Challenge - kick-off meeting - Paris - 22nd october 2004

This section's articles

• The construction of a common enemy: Europe, War, Migration

  7 December 2004, by Dal Lago Alessandro
  Alessandro Dal Lago proposed to discuss the notion of war from a sociological perspective. He started his intervention by making reference to the conception of war in the time of ancient Greece. He highlighted the fact that a Greek citizen usually spent half of his life at war and that in some Greek (poleis) and, notably in Sparta, it was even usual to dedicate the whole life to the practice of war. Yet, Dal Lago underlined that Plato devoted no book of his wide production to the very topic of war.

• The role of the judiciary and of the courts in time of emergency measures enacted by the governments and the role of the Constitution

  7 December 2004, by Guild Elspeth
  Elspeth Guild centered her presentation on the rule of law and its effectiveness in the time of emergency. She addressed which are the borders of the rule of law, which are its exceptions and against whom this power of exception should be exercised. She also highlighted the resistances to the state of emergency coming from the Constitution’s settlement.

• The merging between internal and external (in)security. The European public policies regarding transnational political violence and their impact on civil liberties

  7 December 2004, by Bigo Didier
  «What does it mean to have a European point of view on security and state of exception?» Didier Bigo asked. «Is it possible to speak about transnational political violence and war as a solution to put an end to transnational political violence?» How the European Union may have a specific policy concerning transnational political violence not derivative from the US agenda ? In this regard, Bigo spoke about the current blurring between the concepts of war and crime and the increasing discourse concerning collaboration between «security agencies and institutions» at the national and western level.

• The notions of «state of exception», «state of emergency», «war on terror» and «sovereign movement» through their relationship to the post-11 September policies against terrorism

  7 December 2004, by Walker Rob J.
  Rob Walker provided a political theory perspective of the current state of exception and the so-called «state of emergency». In his view, CHALLENGE responds to many challenges. There are many ways of identifying what these are. The crucial judgement informing this particular project, however, is that these challenges converge on a need to reconsider the way in which we understand what it means to place limits on what are taken to be the normal conventions of modern political life. By limits he referred to two different aspects of modern political life.