WP1: The New State of Exception: The Political and Social Implications of Globalized Insecurities

Partner Institutions:

University of Keele (Rob Walker) and King’s College London (Vivienne Jabri)

Research Assistants: Andrew Neal (Keele) and Claudia Aradau (King’s College)

Objectives

This workpackage draws on political and cultural theory, international relations, and criminology to develop an innovative theorisation of the nexus between security and liberty and its application to the European context. It specifically responds to characterisations of contemporary security practices in terms of «the state of exception», the spatio-temporal re-articulation of the exception in political practice, and the political and social implications of this re-articulation.

The project is explicitly conceived as a contribution to the theoretical literature but is grounded in our experience of conceptual difficulties arising from a broad range of policy debates, especially in relation to forms of «securitization» in Europe developed in relation to new and increasingly globalized insecurities. The project will concentrate on the following themes:

The political implications of diagnosing the present in terms of «exceptionalism»; the specific discourses of exceptionalism characterizing the security problematique in Europe; the relation of this diagnosis to competing accounts of appropriate ways of responding to the new security environment.

Legal, social, and political transformations that emerge in the state of exception and how such transformations impact upon the interface between the political and governmental.

The relationship between new security technologies and the legitimation of new exceptionalisms.

The relationship between new forms of exceptionalism and changing forms of sovereign authority.

The implications of exceptionalism for civil liberties and constitutionalism.

The implications of exceptionalism for practices of deliberation and contestation in the «public sphere.»

The relationship between exceptionalism, globalised warfare and transformations of «the political.»

The workpackage is hence a response to claims about: a shift from great power hegemony to some sort of globalizing empire; the contemporary significance of Clausewitzian accounts of war in the light of new military technologies; the increasing complexity and contingency of borders that once seemed to mark the distinction between norm and exception, the world of policing and the world of military force; and the need to re-theorize the historical and structural relationship between violence and modern subjectivity. It involves an enquiry into what is at stake in conceptualising the present in terms of exceptionalism and the reinscription, rearticulation and legitimation of new sites of violence. It explores discourses of exceptionalism in relation to local, national and transnational practices of security, and their implications not only for personal safety and social protection but also for social and political life more generally, especially within the European context. While the orthodoxy in international relations, following Schmitt, locates sovereignty, the capacity to make decisions about norms and exceptions, friends and enemies, within the territorial state, the challenge now is that while sovereignty remains a problem, and still involves a capacity to distinguish between norms and exceptions, it is no longer so firmly tied to territoriality. This transformation has profound implications for the politics of liberty and security and for the spatio-temporal locations of such politics. Many theorists have spoken of the normalisation of the state of exception and of politics as the continuation of war by other means, especially in attempts to make sense of the security environment that has challenged so many conventions since September 11, 2001. Unsurprisingly, the various responses to recent deployments of violence, whether as «terror» or a «war on terror» has forced a serious re-engagement with the principles, institutions and practices of modern sovereignty. This project thus seeks to analyse various aspects of this re-engagement and to clarify the stakes of thinking about recent deployments of violence as profound challenges to the kind of political community/identity and space/time that Schmitt, and subsequent accounts of national security, simply took for granted. Along with WP10, it will reflect on the role of religion and theological authority in the post-9/11 context. (see Islam, Citizenship and European Integration, accompanying measure coordinated by Jocelyne Cesari under 5 PCRD, coordinator of WP 10, see www.nocrime.org)

The project will also report on and develop a preliminary assessement of aspects of public policy, state governance and civil society responses that pertain to forms of exceptionalism emerging in the UK. This part of the project will be linked to the collective work of the observatory. Drawing on media reports and on more systematic work conducted by both academic and nongovernmental institutions, the UK team will especially be concerned to clarify the theoretical judgements that might now guide evaluations of the difference between conventional accounts of the relation between liberty and security under the law and claims about novel forms of exceptionalism.

Researchers

Vivienne Jabri (King’s College London)

Vivienne Jabri is Director of the Centre for International Relations and Senior Lecturer in International Relations in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. Her publications, including Discourses on Violence (Manchester, 1996), Women, Culture and International Relations (co-editor, Lynne Rienner, 1999) and various recent articles, focus on developing critical understandings in International Relations, with a particular interest in war and its relationship to politics, Foucaultian understandings of power and subjectivity, and the meaning of political agency. She is currently writing a book on late modernity and the politics of violence.

Recent and forthcoming publications:

Vivienne Jabri, «Feminist Ethics and Hegemonic Global Politics», Alternatives, Vol. 29, No. 3 (June-July 2004), pp. 265-284.

Vivienne Jabri, «Critical Thought and Political Agency in Time of War», International Relations, Vol. 19, No. 1 (March 2005), pp. 70-79.

Vivienne Jabri, «The Limits of Agency in Time of Emergency», in J.P.A. Huysmans et al, The Politics of Protection (Routledge, forthcoming 2005).

Vivienne Jabri, «Biopower and the Corporeality of Globalised Warfare», in Michael Dillon and Andrew Neal (eds.), Foucault: Politics, Society, and War (Palgrave, forthcoming).

Rob Walker (University of Keele)

Rob Walker is Professor of International Relations at the School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy at Keele University, UK, and Professor of Political Science and Director of the Graduate Program in Cultural, Social and Political Thought at the University of Victoria, BC, Canada. He is editor of the journal Alternatives: Global, Local, Political. His interests are in international political theory; theories of sovereignty and subjectivity; globalization/localization; postcolonial theory; politics of security; early-modern political thought, especially Machiavelli, Hobbes and Kant; contemporary cultural, social and political theory, especially Weber and Foucault; concepts of space/time in political thought; politics and violence; theories of discourse, ideology and culture; philosophies of social science.

Andrew Neal (Research Assistant, University of Keele)

Andrew Neal is a PhD candidate and part-time Research Associate in the School of Politics, Philosophy and International Relations at Keele University. His work concerns the politics of the exception and exceptionalism. He has been research assistant to Professor Rob Walker on ELISE (European Liberty and Security- Fifth Framework Programme of the DG for Research (European Commission) and is now a research associate on CHALLENGE (Changing Landscape of European Liberty and Security) - Sixth Framework Programme of the DG for Research.

Recent and Forthcoming Publications

Andrew Neal, «Foucault in Guantanamo: National, Sovereign, Disciplinary Exceptionalism», Security Dialogue, Vol. 37, no.1, (March 2006), special issue edited by R.B.J. Walker and Didier Bigo, publication and consolidation of ELISE work (see working papers below).

Andrew Neal and Michael Dillon (eds.), Foucault: Politics, Society, War (Palgrave: London, forthcoming).

Andrew Neal, «Society Must Be Defended, or, the Archaeology of Carl Schmitt» in Neal and Dillon, Foucault: Politics, Society, War. (Palgrave: London, forthcoming).

Andrew Neal, «Foucault in Guantanamo: National, Sovereign, Disciplinary Exceptionalism», in Counter-Terrorism, Implications for the Liberal State in Europe, eds. R.B.J. Walker and Vivienne Jabri (ELISE), published as a Working Document by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Brussels, March 2005.

Andrew Neal, ««Cutting off the King’s head»: Foucault’s Society Must Be Defended and the Problem of Sovereignty», Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, Vol. 29, #4 (2004).

Jef Huysmans (The Open University)

Jef Huysmans (Licentiate (University of Leuven), MA (University of Hull), Ph.D. (University of Leuven)) is Lecturer at the Open University (UK). He is currently working on the securitisation of migration and asylum in Europe, the political significance of fear, and the international politics of exception after 9/11. He has published articles in Alternatives; Contemporary Political Theory; Cooperation and Conflict; Cultures et Conflits; European Journal of International Relations; Journal of Common Market Studies; Journal of International Relations and Development; Millennium: Journal of International Studies; and Review of International Studies.

Recent and forthcoming publications:

Huysmans, J. (2005 forthcoming), The Politics of Insecurity. Fear, Migration and Asylum in the EU (London: Routledge).

Huysmans, J. (ed.) (2005 forthcoming), The Politics of Protection. Sites of Insecurity and Political Agency (London: Routledge) .

Huysmans, J. (2004) ‘A Foucaultian view on spill-over. Freedom and Security in the EU.’

Journal of International Relations and Development. Vol. 7, No. 3 , pp. 294-318

Huysmans, J. (2004) ‘Minding Exceptions. Politics of Insecurity and Liberal Democracy.’

Contemporary Political Theory.Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 321-341

Huysmans, J. (2003) ‘Discussing Sovereignty and Transnational Politics.’ In Neil Walker (ed.) Sovereignty in Transition. Hart, pp. 209-227

Huysmans, J. (2002) ‘Shape-shifting NATO: humanitarian action and the Kosovo refugee crisis.’ Review of International Studies Vol. 28, pp. 599-618

Huysmans, J. (2002) ‘Defining social constructivism in security studies. The normative dilemma of writing security.’ Alternatives. Global, Local, Political Vol. 27, pp. 41-62

Huysmans, J. (2000) ‘The European Union and the Securitization of Migration.’ Journal of Common Market Studies Vol. 38, pp. 751-777.

Mick Dillon (Lancaster University)

Michael Dillon is primarily interested in the intersection of global politics with changing problematisations of security, peace and war. Especially interested in the operation of bio-power, global governance and the transformation of security and war in response to the information and molecular revolutions, his work also addresses the ethical and political challenges posed by these developments. He has written extensively on international political theory, continental philosophy, security and cultural research.

Recent Publications

"Virtual Security" Millennium Journal of International Studies, March, 2004;

"Intelligence Incarnate," Body and Society, vol.16, no.4, 2003;

"(De)void of Politics. The Polemical Politics of Jacques Ranciere", Theory and Event, vol.6, no.4, 2003;

"Global Liberal Governance: Biopolitics, Security and War", Millennium Journal of International Studies, 30 (1), 2001, 41-66 (with Julian Reid);

"Poetics, Poststructuralism and Complexity," Theory, Culture and Society. Vol.17, No.5, October, 2000;

"Complex Political Emergencies, Global Governance and Liberal Peace," Alternatives, March, 2000;

"Global Governance, Conflict and Resistance ," in Feargal Cocherane, Rosaleen Duffy and Jan Selby, eds., Palgrave/Macmillan, 2003.

"Cultural Governance and Global Biopolitics," in Francois Debrix and Cindy Weber, eds., Minnesota University Press, 2003

"The Security of Governance," in Wendy Larner and William Walters, eds., Global Governmentalities, Routledge, 2004.

"Correlating Sovereign and Biopower," in Jenny Edkins, Veronique Pin-Fat and Michael J. Shapiro eds, Sovereign Lives, Routledge, 2004.

Ian Loader (University of Oxford)

Ian Loader is Professor of Criminology at the University of Oxford, and Director of the Oxford Centre for Criminology. He is author of Youth, Policing and Democracy(1996, Palgrave), Crime and Social Change in MiddleEngland (2000, Routledge, with E. Girling and R. Sparks) and Policing and the Condition of England: Memory, Politics and Culture(2003, Oxford, with A. Mulcahy), as well as several papers on contemporary transformations in policing and security. He is currently working in two broad fields: (i) the historical sociology of crime policy in England and Wales and its intersections with political ideologies and culture, and (ii) the relationship between security and political community. He is currently writing a book on the latter topic (with Neil Walker), provisionally entitled Civilizing Security: Policing and Political Community in a Global Era.

Recent Publications

Journal Articles

2005 ‘Maintien de l’ordre Illimité ? Sécurité, Gouvernance Civique et Bien Public’ (French translation of ‘Policing Unlimited?’) Criminologie, Spring (in press).

‘For an Historical Sociology of Crime Policy in England and Wales since 1968’, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy(special issue on ‘Managing Modernity: Politics and the Culture of Control’) 7/1 in press (with Richard Sparks).

2004 ‘State of Denial?: Rethinking the Governance of Security’ (Review Essay), Punishment and Society, 6/2: 221-28 (with Neil Walker).

‘Governing European Policing: Some Problems and Prospects’, Policing and Society (special issue on ‘Policing Accountability in Europe’) 12/4: 291-305.

‘On the Emotions of Crime, Punishment and Social Control’, Theoretical Criminology, 6/3: 243-53 (with Willem de Haan).

‘Policing, Securitization and Democratization in Europe’, Criminal Justice (special issue on ‘How Does Crime Policy Travel?) 2/2: 125-153.

Book Chapters

2005 ‘Locating the Public Interest in Transnational Policing’, in A. Goldsmith and J. Sheptycki (eds.) Crafting Global Policing. Oxford: Hart (with Neil Walker) (in press).

‘Necessary Virtues: The Legitimate Place of the State in the Production of Security’, in J. Wood and B. Dupont (eds) Democracy, Society and the Governance of Security. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (with Neil Walker) (in press).

‘For an Historical Sociology of Crime Policy in England and Wales since 1968’, in M. Matravers (ed) Managing Modernity: Politics and the Culture of Control. London: Routledge (with Richard Sparks) (in press).

2004 ‘Policing Unlimited?: Security, Civic Governance and the Public Good’, in K. van der Vijver and J. Terpstra (eds.) Urban Safety: Problems, Governance and Strategies. Enschede: IPIT (in press).

‘Policing, Securitisation and Democratisation in Europe’, in T. Newburn and R. Sparks (eds.) Criminal Justice and Political Cultures: National and International Dimensions of Crime Control. Cullompton: Willan.

2002 ‘Contemporary Landscapes of Crime, Order and Control: Governance, Risk and Globalization’, in M. Maguire, R. Morgan and R. Reiner (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Criminology (3rd Edn), pp. 83-111. Oxford: Oxford University Press (with Richard Sparks).

Research Contributions to Challenge:

Four of the researchers in WP1 will contribute papers for the Challenge Conference, ‘Internal Freedom versusExternal Security? Assessing EU Policy in JHA and CFSP’, 3 June 2005, CEPS, Brussels.

Panel ‘Understanding Securitization: Schmitt & Foucault’

Jef Huysmans (The Open University), tbc

Andrew Neal (Keele University), tbc

Vivienne Jabri (King’s College), Security and the Return of Politics

Claudia Aradau (Kng’s College), Forget Capitalism? Security as Liberty

Vivienne Jabri, Jef Huysmans, and Claudia Aradau will participate in the joint doctoral School (The Jean Monnet Chair and Challenge Programme), Rencontres doctorales européeneson ‘Critical Approaches to Security in Europe’.

Ian Loader (Oxford) and Mervyn Frost (King’s College) will present papers at the Challenge Conference, ‘Implementing the Hague Programme. Separating Operational and Legislative Functions on Justice and Home Affairs’, 30 June-1 July 2005, CEPS, Brussels

Ian Loader (University of Oxford), What is EU Criminology in Progress?

Mervyn Frost (King’s College), Where are the Ethics? An European Area of FSJ