scholarly journals A Political Ontology of the Pandemic: Sovereign Power and the Management of Affects through the Political Ontology of War

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattias Lehtinen ◽  
Tuukka Brunila
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Affect Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Political Ontology ◽  
Political Subject ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Political Problem ◽  
Political Communities

The COVID-19 pandemic has made relevant questions regarding the limits and the justifications of sovereign power as nation states utilize high degrees of power over populations in their strategies of countering the virus. In our article, we analyze a particularly important facet of the strategy of sovereignty in managing the affects caused by a pandemic, which we term the ontology of war. We analyze the way in which war plays a significant role in the political ontology of our societies, through its aiming to produce a unified political subject and an external enemy. Taking our theoretical cue from Butler’s thinking on frames of recognizability we extend her theory through augmenting it with affect theory to argue for how the frame of recognizability produced by the ontology of war fails to guide our understanding of the pandemic as a political problem, a failure that we analyze through looking at the affective register. We argue that the main affect that the nation state tries to manage, in relation to the pandemic, through the ontology of war is anxiety. We show that the nation state tries to alleviate anxiety by framing it through the ontology war, this leads to the appearance of a potentially racist and nationalist affective climate where the “enemy” is no longer felt to be the virus, but members of other nations as well as minorities. We argue that the pandemic reveals both the political ontology of war central to the foundation of our political communities, and how this ontology is used by the nation state to manage feelings of anxiety and insecurity. Ultimately, as we will discuss at the end of this article, this leads to failure.

Sovereignty’s Scribbled form in King John

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas P. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Political Efficacy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
Political Condition ◽  
Absolute Power ◽  
Political Subject ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Collateral Effects ◽  
King John

This chapter explores a concept of the nation-state defined in terms of leagues, friendships, and amity between England and France in King John. The play consistently describes the evolving relationship between nations in terms of friendship and hospitality. Constance’s desperate question, ‘France friend with England! What becomes of me?’ (2.2.35) after the rival nations become momentary allies, captures the challenge that national sovereignty poses to a subject’s liberty. In its depiction of this geo-political friendship, King John interrogates the powerful claims of an emerging bureaucratic network of authority exemplified by the Bastard’s relationship with what the play calls ‘borrowed majesty’ (1.1.4) and ‘perjured kings’ (3.1.33). In arguing that King John makes explicit the political condition of friendship in depicting rival nation-states, the chapter makes the case that the Bastard’s new sovereign relationship radically redefines a political subject as a bawd or broker in a bureaucratic network with radical, albeit unrealized, political potential. The Bastard—a bureaucrat with royal blood—is well aware that his fugitive survival and political efficacy are contingent on how he responds to the unintended contours of the sovereign decision, to its collateral effects that exceed ordered and absolute power, in other words, to that which allows him to act legitimately, with bureaucratic sovereignty, both inside and outside of the law.

World without Borders? Reflections on the Future of the Nation‐State

1999 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert Dittgen
Keyword(s):  
Edmund Burke ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Political World ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Future ◽  
Political Communities ◽  
Territorial States ◽  
Vindication Of Natural Society

THE PARTICULARISTIC CHARACTER OF THE POLITICAL WORLD, THE separation of political communities into poleis, territorial-states or nation-states, has always provoked the universalist criticism of borders as artificial and incompatible with universal humanity. Such demarcations were even suspected of being one of mankind's greatest evils. Edmund Burke, for example, wrote in his A Vindication of Natural Society – a response to Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of Inequality – that ‘this artificial division of mankind, into separate societies, is a perpetual source in itself of hatred and dissention among them’.

scholarly journals Narasi Islamisme dan Pesantren: Pola Penolakan Islam Politik di Pondok Pesantren Gontor Ponorogo

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-166
Author(s):  
Herlambang Andi Prasetyo Aji
Keyword(s):  
Religious Education ◽  
Research Method ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The People ◽  
Being Religious

The polemic between religion and the nation-state is very recurrent and has the potential to strengthen when there are some critical changes in the political landscape. This case is reinforced by the results of a survey with the theme of scholars and nation-states, which reached 71.56 percent of scholars who received and 16.44 percent of scholars who rejected nation-states with different backgrounds. The purpose of this study is to explain the narrative of Islamism and its patterns of rejection in Pondok Modern Darussalam Gontor. The research method used is ethnographic in the sense of understanding the practice and life of individuals as part of a wider community and scope, with research subjects being religious scholars who are people with a formal religious education background in Pondok Modern Darussalam Gontor. The results showed that in facing the narrative of Islamism, the people of Pondok Modern Darusalam Gontor used a puritanical (puritanical moderate Islam) discourse of Islam with the perspective of political Islamization. Political Islamization does not mean that it wants to break down the ideology of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia, but rather still accepts the concept of the NKRI nation-state, including the ideology of Pancasila, only to clarify the basis and objectives following Islam by being semi-rejectionist towards a controversial interpretation of government.   Polemik yang terjadi antara agama dan negara-bangsa sangat recurrent dan berpotensi menguat ketika terjadi beberapa perubahan penting dalam lanskap politik. Hal ini diperkuat dengan hasil survei dengan tema ulama dan negara bangsa yang mencapai angka 71,56 persen ulama yang menerima dan 16,44 persen ulama yang menolak negara-bangsa dengan latar belakang berbeda. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menjelaskan narasi Islamisme dan pola penolakannya di Pondok Modern Darussalam Gontor. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah etnografis dalam pengertian untuk memahami praktik serta kehidupan individu sebagai bagian dari komunitas serta cangkupan yang lebih luas, dengan subjek penelitian adalah religious scholar yang merupakan orang-orang yang berlatar belakang pendidikan agama secara formal di Pondok Modern Darussalam Gontor. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa dalam menghadapi narasi Islamisme masyarakat Pondok Modern Darusalam Gontor menggunakan wacana Islam moderat puritan (puritanical moderat Islam) aksepsionis dengan kacamata Islamisasi politik. Islamisasi politik bukan berarti ingin merobohkan ideologi NKRI, tetapi tetap menerima konsep negara-bangsa NKRI, termasuk ideologi Pancasila, hanya saja lebih memperjelas dasar dan tujuan-tujuan yang sesuai dengan Islam dengan bersikap semi-rejeksionis terhadap interpretasi pemerintah yang kontroversial.

Netizens, Revolutionaries, and the Inalienable Right to the Internet

2019 ◽  
pp. 95-114
Author(s):  
Tok Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Corporate Ownership ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Modes Of Thought ◽  
Media Corporations

This chapter examines the political implications of communal vernacular online art such as memes, mashups, and more. The tensions between these communal processes, and the various claims to authority, ownership, and censorship by institutions such as nation-states and media corporations, have erupted in epic cultural clashes regarding the very nature of art, freedom of speech, and politics. Such new moves challenge dominant regimes and dominant modes of thought, and are reconfiguring people’s relationship to the nation-state, traditional media, and corporate ownership of culture.

Multi-layered Constitutionalism, Globalization, and the Revival of the Nation State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
András Sajó ◽  
Renáta Uitz
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Constitutional Constraints

This chapter examines the so-called multi-layered constitutionalism in the age of globalization. Multi-layered constitutionalism refers to the intricate web of interactions between traditional constitutional actors (such as nation states and their governments) and supra-national actors which do not necessarily have formal, organizational existence or democratic legitimacy. This chapter first traces origins of multi-layered constitutionalism before discussing the dilemmas it presents. It then considers how (national) sovereign power is exercised under a multi-layered constitution free of constitutional constraints.

Renegotiating the empire, forging the nation-state: The Georgian case through the political economic thought of Niko Nikoladze and Noe Zhordania, c. 1870-1920

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Brisku
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Prime Ministers ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
History Approach ◽  
Political Economic

This article begins with an observation of a contemporary and yet reoccurring political dilemma that small nation-states face with respect to larger states in being either inside or outside of supranational political entities regarding political and economic asymmetries. Employing an intellectual history approach, the article explores this dilemma with reference to the Georgian nation in late-nineteenth century Tsarist Russia and the early twentieth century, when that territory briefly became a nation-state: It explores this through the language of political economy articulated in the thoughts and actions of two founding Georgian national intellectual and political figures, the statesman Niko Nikoladze and Noe Zhordania, who was one of the first prime ministers. It argues that conceiving of the nation(state) primarily in economic terms, as opposed to exclusively nationalist ones, was more conducive to the option of remaining inside a supranational space.

scholarly journals Fan’s book “Political ontology of a Russian citizen: content versus form”. Ekaterinburg: Ural Institute of Management — RANEPA branch, 2018

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 107-111
Author(s):  
Vasily Rusakov ◽  
◽  
Olga Rusakova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Ontology ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
Private Rights ◽  
Russian Constitution ◽  
Political Problem ◽  
Methodological Bias ◽  
Informal Practices ◽  
Russian Citizen

The authors consider the philosophical and political problem of citizenship, for a number of reasons constantly relevant to the Russian culture. A peculiar methodological bias of consideration gives originality to the work: the ontology of the phenomenon of citizen and citizenship. The emphasis is made on studying the factors and mechanisms for implementing the political and private rights of a nominal citizen, which shows that the current political order in Russia is characterized by the contradiction between the formal norms of externally modern political institutions and the informal practices of their functioning, the Russian Constitution does not exist in the form of existing law as a system of obligations observed by the parties, and it is reasonable to talk about the existing rental estate order and resource allocation.

Globalization and global governance: from societal to political denationalization

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL ZÜRN
Keyword(s):  
Global Governance ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Effective Governance ◽  
Nation States ◽  
National Governments ◽  
Spatial Congruence ◽  
National Borders

The declining significance of national borders constitutes a challenge to the capacity of the nation-state to reach unilaterally its governance targets. Effective governance depends upon the spatial congruence of political regulations with socially integrated areas and the absence of significant externalities. As societal interconnectedness across borders increases with globalization, national governments are increasingly confronted with four specific challenges: efficiency pressures, externality and competitiveness problems, and representational deficits. The political responses to these challenges vary significantly. Although globalization is thus neither identical with, nor does it necessarily lead to, the rise of international institutions and governance beyond the nation-state, this article will show to what extent societal denationalization is accompanied by the rise of international institutions and how the myriad of international institutions existing today interact to produce global governance. Globalization also questions a cornerstone of any modern understanding of politics, which considers nation-states as the basis of all politics. As governance beyond the nation-state increases in significance, the separation of political issues into nationally defined territorial units must be conceptualized as a variable rather than a conceptual premise.

The Crisis of Sovereignty, Ruptured Domination, and the Kurdish Quest for Democratic Self-Government in Syria

2019 ◽  
pp. 648-665
Author(s):  
Abbas Vali
Keyword(s):  
Political History ◽  
State Power ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Autonomous Region ◽  
The Moment

Despite the consensus that both the political crisis in Syria and the emergence of the Kurdish autonomous region have serious implications for the viability of the nation-state in Syria, no attempt has been made to provide a theoretical explanation worthy of the name. Informed discussions of the crisis and its likely outcomes often resort to political history in order to trace the roots of a chronic crisis of legitimacy, identified as the primary cause of the current crisis. Syria, this chapter argues, is gripped by a crisis of sovereignty, signified by a rupture in the structure of domination necessary to ensure the reproduction of state power and the working of the apparatuses created to sustain its effective exercise and application. The rupture runs deep in the tissue of sovereign power, ripping open its legal façade and going down to its violent core. It lays bare the founding act of the state, an act of pure violence which is also the moment of the birth of the stateless, the suppressed other of the sovereign. In this sense, therefore, the rupture is the intersection of crisis of sovereignty and the Kurdish quest for democratic autonomy; they are interrelated, historically and logically.

scholarly journals The Cosmopolitanization of the EU’s Borders?

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Damian Spruce
Keyword(s):  
Political Geography ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
The Political ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
Nation State ◽  
European Neighbourhood Policy ◽  
Eu Integration ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Globalized World ◽  
Opening Up

For centuries the political geography of Europe has been based around borders of its nation states. The ability of the nation state to control its territory has been essential to the practices of war and diplomacy, the legitimacy of governments, immigration policies and trade. But processes of globalization and EU integration have transformed the borders of the European nation state. While globalization theorists tend to posit an opening up of borders to global flows of capital, information and people, the changed nature of the border is itself often left unexamined and is assumed to have simply disappeared. But scholars and activists are now arguing that, rather than fading away, borders are proliferating in the globalized world and their functions spreading into many different areas of society. This article examines the transformation of the ‘classical’ border of the nation-state into its recent forms, using the work of theorists such as Balibar, Mezzadra, Rigo and Walters. It then examines how these theories have been applied in recent literature, and in particular Chris Rumford’s analysis of the European Neighbourhood policy and his argument that this represents a ‘cosmopolitanisation’ of European borders.

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