and foreign policy. Second, moving beyond the “IR” in IL/IR scholarship, political scientists are adapting their research on international law to the broader world politics trend in political science by studying types of law—including extraterritoriality, conflict of laws, private international law, and the law of transnational commercial arbitration—that govern the transnational activity of private actors and can either support or hinder private global governance. Third, moving beyond the domestic-international divide, political scientists are increasingly rejecting “international law exceptionalism,” and beginning to take advantage of theoretical convergence across the domestic, comparative, and international politics subfields to develop a better general understanding law and politics.

scholarly journals Research Agenda for Political Science in China in an Era of Great Change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangbin Yang
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
World Order ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
State Governance ◽  
Governance Models

AbstractThe world order is undergoing tumultuous changes amid the Sino–US trade war and a global pandemic. During these epochal times for political science, The American school of social sciences needs an intellectual revolution and a repositioning of the research agenda for political science. Comparative political studies must shift their focus from their traditional role of comparison of political institutions to that of state governance models, as the former can no longer advance new knowledge in political science while the latter represents a greater challenge for such studies. Likewise, studies of international relations in the traditional sense should take a step further and explore studies of world politics, i.e., studies of international relations and world order as shaped by institutional changes triggered by political trends within certain countries. The research approach of historical political science is indispensable, whether it is comparison of state governance models or of world politics.

Separatists, state subjectivity, and fundamental ontological (in)security in international relations

2021 ◽  
pp. 004711782110456
Author(s):  
Janis Grzybowski
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Ontological Security ◽  
Security Dilemma ◽  
Starting Point

Ontological security studies (OSS) in International Relations (IR) emphasize the role of identity, anxiety, and a sense of self in world politics. Yet suggesting that states act in certain ways because of ‘who they are’ also assumes that they are in fact states. In this article, I problematize the presupposition of state subjects in the context of separatist conflicts in which claims to statehood compete and overlap. Where unrecognized de facto states are pitted against their unyielding parent states, the two threaten each other’s very state personhood, thereby presenting a more radical challenge to their existence than traditional ‘physical’ and ‘ontological’ security threats. Separatist conflicts thus reveal a widely overlooked dimension of fundamental ontological security, provided by the constitution and recognition of states as such. Moreover, because of the exclusiveness of state subjects in the modern international order, any third parties attempting to resolve such conflicts inevitably face a meta-security dilemma whereby reassuring one side by confirming its claim to statehood simultaneously renders the other side radically insecure. Thus, rather than regarding particular state subjects as merely the starting point of quests for ontological security in international relations, they should also be understood as already their result.

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