The BISA Poststructural Politics Group is holding a workshop on 12 November
at the University of Durham. The title will be 'Militarism, sovereignty and
resistance in contemporary geopolitics: poststructural perspectives on the
new imperialism' (details below). Please email [log in to unmask] if
you would like further information to be circulated to you closer to the
time.
David Campbell and Stuart Elden are organising the workshop. We already
have some papers lined up, but we would like you to contact them if you
would like to contribute. Please email David ([log in to unmask])
and Stuart ([log in to unmask]) directly, so that we can see whether
your contribution can be fitted in.
'Militarism, sovereignty and resistance in contemporary geopolitics:
poststructural perspectives on the new imperialism'
In Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's Empire the 'basic hypothesis is that
sovereignty has taken a new form, composed of a series of national and
supranational organisms united under a single logic of rule' that gives the
book its title (xii). At the same time, Hardt and Negri argue that 'the
United States does not, and indeed no nation-state can today, form the
center of an imperialist project. Imperialism is over. No nation will be
world leader in the way modern European nations were' (xiii-xiv).
Given the United States led invasion of Iraq, the overthrow of the Taliban
in Afghanistan, the expansion of American military relationships in Africa
and Central Asia since 9/11, and the overt claims of neoconservatives in the
Bush administration, Hardt and Negri's conclusion about the global role of
the United States and its allies might be overly sanguine. Indeed, in the
past couple of years a number of critical geographers have written books
about American Empire (Neil Smith), The Colonial Present (Derek Gregory) and
The New Imperialism (David Harvey).
The purpose of this workshop is to offer a critical analysis of contemporary
geopolitics, in particular the role and place of the United States, its
military allies and new imperial strategies. This analysis comes from an
interdisciplinary site at the intersection of Geography and Politics and is
informed by poststructural understandings of power and sovereignty. Rather
than engage in a new round of theoretical discussion about the pros and cons
of Hardt and Negri, we are interested in a series of political questions
provoked by their claims: Are current global transformations in geopolitics
enabled by new forms of sovereignty? Or are the United States and its allies
exercising a form of power akin to conventional modes of imperialism? Is
there an expansion of American and allied military power, or are we
witnessing developments consistent with previously established logics? What
territorial implications does this new ordering have, including in terms
Hardt and Negri take from Deleuze and Guattari what deterritorialisations
and reterritorialisations are taking place? And what forms can resistance to
this renewed militarism take, at home and abroad?
Dr Stuart Elden
Lecturer in Political Geography
University of Durham
Durham, DH1 3LE
http://www.geography.dur.ac.uk/information/staff/elden.html
www.foucault-studies.com
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