The biopolitics of the war on terror
Life struggles, liberal modernity and the defence of logistical societies
By (author) Julian Reid
Publication date:
31 December 2006Length of book:
160 pagesPublisher
Manchester University PressDimensions:
234x156mmISBN-13: 9780719074059
This is a book which completely overturns existing understandings of the origins and futures of the War on Terror for the purposes of International Relations theory. As the author shows, 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 as commonly supposed by its liberal advocates. 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. Seeking a way out of this conflict must in turn mean learning to question the limits of existing understandings of what constitutes human life and its political potentialities. The pursuit of such a line of questioning is integral to the biopolitical analysis developed in this book.