gdi 15 - agamben k

7/24/2019 GDI 15 - Agamben K

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The law cannot restrain the sovereign – debates aboutsuspending rights of due process to address a severesecurity threat, seeking to reframe the ‘‘balancebetween liberty and security, and asserting the necessityof e!ecutive decision to tackle a severe crisis illusory –the law is always the e!ception"#uysmans, $rofessor of Security Studies, % (Jef Huysmans, The Jargon of Exception—On Schmitt, Agamben and the Absence of PoiticaSociety, p! "#$%"#& '')*+n reference to Schmitt, Agamben conceptuaies so-ereignty at the threshold

between law and anomie! The so-ereign is both part of and e!ternal tothe legal constitutional system &Agamben "../*! This means thatso-ereign po0er is an aporia! 1hie so-ereign authority is de2ned andsanctioned by a0 , it is not fully subsumed within the law! So-ereignpo0er a0ays retains an arbitrary, unmediated capacity to impose rue! Thediaectic reation bet0een egay mediated poitica po0er and unmediatedpoitica po0er characteries so-ereignty! The reation bet0een constituti-eand constituting po0er and the tension bet0een so-ereign capacity tosuspend a0 and ega capacity to pu the suspension bac3 into a0 are t0oconceptions that articuate this constitutiona threshod bet0een a0 andanomie in poitics! One of the centra poitica 4uestions here is about the conditions under 0hich theexercise of po0er that has crossed the threshod and thus ost its egaity can ne-ertheess be egitimate!

The discussions about the egitimacy of humanitarian and other miitary inter-entions that are notsanctioned by the 5 are one exampe! The miitary inter-ention in +ra4 in $667 sa0 2rst an attempt tode2ne its egaity! 1hen this faied, some crossed the threshod in the name of extra%ega prerogati-essuch as ethics and nationa security! This mo-e then reinforced the debate about the importance of egaityas a condition for egitimate inter-entions in another country! This reading of so-ereignty ma3es theexception the de2ning constitutiona issue of the poitica and paces Agamben -ery cosey to Schmitt8s0or3! Ho0e-er, the most interesting part of Agamben8s 0or3 is not this mirroring of the Schmittean

constitutiona probemati4ue but rather ho0 he decares it ban3rupt! 9or Agamben, the currentpredicament is not characteried by an intensi2ed poiticiation ofconstitutiona matters! At issue is not ho0 to do poitics at the intersticebet0een a0 and anomie but rather the nature of poitics 0hen the threshodhas become irree-ant and the poitica predicament has changed from theexception to the%exception%as%the%rue! Agamben dra0s the distinctionbet0een the poitics of exception and the exception%as%the%rue most ceary 0hen

he compares Schmitt and :en;amin (Agamben $667</.="6.*! +n Agamben8s reading, for both Schmitt and:en;amin "#$ The Jargon of Exception the sta3e of the poitica game is anomie—the faiure of the state toreign in undetermined ife! The historica reference 0as the radica poariation of >erman society byre-outionary mo-ements, economic crisis, and the poitica 0ea3ness of the 1eimar repubic! Schmittsee3s to bring anomie bac3 into the fods of a0 by positing a so-ereign 0ho simutaneousy enacts anomicand ega ife and therefore has the capacity to impose rues of right and 0rong upon anomic ife! Anomie isprimariy de2ned as a normati-e -acuum that needs to be brought 0ithin a normati-e frame0or3! To do

this, so-ereign po0er needs to be abe to act outside of the ega frame0or3 soas to constitute a constitutiona order 0here none is! Therefore, thesovereign embodies and articulates in his decisions the very

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threshold between anomy and law! 1or3ing across this threshod is thecentra constituti-e eement of ;uridico%poitica ordering! :en;amin on the other handsee3s to free anomie competey from a0! He is oo3ing for a concept of -ioence that is neitherconstituti-e of a0 nor constituted by a0! He cas this ??di-ine -ioence88 0hich is a form of -ioence thathas no reference to a0@ it simpy is -ioence that articuates its o0n existence (:en;amin "..*! AgainstSchmitt, :en;amin see3s to retain anomie as pure ife, empty of any determination! :en;amin8s anomie isthe emancipation of ife from a0! +n this reading, the state of exception is a one of absoute

indeterminacy bet0een a0 and anomie! The sphere of creation (ife* and the ;uridica order (a0* are bothdragged in an eschatoogy 0ithout end 0here there is no redemption, no transcendence of the factuaity of being! +t is a catastrophe in 0hich the diaectic reation bet0een a0 and anomy ceases to structuresocieta and poitica practice! The poitica is not about bringing camps and re-outionary action bac3 intothe fods of a constitutiona order! On the contrary, the poitica sta3e is the enactment of anomie that hascompetey bro3en its reation to a0—in other 0ords, a re-oution and -ioence that are simpy means0ithout redeeming ends (Agamben $667<.=..*! +n ine 0ith :en;amin8s notion of di-ine -ioence,

Agamben dra0s a radica, systemic spit bet0een a0 and poitics" 'ife is nolonger politically enacted through a dialectic play between anormative force that seeks to constrain politics by crystaiing a rigidnormati-e system and an anomic poitica force that see3s to transgress a0by appying the force%of%a0 0ithout norms! Poitics and a0 become bothsimpy i-ing practices that may refer to each other but that are actuay notreated (Agamben $667*! 9or Agamben, this condition of the exception%as%

the%rue ma3es debates about suspending rights of due process toaddress a severe security threat, seeking to reframe the ‘‘balancebetween liberty and security, and asserting the necessity ofe!ecutive decision to tackle a severe crisis illusory! They attempt toreproduce a situation in 0hich po0er remains de2ned in its reation to a0—either constrained by it or transcending it—0hen in fact the diaectic bet0eenanomie and a0 that ma3es such references poiticay signi2cant no ongeroperates eBecti-ey! These ??iusory88 debates are not 0ithout poitica signi2cance, ho0e-er! +t hasan important ideoogica function, according to Agamben! They nurture the idea that a0 has sti a grip onpoitics and ife, 0hie the practices that are depoyed are radicay detached from any ega frame0or3! +nhiding this radica change in the nature of poitica po0er, debates i3e the one on reconciing iberty andsecurity become an ideoogica mo-e that reads a radica transformation in the exercise of po0er bac3 intoa famiiar frame0or3 as if nothing has reay changed! +n Agamben8s understanding of the currentpredicament, such a mo-e sustains the direct exercise of poitica po0er on ife 0hich manifests itsefamong others in camps but aso in the -ioent inter-entionist internationa poitics foo0ing . C ""(Agamben $667<"&&="&/*! Agamben8s exception%as%the%rue diBers from the idea that a0 is a poitica 2geaf! The point is not that a0 is used to egitimate sef%interest but the more radica idea that the reation

bet0een a0 and poitics has become an historica Jef Huysmans "#7 ontoogica irree-ance! 5nder theexception%as%the%rue , politics does not re(uire law to legitimate itself@poitica history is beyond the ega Cpoitica diaectic! The idea of egitimacyretains the idea that the reation bet0een a0, as a egitimating practice, andpoitica po0er is an important sta3e that structures poitica debate andpractice! De2ning the ne0 poitics of exception%as%the%rue, ho0e-er, are thepractices that radicay separate po0er—and -ioence—from a0 (Agamben$667<"&/*! +n the atter condition, poiticay signi2cant ife runs its course0ithout regard for a0 or ega practice and a0 becomes a sef%referentia

practice that operates at a great distance from factua ife! +t is a condition of anomiethat is empty of any determination of ife (Agamben $667</.="6.*! This eads us to the second diBerencebet0een Schmittean exceptionaism and Agamben8s de2nition of the exception%as%the%rue!

The logic of the sovereign is what allowed themanifestation of concentration camps in the #olocaustand the continued threat of a reccurence)obinson, political theorist, *+ (Andre0, +n Theory >iorgioAgamben< the state and the concentration campF

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https<''cease2remagaine!co!u3'in%theory%giorgio%agamben%the%state%and%the%concentration%camp'*''GE:-iolence by soldiers and police also e!pressed the logic ofsovereignty! +n Sherene aac38s study of the peace3eepingF inter-ention in Somaia for instance,sodiers expained and tried to excuse abuse on grounds such as that the context 0as hostie, that it 0as a

chaotic Hobbesian state of nature, and that the norma expectations of e-eryday ife had bro3en do0n!The sociology of police, conducted by authors such as obert einer, shows thatpolice also think of certain social groups – including blackcommunities, marginal poor communities, and dissident activists –as .police property/ who are outside normal protections, to betreated according to .order/ rather than .law/" To an extent, ideas such asstates of exception and homo sacer are aso appied to issues such as the A+DS crisis in Africa, 0herepeope are treated by rich 0estern countries as ?not 0orth sa-ing8 because of their po-erty andmarginaity, though this 3ind of use is more contentious! The appication of Agamben in such cases oftenshades o-er into discussions of 9oucaut8s 0or3 on ?go-ernmentaity8, or e-eryday techni4ues ofgo-ernment po0er, 0hich produce a 3ind of micro%so-ereignty diBusing the po0er of decision among

?experts8! The concentration camp, and Na0i death camps such as

1uschwit0 in particular, are for 1gamben particularly de2nitive or

telling e!amples of sovereignty" The by a ong time* 0as camp (0hich precededthe Hoocaust a turning%point for Agamben because it made the temporary state ofe!ception permanent, locating it in space instead of time (uni3e the

decaration of a state of emergency*, and local to the core area of power, withinits territory but outside its law (uni3e the coony or 0arone*! This 2xing of the state of

exception as a permanent feature at a site in time and space intensi2es the danger topeople declared homo sacer! 9ormery, an outa0ed person 0oud be iteray banished,

becoming a 0andering 2gure dri-en into exie! o0, an outa0ed person is not ao0ed togo into exie (thin3 for instance of the immense eBorts put into catching high%pro2e fugiti-es*, butrather, is put in a situation suspended bet0een inside and outside, constantyat ris3 of arbitrary po0er! 9or Agamben, camps diBer from other discipinaryspaces (prisons, asyums and so on* because in them, anything is possibe,

and the guard is absoutey so-ereign!

The alternative is whatever being – a lack of separationbetween the political and natural life is crucial to moveaway from sovereign powers e!cessesCaldwell, 1ssistant $rofessor in the 3epartment of$olitical Science at the 4niversity of 'ouisville, +5 (Anne,:io%So-ereignty and the Emergence of HumanityFhttps<''muse!;hu!edu';ournas'theoryIandIe-ent'-66#'#!$cad0e!htmauthbio* ''GE:

Kan 0e imagine another form of humanity, and another form ofpowerL The bio%so-ereignty described by Agamben is so Muid as to appear irresistibe! Net Agambenne-er suggests this order is necessary! :io%so-ereignty resuts from a particuar and contingent history,and it re4uires certain conditions! So-ereign po0er, as Agamben describes it, 2nds its grounds in speci2c

coordinates of ife, 0hich it then paces in a reation of indeterminacy! 6hat de2es sovereignpower is a life that cannot be reduced to those determinations< a life7that can never be separated from its form, a life in which it is neverpossible to isolate something such as naked life! ($!7*! +n his earierKoming Kommunity, 1gamben describes this alternative life as

https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/in-theory-giorgio-agamben-the-state-and-the-concentration-camp/


http://www.suite101.com/content/understanding-police-culture-a236425

http://www.tac.org.za/community/

https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/v007/7.2caldwell.html#authbio


http://www.suite101.com/content/understanding-police-culture-a236425

http://www.tac.org.za/community/





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7whatever being" Gore recenty he has used the term forms%of%ife! These concepts come from

the 2gure :en;amin proposed as a counter to homo sacer8 the 7total conditionthat is 9man9"7 9or :en;amin and Agamben, mere ife is the ife 0hich unites a0 and ife! That tie

permits a0, in its endess cyce of -ioence, to reduce ife an instrument of its o0n po0er! The totalcondition that is man refers to an alternative life incapable ofserving as the ground of law" Such a life would e!ist outside

sovereignty! Agambens o0n concept of 0hate-er being is extraordinariy dense! +t is made up of-aried concepts, incuding anguage and potentiaity@ it is aso shaped by se-era particuar dense thin3ers,incuding :en;amin and Heidegger! 1hat foo0s is ony a brief consideration of 0hate-er being, in its

reation to so-ereign po0er! 76hatever being,7 as described by 1gamben,lacks the features permitting the sovereign capture and regulationof life in our tradition! Sovereignty9s capture of life has beenconditional upon the separation of natural and political life" Thatseparation has permitted the emergence of a sovereign power groundedin this distinction, and empo0ered to decide on the -aue, and non%-aue of ife ("../< "&$*! Since then,e-ery further poiticiation of ife, in turn, cas for a ne0 decision concerning the threshod beyond 0hichife ceases to be poiticay ree-ant, becomes ony sacred ife, and can as such be eiminated 0ithoutpunishment (p! "7.*!

'inks

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SurveillanceSurveillance is key to the sovereign normali0ing thee!ception

3ouglas, : (Jeremy, independent schoar, Disappearing Kitienship<sur-eiance and the state of exceptionFhttp<''ibrary!4ueensu!ca'o;s'index!php'sur-eiance%and%society'artice'-ie0'7&6$'77Q*''GE: There has been an attempt the ast fe0 years to con-ince us to accept as the humane and normadimensions of our existence, practices of contro that had a0ays been propery considered inhumane and

exceptiona! Thus, no one is unaware that the control e!ercised by thestate through the usage of electronic devices, such as credit cardsor cell phones, has reached previously unimaginable levels" (Agamben $66&* ;lectronic and biometric surveillance are the tactics

through which the government is creating a space in which the

e!ception is routine practice " The biopolitical implication ofsurveillance is the universali0ation of bare life< History teaches us ho0practices 2rst reser-ed for foreigners 2nd themse-es appied ater to the rest of the citienryF (ibid*! Thesene0 contro measures ha-e created a situation in 0hich not ony is there no cear distinction bet0eenpri-ate and poitica ife, but there is no fundamenta caim, or right, to a poitica ife as such = not e-en forcitiens from birth@ thus, the originary biopoitica act that inscribes ife as poitica from birth is more and

more a potentia depoiticiation and ban from the poitica ream! 6e are all e!posed to thestateless potentiality of a bare life e!cluded from the political realm,but not outside the violence of the law (and therefore sti incuded*<.states, which should constitute the precise space of political life,have made the person the ideal suspect, to the point that it9shumanity itself that has become the dangerous class/ (ibid*! <akingpeople suspects is e(uivalent to making people bare life – it is the

governmental (a 9oucaudian go-ernmentaity rather than an Agambenian so-ereignty + 0oudargue* production of a life e!posed to the pure potentiality of the stateof e!ception< the so-ereign ban, 0hich appies to the exception in noonger appying, corresponds to the structure of potentiaity, 0hich maintainsitsef in reation to actuaity precisey through its abiity not to beF (Agamben"..&, &*! Surveillance is the techni(ue that opens up this

potentiality , which allows for the normali0ation of the e!ception! +nthis particuar instance = i!e! biometric data collection and surveillancein the 4S = the state of e!ception as a permanent form ofgovernmentality and the uni-ersaiation of homines sacri has beenbrought into existence though the 5SA Patriot Act$ and the Patriot Act ++7 !

Surveillance and permanent e!ception make city=camps>the new norms of e!ception allow total control over 4"S"citi0ens3ouglas, : (Jeremy, independent schoar, Disappearing Kitienship<sur-eiance and the state of exceptionF

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http<''ibrary!4ueensu!ca'o;s'index!php'sur-eiance%and%society'artice'-ie0'7&6$'77Q*''GE: This poitics of potentiaity is created through the de facto ?a0s8 of state of exception egisation i3e the $atriot 1ct" 'ooking at actual parts of the 1ct, we can see that ite!empli2es the state of emergency referred to by 1gamben et al"?the ‘normal law of the state is not abolished but its .application is

suspended/ so that it still technically .remains in force/ (Agamben$667, 7"*! 1s such, the suspension of the normal application of thelaw is done .on the basis of its right of self=preservation/ (Schmitt"./Q, "$*, so that the e!ception is that which must produce andguarantee the norm! Ob-iousy then the state of exception is not intended to be anything morethan a temporary safeguarding of norma a0! +n fact, there can be no ?norma8 a0 0ithout the state ofexception< the state of exception ao0s for the foundation and de2nition of the norma ega orderF(Agamben "..., &/*! The use of the state of emergency to protect the normaity of the ega order datesbac3 at east as far as the oman Empire! 1hene-er the Senate beie-ed the state to be in danger, theycoud impement the iustitium, 0hich ao0ed for the consus to ta3e 0hate-er measures they considerednecessary for the sa-ation of the stateF (Agamben $66Q, &"* Roo3ing bac3 at the Judean oman campexampe, the detention of the Je0s coud be seen as enacted during an iustitium 0hen Je0ishrebeiousness 0as endangering the ne0y ac4uired oman pro-idence of Judea! The iustitium, as 0ith

other exampes of the state of exception, is a void in which the .suspension of the

law/ creates a 0one that evades all legal de2nition" Thus, the state ofexception is neither 0ithin nor outside of ;urisprudence = it is .situated in an absolutenon=place with respect to the law/ (ibid, Q6%Q"*! This ‘non=place,however, also has literal geographic implications – the ‘place of thecamp is no longer necessary for creating bare life" )ather, the

mutually operative surveillance and state of e!ception allow for a

city=camp , which maintains control and suspicion over a population

without necessitating borders! :ut, 0e must distinguish = and this is ree-ant for theoman camp exampe = bet0een the functionaity and mechaniation of camps (see abstract*! 9orexampe, the oman camp, prison, border camp, 0or3 camp, etc! a ha-e a diBerent functionaity = fromthe suppression of a rebeion to ide detention = but the mechaniations they empoy to carry out thisfunctionaity are the same % to monitor and maintain contro o-er a gi-en popuation by creating bare ife(the reason the popuation is in a camp in the 2rst pace is surprisingy irree-ant*! Athough the

functionaity of camps may diBer, I want to emphasi0e that the mechani0ationsof power will always employ a structure of surveillance@ this is the in3bet0een ancient and modern camps! Go-ing a0ay from ancient exampes of the state of exception and looking at the current 1merican @udicial=political situation, Agamben8scentra argument in Homo Sacer and State of Exception is that modernpolitics are de2ned by the permanence of a state of e!ception inwhich the e!ception becomes the rule, or the norm! An exampe of thisexception%as%the%rue can be seen in an American $66 KS eport for Kongress on nationa emergencypo0ers< those authorities a-aiabe to the executi-e in time of nationa crisis or exigency ha-e, since thetime of the Rincon Administration, come to be increasingy rooted in statutory a0F (eyea $66, $,

author8s itaics*! +t continues< 4nder the powers delegated by such statutesAconstitutional law, statutory law, and congressional delegationsB,the $resident may seie property, organie and contro the means of

production, seie commodities, assign miitary forces abroad, institute martiaa0, seie and contro a transportation and communication, reguate theoperation of pri-ate enterprise, restrict tra-e, and, in a variety of ways,

control the lives of 4nited States citi0ens ! (ibid, &, author8s itaics*! Thisreport alludes to biopolitical powers for one, but also the ways inwhich the state of emergency is implemented through a -ariety ofstatutes, and not instituted as one bi or act that can be in or out of force enboc! ather, it is becoming more dicut to identify ;uridica documents that pro-ide state of exception

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po0ers that are ceary distinguishabe from ?norma8 a0! The Patriot Act, to be sure, is ceary identi2abefrom ?norma8 5S a0, but The Domestic Security Enhancement Act $667 0as not passed under that name(nor under the aias ?Patriot Act ++8*, but 0as tac3ed on to other Senate :is piecemea! 9or exampe, someenhanced sur-eiance measures 0ere not passed under the Patriot Act, but 0ere passed into 5S Kode %

under tite Q6, chapter 7, subchapter +, "/6$ of the 5S Kode< ot0ithstanding any othera0, the President, through the Attorney >enera, may authorie eectronicsur-eiance 0ithout a court order under this subchapter to ac4uire foreign

inteigence information for periods of up to one yearF! So, ‘snoopingsurveillance tactics will still be part of ‘normal law e-en if the PatriotAct is not rene0ed@ this is 0hat Agamben means 0hen he 0rites of the.permanent state of emergencyF (Agamben $66Q, $*!

Surveillance is necessary for the sovereigns ability tomaintain control and a ‘constant threat> ultimatelyallows for management of life3ouglas, : (Jeremy, independent schoar, Disappearing Kitienship<sur-eiance and the state of exceptionF

http<''ibrary!4ueensu!ca'o;s'index!php'sur-eiance%and%society'artice'-ie0'7&6$'77Q*''GE:1hen 0e mo-e to0ards the ;uridica%poitica situation of the state ofexception, we see another area in which surveillance plays a crucialbiopolitical role! The use of exceptiona ega measures in order to protect the ?norma8 force ofa0 is 0hat de2nes the state of exception! The ?norma8 a0 that is suspended is often that 0hichguarantees the rights and the citienship of foreign and nationa citiens@ thus, under an exceptiona ;uridica situation, indi-iduas 0ith no poitica signi2cance are produced< bare ife! The 5SA Patriot Act

(among other documents embodies this loss of rights, production of barelife, and increased surveillance based on a perceived national threat"

The state of e!ception , 1gamben argues, is becoming more and

more the normal course of politics – this is nowhere more e!emplary

than in the camp" The camp is the place where bare life is producedand the e!ception becomes the rule! Net, the oman camp in Judeasho0s us that the emersion of sur-eiance in a camp%?state of exception8%territory structure is nothing ne0! 1hat is primariy ?modern8 is not biopoitics(9oucaut* or the camp (Agamben*, but the go-ernmenta contro of thedisappearance of citienship! 6ith digital technology, the erasure of ade2nite ‘here or ‘there means that the localised camp is no longera paradigmatic ‘place where the limit of the state of e!ception isrealised? rather, the non=place of a population in constant movementis what de2nes the new non=place of the city camp" Thus,

surveillance is deeply imbedded in and necessary for the

governmental system that seeks to be instantly aware of any

potential threats to the state so that it can (uash those threats by

depolitici0ing ‘dangerous portions of the population and e!posing

them to the pure potentiality of the ‘management of life"

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NS1<inor reforms wont 2! the NS1 or the broken systembehind it> e!ception is the rule and the aD wont solve

'ennard, 5 (atasha, 0riter co-ering ci-i iberties, dissent, andnoneectora poitics, Obama 0eighs SA reform, but our sur-eiancestate is going no0hereFhttp<''000!saon!com'$6"&'6"'6.'obamaI0eighsInsaIreformIbutIourI sur-eianceIstateIisIgoingIno0here'*Anyone in-esting much hope in President Obama reining in ationa Security Agency sur-eiance practicesis not paying enough attention! The ine from the 1hite House feeding excitabe headines about i3eybigF reforms is 0orthy of scrutiny (as, of course, is any ine from the 1hite House*! The president isexpected to hea-iy restrict spying on foreign eaders — an SA practice re-eaed by Ed0ard Sno0den8sea3s that understandaby prompted a dipomatic 2restorm from 5!S! aies, i3e >erman Khanceor AngeaGer3e, 0hose phones 0ere being SA sur-eied! Obama is aso reportedy (and some0hat moresigni2canty for the rest of us* considering restricting the SA8s bu3 hoarding of Americans8 teephonicdata! The atter reform 0as among the boder suggestions made to the president in a report compied ateast year by an ad-isory counse! Six months after Sno0den8s 2rst re-eations about SA dragnet

sur-eiance came to ight, and 0ith the sniB of coming reform in the air, it is crucial toconsider what is at stake in these reform eDorts and where theirlimitations lie" + propose (and ha-e made this point here before* that thereare profound limits to how far greater transparency and oversight of the spy agency will go in reining in our current state of totali0edsurveillance! A -ast corporate%go-ernment sur-eiance nexus is intractabypart of (and gi-es shape to* contemporary ife under ate capitaism@ it 0on8tcrumbe 0ith a handfu of go-ernment reforms! Secondy, reforms to SA practices

0oud be a Pyrrhic -ictory if Espionage Act charges facing Ed0ard Sno0den are not dropped! So longas Snowden continues to face persecution for bringing the e!tent ofNS1 surveillance to light, it is clear that we live in a dangerousnational security state8 Control over truths about governmentactivities that aDect us all remain in the hands of the few and thepowerful" The pantheon of persecuted 5!S! 0histe%bo0ers — Sno0den and Khesea Ganning chiefamong them — shoud stand as a chiing testament to the go-ernment8s 0ar on information, 0hich

proceeds unabated! The status (uo persists8 3issent on the pain of severepunishment" The strongest reform reportedy under consideration by the president (and so the one +0i focus on here* 0oud see the end of the SA8s dragnet coection of 5!S! citiens8 ca data! This is

signi2cant< 1 government that collects communications data without

grounds for suspicion de facto treats every citi0en as a potential

threat ! 5nder proposed reforms, teecom companies, not go-ernment spy agencies, hod on to users8

communications data, but — and this is crucia — in a format that ma3es the data readiy accessibe to theSA! The SA 0oud be abe to access the records ony by obtaining separate court appro-a for eachsearch, though exceptions coud be made in the case of a nationa security emergency! The 2rst point to

note here is that if separate court appro-aF entais something a3in to the furti-e decision%ma3ing of the9oreign +nteigence Sur-eiance Kourt, this is hardy reassuring! Secondy, the e!emption fornational security emergencies is predictable, but leaves the dooropen for continued abuses" +ndeed, its been made abundantly clearin the wake of :E that the supposed state of e!ception enabled by

a national security emergency has been so normali0ed that the

e!ception is the rule" 6e have been told8 Its always already a

national security emergency"

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/19/white_house_advisors_vindicate_snowden/



http://www.salon.com/2013/09/16/e_z_passes_and_living_with_surveillance/


http://www.salon.com/2013/09/16/e_z_passes_and_living_with_surveillance/

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3ata Collection 'ink 1ll agencies will defer to the sovereign in matters of datacollection in the name of .national security/ since the

sovereign will @ust circumvent through declaring apermanent state of e!ception tanking aD solvency#ull 5 (>ordon, Associate Professor in the Department of Phiosophy at5K Kharotte and core facuty in the Pubic Poicy PhD Program, TheSur-eiance State at the +ntersection of :io, Juridica and So-ereign Po0er$6"&, accessed #''"Q, 9U*6hether or not these eDorts will succeed strikes me as an open(uestion, and their scope is certainy imited, since legislatures andadministrative agencies also like to collect data and use it to govern"They are also inclined to defer to the ;!ecutive when words like.national security/ are at stake" Separation%of%po0ers remedies, in other

0ords, can probaby ony go so far! Here +8m more interested in the reationsbet0een 3inds of po0er that underie :a3in8s proposas, and ho0 hecharacteries the ris3 of not doing something! He concudes that unessegisatures and courts can de-ise eBecti-e procedures for inspecting ande-auating secret programs, the Presidency 0i become a a0 unto itsefF ($7%&*! +n other 0ords, the surveillance capacity of the e!ecutive, without @uridical oversight, will end up recreating sovereign power in theprecise sense articulated by Schmitt8 the ability to decide who is andis not sub@ect to the law? by e!empting itself from legislative and @uridical oversight, such an e!ecutive would also be in the de factoposition of creating a permanent state of e!ception in 1gambenssense of the term (Judith :uter suggested that the inde2nite detention

poicies of the :ush administration created such an irruptionF of so-ereignpo0er 0ithin biopo0er*! So despite the fact that the biopoliticalsurveillance state emerged out of relatively anodyne developmentsin the welfare state, it is fully capable of blurring the boundariesbetween itself and old=fashioned sovereignty"

$rivacy )ights$rivacy right schemes fail – security @usti2es e!ceptions,surveillance will continue to be e!tendedFuscher et al" G

(Goni3a :uscher, PhD in Socioogy, Professor at Rancaster 5ni-ersity, Risa1ood, ecturer in Socia Sciences at Rancaster Gedica Schoo, and Sung%NuehPerng, Postdoctora esearcher on the Programmabe Kity pro;ect, 0or3ed inthe Department of Socioogy at Rancaster 5ni-ersity, Pri-acy, Security,Riberty< +nforming the Design of EG+SF, pgs! &%, V1*ecent debates about ?Safeguarding Pri-acy in a connected 0ord8 (EuropeanKommission, $6"$* indicate thatW current privacy protection is Hawed,undermining well=meant eDorts to utilise intelligence to enhanceeciencyJ and security 0ithin European societies! Randmar3 ne0 data

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protection reguations are being dra0n up to ta3eW account of technoogicaad-ances and to address 3ey issues in the processing of persona data,particuaryW conditions of consent, transparency, data access for datasub;ects, rights to recti2cation and erasure, the right toW ob;ect and the rightnot to be sub;ect to pro2ing, obigations of data controers, and e!ceptionsto theJ fundamental right to personal data protection (E5

Kommission, $6"$*!W :uscher et a! Pri-acy, Security, RibertyW Proceedings ofthe "6th +nternationa +SKAG Konference = :aden%:aden, >ermany, Gay$6"7W T! Komes, 9! 9iedrich, S! 9ortier, J! >edermann and R! Nang, eds!W QW +t iscritica for designers of EG+S to address pri-acy management! If regulators,citi0ens or professionals areJ worried about privacy, they will not&allow use of new technologies even if they could enhanceemergencyJ services" $erhaps even more worryingly, technologiesmay be used in ways that e!tend surveillanceJ unnecessarily! 1ith ane-er more extensi-e use of e-er more po0erfu databases, some anaystsargue<W X a ne0 9austian bargain 0as struc3 around "..6! X YIn aB ‘dancewith the digital X Y0hich isZ W ma3ing pubic through databasing 0hat hadbeen pri-ate X many elements of economic and social lifeJ are ‘locked

in to a path dependent pattern, more of a spider8s 0eb than 0eb $!6!(5rry, $66#<$#Q*W 9or 5rry, 0ho considers these matters in the context ofincreasing frictions o-er resource shortages (0ater, soi,W oi, 2nance* andcimate change, societies face a choice between all=encompassingsurveillance and disastrousJ chaos as global futures are ‘poisedbetween an Krwellian or #obbesian future (ibid< $.6*! W Choices aboutthese futures are often implicit, and they are made in everyday lifeand in the declaration of aJ state of e!ceptions! The 0ays in 0hichpeope and organiations appropriate ne0 technoogies, for exampe,W

increasingy cast doubt o-er the -ery concept of spatiay distinct pubic andpri-ate spheres<W the overwhelming concern with the problem of‘erosion of the public sphere or ‘blurring of boundariesJ betweenthe public and the private, failAsB to capture the multiple mobilerelationships between them LJ that involve the comple! and Huidhybridi0ing of public=and=private life" (Sheer [ 5rry, $667* W $eoplemay, for e!ample, engage in private communications in public spaces,ha-e net0or3ed medica de-icesW (such as pacema3ers* impanted into theirbodies, inhabit homes or 0or3space that are open to scrutiny byW others, forexampe, through assisted i-ing technoogies, or media%space technoogies!Sherry Tur3e states<W we live a life that generates its own electronicshadow" Kver time, most people 2nd a way to ignore orJ deny it" Lparticularly for those who have grown up in our new regime ofsurveillance, leaving anJ electronic trace can come to feel so naturalthat the shadow seems to disappear! (Tur3e, $6""*W +n crises, egitimateagencies8 po0ers of persona data coection and processing may beextended, and theW transformation of pubic'pri-ate boundaries pro-ides apo0erfu basis for more agie emergency management!W :ut there is a darkside, and because designers of EG+S ha-e the po0er to foster positi-e as 0eas dangerousW pri-acy practices, they shoud at east be a0are of this, andideay proacti-ey support management of dangers!W Giche Moucault, ahistorian and phiosopher 0ho expored technoogicay augmenteddiscipinary rationaities,W shows how individuals whose private lives

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may be scrutini0ed by authorities are likely to internali0e controlintoJ their very body and soul (9oucaut, ".##*! Moucault makes adistinction between inclusionary and e!clusionaryJ discipline"Inclusionary discipline happened, for e!ample, during the plaguepandemic, when e!ceptionalJ innovation in personal data processingtook place" Morms of census were invented, people were registered

inJ their homes, their name, and their health status were recorded"This allowed the authorities to know aboutJ deaths, to collect andremove the dead and to train people to deal with the disease" In theprocess they createdJ ‘docile bodies, citi0ens that would sub@ectthemselves if not willingly then at least (uietly to surveillance,Jcoercion, and control e!erted by the authorities" This wasinclusionary, because those sub@ect to surveillanceJ stayed insidesociety and became part of the management of the crisis" Thetreatment of leprosy was veryJ diDerent" It implied identi2cation,then separation and e!ile, often permanent e!ile and it is a form ofJe!clusionary discipline that set a precedent highly relevant totodays +KT supported emergency management,J where social sorting,

categorical e!clusion and false positives are becoming issues!W Ki-eorris ($66$* maps Moucaults analysis onto a discussion over whetherdigital surveillance fosters anJ e!clusionary digital disciplinarysociety! He sho0s ho0 powerful ‘ne!t generation +KT are able tocombine,W for exampe, KKTV, facial recognition analytics, automaticnumber plate recognition &1N$) and policingJ databases" If detailsare stored across such landscapes of interoperable data repositoriesfor commerce, transport,J education, administration and crisisresponse, information about deviance can be searched and stored"ItJ becomes possible to e!clude certain groups of people fromcertain spaces and services" $opulations may beJ subtly divertedand denied access to some services in ‘sentient cities (Krang [>raham, $66#*(see aso Adey,W $66. for an account of preempti-esecuritiation and the body*!W Individuals may be sub@ect to surreptitiouscapture of personal data, for e!ample through face recognition andJbehavioural biometrics" Kn the basis of personal data processing,individuals may become ‘false positives, thatJ is, falsely identi2edas a target for action &or inaction" This is a particularly strong riskduring and afterJ emergency situations" Mor e!ample, in theirinvestigations into a thwarted bombing attack shortly after the*++J OEO 'ondon bombings, the police incorrectly identi2ed PeanCharles de <ene0es as #ussain Ksman, one of theJ organisers of theattack" This eventually led to <r de <ene0es being shot dead! <orebroadly, particular groupsJ within society may be discriminatedagainst due to technologically augmented capabilities to carry out‘socialJ sorting, that is, categori0ation based on criteria such asethnicity, age, gender, health status but also more W :uscher et a!Pri-acy, Security, RibertyW Proceedings of the "6th +nternationa +SKAGKonference = :aden%:aden, >ermany, Gay $6"7W T! Komes, 9! 9iedrich, S!9ortier, J! >edermann and R! Nang, eds!W W Mexibe ?mar3ers8 across diBerentdata sets! 9or exampe, in $66. in the 5), ?protester8 mar3ers 0ereW

accumuated and connected to -ehices and their o0ners 0hich 0ere then

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entered into nationa automaticW number pate recognition (AP* transportmonitoring systems, 0hich ed to peacefu protesters being searchedW andobstructed! This also constitutes an instance of ‘function creep, thatis, the reuse of data collected for oneJ purpose for another,unrelated purpose"W 1ctuarial analytics are a driver for functioncreep" They utilise statistics to measure and anticipate risks" SuchJ

analytics underpin strategies to locate, sort and manage diverserisks, and originates from the insurance sector!W +KT supported dataprocessing and data mining possibiities ha-e introduced actuaria techni4uesto poicingW (9eeey and Simon, "..&*, 0here they ha-e ?become at east asimportant as reacti-e pena measures8 (Uedner,W $66#< $Q*! 1ctuarialanalysis is problematic, because it allows social sorting andcategorical e!clusion,J ‘eschews corrective aspirations, takes crimeand deviance for granted, and seeks technical means and measuresJto manage the threat they represent (Nar, $667< $Q*! In emergencyresponse, similar ethical dilemmas mayJ arise as austerity andincreased occurrence of crises stretch response capacity! Soo-e($66&* argues that in theW ight of such po0erfu data processing techni4ues,traditiona metaphors of sur-eiance (such as :ig :rother*W coud usefuy beextended through consideration of )af3a8s no-e The Tria ()af3a, $666*! Theboo3W chronices the excusion, hepessness and frustration indi-iduas canface in reation to disembodied,W dissociated, actuaria use of persona data,0hen they reaie 0idespread on%going pro2ing of their i-es, doneW 0ithuncear accountabiity and itte contro on their part o-er the gathering,processing and storing of data!W The ne0 temporaity of pri-acy can triggerfurther tensions! 1hat one says and ho0 one acts coud ha-e farreachingW

conse4uences 0hen the ephemeraity of speech and actions is destroyed!1hie the defaut thin3ingW 0hen designing +KT for emergency management isto 3eep records as detaied and as asting as possibe, thisW thin3ingcompicates embodied contro of persona information and pri-acymanagement (:annon, $66@ DodgeW [ )itchin, $66#*! 9urthermore, theunforgetting accumulation of data can allow retrospective scrutinyofJ decisions and actions by emergency response professionals ande!perts" The verdict in the l1(uila trial in *+*,J where si!scientists and an ocial of Italys Civil $rotection 1gency wereconvicted of manslaughter forJ providing false reassurances to thepublic regarding the earth(uake, is an e!treme e!ample of how theability ofJ tracking who said what when may aDect theaccountability of emergency responders!W

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TerrorismSecuriti0ation for the war on terror leads to thesuspension of basic rights, and a permanent state of

e!ception, which blurs the line between military andcivilian and suspends basic human rights such as privacyFuscher et al" G(Goni3a :uscher, PhD in Socioogy, Professor at Rancaster 5ni-ersity, Risa1ood, ecturer in Socia Sciences at Rancaster Gedica Schoo, and Sung%NuehPerng, Postdoctora esearcher on the Programmabe Kity pro;ect, 0or3ed inthe Department of Socioogy at Rancaster 5ni-ersity, Pri-acy, Security,Riberty< +nforming the Design of EG+SF, pgs! %#, V1*1idening our perspecti-e yet further, for societies the collection andprocessing of personal data may becomeJ problematic, becausebasic rights, such as freedoms of speech and movement can be

eroded" ContemporaryJ constructions of risk and danger, especiallysince the start of the ‘war on terror after :E, may be leadingJsocieties into a permanent state of emergencyEe!ception! 1 potentdriver is the transformation of fear, which,W according to socioogist9ran3 9uredi< is no longer simply an emotion, or a response to theperception of threat"J It has become a cultural idiom L" $opularculture continually encourages an e!pansive alarmist imagination!W

(9uredi, $66*! Mrightened societies have begun to accept, or even callfor, a far=reaching securiti0ation, evenJ ‘militari0ation of everydaylife (>raham, $6"6*, that is, an embedding of securityEmilitaryperspectives andJ technologies into of everyday spaces andeveryday lives, e!g! through a%surround KKTV or the use of bastW proof

concrete in buidings! EG+S, too, are incorporating miitary inspiredtechnoogies, such as incidentW command system (+KS* structures and >PS!<ilitary metaphors and technologies can deeply aDect the way inJwhich emergency management is done8 The centrali0ation ofemergency response under the 3epartment ofJ #omeland Securityin the 4S after :E, for e!ample, played a signi2cant part in thefailure of humanitarianJ response to Qatrina (:ir3and, $66.@ see aso Tierney, $66*! The embedding of military technologies intoJ everydaylife and ICT has a long history, from the Internet to R$S! #owever,recent years have seen anJ acceleration, as technology companiesbound up with the military sell to civilian and public authority users,andJ create new products that are no longer purely military or

purely civilian (1ood, :a, Ryon, orris, [ aab, W $66*! Pressures ofshrin3ing miitary budgets no doubt fue some of this doubing, or re%orientation!W 1 militari0ation of emergency response and everydayculture contributes to what Riorgio 1gamben describes asJ a spreadof e!ceptions, often declared to protect national security (Agamben,$66Q*, where fundamental humanJ rights to privacy can besuspended" Agamben8s argument is compex and it is beyond the scope ofthis paper toW expore it in detai, but readers may 2nd eaboration in(Scheuerman, $66*! Gost importanty, the extension of W exceptions indexes

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corrosi-e trends, and these can be exacerbated by increasing interoperabiitybet0eenW information systems, EG+S and supporti-e architectures thatconnect them, e!g! into smart city databases, inW exceptiona circumstances!European history is mar3ed by the de-astating experience of two worldwars, and theJ holocaust, 0hich was facilitated by anunprecedentedly eDective process of collecting, sharing and

processingJ personal data through an ecient bureaucraticapparatus and a popular culture of surveillance (Arendt, $66&@ W

:auman, "./.*! Totalitarian rule was estabished in no sma part throughthe evocation of a series of e!tra=legalJ ‘states of e!ception, whichsuspended critical laws, including rights to data protection, becauseit was assumedJ that ‘the rule of law may prevent a polity fromdefending itself in the event of a serious political crisisW (Scheppee,$667< "6"6*! This European experience demonstrated that an e!tensivesuspension of fundamental W :uscher et a! Pri-acy, Security, RibertyW

Proceedings of the "6th +nternationa +SKAG Konference = :aden%:aden,>ermany, Gay $6"7W T! Komes, 9! 9iedrich, S! 9ortier, J! >edermann and R! Nang, eds!W #W human rights and a softening of separations between

diDerent data controllers may have severe conse(uencesJ forsocieties! These experiences sti coour much of the poitica response to the?0ar on terror8<W Xmuch of the international community L has turnedaway from these e!tra=legal @usti2cations for statesJ of e!ception! XKnly the 4nited States, with its eighteenth century constitution andCold 6ar legacy ofJ e!ceptionalism, seems to be soldiering on in thisnew legal space of conHict (Scheppee $667< "6/$* W :ut 5S phiosophies of extra%ega exceptionaism, 0here the po0er to de2ne exceptions isconcentrated in theW hands of indi-idua ruers, are inMuencing changes0ord0ide that inform the design of information systemsW 0ith permeabeboundaries, persistent storage, po0erfu anaytic and -isuaiing capacities,incuding the designW of EG+S, smart city systems and supportingarchitectures! A 3ey issue is the remo-a of boundaries that separateW criminain-estigations from nationa security in-estigations! 9or exampe, in the 5)cas for ?smart city8W con-ergence bet0een Transport for Rondon and poicesystems, and the extension of the AP system8s useW from congestioncharging to poicing reated to nationa security as 0e as in-estigations forgenera criminaW poicing$ echo contro-ersies around the 5S Patriot Act,aimed at ?5niting and Strengthening America byW Pro-iding Appropriate Toose4uired to +ntercept and Obstruct Terrorism8! The Act 0as passed in $66",and itW enabes extensi-e processing of persona data, incuding records ofcommercia transactions and PassengerW ame ecords coected in thirdcountries, such as European member states (1hitta3er, $6""*!W This is, inpart, allowed to happen, because citi0ens do not ‘feel the intrusioninto their privacy, because preemptiveJ measures are oftenlocalised, unplanned, enabled by invisible infrastructure andpowered byJ interoperability between systems! Renuine andimagined threats and austerity economic pressures on theJprovision of emergency services seem to re(uire the ma!imi0ation of data sharing" The intrusion is creeping,J disembodied, invisible andpassive, and rationali0ed by militarised discourses of everydaysafety issues" KurJ summary of some key dangers of this

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perspective on personal data usage suggests that it has thepotential toJ erode democratic citi0enship and civil liberties"

The aD @usti2es the state of e!ception with terrorismAgamben 01 (Giorgio, "On Security and Terror." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 20, 2001,

Translated by Soenke Zehle, http<''000!egs!edu'facuty'giorgio%agamben'artices'on%security%and%terror', $6"Q%#% , !S#

Security as leading principle of state politics dates back to the the birth of the modern state. $obbesalready mentions it as the opposite o% %ear, &hich compels human beings to come together &ithin a society.'ut not until the 1(th century does a thought o% security come into its o&n. )n a 1*+( lecture at the oll-gede rance /&hich has yet to be published# ichel oucault has sho&n ho& the political and economicpractice o% the hysiocrats opposes security to discipline and the la& as instruments o% goernance.Turgot and 3uesnay as &ell as hysiocratic o%%icials &ere not primarily concerned &ith the preention o%hunger or the regulation o% production, but &anted to allo& %or their deelopment to then regulate and"secure" their conse4uences. 5hile disciplinary po&er isolates and closes o%% territories, measures o%security lead to an opening and to globali6ation7 &hile the la& &ants to preent and regulate, securityinterenes in ongoing processes to direct them.)n short, discipline wants to produce order, securitywants to regulate disorder . Since measures o% security can only %unction &ithin a conte8t o% %reedom o%tra%%ic, trade, and indiidual initiatie, oucault can sho& that the deelopment o% security accompanies theideas o% liberalism.Today we face extreme and most dangerous developments in the thought of security )n the course o%a gradual neutrali6ation o% politics and the progressie surrender o% traditional tasks o% the state, securitybecomes the basic principle of state activity. !hat used to be one among several definitivemeasures of public administration until the first half of the twentieth century, now becomes the solecriterium of political legitimation The thought of security bears within it an essential risk A statewhich has security as its sole task and source of legitimacy is a fragile organism" it can always beprovoked by terrorism to become itself terroristic5e should not %orget that the %irst ma9or organi6ation o% terror a%ter the &ar, the Organisation de l:;rm-eSecr<te /O;S#, &as established by a rench general, &ho thought o% himsel% as a patriot, coninced thatterrorism &as the only ans&er to the guerrilla phenomenon in ;lgeria and )ndochina. 5hen politics, the &ayit &as understood by theorists o% the "science o% police" in the eighteenth century, reduces itsel% to police,the difference between state and terrorism threatens to disappears #n the end security and terrorism

may form a single deadly system, in which they $ustify and legitimate each othetrs actionsThe risk is not merely the deelopment o% a clandestine complicity o% opponents, but that the search forsecurity leads to a world civil war which makes all civil coexistence impossible )n the ne& situationcreated by the end o% the classical %orm o% &ar bet&een soereign states it becomes clear that security %indsits end in globali6ation= it implies the idea o% a ne& planetary order &hich is in truth the &orst o% all disorders.'ut there is another danger %ecause they re&uire constant reference to a state of exception, measureof security work towards a growing depolitici'ation of society #n the long run they are irreconcilablewith democracy>othing is more important than a reision o% the concept o% security as basic principle o% state politics.?uropean and ;merican politicians %inally hae to consider the catastrophic conse4uences o% uncriticalgeneral use o% this %igure o% though. )t is not that democracies should cease to de%end themseles= butmaybe the time has come to &ork to&ards the preention o% disorder and catastrophe, not merely to&ardstheir control. On the contrary, &e can say that politics secretly &orks to&ards the production o% emergencies#t is the task of democratic politics to prevent the development of conditions which lead to hatred,terror, and destruction and not to limits itself to attempts to control them once they have already

occurred.

The 6ar on Terror is a global civil war – the biopolitics ofthe state of e!ception allow for the suspension of any andevery law in the name of securityIftode ,Phiosopher of the 5ni-ersity of :ucharest, *+*

http://www.egs.edu/faculty/giorgio-agamben/articles/on-security-and-terror/








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(Pubic eason, Phiosophy, Terror, and :iopoiticsF, #'7'"Q, KN*Ha-ing in mind these critica remar3s about the modern indi-idua and thecontemporary society, ho0 0e are to approach the 0orrisome gro0th ofreigious fundamentaist mo-ements and terrorist groups o-er the astdecadesL On the one hand, it is ob-ious that these mo-ements are trying topresent their -ioent deeds as being desperate reactions not ony togobaiation, but aso to the 1estern ac3 of spirituaity and e-eingconsumerist cuture! Fut if we were to look any closer, we could see, assuggested by #abermas, that what we are dealing with are actually.violent reactions against the modern way of understanding andpracticing religion/ in a pluralist society (:orradori $667, "/*!$ On theother hand and maybe on an e-en deeper e-e, 0hat 0e are confronted 0ithis again not ony a -ioent resistance to the eBect of totaiation orgobaiation, but aso to the eBect of indi-iduaiation in modern societies!1hat coud 2nay force a young Gusim i-ing in a 1estern country intoembracing the horrifying ends of an A \aeda group, if not the sense ofbeonging to a community of faith and destiny, to a spiritua tradition thatpro-ides a higher purpose in ife (and death* than the mere indi-iduabioogica existenceL +n an insightfu artice, S! ]i^e3 ($66Q* reminds us 1!:! Neats8s -erses< the best ac3 a con-iction, 0hie the 0orst ' are fu ofpassionate intensity (The Second Koming, ".$6*F! And then he as3s us< +sthis opposition not a good description of today8s spit bet0een toerant butanemic iberas, and the fundamentaists fu of ?passionate intensity8LF! Ofcourse there is nothing romantic or nobe about terrorist acti-ities, no matterof their nationaist or reigious ;usti2cations! As Habermas puts it, from amora point of -ie0, there is no excuse for terrorist acts, regardess of themoti-e or the situation under 0hich they are carried out (!!!* Each murder isone too manyF (:orradori $667, 7&*! Gore than that, 0e coud argue that aterrorist8s reationship to the sef is not the resut of a process of ethicasub;ecti-ation shaped in a traditiona communa frame0or3, but rather theeBect of a successfu brain0ashing by his eaders, 0ho 0i unscrupuousyuse him and e-entuay sacri2ce him for their cynica and pragmaticpurposes! And e-en if our young Gusim terrorist 0ere to sustain that hisaiation to A \aeda is the resut of an autonomous decision, 0e coudargue, foo0ing a Habermasian argument, that a system of po0er reationsthat doesn8t recognie the e4uaity of partners and in 0hich you are notao0ed to freey express your -ie0s and doubts on -arious sub;ects,incuding the ones ha-ing to do 0ith reigious faith, cannot constitute agenuine diaogica community! :ut $Z As Peterson remar3s, 0hat seems to ;ustify, in the +samists8 minds, a ca to arms that suspends the demands ofmoraity 0hen it sanctions the 3iing of non%combatantsF is not ony the fact

that they consider the 1estern poicies to be immora,F but aso that theyconsider them to be an attac3 on the idea of a theoogicay concei-edcommunity,F 0hich is essentia to a reigious fundamentaism ($66#, .*!Kristian +ftode the fact remains that the modern 1estern indi-idua and themodern terrorist are in a 0ay in3ed together as products of the samebiopoitica net0or3! ++! The idea of reshaping 9oucaut8s concept of biopoiticsby forging a theory of po0er that re-eas the hidden point of intersectionbet0een the ;uridico%institutiona and the biopoitica modes of po0erF isarguaby the most chaenging part of >! Agamben8s inteectua pro;ect (see

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Agamben "../, *! +n this famous boo3, entited #omo sacer, the Italianthinker holds that .the inclusion of bare life in the political realmconstitutes the original if concealed nucleus of sovereign power"It can even be said that the production of a biopolitical body is theoriginal activity of sovereign power" In this sense, biopolitics is atleast as old as the sovereign e!ception" $lacing biological life at the

center of its calculations, the modern State therefore does nothingother than bring to light the secret tie uniting power and bare life/" +n a foo0%up of this boo3, Agamben ($66Q* de-eops further impications ofhis concept of homo sacer (bare ifeF* in the context of contemporarybiopolitics by analy0ing the state of e!ception established in theaftermath of :E" #is criti(ue aims at the very heart of 6esterndemocracies, arguing that, .faced with the unstoppable progressionof what has been called a ‘global civil war, the state of e!ceptiontends increasingly to appear as the dominant paradigm ofgovernment in contemporary politics/ &*++, *" 'iving in a .state of e!ception/ means living .on a threshold of indeterminacy betweendemocracy and absolutism/, situation that would have been made

obvious by the political decisions of Fush administration followingthe :E terrorist attacks8 The immediately biopolitical signi2canceof the state of e!ception as the original structure in which lawencompasses living beings by means of its own suspension emergesclearly in the ‘military order issued by the president of the 4nitedStates on November G, *++, which authori0ed the ‘inde2nitedetention and trial by ‘military commissions &not to be confusedwith the military tribunals provided for by the law of war ofnonciti0ens suspected of involvement in terrorist activities A"""B 6hatis new about $resident Fushs order is that it radically erases anylegal status of the individual, thus producing a legally unnamableand unclassi2able being Y!!!Z The ony thing to 0hich it coud possiby becompared is the ega situation of the Je0s in the ai Rager YcampsZ, 0ho,aong 0ith their citienship, had ost e-ery ega identity, but at east retainedtheir identity as Je0s! As Judith :uter has eBecti-ey sho0n, in the detaineeat >uant`namo, bare life reaches its ma!imum indeterminacy" &*++,G5G If the policies of 4"S" and its allies against terrorism seem toinspire further developing of 1gambens radical criti(ue ofcontemporary institutions and biopolitics, following the footsteps ofMoucault, 1rendt and Schmitt, it has to be said that the failure of6estern political regimes to prevent the escalation of Islamistterrorism, as well as the growth in religious fundamentalismnoticeable in many parts of the world, represent phenomena thatare seriously putting to the test the whole theory of .communicativeaction/ developed by the renowned philosopher P" #abermas duringhis entire career! The diemma 0oud be the foo0ing< based onHabermas8s uni-ersaist theory of communicati-e action, how are we toproceed when dealing with e!ponents of a culture that doesntbelieve in the value of rational dialogue and tends to consider anydiscussion with an unfaithful, at least on religious themes, rather asan evil temptation to be repressed than as a mean to reach somekind of agreement or mutual understandingL +t coud be argued that

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situations of this 3ind sho0 the inherent imitations of Habermas8s approach!1ithout going any further 0ith this genera criticism, + sha ony mention oneimportant critica point Habermas is ma3ing 0ith respect to 5!S! poicy onterrorism after .'"", 0hen he considers Fushs decision to call for a ‘waragainst terrorism a serious mistake, both normati-ey and pragmaticay!ormati-ey, he is ee-ating these criminas to the status of 0ar enemies@ and

pragmaticay, one cannot ead a 0ar against a ?net0or38 if the term ?0ar8 isto retain any de2nite meaningF (:orradori $667, 7&%7Q*! Thus, we canevaluate, from a very diDerent perspective than the one supportedby 1gamben, the negative implications and pitfalls of the ‘global waron terrorism"

Terrorism has allowed the sovereign to declare a constantstate of e!ception – The terrorist and state becoming one1gamben, +taian continenta phiosopher, + (>iorgio Agamben, .%$6%$66", >iorgio Agamben, The European >raduate Schoo,

http<''000!egs!edu'facuty'giorgio%agamben'artices'on%security%and%terror' '')*Security as eading principe of state poitics dates bac3 to the the birth of themodern state! Hobbes aready mentions it as the opposite of fear, 0hich compes humanbeings to come together 0ithin a society! :ut not unti the "/th century does a thought ofsecurity come into its o0n! +n a ".#/ ecture at the Koge de 9rance (0hich has yet to be pubished* Giche 9oucaut has sho0n ho0 the poitica and economic practice of thePhysiocrats opposes security to discipine and the a0 as instruments ofgo-ernance! Turgot and \uesnay as 0e as $hysiocratic ocials were notprimarily concerned with the prevention of hunger or the regulationof production, but wanted to allow for their development to thenregulate and 7secure7 their conse(uences! 1hie discipinary po0erisoates and coses oB territories, measures of security ead to an openingand to gobaiation@ 0hie the a0 0ants to pre-ent and reguate, securityinter-enes in ongoing processes to direct them!+n short, discipine 0ants toproduce order, security 0ants to reguate disorder! Since measures of securitycan ony function 0ithin a context of freedom of trac, trade, and indi-iduainitiati-e, 9oucaut can sho0 that the de-eopment of security accompaniesthe ideas of iberaism! Today 0e face extreme and most dangerousde-eopments in the thought of security! +n the course of a graduaneutraiation of poitics and the progressi-e surrender of traditiona tas3s ofthe state, security becomes the basic principe of state acti-ity! 1hat used tobe one among se-era de2niti-e measures of pubic administration unti the2rst haf of the t0entieth century, no0 becomes the soe criterium of poiticaegitimation! The thought of security bears 0ithin it an essentia ris3" 1 statewhich has security as its sole task and source of legitimacy is afragile organism? it can always be provoked by terrorism to becomeitself terroristic! 1e shoud not forget that the 2rst ma@or organi0ationof terror after the war, the Krganisation de l1rmUe SecrVte &K1S,was established by a Mrench general , 0ho thought of himsef as a patriot,con-inced that terrorism 0as the ony ans0er to the guerria phenomenon inAgeria and +ndochina! 6hen politics, the way it was understood bytheorists of the 7science of police7 in the eighteenthe century,





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reduces itself to police, the diDerence between state and terrorismthreatens to disappears ! +n the end security and terrorism may form asinge deady system, in 0hich they ;ustify and egitimate each othetrsactions! The ris3 is not merey the de-eopment of a candestine compicity of opponents, but that thesearch for security eads to a 0ord ci-i 0ar 0hich ma3es a ci-i coexistenceimpossibe! +n the ne0 situation created by the end of the cassica form of

0ar bet0een so-ereign states it becomes cear that security 2nds its end ingobaiation< it impies the idea of a ne0 panetary order 0hich is in truth the0orst of a disorders! :ut there is another danger! :ecause they re4uire constantreference to a state of exception, measure of security work towards agrowing depolitici0ation of society" In the long run they areirreconcilable with democracy" othing is more important than a re-isionof the concept of security as basic principe of state poitics! European and Americanpoiticians 2nay ha-e to consider the catastrophic conse4uences of uncritica genera use of this 2gure of

though! +t is not that democracies shoud cease to defend themse-es< but maybe the time hascome to 0or3 to0ards the pre-ention of disorder and catastrophe, not mereyto0ards their contro! On the contrary, 0e can say that politics secretlyworks towards the production of emergencies! +t is the tas3 of

democratic poitics to pre-ent the de-eopment of conditions 0hich ead tohatred, terror, and destruction and not to imits itsef to attempts to controthem once they ha-e aready occurred!

The global .war on terror/ is a farce – terror is alwaysinternal, and the aDs discourse conceals the war the6est is having with itself – terrorism always has anindeterminate prior aggression, the aD @ust participates inthe continued cycleIftode ,Phiosopher of the 5ni-ersity of :ucharest, *+*

YPubic eason, Phiosophy, Terror, and :iopoiticsF, #'Q'"Q, KNZ+V! +n J! Derrida8s -ie0, the most urgent and necessary action in theaftermaths of .'"" 0oud be the deconstruction of the notion of terrorism,because the pubic use of it, as if it 0ere a sef%e-ident notion, per-erseyheps the terrorist cause! Such deconstruction consists Y!!!Z in sho0ing thatthe sets of distinctions 0ithin 0hich 0e understand the meaning of the termterrorism are probem%ridden!F (:orradori $667, +++* 9or this purpose, in theinter-ie0 gi-en to >! :orradori ony a fe0 0ee3s after the tragic e-ent of.'"", J! Derrida formuates a number of 4uestions destined to sha3e ourcommon understanding of the concept of terrorism! +n 0hat foo0s, + shaony enumerate some of these 4uestions, 0ithout going into further detais, inorder to focus, in the 2na part of this paper, on 0hat + consider to be the

most chaenging thesis Derrida is supporting, a thesis that 0i aso ao0 usto see 0hat utimatey diBerentiates Derrida8s and Habermas8s approaches of pubic sphere, goba ;ustice and modern democracy! 9irst of a, 3errida isasking if we can really de2ne .terror/ in a way that .distinguishes itfrom fear, an!iety, and panic"/ This (uestion proves to be e!tremelyimportant when trying to distinguish .a terror that is organi0ed,provoked, and instrumentali0ed,/ from a fear that the entiretradition in political thinking embracing the @uridico=institutionalmodel of power, from Hobbes to Schmitt and e-en to :en;amin, hods to

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be the -ery condition of the authority of a0 and of the so-ereign exercise ofpo0er, the -ery condition of the poitica and of the stateF (:orradori $667,"6$*! And if it is of course true that not e-ery experience of terror isnecessariy the eBect of some terrorismF ("67*, isn8t it e4uay true that therehas ne-er been a 0ar that didn8t entai the intimidation of ci-iians, and thuseements of terrorismF (+++*L Gore than that, ha-ing in mind the fact that

the poitica history of the 0ord ?terrorism8 is deri-ed in arge part from areference to the eign of Terror during the 9rench e-oution, a terror that0as carried out in the name of the state and that in fact presupposed a egamonopoy on -ioence,F how are we to deal with the notion of .stateterrorism/W 1nd this is of vital importance, since .every terrorist inthe world claims to be responding in self=defense to a prior terrorismon the part of the state/ &+G, in this case, the alleged terrorism onthe part of 4"S" and its allies" Kr how can we decide whether weshould speak of a .national/ or an .international/ terrorism .in thecases of 1lgeria, Northern Ireland, Corsica, Israel, or $alestine/&+5 W 1re we allowed to forget the fact that .terrorists might bepraised as freedom 2ghters in one conte!t &for e!ample, in the

struggle against the Soviet occupation of 1fghanistan anddenounced as terrorists in another &and, these days, its often thevery same 2ghters, using the very same weapons/W +t is true that 0eusuay understand terrorist actions as being direct attac3s on ci-iians ordirect threats posed to the i-es of the innocents! :ut ho0 con2dent are 0ethat indiBerence and nonactions such as etting die,F or not 0anting to3no0 that one is etting others dieF (the hundreds of miions of humanbeingsF dying from hunger, A+DS, ac3 of medica treatment, and so onF indisad-antaged regions of the 0ord* shoud not be considered, from a moraand poitica point of -ie0, as part of a ?more or ess8 conscious anddeiberate terrorist strategyLF ("6/*, as3s Derrida! + sha 4uote ony one more4uestion the 9rench thin3er chaenges us to ans0er< 1hat 0oud ?September""8 ha-e been 0ithout tee-isionL Y!!!Z YTBhe real ‘terror consisted of and,in fact, began by e!posing and e!ploiting, having e!posed ande!ploited, the image of this terror by the target itself! Y!!!Z This is againthe same autoimmunitary per-ersion! ("6/.* :y this ast statement 0e aretouching 0hat is arguaby the most pro-ocati-e thesis in Derrida8sargumentation! The Mrench philosopher is claiming that :E was infact only the latest manifestation, at that time, of a crisis ofautoimmuni0ation characteri0ing the very functioning or the very lifeof our modern neo=liberal democracies" This statement should beunderstood both on a symbolic level and on a very realistic one, ifwe take into account, on the one hand, the (uestions raised after:E about the incapacity of the most advanced Intelligence servicesin the world to foresee and prevent the attacks and, on the otherhand, the fact that the suicide terrorists that hi@acked the planeshad been trained in the States during the Cold 6ar" As 0e 3no0, anautoimmunitary process is that strange beha-ior 0here a i-ing being, in4uasi%suicida fashion, ?itsef8 0or3s to destroy its o0n protection, toimmunie itsef against its ?o0n8 immunityF (:orradori $667, .&*! Derrida hadaready used the coupe immunity'autoimmuniation borro0ed from bioogy0hen referring to the 4uestion of reigion and its compicate reation to

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science ("../*! Invoking it in order to e!plain what made possible‘September th, even without an e!plicit reference to Moucaultsconcept of biopolitics, seems to support the hypothesis that modernterrorism is, in many respects, an eDect of the biopolitical matri!, areaction somehow coming from inside the network of powerrelations that structure the 6estern world" .1 hypothesis8 since we

are speaking here of terrorism and, thus, of terror, the mostirreducible source of absolute terror, the one that, by de2nition,2nds itself most defenseless before the worst threat would be theone that comes from ‘within, from this 0one where the worst‘outside lives with or within ‘me" Y!!!Z Terror is always, or alwaysbecomes, at least in part, ‘interior" 1nd terrorism always hassomething ‘domestic, if not national, about it" The 0orst, mosteBecti-e ?terrorism8, e-en if it seems externa and ?internationa8, is the onethat instas or recas an interior threat, at home and recalls that theenemy is also always lodged on the inside of the system it violatesand terrori0es"/ (:orradori $667, "// n! #* 9rom this perspecti-e, Derridacan argue that by decaring a ?6ar on Terror, the 6estern coalition is in

a way at war with itself"

#egemonic discourses surrounding the war on terrormorali0e a permanent state of e!ception that will soonbecome global, e!acerbating colonialism and ine(ualityand causing global civil warFhat 5(Gudasir Ataf, esearch Schoar at Pun;abi 5ni-ersity, Patiaa, Asian Journaof Gutidiscipinary Studies, Kounter%Hegemonic Discourse in The 1astedVigiF, http<''a;ms!co!in'sites'a;ms'index!php'a;ms'artice'-ie0'&Q", Accessed<

#!Q!"Q, V1* The 1asted Vigi is a tae of 0ar tornW Afghanistan, tracing its poitica historyfrom theW So-iet in-asion to September "" attac3s! +t exposesW the actions ofthe poitica po0ers that ha-e beenW se2shy pursuing their o0n interests inW

Afghanistan for the past thirty years! It is challengeJ to the post=:Ehegemonic discourses" The so-iets, W the Americans, the Taiban and otheroca 0arW ords are ashed e4uay for de-astating and ruiningW Afghanistan!So the $akistani=born author sparesJ neither side while empathi0ingwith the innocentJ victims who continually bear the brunt of theJ

ceaseless 2ghting" J The no-e sho0s Afghanistan in the stateW of ci-i 0ar!In the hegemonic discourses that serve J as the packages ofconsciousness, this ongoing civil J war has been read as the result of

the country‘s J inability to govern itself ! This paper intendsW exporing ho0 The 1asted Vigi ($66.* forms aW counter%discourse by chaenging suchstereotypingW through its insistence on representing ci-i 0ar inW Afghanistanaongside of coonia in-asion andW occupation! Asam is of the -ie0 thatAfghanistanW today is not haunted by Taiban and A%\aedaW sponsoredterrorism ony, but there are mutipeW forces at 0or3 that ha-e resuted in thedestructionW and de-astation of this country! The no-e actuay W iustratesthat instead of ci-i 0ars 0e are no0 inW the ream of 0hat Hardt and egri

http://ajms.co.in/sites/ajms/index.php/ajms/article/view/451

http://ajms.co.in/sites/ajms/index.php/ajms/article/view/451

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ha-e termed asW goba ci-i 0ars (&*, 0here no one appears to beW

accountabe for the cuture of -ioence that theseW ci-i 0ars breed! It hasbecome the eDect of power J and authority that is denationali0ed,that is not J 2!ed to one place or area, but a normali0ed J permanentXstate of e!ceptionY" The impossibilityJ of civil wars in a colonial orpostcolonial nation is J greatly stressed" 3rawing on 1gamben‘s

theories J of both biopolitics and Zstates of e!ception‘, it shall J beargued that the te!t oDers to understand theJ Z6ar on Terror‘ as aversion of Zglobal civil war‘ J that serves to normali0e and legitimi0ethe J transformation of constitutional democracy into a J permanentbut unacknowledged Xstate of J e!ceptionY" J The 1asted Vigi exporesthe gobaW processes of 0ar, historica and poitica traumaW 0ith yricism andprofound compassion! +t narratesW the interin3ed stories of a cast ofgeographicayW diBerent characters that are a dra0n, for diBerentW reasons,to the isoated house in the countrysideW near Jaaabad! The house is o0nedby EngishbornW Garcus Kad0e, 0ho after marrying a iberaW Afghani doctor\atrina, started i-ing as aW permanent resident of Afghanistan! His house istheW meeting site of four other characters< Rara, aW ussian 0oman in search of her brother, :enedi3t,W 0ho 0ent missing during his miitary ser-ice inW So-ietAfghanistan@ Da-id, a former K+A AmericanW spy and o-er of Garcus?deceased daughter,W Uameen! There is Kasa, a Gusim fanatic, 0ho isW

radicaied in Taiban sadistic training camps toW 2ght a things American! There he fas in o-eW 0ith the beautifu Afghan gir Dunia, 0ho is iberaW

minded and a de-oted schoo teacher! A theseW characters maintain de-oted,sometimes futie,W -igis for ong missing famiy members and o-edW ones! :utthe -igi or the hope of 2nding e-eryW missing character resuts in despairbecauseW utimatey e-ery reationship is destroyed by death!W Each has a4uest, and each is essentiay th0artedW — by circumstances and history! Thestory mo-esW Muidy bet0een the present, 0here these charactersW a i-enearby and yet are 0ords apart, and theW past 0hen they oo3 bac3 andreMect on theirW ;ourneys that brought each of them there!W Asam?s cast ofecectic charactersW represents most of the factions in-o-ed inW Afghanistan?song running ci-i 0ar, in 0hichW oca 0arords, the So-iet in-asion, TaibanW

insurgents and a 1estern aiance 0aging its socaedW 1ar on Terror a paytheir part! They aW are representati-es of goba conMicts and reations,W

demonstrating the oBences and misunderstandings@W both historica andcontemporaneous that resuted W Kounter%Hegemonic Discourse in the 1astedVigiW Asian Journa of Gutidiscipinary Studies, $(#* Juy, $6"& "6&W in thede-astation of Afghanistan! Through GarcusW 0e are abe to expore the:ritish coonia presenceW in the region in the ate nineteenth century@throughW Rara it is the decade of ussian occupation andW through Da-id 0eare abe to recei-e informationW about the sub-ersi-e American presence inW

Afghanistan through the decade of So-ietW occupation! Ri3e0ise Kasa standsfor the TaibanW rue that annihiated Afghanistan from ".. toW $66"!W Asamportrays Afghanistan as aW andscape that is part physica and part spectra!W

The 2rst image of the unusua ceiing to 0hichW hundreds of boo3s ha-e beenfastened 0ith ironW nais becomes a metaphor for Afghanistan and itsW

disruption! The image is described as A spi3eW dri-en through the pages ofhistory, a spi3e throughW the pages of o-e, a spi3e through the sacred (Q*!W

These boo3s are naied to the ceiing by Garcus?sW traumatied 0ife \atrina in

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a craed eBort toW preser-e these from Taiban raids! The secondW image is ofthe painted 0as depicting scenes of W o-ers either in an embrace ortra-eing to0ardsW each other through forest and meado0 ("$%"7*!W Theseimages of the romantic o-e are terribyW damaged by buets, demonstratingthe -ioenceW inMicted by Taiban and other externa forcesW 0ithin the bordersof Afghanistan! Rara furtherW reinforces the atrocities inMicted o-er centuries

onW this and<W This country 0as one of theW greatest tragedies of the age!W Tornto pieces by many hands of W 0ar, by the -arious hatreds andW faiings of the0ord! T0oW miion deaths o-er the pastW 4uarter%century! Se-era of theW o-erson the 0as 0ere on theirW o0n because of the obiteratingW impact of thebuets = nothingW but a gash or a terribe rippingW a0ay 0here thecorrespondingW man or 0oman used to be! AW shredded imb, a ost eye! ("&*W

Amost a the characters of this no-e areW tormented by diBerent 0ars indiBerent 0ays! TheW interconnectedness of the 0ars that ha-e so deepyW

aBected these characters is apparent 0hen Rara,W ha-ing heard Da-id spea3of his brother, thin3sW about Vietnam<W A diBerent 0ar = but may be atW somee-e it 0as the same 0ar!W Just as tomorro0?s 0ars might beW begotten bytoday?s 0ars, aW continuation of them! i-ers of W a-a emerging onto thesurfaceW after Mo0ing many out%of%sightW mies underground! (7$*W Rara?smusings suggest that we are too hasty inJ considering wars in diDerentregions and atJ diDerent times in isolation? subtly highlighting theJreality of a global civil war in the twenty=2rstJ century! ;ach localwar should not be viewed inJ isolation, but as a part of a grandconstellation,J linked to other war 0ones and areas that might notJbe presently at war" As adeem Asam says about W 0ars in Afghanistan<Knce the Soviets withdrew,J and 4S interest waned, the Talibanrose L+ yearsJ later :E&and the ensuing 6ar on TerrorJhappened and half the planet woke up" They had noJ idea it cameout of the cold war"7 (Jaggi par "Q*! W Civil war in 1fghanistan is notXthe armedJ conHict between sovereign and non=sovereignJcombatants within a single sovereign territoryYJ &#ardt +%" Itinvolves a wide range of globalJ actors" It is being funded by foreignsources thatJ had stakes in the region by virtue of formerJ colonialoccupation and because of economicJ interests which ranged fromthe mining of gems toJ the production of opium and heroin poppies"1sJ 1slam says8 XThe years of war and civil war haveJ emptied thiscountry‘s museumsY (#6*! Civil war inJ 1fghanistan here isintroduced not on its own, butJ in relation to a more general, morebroadlyJ unde2ned Zwar‘" The implication being that civilJ war hasoccurred and continues to occur in partialJ relation to this othertype of war, and has been setJ in motion by the economic interestsin theJ landscape that had such gems buried in its soil" The W textattempts to outine this economic interest asW ancient, through the image ofthe diamond ta3en atW some point from Afghanistan, paced in the eye of W astatue in +ndia, and then ooted to end up in 2rstW an Armenian?s hand andthen a ussian ruer?s! AtW one point Garcus ruminates that The apis auiW

of their and 0as a0ays desired by the 0ord,W brushed by Keopatra onto hereyeids, empoyedW by Gicheangeo to paint the bues on the ceiing of W theSistine chapeX ("/*! Such referencesW underine the fact that Afghanistanhas been raidedW for commodities for miennia, and that the currentdayW

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occupation of the country by ATO mimicsW and echoes earier in-asions andraids"J There is a close relationship between civilJ war and whatRiorgio 1gamben says Xstate ofJ e!ception! He says in his groundbrea3ing boo3W State of Exception that civil war is the opposite ofJnormal conditions, it lies in a 0one ofJ undecidability with respect tothe state ofJ e!ception, which is state power‘s immediateJ response

to the most e!treme internal conHictsYW ($*! 9urther he says<W Xmoderntotalitarianism can beJ de2ned as the establishment , byJ means ofthe state of e!ception,J of a legal civil war that allows forJ thephysical elimination not onlyJ of political adversaries but ofJ entirecategories of citi0ens whoJ for some reason cannot be W Kounter%Hegemonic Discourse in the 1asted VigiW Asian Journa of GutidiscipinaryStudies, $(#* Juy, $6"& "6QW integrated into the poiticaW system! ($*W 1fter:E, 1merican government has declaredJ nothing less than aZglobal state of e!ception‘J through the occasion presented by theZ6ar onJ Terrorism‘" The phrase Z6ar on Terror‘ providedJ 4Sgovernment enough freedom over time andJ space" The wordZterror‘ is not a country, so theJ war could be taken to diDerent

places" 1nd it isJ very dicult to 2nd out who the enemy really is inJ6ar on Terror" As Spi-a3 says that 1ar on W Terrorism has been oomed upto face anW abstraction (/$*! 1fghanistan has been virtuallyJ turnedinto a XCampY, that according to 1gambenJ is a space where therules of the world cease toJ apply, where we have the communitiesof peopleJ without the rights to have rights" It is the Xbare lifeYJ ofthese Xhomo sacers in Afghanistan that adeemW Asam is trying to bringto the imeight to theW goba audience in The 1asted Vigi!W The way the6ar on Terror has beenJ represented contribute to the constructionofJ hegemonic narratives through which the 1mericaJ came toimagine itself as a beacon light ofJ democracy and a civili0ingbulwark against theJ violent forces of terrorist rogue states" 4singtheJ rhetoric of @ust and un@ust wars, the 6ar on terrorJ morali0esrather than legitimi0es the use of globalJ violence by putting itoutside the realm of reasonJ and criti(ue" The violence inherent inthe 6ar onJ Terror is normali0ed and dehistorici0ed" It hasJ changedthe entire social and political makeup ofJ 1fghanistan and world atlarge, where a distinctionJ between war and civil society hasbecome obsolete"J It is through the disembodiment of this globalJviolence that the dehumani0ation of 1fghanistan inJ particular andma@ority of the globe‘s population inJ general, takes on normativeand naturali0ed state ofJ e!istence!W Asam?s no-e thus dramaties theW

transformation of the country?s ci-i 0ar into aW permanent state of exception!In post=:EJ 1fghanistan the state of e!ception has become aJ rule"X6hen state of e!ceptionLbecomes the ruleY,J 1gamben says,Xthen the @uridico=political systemJ becomes a machine which mayat any moment turnJ lethal (/" It is this lethal machine whoseJbiopolitical motor is the state of e!ception that is,J in 1gamben‘sanalysis, Xleading the 6est toward aJ global civil war (/#*! The1asted Vigi presents anW extraordinary search for socia ;ustice through theW

narrati-e and see3s to understand the operati-eW modes of -ioence beyondtheir historica andW socia con2gurations! Conceptuali0ing global civilJ

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war as being engineered by the Rlobal North, thatJ is,predominantly by the 4nited States and its alliedJ nations, it revealsthe ways in which global warJ deeply invests in and ensures thecontinuousJ accumulation of global capital and centrali0edJpractices of uneven capital distribution" RlobalJ civil war aims atmaintaining a historically receivedJ global order of une(ual power

relationships and hasJ also become geopolitics of resource control"It isJ intrinsic to the formation of new global sovereigntyJ thatsupersedes colonialism and imperialism" ThusJ the global civil warenacted in the pages of thisJ postcolonial narrative of war oDers acriti(ue thatJ clearly unsettles contemporary con2gurations ofJimperial and colonial habits of mind and dismantlesJ the conditionsthat produce social violence andJ anguish"

The declaration of the .6ar on Terror/ created apermanent state of e!ception"

Spanos, Professor of Engish at :inghampton 5ni-ersity, *+(1iiam V!, $6"", :atimore< Johns Hop3ins 5P, The ExceptionaistState and State of Exception< Herman Ge-ie8s :iy :ud, Saior,accessed #'Q'$6"Q, JA)*W :ased on the dubious assumption of the reality of a state of nationalemergency, it was a .legal/ initiative, that gave the president theabsolute authority (penary executi-e po0ersF* to depoy the miitary0ithin the 5nited States for the purpose of poicing its citienry (in -ioation of the 9ourth Amendment and the Posse Komitatus Act of "/#/*@ to censor themedia (i!e!, anu the 9irst Amendment*@ to represent any American citien asan enemy combatantF and to hod him or her in custody inde2nitey and0ithout recourse to the a0@ and to Mout any internationa treaty, 0hich is to

say, to arrest, torture (use enhanced meth%ods of interrogating detaineesF*,and to render citiens of other countries to third%party ;urisdictions! +ndecaring a 0ar on terrorF in the 0a3e of a .'"", that is to say, the :ushpresidency tacity abrogated democratic a0%(the Konstitution* in fa-or ofestabishing martia = the so-ereign a0%ess a0 of the state of exception =or, to appropriate >iorgio Agamben8s more precise terms, the secuariedsacred = the 5nited States,F a moti-e -ariousy caed sef%defense,Fnationa security,F domestic security,F and homeand security!F 1ndinsofar as the force that threatened the 4nited States was anamorphous and nameless enemy – an enemy 0ithout an identi2abeuniform and not associated 0ith a state = it coud be said that the Fushadministrations unilateral declaration of .war on terror/ in the

aftermath of :E was also a tacit announcement that rendered thestate of e!ception permanent"

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The sovereign reduces individuals to homo sacer throughthe war on terror> ‘necessary surveillance stripsmeaning from lives of citi0ens-an <unster, 5 (ens, senior researcher on peace, ris3 and -ioence atDanish +nstitute for +nternationa Studies, The 1ar on Terrorism< 1hen the

Exception :ecomes the ueF http<''in3!springer!com'artice'"6!"6$7':7ASERA!6666677"/!"7&"6!6$*''GE: This artice argues that the semiotics of the war on terrorism points at asigni2cant shift in 4nited States9 discourses on security! This shift can best

be described as a move from defense to prevention or from danger to risk"6hereas the notion of defense is closely connected to the state ofwar, this article claims that the war on terrorism insteadinstitutionalises a permanent state of e!ception! :uiding upon Agambensnotion that the state of exception is the non%ocaisabe foundation of a poitica order, this artice ma3est0o caims! 9irst, it argues that semiotic shifts in 5nited States security poitics point at a general trend

that, to some extent, structures internationa American inter-entions! +n a sense, the semioticshifts in 1merican security discourse declare the 4nited States asthe sovereign of the global order8 they allow the 4nited States toe!empt itself from the &international framework of law, whiledemanding compliance by others! Second, it caims that this production of1merican sovereignty is paralleled by reducing the life of &someindividuals to the bare life of homo sacer(ife that can be 3ied 0ithout

punishment*! In the war on terrorism, the production of bare life is

mainly brought about by bureaucratic techni(ues of risk

management and surveillance , which reduce human life to

biographic risk pro2les!

Threats of terrorist attacks help maintain the state of

e!ception1rslan, O (Uuhtu, ethin3ing the Riberty%Security :aanceF in Dicut Times< Some otes on the Tur3ish ExperienceFhttps<''boo3s!googe!com'boo3sLidxeOT/PREgAK[pgPA$&&[pgPA$&&[d4$$terrorism$$and$$stateofexception$$[sourceb[otsu.STP"A/SD[sigG9&It-\RK6Ud)0#sNA0DS>5[hen[sa[eixpSUVdic>QfVoASm#NP\K\[-ed6KEG\AE0:A-onepage[4[ffase*''GE: This paper aims to expore the possibility and indeed necessity of2ghting against terrorism without sacri2cing such basic values of

ibera democracy as the rule of law and human rights! This probem isgeneray formuated as striking a delicate balance between securityand freedom! This paper, therefore, 2rst of a 4uestions the so%caed baance or trade oB argumentby unra-eing some of the traps embedded in this generay accepted argument! Secondy, Tur3ey8s ongexperience in combating terrorism 0i be anayed 0ith a specia reference to the recent amendments tothe Anti%Terror Ra0! An examination of Tur3ey8s record before the European Kourt of Human ights 0i hep

to reveal the heavy price of combating terrorism in terms of humanrights violations! +t 0i be argued that most of these violations have

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been the direct and indirect result of the state of e!ception which

has prevailed because of terrorist threats "

:E marked the beginning of 1mericas shift into the

state of e!ception> a shift which has no intention ofreverting3anner, (Gar3, After September ""< Our State of ExceptionFhttp<''000!nyboo3s!com'artices'archi-es'$6""'oct'"7'after%september%""%our%state%exception'*''GE:6e are living in the State of ;!ception " 6e dont know when it will

end, as we dont know when the 6ar on Terror will end" Fut we allknow when it began! 1e can no onger 4uite rememberF that moment, for the images ha-eong since been re2tted into a present%day fabe of innocence and apocaypse< the perfect bue of that atesummer s3y stained by acrid bac3 smo3e! The ;etiner appearing, titing, then disappearing into the s3in of the second to0er, to emerge on the other side as a great eruption of red and yeo0 Mame! The sho0ers ofdebris, the faing bodies, and then that great bossoming Mo0er of 0hite dust, roiing and churning

up0ard, en-eoping and consuming the mighty s3yscraper as it coapses into the 0hir0ind! To1mericans, those terrible moments stand as a brightly lit portalthrough which we were all compelled to step, together, into adiDerent world" Since that day ten years ago we have lived in asubtly diDerent country, and though 0e ha-e gro0n accustomed to these changes and thin3itte of them no0, certain 0ords sti appear often enough in the ne0s—>uant`namo, inde2nite detention,

torture—to remind us that ours remains a strange America! The contours of this strangenessare not un3no0n in our history—the country has i-ed through broady simiar periods, at easthaf a doen or so, depending on ho0 you count@ but 0e ha-e no proper name for them! State of siegeLGartia a0L State of emergencyL one of these expressions, famiiar as they may be to other peopes, fas

naturay from American ips! 6hat are we to call this subtly altered 1mericaW Kinton ossiter, the great American schoar of crisis go-ernment,F 0riting inthe shado0 of 1ord 1ar ++, caed such times constitutiona dictatorship!F"

Kthers, more recenty, have spoken of a .:E Constitution/ or an.;mergency Constitution"/ Vi-id terms a@ and yet perhaps too narrowlydrawn, placing as they do the de2nitional weight entirely on lawwhen this state of ours seems to have as much, or more, to do withpolitics>with how we live now and who we are as a polity" This is in

part why I prefer . the state of e!ception,/ an umbrea term that gathers beneath

it those emergency categories 0hie emphasiing that this state has as its de2ning characteristic that ittranscends the borders of the stricty ega—that it occupies, in the 0ords of the phiosopher >iorgio

Agamben, .a position at the limit between politics and lawLanambiguous, uncertain, borderline fringe, at the intersection of thelegal and the political"/$ Ka it, then, the state of exception 8 these yearsduring which, in the name of security, some of our accustomed

rights and freedoms are circumscribed or set aside, the years duringwhich we live in a diDerent time" This diDerent time of ours has nowe!tended ten years>the longest by far in 1merican history>withlittle sense of an ending" Indeed, the very endlessness of this stateof e!ception>a (uality emphasi0ed even as it was imposed>and thebroad acceptance of that endlessness, the state of e!ceptionsincreasing normali0ation, are among its distinguishing marks! 9or theo-er0heming ma;ority of Americans the changes ha-e come to seem subte, certainy 0hen set besideho0 daiy ife 0as atered during 1ord 1ar ++ or 1ord 1ar +, not to mention during the Ki-i 1ar! Ociay

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/oct/13/after-september-11-our-state-exception/#fn-1




7/24/2019 GDI 15 - Agamben K


sanctioned torture, or enhanced interrogation, ho0e-er dramatic a departure it may be from our history,happens not to Americans but to others, as do extraordinary rendition and inde2nite detention@ theparticuar burdens of our exception seem mosty to be borne by someone ese—by someone other! +t ispossibe for most to i-e their i-es 0ithout ta3ing note of these practices at a except as phrases in thene0s—unti, e-ery once in a 0hie, i3e a bind man 0ho i-es, a un3no0ingy, in a -ery arge cage, one oranother of us stumbes into the bars! 1hoe-er ta3es the time to peer cosey at the space encosed 0ithinthose bars can see that our country has been atered in fundamenta 0ays! 1hen President :arac3 Obamain his eegant address accepting the obe Peace Prie decares to the 0ord that he has prohibited

torture,F 0e shoud pause in our pride to notice that torture -ioates internationa and domestic a0 andthat the notion that our ne0 president has the po0er to prohibit it foo0s insidiousy from the pretensethat his predecessor had the po0er to order it—that during the state of exception, not ony because of0hat President >eorge 1! :ush decided to do but aso because of 0hat President Obama is e-ery daydeciding not to do (not to oo3 bac3F but oo3 for0ardF*, torture in America has metamorphosed! Fefore the 6ar on Terror, ocial torture was illegal and anathema?today it is a policy choice"

The ways in which the 4SMR handles terrorism indicatesits e!istence in a state of e!ception)ogers, % (icoe of Southern Kross Schoo of Ra0 and Justice, Terrorist -so-ereign< ega performances in a state of exceptionF

http<''epubs!scu!edu!au'cgi'-ie0content!cgiLartice"6Q&[contexta0Ipubs*''GE:It is not simply the conditions in which the trials are conducted, andthe visible degradation of the accused terrorists to beings less thanhuman, which suggest a state of e!ception" The evidence providedby the prosecution in the terror trials also supports a conclusion thatthe courts are operating within a state of e!ception in which anapparently innocent se(uence of events can ine!plicably triggerprosecution and the imposition of harsh punitive penalties" Agambenrepeatedy describes the state of exception as a pace in 0hich fact is indistinguishabe from a0 ($66Q<$.*! Peter 9itpatric3 has 4uestioned 0hether the ega 4uestion can e-er be stricty distinguished from thefactua 4uestion ($66"< $$*! Ho0e-er, this merging of fact and a0 is certainy apparent in the Rodhi tria,in 0hich the e-idence regarding Rodhi8s acti-ities 0as not necessariy incriminating< the coection of t0o

maps of the Austraian eectricity system, a re4uest for information about materias 0hich coud be used toma3e exposi-es, the do0noading of aeria photographs of Austraian defense estabishments, and thepossession of a document describing ho0 to ma3e -arious poisons and exposi-es! E-idence about hispurchase of a arge amount of toiet paper, 0hich coud produce nitroceuose for a bomb, formed the

basis of a further count (ater dropped* in the origina indictment! Such conduct coud not be described as

transgressi-e and 0as ceary capabe of innocent expanation! Net it is in accordance withthe arbitrary decision=making processes of the state that the authorof such conduct is labelled a terrorist" This confusion betweentransgression and compliance with the law, ‘such that what violatesa rule and what conforms to it coincide without any remainder

(Agamben "../< Q#*, is a central parado! of the state of e!ception"

The war on terror fuels the permanent surveillance stateof the 4"S"Tran=Cre(ue, G (Ste-en from the Kenter for the Study of theDrone at :ard Koege, The 9ore-er 1ar is A0ays HungryFhttp<''dronecenter!bard!edu'the%fore-er%0ar%is%a0ays%hungry'*''GE:

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1hene-er someone mentions so-ereignty, its pretty easy to come awaywith the impression that all thats at stake is the law< 4uestions of territory, ;urisdiction, -ioations of airspace, and so on! Konsider, for exampe< T0o months ago, Pa3istan accused the5nited States of -ioating its so-ereignty 0ith drone stri3es, demanding that their o0n go-ernment begranted contro o-er stri3es 0ithin their borders! Addressing recent drone stri3es in Nemen, >enn>reen0ad noted that 3iing a person 0ithout tria is not ony extra;udicia, it aso -ioates the so-ereigntyand dignity of the entire tribe to 0hich the sain person beonged!F Gost recenty, 0riting for 9oreign ABairs

in the emerging genre of drone sinomania, Andre0 Eric3son and Austin Strange -oiced concern about ho0Khina is foo0ing the 5nited States8 exampe in disregarding the so-ereignty of other nations as the

Khinese drone Meet has rapidy caught up to American miitary and sur-eiance capabiities! And so on" +nboth popuar discourse and the poicy press, pundits and commentators ha-e o-er0hemingy adopted thesame famiiar bueprint< a egaistic in-ocation of so-ereignty that emphasies borders and go-ernmenta

authority to the excusion much ese There is a dangerous intellectual poverty inthis" 6e are not, as Trevor $aglen recently observed, .movingtoward a surveillance state8 we live in the heart of one"/ This is theera of total surveillance and e!tra@udicial killing, of pubic austerity and massincarceration, of permanent unempoyment and goba 0arming< 0hat Ja3ob Augstein recognied ast 0ee3in Der Spiege as nothing short of totaitarianism! The extraordinary measures of rendition, bac3 sites,secret a0s, bac3 budgets and retroacti-e egaiations that ha-e accompanied the -icious internatargeting of Gusims, protesters and 0histebo0ers—a of this has become the ne0 norma, and comingdecades 0i reap the 0hir0ind! This is 0hat Pagen has dubbed the terror stateF< not merey the

possibiity of turn3ey tyrannyF one step a0ay, but its -irtua ine-itabiity! 1s the 6ar on Terrornow transforms into the forever war, I think we must begin by askinghow e!actly we ever got here" Of course, at 2rst gance, the connection bet0een a of thisand the 4uestion of 0hose ega ;urisdiction pre-ais in 1airistan seems faint at best! Kertainy, no matterho0 broady one reads the term 0ar,F one strugges to 2nd in this anything i3e the strangey resiientimagery of nation states batting each other 0ith state of the art 0eaponry, no matter ho0 much thiscontinues to dominate the 0ay 0e thin3 of 0ar! +n none of the usua accounts can one 2nd something i3e Jean :odin8s de2nition of so-ereignty as the absoute and perpetua po0er of the repubic,F one of theprincipa inMuences from 0hich Kar Schmitt famousy dre0 his de2nition of the so-ereign as he 0hodecides on the exceptionF to the a0! :ut + 0oud insist< these are not esoteric historica or theoreticaconcerns! + 0ant to oBer a -ery diBerent approach here to the 4uestion of 0hat so-ereignty means!

Sovereignty has never been an anodyne policy (uestion of whose @urisdiction applies, of who controls drones, or of how visible suchclandestine military programs will be" )ather, following ;yal6ei0man, one should begin by asking how sovereignty came to bee!ercised as the economistic management of death" +n the strangest ofpaces, Da-id >raeber8s historica criti4ue of an od anthropoogica debate o-er the di-ine 3ingship of theShiu3 of Southern Sudan oBers 0hat + 2nd to be the most compeing expanation for the fore-er 0ar! That

is, that the 6ar on Terror is better understood as an unusually visiblee!ample of the constitutive principle of sovereignty8 a permanentwar between the sovereign and everyone else>the only kind of warthere is" This is why, as Te@u Cole once remarked, the forever war isalways hungry! The a0 Gateria of So-ereignty 1eiman8s 4uestion is simpe! Ho0, after thee-acuation of the ground surface of >aa, did bodies, rather than territories, or death, rather than space,turn into the ra0 materia of +sraei so-ereigntyLF +n 1eiman8s Thanato%tactics, so-ereignty is simpy themanagement of death! The +sraei >enera Security Ser-ice8s assassination program, 0hich began in $666—before .'""—produced the spra0ing sur-eiance and counterinsurgency apparatus of the occupation!:ut it aso pro-ided the tempate and testing grounds for the 5nited States8 o0n assassination program!1hat 1eiman is reay interested in is the ogic of the esser e-i, by 0hich economiing anguage

produces this en-ironment of managed death! 9rom this perspecti-e, coatera damage cacuations arenot a humanitarian triumph imiting the scope of -ioence! ather, they are a crucia part of the ideoogicaapparatus by 0hich acts of state -ioence are rendered ega and egitimate, encompassed 0ithin thepermissibe ogic of forestaing greater -ioence! 1eiman 4uotes +sraei Air 9orce commander EieerSh3edi saying, before the $66 in-asion of >aa, that the ony aternati-e to aeria attac3s is a groundoperation and the reoccupation!F Assassination, he added, is the most precise too 0e ha-e!F So too 0ithproportionaity, baancing, eciency, pragmatism, the in;unction to be reaistic,F and the entire pantheonof reasonabe constraints! A of the oppositiona forces of miitary interests and inteigence agencies,human rights groups and ;ournaists, can be incorporated 0ithin the same pro;ect< the maintenance ofhumanitarian -ioence, abeit one that bis itsef as a esser form of -ioence compared to the aternati-es!As 1i Saetan put it in Sate earier this year 0ith memorabe enthusiasm< Drones 3i fe0er ci-iians, as a

http://jacobinmag.com/2013/06/edward-snowden-and-the-american-condition/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/03/cia-drone-strikes-violate-pakistan


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/01/ibrahim-mothana-yemen-drones-obama


http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n02/perry-anderson/sinomania

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/139405/andrew-erickson-and-austin-strange/china-has-drones-now-what

http://jacobinmag.com/2013/06/edward-snowden-and-the-american-condition/





http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n02/perry-anderson/sinomania

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/139405/andrew-erickson-and-austin-strange/china-has-drones-now-what

7/24/2019 GDI 15 - Agamben K


percentage of tota fataities, than any other miitary 0eapon! They8re the 0orst form of 0arfare in thehistory of the 0ord, except for a the others! X ci-iian casuatiesL That8s not an argument against drones!+t8s the best thing about them! The choice presented is a0ays bet0een assassination and in-asion,bet0een He2re missies and imprecise bombs—bet0een fe0er dead and more dead! +t is not a choicebet0een 0ar and peace! 1e%trained commentators cannot e-en imagine a 0ord in 0hich such thingssimpy do not happen! And one ne-er 4uestions the egitimacy of the system in 0hich, as Hannah Arendtemphasied, one must choose e-i! Periodic eruptions of unchec3ed -ioence—as in the +sraei in-asion of>aa in $66/ and the bombardment in $6"$—are neither accidents nor faiures! The norma practice of

-ioence through chec3points, annexation, resource extraction, and assassination is maintained against thethe e-er present threat of greater -ioence, reguary demonstrated! The greater e-i 3ept at bay by theesser e-i, in an endess state of 0ar! This permanent threat of arbitrary -ioence is precisey 0hat 0e caso-ereignty! The Ony 1ar there +s :eginning 0ith his obser-ation that states are at the same time formsof institutionaied raiding or extortion, and utopian pro;ects,F Da-id >raeber8s de2nition of so-ereignty issimpe enough< the right to exercise -ioence 0ith impunity!F >raeber oBers the exampe of the >anda3ingship to the south of the Shiu3! +n the ate ".th century, European -isitors to the court of )ing GutesaoBered a gift of 2rearms! Gutesa responded by 2ring the riMe in the street and 3iing his sub;ects atrandom! 1hen Da-id Ri-ingstone as3ed 0hy the >anda 3ing 3ied so many peope, he 0as tod that ifYthe 3ingZ didn8t, e-eryone 0oud assume that he 0as dead!F Ho0e-er, the notoriety of the >anda 3ingsfor arbitrary, random -ioence to0ards their o0n peope did not pre-ent Gutesa from aso being acceptedas supreme ;udge and guardian of the state8s system of ;ustice! +ndeed, it 0as the -ery foundation for it!Speci2cay, >raeber is interested in the transcendent 4uaity of -ioence< the -ioence and transgression of

the 3ing ma3es him a creature beyond moraity!F Paradoxicay, the sovereign may bearbitrarily violent>the etymology here is telling>and nevertheless

seen as the supreme source of @ustice and law" >raeber cas this transcendentaspect of -ioence di-ine!F +t isn8t ;ust that 3ings act i3e gods@ it8s that they do so and get a0ay 0ith it! This remains the case in the modern state! 1ater :en;amin8s famous distinction bet0een a0%ma3ingF

and a0%maintainingF -ioence refers to the same phenomenon! 6e often say that no oneis above the law, but if this were true, there would be no one tobring the legal order into being in the 2rst place < the signers of the Decarationof +ndependence or the American Konstitution 0ere a traitors by the ega order under 0hich they 0ereborn! There reay is no resoution to this paradox! The soution of the eft is that the peope may rise upperiodicay and o-erthro0 the existing ega regime in a re-oution! The soution of the right is KarSchmitt8s exception< that so-ereignty is exercised by the head of state in putting aside the ega order! :ut

0hiche-er soution one prefers, this reay ;ust defers the diemma< all sovereignty is built ona foundation of illegal acts of violence, and it always carries theimmanent potential for arbitrary violence" +n ".th%century accounts of rainma3ersin Southern Sudan, the function of -ioence is e-en cearer! 1ith rainma3ers, as 0ith Shiu3 3ings, theheath of the and is tied to the heath of the 3ing! +f the rains fai to fa, 2rst peope 0i bring petitions,then gifts! :ut after a certain point, if the rains sti don8t come, the rainma3er must either Mee or face acommunity united to 3i him! +t isn8t hard to see 0hy rainma3ers 0oud 0ant something i3e the state8smonopoy on -ioence or a retinue of oya, armed foo0ers! :ut the crucia point is that insofar as thepeopeF coud be said to exist, they 0ere essentiay seen as the coecti-e enemy of the 3ing! Europeanexporers in the region often found 3ings raiding enemy -iages ony to 2nd that the -iages contained the3ing8s o0n sub;ects! They 0ere dei-ering arbitrary -ioence to the peope they 0ere supposed to protect!

So >raeber reminds us, .predatory violence was and would always remainthe essence of sovereignty"/ Such is the hidden logic of sovereignty"1bove all, it depends on the transcendent (uality of violence thatallows the sovereign to become, as Hobbes put it, a morta god!F :ut this is aso meansthat arbitrary -ioence is the constituti-e principe of so-ereignty, de2ning the reationship bet0een theso-ereign and e-erything ese< 1hat 0e ca ?the socia peace8 is reay ;ust a truce in a constituti-e 0arbet0een so-ereign po0er and ?the peope,8 or ?nation8—both of 0hom come into existence, as poiticaentities, in their strugge against each other! There is no inside or outside here! Kontra Schmitt and his

friend%enemy distinction, this constituti-e 0ar precedes 0ars bet0een nations and peopes! 9rom theperspecti-e of so-ereign po0er, there is no fundamenta diBerence in the reation bet0een a so-ereign

and his peope, and a so-ereign and his enemies,F expains >raeber! This constitutive war isa war the sovereign can never win>a forever war that can neverend! o 1ar but the 9ore-er 1ar 1hat exacty is one supposed to ma3e of John :rennan8s admissionthat the 0ar against A \aeda 0i continue for another decadeL Ho0 did the A5G9 and the Patriot Acttogether come to constitute something i3e America8s Artice &/, creating a permanent state of exception

in 0hich something i3e the SA8s giant automated StasiF is simpy accepted as the ne0 normaL #owdid drones become an inevitable part of the near future in New [orkCityW 1fter all, the 6ar on Terror really isnt anything like a war at all

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> at east, not in the con-entiona imaginary of nation states commanding discipined miitary forces onestabished 2eds of batte! The 5nited States commands a degree of miitary po0er and comparati-edominance simpy unprecedented in human history—0hat is eeganty referred to, in the anodyneanguage of miitary panners, as asymmetry!F There are no stricty de2ned batte2eds, and the formaenemies in the 1ar on Terror ha-e rarey amounted to more than the insurgent army of a deposed dictator(funded and armed by the 5!S!, abeit ong ago* and a fe0 hundred reigious students in the mountains ofKentra Asia! +t is in fact genuiney strange ho0 resiienty this con-entiona image seems to persist in bothpopuar and inteectua imagination! E-en schoary responses to the 1ar on Terror begin from the

assumption that something ne0 and strange is happening 0hen batte2eds and opponents ai3e are noonger deimited but rather a0ays and e-ery0here! +f one imits onesef to ega documents, this is prettymuch the ony possibe concusion! The con-entiona imagery reay seems to be most usefu in obscuringthe more fundamenta reaities of 0hat 0ar reay is! +n part, 0ar consists of the far more common practiceof ci-i 0ars, guerria 0ars, genocide and interna repression—but aso, in a arger sense, the fundamentastate of 0ar bet0een the so-ereign and his peope that is the originary, constituti-e state for so-ereign

po0er itsef! The forever war, then, has eDectively allowed the 4nitedStates to claim sovereignty to farthest reaches of the earth"Certainly, this is not a (uestion purely of drones8 the apparatus alsoconsists of a deep surveillance state, total international digitalsurveillance, a miitary arger than the combined miitaries of the rest of the 0ord, and extraegarendition and detention programs! :ut at the edges of this arrangement, one 2nds Agamben8s homo sacer,9is3es;8s barbarians< those excuded from the ega order, stripped of rights, sub;ect to death at any time

—the point at 0hich an empire con-erts those beyond its reach into obedient sub;ects or corpses! This

is the logic of sovereign violence taken to its most e!treme>and notinsigni2cantly, this has been accomplished in part by euphemi0ingthat violence, whether in the saniti0ed parlance of the military—focused obstruction,F targeted 3iing,F 3inetic actionF—or the more artfu, ideoogica euphemiationby 0hich assassination programs become compex and debatabe mora issues in the ibera press! +tshoud come as no surprise that this has been accompanied by the in2nite expansion of an apparatus of

domestic sur-eiance and contro unprecedented in human history! Kne should never forgetthat the instruments of sovereignty>drones, militari0ed police, masssurveillance apparatus>were always directed inwards as much asoutwards, because the security state secures one thing8 the safetyof the sovereign above all" Mrom the perspective of sovereign power,there is no inside and there is no outside" There is only the violenceto which we are all sub@ect"

6ar on terror has @usti2ed total surveillance> allows thesovereign a permanent e!ception to e!ert power over life,death, freedom and privacy'ennard, 5 (atasha, 0riter co-ering ci-i iberties, dissent, andnoneectora poitics, The rea state of the 5nion< Ki-i Riberties— 1aron terrorismF http<''america!a;aeera!com'features'$6"&'"'the%rea%state%oftheunionci-iiberties!htmfeatureArtice%chapter%%Q*''GE:+n this age of unbounded, unending 0ar, the state of the union is a state ofe!ception! States of exception, as described by +taian phiosopher >iorgio Agamben, are times of

increased executi-e po0er grounded in moments of crisis (historicay 0ar* that enabe so-ereign po0ersto 0ithhod or suspend rights normay aBorded its citiens! 1hat Agamben noted of the >eorge 1! :ush

era — and 0hat remains true — is that the state of e!ception has transcendedspeci2c terrorist threats and become the norm" Kur prevailing stateof e!ception is best illustrated by the shape of the ill=de2ned war onterrorism! Creeping shadow drone wars and massive surveillance,built on vast dragnets, transmit a clear message about the state ofour union today8 In a war without end, border or front line, we are allalways already potential threats, potential targets" Kur national

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security state is now structured around this fact" 1 totali0ed state

of surveillance , ;usti2ed by hac3neyed and demonstraby fase caims tonationa security measures, undergirds the state of the union! Obama standsin a ine of presidents who have grounded the e!tension of e!ecutive

powers > over life, death, freedom and privacy > in the necessities

of wartime" Rincon, after a, authoried the suspension of the 0rit of habeas corpus aong themiitary ines bet0een 1ashington and Phiadephia, 0ithout congressiona appro-a! Agamben, in fact,caed the >reat Emancipator an absoute dictator!F 9ran3in D! oose-et appeaed to the rhetoric of 0arin ".77 to push through the e0 Dea! The interminabe 0ar on terrorism continues to enabe the

president to appea to emergency po0ers at the expense of ci-i iberties! 6ithout an end tothis constant state of e!ception, untold abuses of power remaininscribed in the state of the union"

The war on terror @usti2es a permanent state ofemergency, resulting in bare life and law 2ltered throughthe lens of violence

3amai +(Puspa, 1inter $66Q, Garsha Digita Schoar, The )iing Gachine ofException< So-ereignty, Ra0, and Pay in Agamben8s State of ExceptionF,http<''mds!marsha!edu'cgi'-ie0content!cgiLartice"676[contextengishIfacuty, Accessed< #!#!"Q, V1*>iorgio Agamben8s sender but profound monograph on theW state ofexception is an inter-ention into a 0ord that is becoming more andW moreexceptionaist! The events of :E, the 6ar on Terror, and thesuccessiveJ decrees and acts authori0ing 2ngerprinting,interrogation, andJ inde2nite detention of suspects in terroristactivities, all testify toJ 1gambens prophetic portrayal ofcontemporary politics in which the stateJ of e!ception>normally aprovisional attempt to deal with political e!igencies>hasJ become apermanent practice or paradigm of government" 6henJ thee!ception becomes the rule, it results, argues Agamben, not only intheJ appropriation of the legislative or @udiciary power by thee!ecutive, the suspensionJ of the constitution, and the e!tensionand encroachment of theJ militarys wartime authority into the civicsphere, but also in a state ofJ global civil war, which .allows for thephysical elimination not only ofJ political adversaries but of entirecategories of citi0ens who for some reasonJ cannot be integratedinto the political system/ ($66Qb, $*! +n a 0ay, W therefore, the State ofException is an exporation or anaysis of the 0ays inW 0hich this 3iingmachine of exceptionaism 0or3s!W Fesides the scary and probablyscandalous historical parallels drawn inJ this te!t, for instance,between #itlers 3ecree for the $rotection of theJ $eople and theState and the 4S1 $1T)IKT 1ct, 1gamben is also interestedJ intheoretically and generally e!posing the growing transformation oftheJ contemporary government into a killing machine through a2ctitious productionJ of the e!ception by the e!ecutive! The referenceto the speci2c historicaW instances of the state of exception, therefore,occasions a sustainedW phiosophica meditation on the fate of a0 and ife

http://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&context=english_faculty




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after the suspension of W the ;uridica order in the exception or after theappication of a0 is 0ithdra0nW in order to expose ife to the force of a00ithout appication! +nW other 0ords, the state of e!ception unfolds as anemptiness of law that atJ once bans in order to abandon the livingbeing to law!W Through the idea of the abandonment of ife to a0, AgambensucceedsW in iustrating the biopolitical signi2cance of the state of

e!ception that culminatesJ in .producing a legally unnamable andunclassi2able being/>J bare life (or a nuda -ita, as the origina +taiantext cas it*! Aong 0ithW underta3ing the tas3 to carify the conceptuauncertainty around the syntagm,W the state of exception—0hich, in itssemantic as 0e as practicaW indeterminacy, has been conMated 0ith thestate of necessity, emergency,W fu po0ers, and martia a0—Agamben, in theState of Exception, attemptsW to pro-ide an ans0er to the 4uestion thatne-er ceases to re-erberate inW the history of 1estern poitics< 0hat does itmean to act poiticayF ($*!W That is to say, the retrieval of politics in thewake of the end of all politicsJ by the e!ception is ine!tricablyintertwined with the biopolitical ne!us thatJ binds life to law bymeans of e!clusion" The biopolitical threshold of theJ e!ception is

the e!treme 0one of intensity wherein law remains but itsJapplication is deactivated" 1gamben characteri0es this e!ceptionallocusJ where law blurs with violence as a 0one of anomie where lawremains butW $Q j The )iing Gachine of ExceptionW only as a pure forceof violence! Agamben puts this anomic pace of a0 asW the force of a0 !FW

+n this assessment of the proper ocus of the exception, Agamben ;uxtaposesW

Kar Schmitt8s notion of dictatorship and :en;amin8s idea of pureW -ioence! Heaso re-isits ancient oman institutions and practices of theW iustitium andauctoritas ony to 2nd that the exception is a no man8s and, anW absoutenonpace, an empty space in 0hich is manifested a ega -oidW (-uotoF as theorigina text has it Y"QZ* that runs, regardess of time andW pace, through theentire poitica ife in the 1est!W Thus, for Agamben, the e!ception isneither a purely constitutional norJ strictly a historical problem" It isnot constitutionally determined becauseJ it does not strictly belongto totalitarian governments only? rather it constitutesJ a thresholdof indeterminacy between democracy and absolutism,J therebygiving way to what have come to be known as .protecteddemocracies"/J 9urthermore, it is not a historica issue, not ony because itis as muchW present in ancient oman repubic as it is in contemporaryrepubics, butW aso because there is no time prior to the state of exception!Agamben categoricayW rues out the possibiity of any simpe outside to thestate of exception<W There are not 2rst ife as a natura bioogica gi-en andanomie as theW state of nature, and then their impication in a0 through thestate of exceptionFW ($66Qb, /#*! Intrinsically too e!ceptionalism causes,for 1gamben, theJ same destabili0ation of the opposition betweenthe inside and the outside"J As he argued in Geans 0ithout End ($666*,etymoogicay, exception (excapere*W suggests that 0hat is being excuded in-arious structures of exceptionW is captured outside, that is, it is incuded by-irtue of its -ery excusionFW (7.*! Since the exception is a 3enomatic (emptyor -oid* instead of a peromaticW state in 0hich the so-ereign assumes penarypo0ers, it is not a dictatorshipW either!W

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Inclusive=e!clusion in 6KT

Individuals accused or suspected of being involved in

terrorist activities are sub@ected to the law but notprotected by the law)ogers, % (icoe of Southern Kross Schoo of Ra0 and Justice, Terrorist -so-ereign< ega performances in a state of exceptionFhttp<''epubs!scu!edu!au'cgi'-ie0content!cgiLartice"6Q&[contexta0Ipubs*''GE:Agamben asserts that ?0e are a -irtuay homines sacri8 ("../< ""Q*, but itis easier to discern the characteristics of homo sacer in a morediscrete group8 the individuals accused of terrorist oDences orsuspected of involvement in terrorism=related activities" Theseindividuals, stripped of basic rights, surveilled by the state,

sub@ected to house arrest or even more e!treme forms of violentdetention by the state, can be readily identi2ed as the contemporaryincarnation of homo sacer" #owever, since such indi-iduas are abe tomount ega chaenges against these forms of sur-eiance and contro by thestate, they do not share the central de2ning characteristic of homosacer8 that of being outside the law! "7 Terrorist - So-ereign Agamben distinguisheshis approach from that of 9oucaut in that he focuses on the connection bet0een biopoitics andso-ereignty, or the ?hidden point of intersection bet0een the ;uridico%institutiona and the biopoiticamodes of po0er8 (Agamben "../< *! He ac3no0edges an uni3ey symmetry and reationship bet0eenhomo sacer, controed and discipined by the biopoitica mechanisms 0hich characterise thecontemporary poitica era, and the so-ereign, 0ho creates and administers such biopoitica strategies! Foth homo sacer and the sovereign are, for diDerent reasons,outside the law, and thus they represent ‘the two poles of thesovereign e!ception (Agamben "../< ""6 *! This point is made 0ith some poignancy by

Terry Hic3s, the father of Da-id Hic3s 0ho, for so ong, in his extended incarceration in >uantanamo :ay,exempi2ed homo sacer@ Terry has mar-eed o-er the fact that his son8s name is so fre4uenty mentionedby President :ush (Souter $66*! Others ha-e obser-ed that the so-ereign and the terrorist are in3ed in

the ?0ar against terrorism8 discourse! Anna Sorenyi and Juiet ogers argue that ?the so-ereign incontemporary ega discourse is ocated -is%k%-is the terrorist8 and thatterrorism, 0hich is ?an in;ury to the body so-ereign8, pro-ides meaning for theso-ereign 2gure ($66< ""*!

State of e!ception allows for those accused of terrorismto be reduced to an animal=like state, making continuoussurveillance key)ogers, % (icoe of Southern Kross Schoo of Ra0 and Justice, Terrorist -

so-ereign< ega performances in a state of exceptionFhttp<''epubs!scu!edu!au'cgi'-ie0content!cgiLartice"6Q&[contexta0Ipubs*''GE:Gost terrorist suspects are denied bai! The accused terrorists e!periencethe most e!treme security conditions, virtual solitary con2nement,

continuous surveillance and e!traordinary security when attending

court " Rodhi appeared at his tria shac3ed at the an3es, arms and 0aist (1aace $66*! At hiscommitta hearing, Thomas 0as accompanied by four guards in body armour and extra court staB 0earingsidearms (Epstein $66&*! The thirteen men arrested in the o-ember $66Q raids in Gebourne and the nine

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men arrested in the same raids in Sydney attended their committa hearing in a doc3 encased in armouredgass ()ennedy [ Aard $66#, Hoare $66*! This is not 0ithout precedent@ the "." +sraei tria of the ai0ar crimina Eichmann aso featured the court appearances of the defendant 0ithin a buet%proof gassbox (Schechner $66$< "##*! Terrorist suspects ha-e been dressed in orange o-eras, thereby e-o3ing

comparisons 0ith >uantanamo :ay detainees! This treatment is clearly

dehumanising ! +t corresponds to the process of ?bestiaiation of the human8 0hich Judith :uter

has described in reation to the treatment of detainees at >uantanamo :ay! She 0rites that in suchoppressi-e conditions of imprisonment ?there is a reduction of these human beings toanima status, 0here the anima is 2gured as out of contro, in need of totaconstraint8 (:uter $66&< #/*! The representation of accused terroristsas less than human corresponds with one of the mythical archetypesof homo sacer8 the werewolf, ‘a monstrous hybrid of human andanimal (Agamben "../< "# ogers "6Q*! 1gamben argues that in the

state of e!ception ‘the city is dissolved and men enter into a 0one in

which they are no longer distinct from beasts ("../< "6#*!

State of e!ception has granted the 4SMR permission fordehumani0ation of ‘terrorists in the name of security)ogers, % (icoe of Southern Kross Schoo of Ra0 and Justice, Terrorist -so-ereign< ega performances in a state of exceptionFhttp<''epubs!scu!edu!au'cgi'-ie0content!cgiLartice"6Q&[contexta0Ipubs*''GE:+n a state of exception, ega performances 0or3 0ithin the po0er apparatus of the state! +n the ma;ority of

ega performances considered abo-e, 0e 2nd support for Agamben8s contention that the state ofe!ception prevails in contemporary 6estern societies and the rule of law carries itte meaning" Fiopolitical strategies utilised by the state tocontrol and monitor the activities of the contemporary form of homosacer, the accused terrorist, are accepted by the courts" The executi-e, 0ith

appropriate egisati-e endorsement, can e!ercise an e!traordinary degree ofpower over the body of the accused terrorist" Rega performances confer

egitimacy upon this regime! The terror trials are designed with apredetermined outcome in which the guilt and need for containmentof the accused terrorists are conclusively established! Antonia \uadara8sdescription of a hypothetica Austraian tria of Da-id Hic3s as ?an ocia performati-e sacri2ce at thehands of the a08 (\uadara $66< "&#* has a broader appication! Net it is 0ithin the context of theAustraian terror trias that 0e 2nd, surprisingy, the appication of the rue of a0! Despite an attac3 on therue of a0 by prominent members of the community, it seems that the contemporary state of exception isnot absoute! The esson from the Thomas and 5%Ha4ue cases is that the courts, in reaching a 2nadecision on the guit or innocence of accused terrorists, are prepared to appy the rue of a0!

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3rones3rone use is an indicator of the state of e!ception>curtailment doesnt begin to solve

Sassen, professor of sociology at Columbia 4niversity, G(Sas3ia, Drones o-er there, tota sur-eiance o-er hereFhttp<''000!a;aeera!com'indepth'opinion'$6"7'6$'$6"7$"6""&$7"7&7"/!htm ''GE:* The big story buried in a the commentary about the 5S go-ernments dronepoicy is that the od agorithm of the ibera state no onger 0or3s! Mocusing

on drones is almost a distraction , if it 0erent for the number of men, 0omen and

chidren they ha-e 3ied in ony a fe0 years! 6hat we should focus on is the deeper

condition that enables the drone policy , and so much more, and

that is the sharp increase in unaccountable e!ecutive power, no matter

0hat party is in po0er! The ".6s and the ".#6s sa0 the ma3ing of a0s that caed for the executi-ebranch of go-ernment to be more responsi-e to basic principes of a di-ision of po0er and accountabiityto citiens! Gany of its o0ners 0ere curtaied by the egisati-e! 1ith eagan, Kinton and especiay :ush%

Kheney, many of these laws were violated under the claim of a state ofe!ception due to the 76ar on Terror7" 1hat 0e are facing is a profounddegradation of the ibera state! 3rone killings and unlawfulimprisonment are at one end of that spectrum of degradation, andthe rise of the power, economic destructions and unaccountability ofthe 2nancial sector are at the other end" The massive surveillanceapparatus built up o-er the ast "6 years is the domestic companion ofthe overseas drone killings" It is one outcome of this deep decay ofthe liberal state" 1hie much is not 3no0n about either, 0e 3no0 enough torecognise its potential for enormous abuse! 1hat is 3no0n is that there are at east

"6,666 buidings across the 5S, 0ith a massi-e concentration in 1ashington, DK, engaged in ongoingsur-eiance of a of us residing in the territory of the 5S! Sur-eiance and counter%terrorism acti-itiesempoy about one miion professionas 0ith top e-e secret cearance! One estimate has it that e-ery dayo-er t0o biion emais are trac3ed! And on and on aong these ines!

The war on terror is destined to be eternal> the presenceor absence of drones has no eDectRreenwald, G (>enn, 1ashington gets expicit< its ?0ar onterror8 is permanentFhttp<''000!theguardian!com'commentisfree'$6"7'may'"#'endess%0ar%on%terror%obama*''GE: The statutory basis for this 0ar % the $66" Authoriation to 5se Giitary 9orce (A5G9* % shoud be re-ised(meaning< expanded*! This is ho0 1ireds Spencer Ac3erman (soon to be the >uardian 5Ss nationa

security editor* described the most signi2cant exchange< As3ed at a Senate hearing todayho0 ong the 0ar on terrorism 0i ast, Gichae Sheehan, the assistantsecretary of defense for specia operations and o0%intensity conMict,ans0ered, At east "6 to $6 years! ! ! ! A spo3es0oman, Army Ko! Anne Edgecomb, cari2ed

that Sheehan meant the conMict is i3ey to ast "6 to $6 more years fromtoday % atop the "$ years that the conMict has aready asted! 1ecome to1merica9s Thirty [ears 6ar ! That the Obama administration is no0 repeatedy decaring

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/02/2013210114231346318.html


http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control/

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/12/06/276486/nearly-all-us-citizens-under-surveillance/


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/opinion/surveillance-and-accountability.html?ref=surveillanceofcitizensbygovernment&_r=0&gwh=A756F9C168F9DFB61BCA8AC4A14D3D73



http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control/print/


http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/05/decades-of-war/











7/24/2019 GDI 15 - Agamben K


that the 0ar on terror 0i ast at east another decade (or t0o* is -asty more signi2cant than a three ofthis 0ee3s big media contro-ersies (:enghai, +S, and AP'DOJ*combined! The miitary historian Andre0

:ace-ich has spent years 0arning that 4S policy planners have adopted ane!plicit doctrine of 7endless war7" Obama ocias, despite repeatedyboasting that they ha-e dei-ered permanenty cripping bo0s to a%\aida,are no0, as ceary as the Engish anguage permits, openy decaring this to

be so! It is hard to resist the conclusion that this war has no purposeother than its own eternal perpetuation" This war is not a means to

any end but rather is the end in itself" Not only is it the end itself,

but it is also its own fuel8 it is precisely this endless war = @usti2ed

in the name of stopping the threat of terrorism = that is the single

greatest cause of that threat "

Sovereign wants to continue using drones as an eDectiveway to maintain high surveillance and the eternal war onterror> aD endorses sovereign power

Tran=Cre(ue, G (Ste-en from the Kenter for the Study of theDrone at :ard Koege, The 9ore-er 1ar is A0ays HungryFhttp<''dronecenter!bard!edu'the%fore-er%0ar%is%a0ays%hungry'*''GE:1hat exacty is one supposed to ma3e of John :rennan8s admission that thewar against 1l \aeda 0i continue for another decadeL Ho0 did the A5G9 and the Patriot Act

together come to constitute something i3e America8s Artice &/, creating a permanentstate of e!ception in which something like the NS1s .giantautomated Stasi/ is simply accepted as the new normalL #ow did

drones become an inevitable part of the near future in e0 Nor3 KityL After

a, the 1ar on Terror reay isn8t anything i3e a 0ar at a— at east, not in the con-entiona imaginary ofnation states commanding discipined miitary forces on estabished 2eds of batte! The 5nited States

commands a degree of miitary po0er and comparati-e dominance simpy unprecedented in humanhistory—0hat is eeganty referred to, in the anodyne anguage of miitary panners, as asymmetry!F Thereare no stricty de2ned batte2eds, and the forma enemies in the 1ar on Terror ha-e rarey amounted tomore than the insurgent army of a deposed dictator (funded and armed by the 5!S!, abeit ong ago* and afe0 hundred reigious students in the mountains of Kentra Asia! +t is in fact genuiney strange ho0

resiienty this con-entiona image seems to persist in both popuar and inteectua imagination! ;venscholarly responses to the 6ar on Terror begin from the assumptionthat something new and strange is happening 0hen batte2eds and opponentsai3e are no onger deimited but rather a0ays and e-ery0here! +f one imits onesef to ega documents,this is pretty much the ony possibe concusion! The con-entiona imagery reay seems to be most usefuin obscuring the more fundamenta reaities of 0hat 0ar reay is! +n part, 0ar consists of the far more

common practice of ci-i 0ars, guerria 0ars, genocide and interna repression—but aso, in a arger sense,the fundamental state of war between the sovereign and his peoplethat is the originary, constitutive state for sovereign power itself"

The forever war, then, has eDectively allowed the 4nited States toclaim sovereignty to farthest reaches of the earth" Certainly, this isnot a (uestion purely of drones8 the apparatus also consists of a

deep surveillance state , tota internationa digita sur-eiance, a miitary arger than the

combined miitaries of the rest of the 0ord, and extraega rendition and detention programs! :ut at theedges of this arrangement, one 2ndsAgamben8s homo sacer, 9is3es;8s barbarians< those excuded fromthe ega order, stripped of rights, sub;ect to death at any time—the point at 0hich an empire con-ertsthose beyond its reach into obedient sub;ects or corpses! This is the ogic of so-ereign -ioence ta3en to itsmost extreme—and not insigni2canty, this has been accompished in part by euphemiing that -ioence,0hether in the sanitied parance of the miitary—focused obstruction,F targeted 3iing,F 3inetic

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/books/review/Bass-t.html


http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/04/al-qaeda-shadow-of-former-self/


http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/03/spy-terrorism/

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/the-efficacy-and-ethics-us-counterterrorism-strategy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_48_(Weimar_Constitution)

http://jacobinmag.com/2013/06/sympathy-for-paul-krugman/


http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2013/0327/Drones-above-New-York-scary-but-inevitable-Mayor-Bloomberg-says-video


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_warfare


http://ssrn.com/abstract=%201986548

http://books.google.com/books?id=hM9euhxDMs8C

http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/51




http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/03/spy-terrorism/

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/the-efficacy-and-ethics-us-counterterrorism-strategy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_48_(Weimar_Constitution)





http://ssrn.com/abstract=%201986548

http://books.google.com/books?id=hM9euhxDMs8C

http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/51

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actionF—or the more artfu, ideoogica euphemiation by 0hich assassination programs become compex

and debatabe mora issues in the ibera press! It should come as no surprise thatthis has been accompanied by the in2nite e!pansion of an apparatusof domestic surveillance and control unprecedented in human

history! One shoud ne-er forget that the instruments of sovereignty>

drones, militari0ed police, mass surveillance apparatus>were

always directed inwards as much as outwards, because the security

state secures one thing8 the safety of the sovereign above all ! 9romthe perspecti-e of so-ereign po0er, there is no inside and there is nooutside" There is only the violence to which we are all sub@ect"

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SecurityCrisis motivated politics removes any decision for thestate of e!ception – it is a now permanent feature of

modern sovereignty1gamben, Phiosopher, *+5Yationa +nternationa, 9rom the State of Kontro to a Praxis ofDestituent Po0erF, http<''roarmag!org'$6"&'6$'agamben%destituent%po0er%democracy', #'Q'"Q, KNZOne possibe 0ay to s3etch such a geneaogy 0oud be to inscribe its originand history in the paradigm of the state of exception! +n this perspecti-e, 0ecoud trace it bac3 to the oman principe Saus pubica suprema ex = pubicsafety is the highest a0 — and connect it 0ith oman dictatorship, 0ith thecanonistic principe that necessity does not ac3no0edge any a0, 0ith thecomits de saut pubi4ue during 9rench re-oution and 2nay 0ith artice &/

of the 1eimar repubic, 0hich 0as the ;uridica ground for the ai regime!Such a geneaogy is certainy correct, but + do not thin3 that it coud reayexpain the functioning of the security apparatuses and measures 0hich arefamiiar to us! 6hile the state of e!ception was originally conceived asa provisional measure, which was meant to cope with an immediatedanger in order to restore the normal situation, the security reasonsconstitute today a permanent technology of government! 1hen in$667 + pubished a boo3 in 0hich + tried to sho0 precisey ho0 the state ofe!ception was becoming in 6estern democracies a normal system of government, I could not imagine that my diagnosis would prove soaccurate! The ony cear precedent 0as the ai regime! 6hen #itler tookpower in Mebruary :GG, he immediately proclaimed a decree

suspending the articles of the 6eimar constitution concerningpersonal liberties! The decree 0as ne-er re-o3ed, so that the entireThird )eich can be considered as a state of e!ception which lastedtwelve years! 1hat is happening today is sti diBerent! A forma state ofexception is not decared and we see instead that vague non=@uridicalnotions > like the security reasons — are used to install a stablestate of creeping and 2ctitious emergency without any clearlyidenti2able danger! 1n e!ample of such non=@uridical notions whichare used as emergency producing factors is the concept of crisis!:esides the ;uridica meaning of ;udgment in a tria, t0o semantic traditionscon-erge in the history of this term 0hich, as is e-ident for you, comes fromthe >ree3 -erb crino@ a medica and a theoogica one! +n the medica

tradition, crisis means the moment in which the doctor has to @udge,to decide if the patient will die or survive! The day or the days in 0hichthis decision is ta3en are caed crisimoi, the decisi-e days! +n theoogy, crisisis the Rast Judgment pronounced by Khrist in the end of times! As you cansee, 0hat is essentia in both traditions is the connection 0ith a certainmoment in time! +n the present usage of the term, it is precisey thisconnection 0hich is aboished! The crisis, the @udgement, is split fromits temporal inde! and coincides now with the chronological course

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of time, so that > not only in economics and politics > but in everyaspect of social life, the crisis coincides with normality and becomes,in this way, @ust a tool of government! Konse4uenty, the capability todecide once for all disappears and the continuous decision=makingprocess decides nothing! To state it in paradoxica terms, 0e coud saythat, having to face a continuous state of e!ception, the government

tends to take the form of a perpetual coup dUtat! :y the 0ay, thisparadox 0oud be an accurate description of 0hat happens here in >reece as0e as in +tay, 0here to go-ern means to ma3e a continuous series of smacoups d8tat! This is 0hy + thin3 that, in order to understand the pecuiargo-ernmentaity under 0hich 0e i-e, the paradigm of the state ofe!ception is not entirely ade(uate! + 0i therefore foo0 Giche9oucaut8s suggestion and in-estigate the origin of the concept of security inthe beginning of modern economy, by 9ranlois \uesnais and thePhysiocrates, 0hose inMuence on modern go-ernmentaity coud not beo-erestimated! Starting 0ith 1estphaia treaty, the great absoutist Europeanstates begin to introduce in their poitica discourse the idea that theso-ereign has to ta3e care of its sub;ects8 security! :ut \uesnay is the 2rst toestabish security (suret* as the centra notion in the theory of go-ernment— and this in a -ery pecuiar 0ay! One of the main probems go-ernmentshad to cope 0ith at the time 0as the probem of famines! :efore \uesnay,the usua methodoogy 0as trying to pre-ent famines through the creation ofpubic granaries and forbidding the exportation of cereas! :oth thesemeasures had negati-e eBects on production! \uesnay8s idea 0as to re-ersethe process< instead of trying to pre-ent famines, he decided to et themhappen and to be abe to go-ern them once they occurred, iberaiing bothinterna and foreign exchanges! To go-ernF retains here its etymoogicacybernetic meaning< a good 3ybernes, a good piot can8t a-oid tempests, butif a tempest occures he must be abe to go-ern his boat, using the force of0a-es and 0inds for na-igation! This is the meaning of the famous mottoaisser faire, aisse passer< it is not ony the catch0ord of economiciberaism@ it is a paradigm of go-ernment, 0hich concei-es of security(suret, in \uesnay8s 0ords* not as the pre-ention of troubes, but rather asthe abiity to go-ern and guide them in the right direction once they ta3epace! 6e should not neglect the philosophical implications of thisreversal" It means an epochal transformation in the very idea ofgovernment, which overturns the traditional hierarchical relationbetween causes and eDects" Since governing the causes is dicultand e!pensive, it is safer and more useful to try to govern theeDects" + 0oud suggest that this theorem by \uesnay is the axiom ofmodern go-ernmentaity! The ancien regime aimed to rue the causes@modernity pretends to contro the eBects! And this axiom appies to e-erydomain, from economy to ecoogy, from foreign and miitary poitics to theinterna measures of poice! 1e must reaie that European go-ernmentstoday ga-e up any attempt to rue the causes, they ony 0ant to govern theeDects" 1nd \uesnays theorem makes also understandable a factwhich seems otherwise ine!plicable8 I mean the parado!icalconvergence today of an absolutely liberal paradigm in the economywith an unprecedented and e(ually absolute paradigm of state andpolice control ! If government aims for the eDects and not the causes,

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it will be obliged to e!tend and multiply control! Causes demand tobe known, while eDects can only be checked and controlled! Oneimportant sphere in 0hich the axiom is operati-e is that of biometricasecurity apparatuses, 0hich increasingy per-ade e-ery aspect of socia ife!

Constant security threat is necessary for the @usti2cationof otherwise ‘illegal action3ouglas, : (Jeremy, independent schoar, Disappearing Kitienship<sur-eiance and the state of exceptionFhttp<''ibrary!4ueensu!ca'o;s'index!php'sur-eiance%and%society'artice'-ie0'7&6$'77Q*''GE: There are a fe0 sections of the Patriot Act that are 0orth discussing in order to demonstrate the modernstate of exception, as 0e as its in3 to sur-eiance and the camp! 5nder Section &"$ of the Act, entited

Gandatory detention of suspected terroristsF, the Attorney >enera has the po0er to certify thatan alien meets the criteria of the terrorism grounds of the +mmigration and ationaity Act, or isengaged in any other acti-ity that endangers the nationa security of the5nited States, upon a ?reasonabe grounds to beie-e8 standard, and ta3e

such aiens into custodyF! The Attorney >enera must re-ie0 the detentione-ery six months and determine if the aien is to remain in detention becauseof a continued risk to security ! :ut 0hat remains ambiguous, and ao0sfor the indistinction bet0een a0 and -ioence and bet0een poice andso-ereignty, is this reasonabe grounds to beie-e standardF! Suce it to say,0ithout going into greater depth, this ?standard8 is grounds for racia pro2ing and the detention of poitica

opponents! Aso, the detention of aliens on a ‘belief is the production ofbare life, since it is the stripping of rights without reference to aviolation under ‘normal law@ in other 0ords, these suspected terroristsFare detained 0ithout ha-ing done anything 0rong, but must be situated in the state ofexception camp for those 0ho may threaten the ?norma8 force of the a0 = this is the aforementioned -oid,

or ?nonpace8, of the a0! Since these aliens cannot be detained under the

normal law, a camp of suspects must emerge in a national securityemergency"

The logic used to imprison foreign security threats is nowbeing applied to 1merican citi0ens, stripping them ofciti0enship without reason3ouglas, : (Jeremy, independent schoar, Disappearing Kitienship<sur-eiance and the state of exceptionFhttp<''ibrary!4ueensu!ca'o;s'index!php'sur-eiance%and%society'artice'-ie0'7&6$'77Q*''GE:1hat 0e ha-e been discussing thus far appies to the inde2niteF and mandatoryF detention of aiens, but

the Patriot Act and the Terrorism Act contain -arious sections on increased surveillancemeasures that target aliens and native citi0ens alike" Thesesurveillance activities include the collection of 3N1 from anyonedetained for any oDence or suspected of terrorism, phone taps,wiretaps for electronic communications, the collection of individuallibrary records &Section *? this Section in particular has receivedheavy criticism and debate, the collection of banking and 2nancialrecords, and other indirect surveillance methods, such as the

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collection of biometric data at 4S borders &as 1gambene!perienced*! Ho0e-er, these uni-ersa sur-eiance methods become much more signi2cant 0hen0e consider the proposed increased go-ernmenta po0ers outined in the Domestic Security Enhancement

Act $667 (aias, Patriot Act ++*! 5nder Section Q6" of Patriot Act ++ the .mandatory dentition/

of aliens suspected of terrorism e!tends to include 1mericans, who

can also be stripped of their citi0enship and made stateless

detainees ! As >ore Vida remar3s, under Patriot Act + ony foreigners 0ere denied due process of

a0 as 0e as sub;ect to arbitrary deportationXPatriot Act ++ no0 incudes American citiens in the samecategory, thus eiminating in one great erasure the :i of ightsF (Vida $667*! Section Q6", Expatriationof TerroristsF, of the Act states< This pro-ision (i!e! Section Q6"* 0oud amend / 5!S!K! "&/" to ma3e cearthat, ;ust as an American can rein4uish his citienship by ser-ing in a hostie foreign army, so can herein4uish his citienship by ser-ing in a hostie terrorist organiation! Speci2cay, an American coud beexpatriated if, 0ith the intent to rein4uish nationaity, he becomes a member of, or pro-ides materiasupport to, a group that the 5nited States has designated as a terrorist organiation, if that group is

engaged in hostiities against the 5nited States! 1ith the po0er proposed in this section of the Patriot Act ++, the government would be able to produce bare lifewith both aliens and 1merican citi0ens – .a process leading to thedisappearance of citi0enship by transforming the residents into‘foreigners within, a new sort of untouchable Ahomo sacerB, in the

transpolitical and anational state where the living are nothing morethan the ‘living deadF (Viriio $66Q, "Q*! 6e have seen how apermanent state of emergency creates a situation in which foreign residents

or -isitors can be detained 0ithout a court order for an inde2nite period of time@ even greatergovernmental powers are now aiming at expanding this exposure to thepure po0er of the ;uridica%poitica system to citi0ens as well! Citi0enshipand political signi2cance are becoming less fundamental andinaienabe rights and more categoriations that are ony maintained thoughbind adherence to so%caed democratic polices, 0hich look more and

more like a dictatorial structure (see< Arendt ".#7*!

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;conomyThe underpinning of the economy emphasi0es the notionof biopolitics

1gamben, Phiosopher, ::%(Stanford 5ni-ersity Press Kaifornia, The Open< Gan andAnimaF, http<''000!staB!amu!edu!p'e0a'Agamben,$6The$6Open!pdf, #'7'"Q, KN* Today, at a distance of neary se-enty years, it is cear for anyone 0ho is notin absoutey bad faith that there are no onger histor% ica tas3s that can beta3en on by, or e-en simpy assigned to, men! +t 0as in some 0ays areadye-ident starting 0ith the end of the 9irst 1ord 1ar that the European nation%states 0ere no onger capabe of ta3ing on historica tas3s and that peopesthemse-es 0ere bound to disappear! 1e competey misunderstand thenature of the great totaitarian experiments of the t0entieth century if 0e see

them ony as a carrying out of the nineteenth%century nation%states8 astgreat tas3s< nationaism and imperiaism! The sta3es are no0 diBerent andmuch higher, for it is a 4uestion of ta3ing on as a tas3 the -ery facticaexistence of peopes, that is, in the ast anaysis, their bare ife! Seen in thisight, the totaitarianisms of the t0entieth century truy constitute the otherface of the Hegeo%)o;e-ian idea of the end of history< man has no0 reachedhis historica teos and, for a humanity that has become animal again,there is nothing eft but the depoiticiation of human societies by means ofthe unconditioned unfoding of the oi3onomia, or the ta3ing on of bioogicaife itsef as the supreme poitica (or rather impoitica* tas3! +t is i3ey thatthe times in 0hich 0e i-e ha-e not emerged from this aporia" 3o we notsee around and among us men and peoples who no longer have any

essence or identity>who are delivered over, so to speak, to theirinessentiality and their inactivity ]inoperosit^ _>and who gropeeverywhere, and at the cost of gross falsi2cations, for an inheritanceand a task, an inheritance as taskW E-en the pure and simperein4uishment of a historica tas3s (reduced to simpe functions of internaor internationa poicing* in the name of the triumph of the economy,often today ta3es on an emphasis in 0hich natura ife itsef and its 0e%beingseem to appear as humanity8s ast historica tas3—if indeed it ma3es sensehere to spea3 of a .task"/ The traditiona historica potentiaities—poetry,reigion, phiosophy—0hich from both the Hegeo%)o;e-ian and Heideggerianperspecti-es 3ept the historico%poitica destiny of peopes a0a3e, ha-e ongsince been transformed into cutura spectaces Animaiation and

pri-ate experiences, and ha-e ost a historica ecacy! 9aced 0ith thisecipse, the ony tas3 that sti seems to retain some seriousness is theassumption of the burden—and the tota managementF—of bioogica ife,that is, of the -ery animaity of man! >enome, goba economy, andhumanitarian ideoogy are the three united faces of this process in 0hichposthistorica humanity seems to ta3e on its o0n physioogy as its ast,impoitica mandate! +t is not easy to say 0hether the humanity that hasta3en upon itsef the mandate of the tota management of its o0n animaity is

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sti human, in the sense of that humanitas 0hich the anthropoogicamachine produced by de%ciding e-ery time bet0een man and anima@ nor is itcear 0hether the well=being of a life that can no longer be recogni0edas either human or animal can be felt as ful2lling! To be sure, such ahumanity, from Heidegger8s perspec% ti-e, no onger has the form of 3eepingitsef open to the undisconceaed of the anima, but see3s rather to open and

secure the not%open in e-ery domain, and thus coses itsef to its o0n open%ness, forgets its humanitas , and ma3es being its speci2c disinhibitor! Thetota humaniation of the anima coincides 0ith a tota animaiation of man!

1lthough having written the laws of capitalism, the 4Sfeels free to e!cept itself from the those rules whenever –creating the parado! of inclusive=e!clusion"$erron, has a :A Speciaiation in anthropoogy and aso a minorin socioogy, *+5()arine, $6"&, Aert Press, >ood +ntentions< orms and Practices of +mperia

Humanitarianism,Fhttp<''openanthropoogy!org'>oodI+ntentionsIKhQIEconomicIExceptionaismI 5SAIPerronI$6"&!pdf , accessed #'#'$6"Q, JA)*Khampioning itsef as the eader of capitaism, more ob-iousy so since theKod 1ar, the 5S has ed the 0ord into an era of neoiberaism in 0hich thefree mar3et is deemed to be the utimate 0ay to prosperity (E0ood, $6"6*!+n fact, after memories 0ere ceared of the factors that ed the 5S into the>reat Depression of the ".76s, the end of 1ord 1ar ++ 0as foo0ed by therebirth of the beief in the free mar3et, a beief 0hich 0as best expressedthrough the creation of the :retton 1oods trio< the +nternationa Gonetary9und (+G9*, the 1ord :an3, and the >enera Agreement on TariBs and Trade(>ATT*, the atter succeeded by the 1ord Trade Organiation (1TO*! Since

then, the 4S has controlled a good deal of the 2nancial world and itcan be argued that the country has both written the rules andenforced them ! Ho0e-er, a simpe oo3 at the course of 4S economichistory allows one to reali0e that the 4S feels free to break the rulesof capitalism it advocates whenever the occasion demands it for thebene2t of the country and especiay its corporations! Gichae +gnatieBhas addressed the exceptionaity of 5S capacity to both be an ad-ocate ofhumanW rights, 0hie disrespecting them on mutipe occasions<W 6hatneeds e!plaining is the parado! of being simultaneously J a leaderand an outlier/ (+gnatieB, $66Q, p! $*! It isJ with this parado! in mind thatthis chapter examines 0hat W we might call a state of e!ceptionalism8 thevarious ways J in which the 4S inHuences the international economy

in itsJ favour and imposes on the rest of the world rules it doesJ notapply to itself" The roe of mutiatera internationaW economic and poiticinstitutions in 0hich the 5S hodsW s0ay, 0ith a focus on the +G9, 0i 2rst beexamined!W Then, the caims of the 5S to economic iberaism 0i beW

contrasted 0ith the managed trade poicy that has actuayW been appied andthe 0ay the 1TO has been both ad-ocatedW and disregarded according to thesituation! The o-erthro0W of the go-ernment of >uatemaa in ".Q&, as ;ustoneW notorious case, 0i pro-ide an exampe of the extent toW 0hich the 5Shas gone to contro the economic and poiticaW direction of dissident countries

http://openanthropology.org/Good_Intentions_Ch5_Economic_Exceptionalism_USA_Perron_2014.pdf




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and to protect AmericanW corporate interests ()iner, $66*! 9inay, the 5S W

strategy of enargement 0i be used to open up a discussion W about thesigni2cance of this internationa economic W contro, as 0e as the impicationsof the 5S deciding on the exception!

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The 'aw'aw and sovereign violence are synonymous – The law isused to control life

1gamben, Italian continental philosopher, :% (>iorgioAgamben, Homo Sacer, p! Q '')* The -ioence that :en;amin de2nes as di-ine is instead situated in a 0onein which it is no longer possible to distinguish between e!ceptionand rule! +t stands in the same relation to sovereign violence as the stateof actual e!ception , in the eighth thesis, does to the state of -irtuaexception! This is 0hy (that is, insofar as di-ine -ioence is not one 3ind of -ioence among others but

ony the dissoution of the in3 bet0een -ioence and a0* :en;amin can say that

di-ine -ioence neither posits nor conser-es -ioence, but deposes it! Di-ine-ioence sho0s the connection bet0een the t0o -ioences and, e-en more,bet0een -ioence and a0%to be the singe rea content of a0! The function of -ioence in ;uridica creation, :en;amin 0rites, at the ony point in 0hich theessay approaches something i3e a de2nition of so-ereign -ioence, ist0ofod, in the sense that a0ma3ing pursues as its end, 0ith -ioence as themeans, 0hat is to be estabished as a0, but at the moment of its instatementdoes not depose -ioence@ rather, at this -ery moment of a0ma3ing and inthe name of po0er, it speci2cay estabishes as a0 not an end immune andindependent from -ioence, but one necessariy and intimatey bound up 0ithit (Uur )riti3 der >e0at, pp! ".#%./*! This is 0hy it is not by chance that :en;amin, 0ith a seemingy

abrupt de-eopment, concentrates on the bearer of the link betweenviolence and law, which he calls 7bare life7 &#oDa8 'eben, instead of de2ning divine violence! The anaysis of this igure%0hose decisi-e function in the economy of

the essay has unti no0 remained unthought% estabishes an essential link between barelife and @uridical violence ! ot ony does the rue of a0 o-er the i-ingexist and cease to exist aongside bare ife, but e-en the dissoution of ;uridica -ioence, 0hich is in a certain sense the ob;ect of the essay,stems ! ! ! from the guit of bare natura ife, 0hich consigns the i-ing,innocent and unhappy, to the punishment that expiates the guit of bare ife%and doubtess aso puri2es Yentsti'mtZ the guity, not of guit, ho0e-er, but of a0 (ibid!, p! $66*!

The sovereign is able to suspend the law and create astate of e!ception so that it can avoid it1gamben :% (>iorgio, professor of phiosophy at uni-ersity of Verona,Homo Sacer< So-ereign Po0er and :are Rife, pg! "Q, accessed #'Q'"Q, 9U*

"!" The paradox of so-ereignty consists in the fact the sovereign is, at thesame time, outside and inside the @uridical order! +f the sovereign istruy the one to 0hom the ;uridica order grants the power of proclaiminga state of e!ception and, therefore, of suspending the orders ownvalidity, then .the sovereign stands outside the @uridical order and,nevertheless, belongs to it, since it is up to him to decide if theconstitution is to be suspended in totoF (Schmitt, Poitische Theoogie, p!"7*! The speci2cation that the so-ereign is at the same time outside andinside the ;uridica orderF (emphasis added* is not insigni2cant< the

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sovereign, having the legal power to suspend the validity of the law,legally places himself outside the law! This means that the paradox canaso be formuated this 0ay< the a0 is outside itsef,F or< +, the so-ereign,0ho am outside the a0, decare that there is nothing outside the a0 Ychenon ce un2iori eggeZ!F

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#uman )ightsThe refugee embodies how human rights break down inthe face of homo sacer

1gamben :%(>iorgio, Homo Sacer< So-ereign Po0er and :are RifeF, pg! #Q, V1*$!"! Hannah Arendt entited the 2fth chapter of her boo3 on imperiaism,0hich is dedicated to the probem of refugees, The Decine of the ation%State and the End of the ights of Gan!F Rin3ing together the fates of therights of man and of the nation%state, her stri3ing formuation seems to impythe idea of an intimate and necessary connection bet0een the t0o, thoughthe author hersef ea-es the 4uestion open! The parado! from 0hich Arendtdeparts is that the very 2gure who should have embodied the rightsof man par exceence – the refugee – signals instead the conceptsradical crisis" .The conception of human rights,/ she states, basedupon the assumed e!istence of a human being as such, broke downat the very moment when those who professed to believe in it werefor the 2rst time confronted with people who had indeed lost allother (ualities and speci2c relationships – e!cept that they were stillhumanF (Origins, p! $..*! In the system of the nation=state, the so=called sacred and inalienable rights of man show themselves to lackevery protection and reality at the moment in which they can nolonger take the form of rights belonging to citi0ens of a state! +f oneconsiders the matter, this is in fact impicit in the ambiguity of the -ery titeof the 9rench Decaration of the ights of Gan and Kitien, of "#/.! +n thephrase Ra dcaration des droits de 8homme et du citoyen, it is not cear0hether the t0o terms homme and citoyen name t0o autonomous beings orinstead form a unitary system in 0hich the 2rst is a0ays aready incuded inthe second! And if the atter is the case, the 3ind of reation that existsbet0een homme and citoyen sti remains uncear! 9rom this perspecti-e,:ur3e8s boutade according to 0hich he preferred his ights of anEngishmanF to the inaienabe rights of man ac4uires an unsuspectedprofundity!Arendt does no more than oBer a fe0, essentia hints concerning the in3bet0een the rights of man and the nation%state, and her suggestion hastherefore not been foo0ed up! +n the period, after the Second 1ord 1ar,both the instrumenta emphasis on the rights of man and the rapid gro0th ofdecarations and agreements on the part of internationa organiations ha-eutimatey made any authentic understanding of the historica signi2cance ofthe phenomenon amost impossibe! Net it is time to stop regardingdeclarations of rights as proclamations of eternal, meta@uridicalvalues binding the legislator (in fact, without much success* torespect eternal ethical principles, and to begin to consider themaccording to their real historical function in the modern nation=state"3eclarations of rights represent the originary 2gure of theinscription of natural life in the @uridico=political order of the nation=state! The same bare life that in the ancien rgime was politicallyneutral and beonged to >od as creaturey ife and in the cassica 0ord 0as

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(at east apparenty* clearly distinguished as 0o` from political life&bios now fully enters into the structure of the state and evenbecomes the earthly foundation of the states legitimacy andsovereignty"

The 2ght for .human rights/ is not benign – the ob@ect ofaid and protection is viewed e!clusively as bare life, thusreproducing the camp – the refugee must be separatedfrom the (uestion of rights, thus challenging thesovereign1gamben :%(>iorgio, Homo Sacer< So-ereign Po0er and :are RifeF, pg! #/, V1*$!&! The separation between humanitarianism and politics that weare e!periencing today is the e!treme phase of the separation of therights of man from the rights of the citi0en, in the 2nal analysis,however, humanitarian organi0ations – which today are more and

more supported by international commissions – can only grasphuman life in the 2gure of bare or sacred life, and therefore, despitethemselves, maintain a secret solidarity with the very powers theyought to 2ght" It takes only a glance at the recent publicitycampaigns to gather funds for refugees from )wanda to reali0e thathere human life is e!clusively considered &and there are certainlygood reasons for this as sacred life – which is to say, as life that canbe killed but not sacri2ced – and that only as such is it made into theob@ect of aid and protection" The .imploring eyes/ of the )wandanchild, whose photograph is shown to obtain money but who .is nowbecoming more and more dicult to 2nd, alive,/ may well be themost telling contemporary cipher of the bare life that humanitarian

organi0ations, in perfect symmetry with state power, need" 1humanitarianism separated from politics cannot fail to reproduce theisolation of sacred life at the basis of sovereignty, and the camp –which is to say, the pure space of e!ception – is the biopoliticalparadigm that it cannot master"W The concept of the refugee, &andthe 2gure of life that this concept represents must be resolutelyseparated from the concept of the rights of man, and 0e must seriousyconsider Arend8s caim that the fates of human rights and the nation%state arebound together such that the decine and crisis of the one necessariy impiesthe end of the other! The refugee must be considered for 0hat he is8nothing less than a limit concept that radically calls into (uestionthe fundamental categories of the nation=state, from the birth=

nation to the man=citi0en link, and that thereby makes it possible toclear the way for a long=overdue renewal of categories in the serviceof a politics in which bare life is no longer separated and e!cepted,either in the state order or in the 2gure of human rights"

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The attempt to create human rights creates only thereproduction of sovereign violence= creating acounterproductive cycle into homo sacer1yten, Professor of poitica theory and human rights, *+* Y:arnad%Koege Koumbia 5ni-ersity, Potentiaities of human

rights< Agamben and the narrati-e of fated necessityF,http<''000!pagra-e%;ournas!com'cpt';ourna'-""'n"'fu'cpt$6"6&Qa!htm,#''"Q KNZHuman rights ha-e become a predominant discourse in goba poiticsparticuary in the post%Kod 1ar era as they ha-e been in-o3ed to addressmutifarious forms of in;ustice ranging from -ioence against 0omen to gobapo-erty! +f this transformation has been 0ecome by some for its promise of acosmopoitan future, it has aso become the target of se-era critics 0hounderine the insidious eBects of human rights as a ne0 form of po0er! Thecosmopoitan aura of human rights has been increasingy demysti2ed as-arious schoars ha-e pointed out their depoyment in the ;usti2cation of

neoimperia inter-entions (Anderson, $66$@ Gutua, $66$@ Douinas, $66#*,their mas3ing of a poitica po0er constituting sub;ects in need of poiticaprotection (:ro0n, $66&*, and their hegemonic hod on our poiticaimagination ()ennedy, $66$*! >iorgio Agamben ma3es a distincti-econtribution to this contemporary debate 0ith his anaysis aiming todemonstrate ho0 human rights, percei-ed as normati-e guarantees againstthe state , actually participate in rendering human lives vulnerable tosovereign violence! Athough Agamben ;oins some other critics, especiaythose inMuenced by Giche 9oucauts 0or3 (for exampe, 1endy :ro0n*, inma3ing this caim, he radicaies the criti4ue of human rights in many 0ays! The criti4ue is radica iteray as it tries to grasp the probem by its roots! Todo this, Agamben goes bac3 to the eary formuations of human rights in the

eighteenth%century decarations, especiay the "#/. Decaration of theights of Gan and Kitien, and sho0s ho0 these decarations reiterate thebiopoitica fracture bet0een poitica and natura ife at the heart of 1esternmetaphysics and poitics! Once these decarations ma3e ife the foundation of the nation%state, e-ery aspect of ife becomes poiticied and is sub;ected toso-ereign po0er to an unprecedented degree! This anaysis sho0ing ho0human rights participate in the reproduction of a centuries%od probem ta3esAgamben aso to a concusion that is much more radica than those dra0n byother critics< >i-en the underying assumptions of human rights, there is nopossibiity of thin3ing them ane0@ 0e instead need to imagine a poiticsbeyond human rights so as to sever the tight link that holds human lifein the grip of sovereign power! This artice aims not ony to understand

Agambens distincti-e inter-ention in the contemporary debates on humanrights but aso to assess his concuding ca for a poitics beyond humanrights! + argue that this ca is necessitated by a counternarrati-e of 1esternpoitics that ties human rights inextricaby to the ?ogic8 Agamben ascribes tobiopoitica so-ereignty! 1ithin this stringent ogic, any human rightsstruggle cannot help but participate in the reproduction of thesovereign violence that it aims to contest"

http://www.palgrave-journals.com/cpt/journal/v11/n1/full/cpt201045a.html


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#uman rights are ine!tricably linked to sovereign violence– they blur the line between biopolitics and thanatpolitics1y 1yten, Professor of poitica theory and human rights, *+* Y:arnad%Koege Koumbia 5ni-ersity, Potentiaities of humanrights< Agamben and the narrati-e of fated necessityF,

http<''000!pagra-e%;ournas!com'cpt';ourna'-""'n"'fu'cpt$6"6&Qa!htm,#''"Q KNZ+n many 0ays, Agambens anaysis of human rights and humanitarianismresonates 0ith the criticisms oBered by se-era other contemporary schoars,especiay those dra0ing on 9oucauts 0or3 on go-ernmentaity! Agambenshares the 9oucaudian insight that rights are not protecti-e shiedsprotecting sub;ects against so-ereign po0er@ indeed, the more 0e in-o3erights, the more entanged 0e become 0ith so-ereign po0er! A recentexampe of this critica perspecti-e can be seen, for exampe, in 1endy:ro0ns anaysis of the discourse of human rights! Kontesting pre-aiingconceptions of human rights as ?an antipoitica and expressy mora antidoteto abusi-e poitica po0er8, :ro0n underscores ho0 this discourse 0or3sindeed as a form of poitica po0er 0hen it constitutes us as sub;ects in needof protection and undermines poitica pro;ects of coecti-e empo0erment(:ro0n, $66&, p! &Q&*! This point is aso emphasied in :ro0ns earier 0or3demonstrating that, far from heping us 2ght po0eressness, rights discoursecan produce us as po0eress -ictims as it can ?codify 0ithin the a0 the -erypo0eressness it aims to redress8 (:ro0n, "..Q, p! $"*! :oth Agamben and:ro0n 0oud agree that human rights produce the -ery sub;ects that theypresuppose and render their sub;ects -unerabe to so-ereign po0er!Athough Agamben shares some of the premises of the 9oucaudian criti4ue,he diBers from it at east in t0o 0ays! 9irst, Agamben reintroduces a form ofso-ereign -ioence that seems amost anachronistic in an age ofgo-ernmentaity (:uter, $66&, p! Q&*! 9rom a 9oucaudian perspecti-e,human rights are probematic, 2rst and foremost, as tactics ofgo-ernmentaity used in the reguation and management of popuations@attending to subte forms of sub;ect production, 9oucaudian criti4ue aerts usto a ne0 form of biopo0er that is at 0or3 at a time 0hen the archaicso-ereign po0er o-er ife and death is in decine! 9or Agamben, 0ho preciseyaims to oo3 into the intersection of so-ereignty and biopo0er, human rightsparticipate in the production of a type of so-ereign -ioence that 9oucautassumed to be in decine (though not competey extinct*! :y ma3ing ifeitsef the pace of so-ereign decision, human rights ha-e pa-ed the 0ay forpractices that increasingy bur the ine bet0een biopoitics andthanatopoitics, or bet0een poitics of ife and poitics of death ("../, p! "$$*!+n contemporary poitics -aoriing ife, Agambens anaysis suggests, theputati-ey archaic so-ereign ?right to ta3e ife8 merges perniciousy into thene0 ?right to inter-ene to ma3e ife8 (9oucaut, $667, p! $&/*! Agambensaccount, 0hich turns our attention to the i-es irredeemaby exposed toso-ereign -ioence, achie-es an eerie pragmatic soundness 0ith cases suchas the 9rench humanitarian pro-ision that paradoxicay ended up abandoningife at the ?no%mans and8 bet0een ife and death, right and -ioence(Agamben, "../, p! .6*! The current goba poitica context in 0hich 0e canno onger be dismissi-e of such cases as mere exceptions to be remedied on



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the 0ay to a more uni-ersa conception of human rights points to the cruciacontribution of Agamben to the debates on human rights! Agambens 0or3diBers from the 9oucaudian criti4ue aso in its ca for abandoning humanrights atogether in order to se-er the in3 bet0een ife and so-ereign po0er!9rom a 9oucaudian perspecti-e, it is sti possibe to rethin3 rights and in-o3ethem in 0ays contesting so-ereign po0er! 9or exampe, despite her criticisms

of identity%based rights caims, 1endy :ro0n urges a rethin3ing of thedemocratic po0er of rights = a rethin3ing that mo-es a0ay from thepre-aiing conception of rights as remedies for in;uries suBered by particuargroups to a more radica democratic conception focusing on the ?(2ctiona*egaitarian imaginary8 created by rights discourse (:ro0n, "..Q, p! "77@ seeaso :ro0n, $666*!Q 9or Agamben, ho0e-er, there is no such possibiity,precisey because human rights are ine!tricably tied to sovereignviolence , gi-en their reproduction of the biopoitica fracture bet0een biosand o since their origina formuations in the "#/. Decaration of the ightsof Gan and Kitien! This second point forms the inchpin of my criticaengagement 0ith Agamben< athough Agamben persuasi-ey argues for acritica in4uiry that oo3s into the paradoxicay -ioent eBects of the humanrights discourse, his concuding ca for a ?poitics beyond human rights8remains 4uestionabe, and as + 0i sho0, is at odds 0ith his o0n attempts tounderstand history in terms of contingencies and potentiaities ($666, pp! "Q=$*! 9rom Agambens standpoint, precisey because human rights aredoomed to reproduce so-ereign -ioence, any struggle for rights seemsto be futile < +t is amost as if, starting from a certain point, e-ery decisi-epoitica e-ent 0ere doube%sided< the spaces, the iberties, and the rights0on by indi-iduas in their conMicts 0ith centra po0ers a0ayssimutaneousy prepared a tacit but increasing inscription of indi-iduas8 i-es0ithin the state order, thus oBering a ne0 and more dreadfu foundation forthe -ery so-ereign po0er from 0hich they 0anted to iberate themse-es!("../, p! "$"*

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3emocracy<odern democracys attempt to free the oppressed, thosewithout political life, is impossible, it has caused it to

converge with the totalitarian state and guaranteesfascism and the repeat of Na0ism1gamben :% (>iorgio, professor of phiosophy at uni-ersity of Verona,Homo Sacer< So-ereign Po0er and :are Rife, pg! "7, accessed #'Q'"Q, 9U*+f anything characteries modern democracy as opposed to cassicademocracy, then, it is that modern democracy presents itself from thebeginning as a vindication and iberation of 0o`, and that it is constantytrying to transform its o0n bare ife into a 0ay of ife and to 2nd, so to spea3,the bios of o! Hence, too, modern democracy8s speci2c aporia< it 0ants toput the freedom and happiness of men into pay in the -ery pace = bare ifeF= that mar3ed their sub;ection! :ehind the ong, strife%ridden process that

eads to the recognition of rights and forma iberties stands once again thebody of the sacred man 0ith his doube so-ereign, his ife that cannot besacri2ced yet may, ne-ertheess, be 3ied! To become conscious of thisaporia is not to beitte the con4uests and accompishments of democracy! Itis, rather, to try to understand once and for all why democracy, atthe very moment in which it seemed to have 2nally triumphed overits adversaries and reached its greatest height, proved itselfincapable of saving 0o`, to 0hose happiness it had dedicated a its eBorts,from unprecedented ruin! <odern democracys decadence and gradualconvergence with totalitarian states in post=democratic spectacularsocieties (0hich begins to become e-ident 0ith Aexis de Toc4ue-ie and2nds its 2na sanction in the anayses of >uy Debord may well be rooted

in this aporia, 0hich mar3s the beginning of modern democracy and forcesit into compicity 0ith its most impacabe enemy! Today politics knows novalue (and, conse4uenty, no non-aue* other than life, and until thecontradictions that this fact implies are dissolved, Na0ism andfascism – which transformed the decision on bare life into thesupreme political principle – will remain stubbornly with us! Accordingto the testimony of obert Anteme, in fact, 0hat the camps taught those 0hoi-ed there 0as precisey that caing into 4uestion the 4uaity of manpro-o3es an amost bioogica assertion of beonging to the human raceF(R8espce humaine, p! ++*!

3emocracy protects its citi0ens for self=perseveration andwill take away their rights1gamben :% (>iorgio, prof of phiosophy at uni-ersity of Verona, HomoSacer< So-ereign Po0er and :are Rife, pg! #/ DRS*(>iorgio, Homo Sacer< So-ereign Po0er and :are RifeF, pg! ##%#/, V1*$!7! +f refugees (0hose number has continued to gro0 in our century, to thepoint of incuding a signi2cant part of humanity today* represent such adis(uieting element in the order of the modern nation=state, this is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4X8pE5idII


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abo-e a because by breaking the continuity between man andciti0en, nativity and nationality, they put the originary 2ction ofmodern sovereignty in crisis! Fringing to light the diDerencebetween birth and nation, the refugee causes the secretpresupposition of the political domain – bare life – to appear for aninstant within that domain" In this sense, the refugee is truly .the

man of rights,/ as 1rendt suggests, the 2rst and only realappearance of rights outside the 2ction of the citi0en that alwayscovers them over" [et this is precisely what makes the 2gure of therefugee so hard to de2ne politically" J Since the Mirst 6orld 6ar, thebirth=nation link has no longer been capable of performing itslegitimating function inside the nation=state, and the two termshave begun to show themselves to be irreparably loosened fromeach other" 9rom this perspecti-e, the immense increase of refugeesand stateless persons in ;urope &in a short span of time ,++,+++6hite )ussians, O++,+++ 1rmenians, ++,+++ Fulgarians, ,+++,+++Rreeks, and hundreds of thousands of Rermans, #ungarians, and)umanians were displaced from their countries is one of the two

most signi2cant phenomena" The other is the contemporaneousinstitution by many ;uropean states of @uridical measures allowingfor the mass denaturali0ation and denationali0ation of large portionsof their own populations" The 2rst introduction of such rules into the @uridical order took place in Mrance in : with respect tonaturali0ed citi0ens of .enemy/ origin? in :**, Felgium followed theMrench e!ample and revoked the naturali0ation of citi0ens who hadcommitted .antinational/ acts during the war? in :*, the fascistregime issued, an analogous law with respect to citi0ens who hadshown themselves to be .unworthy of Italian citi0enship/? in :GG, it

was 1ustrias turn? and so it continued until the Nuremberg laws on.citi0enship in the )eich/ and the .protection of Rerman blood andhonor/ brought this process to the most e!treme point of itsdevelopment, introducing the principle according to whichciti0enship was something of which one had to prove oneself worthyand which could therefore always be called into (uestion! 1nd one of the few rules to which the Na0is constantly adhered during thecourse of the .Minal Solution/ was that Pews could be sent to thee!termination, camps only after they had been fully denationali0ed&stripped even of the residual citi0enship left to them after theNuremberg laws" J These t0o phenomena = 0hich are, after a, absouteycorreati-e = sho0 that the birth=nation link, on which the declarationof O%: had founded national sovereignty, had already lost itsmechanical force and power of self=regulation by the time of theMirst 6orld 6ar! On the one hand, the nation=states become greatlyconcerned with natural life, discriminating within it between a so=to=speak authentic life and a life lacking every political value" &Na0iracism and eugenics are only comprehensible if they are broughtback to this conte!t!* On the other hand, the very rights of man thatonce made sense as the presupposition of the rights of the citi0enare now progressively separated from and used outside the conte!tof citi0enship, for the sake of the supposed representation and

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protection of a bare life that is more and more driven to the marginsof the nation=states, ultimately to be recodi2ed into a new nationalidentity" The contradictory character of these processes is certainlyone of the reasons for the failure of the attempts of the variouscommittees and organi0ations by which states, the 'eague ofNations, and, later, the 4nited Nations confronted the problem of

refugees and the protection of human rights, from the FureauNansen &:** to the contemporary #igh Commission for )efugees&:, whose actions, according to statute, are to have not apolitical but rather a .solely humanitarian and social/ mission" 6hatis essential is that, every time refugees represent not individualcases but – as happens more and more often today – a massphenomenon, both these organi0ations and individual states provethemselves, despite their solemn invocations of the .sacred andinalienable/ rights of man, absolutely incapable of resolving theproblem and even of confronting it ade(uately"

3emocracy masks the bare life of individuals sub@ectingthem to the violence of sovereign decision in the name of.repairing biopolitical fracture/1yten, Professor of poitica theory and human rights, *+* Y:arnad%Koege Koumbia 5ni-ersity, Potentiaities of human rights<Agamben and the narrati-e of fated necessityF, http<''000!pagra-e% ;ournas!com'cpt';ourna'-""'n"'fu'cpt$6"6&Qa!htm, #''"Q KNZAgambens anaysis of modern ;uridico%poitica de-eopments, incudingrights decarations, aims to re-ea the inimica eBects of the often%ceebratedtransformation of ?sub;ect8 into ?citien8 0ith the birth of modern democracy!He argues that 0ith this transformation modern democracy does not

abolish bare life but instead ‘shatters it and disseminates it intoevery individual body ("../, p! "$Q*! 1ith the introduction of habeascorpus, for exampe, modern democracy turns corpus or body into the ne0poitica sub;ect ("../, p! "$&*, and repeats the biopoitica fracture at theheart of 1estern poitics< it isoates a corpus, compels its physicalpresence before a court of law and renders it sub@ect to the violenceof sovereign decision! +n Agambens reading, habeas corpus is a harbingerof modern biopoitics, demonstrating that 0hat ies in the modern passagefrom ?sub;ect8 to ?citien8 is not ?man as a free and conscious poitica sub;ectbut, abo-e a, mans bare ife8 ("../, p! "$/*! +f habeas corpus introducescorpus as the bare ife founding the body poitic, modern rights decarationsidentify this body poitic 0ith the nation%state ("../, p! "$#@ $666, p! $6*!

1ith these decarations, natura ife, 0hich 0as distinguished as o andreegated to the ream of oi3os in the cassica 0ord, becomes the ?earthyfoundation8 of so-ereignty in the modern nation%state ("../, p! "$#@ $666, p!$6*! Through a brief and pro-ocati-e examination of the "#/. Decaration ofthe ights of Gan and Kitien, Agamben suggests that ?it is precisey barenatura ife = 0hich is to say, the pure fact of birth = that appears here as thesource and bearer of rights8 ("../, p! "$#" #e concludes that theserights declarations inaugurate modern biopolitics, in which bare lifemoves from the margins of the political order to its center! Agambens





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criti4ue of modern rights decarations dra0s primariy on Hannah Arendt!:oth authors ta3e the probems of human rights, especiay the precariouscondition of refugees, as their starting point@ instead of seeing theseprobems either as accidenta incidents or impementation faiures, they ta3ethem as symptoms re-eaing the deepy embedded paradoxes of humanrights in a nation%state system! Of particuar importance is the foo0ing

conceptua diemma at the heart of modern rights decarations< on the onehand, these decarations assume ?man8 in his natura condition to be thesource and bearer of rights that he is born 0ith@ on the other hand, theypresuppose this man to be a ?citien8 0ith membership in a so-ereign nation%state (Agamben, "../, p! "$/@ Arendt Y".Q"Z, ".#7, p! $."*! Athough bothArendt and Agamben ha-e simiar starting points, they proceed diBerenty intheir criti4ues and reach di-ergent concusions! Arendt presents a morehistoricay oriented in4uiry, attending to the eBects of important e-ents suchas the rise of imperiaism on the conceptua paradoxes of human rights! Shedoes not ta3e the rightessness of the stateess as an ine-itabe conditiongi-en the premises of modern rights decarations or gi-en the conceptuadichotomies of 1estern metaphysics@ instead, she treats it as a historicaycontingent probem that urges us to in4uire into the paradoxes of humanrights! +ndeed, her criti4ue ends 0ith a ca for rethin3ing, and notabandonment, of human rights (Arendt Y".Q"Z, ".#7, pp! $.=$.#*!Agamben, ho0e-er, interprets the conceptua diemma in rights decarations= that is, e4ui-oca in-ocation of man and citien = as another instancere-eaing the biopoitica fracture (bios'o* de2ning 1estern poitics andmetaphysics for centuries! Hence, he cas for nothing ess than a poitics thatrenounces a concepts, incuding human rights, 0hich hod ife in the grip ofso-ereign po0er! +ndeed, in his account, far from disrupting the ogic ofbiopoitica so-ereignty, rights decarations aggra-ate its -ioence bypoiticiing natura ife or o! As modern democracy attempts to hea thebiopoitica fracture bet0een poitica and natura ife by stipuating a 2ctionaunity bet0een man and citien, birth (nascere* and nation, Agamben argues,it ends up turning virtually everyone into bare life ("../, p! "$/*! 1iththese decarations, 4uestions of incusion and excusion = that is, 0hich manis a citienL = become essentiay poitica ("../, p! "7"*! These 4uestionsneed to be constanty setted by so-ereign decisions on the ?incusi-eexcusions8 of the nationa poitica community! As a resut of these so-ereignexceptions, there are -arious categories of peope 0ho inhabit the nation%state 0ithout being entited to poitica rights ("../, p! "76*! As Agambenanayes the eBects of modern biopoitics inaugurated by rights decarations,he puts a particuar emphasis on the crisis of the nation%state! Historicade-eopments of eary t0entieth century, such as mass denationaiations, heargues, disso-ed the 2ctiona unity bet0een birth and nation, man andcitien ("../, pp! "$/*! The crisis of the birth%nation in3, ho0e-er, does notend the poiticiation of natura ife@ indeed, it intensi2es this process! One ofthe probematica eBects of this crisis is the increasing depoyment of humanrights outside the context of citienship as can be seen in modernhumanitarianism@ as human rights are dissociated from citienship, theycome to stand for the rights of those 0ho are isoated as bare ife = forexampe, refugees ("../, pp! "7"=7&@ see aso 9assin, $66Q*! Another eBectof the dissoution of the 2ctiona unity bet0een birth and nation is the

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reguation and administration of ife in the name of its -aoriation to anunprecedented degree! Once the 2ctiona unity oses its ?mechanica forceand po0er of sef%reguation8, nation=states need more than ever to beengaged in sovereign decisions discriminating between ‘a so=to=speak authentic life and a life lacking every political virtue ("../, p!"7$*! One of Agambens most contro-ersia caims is that these decisions, the

etha conse4uences of 0hich became most expicit 0ith modern eugenicsand concentration camps, need to be understood 0ithin the context ofmodern biopoitics inaugurated by rights decarations that in-est ife 0ith theprincipe of so-ereignty< 'ife itself can become ‘the place of a sovereigndecision only because it is politici0ed, valori0ed, and sacrali0ed toan unprecedented degree in the 2rst place ("../, p! "&$*! At the end ofhis critica anaysis of rights decarations, 1gamben concludes thatmodern democracy has not only failed in healing the biopoliticalfracture but also repeated it in an unprecedented fashion preciselyby valori0ing life! Godern rights decarations ha-e turned ?the care ofnations bioogica body8 into an essentiay poitica tas3 as they ha-eattributed the principe of so-ereignty to ife ("../, p! "&$*! Insofar as

these declarations have made it possible for the sovereign state toe!tend its regulative powers into every sphere of life, they havebecome complicit in the production of bare life!

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State of e!ceptionThe state has a monopoly over decision=making within thelaw – and aboe the law – the e!ception is the rule, the aD

can only feed into sovereign power"1gamben, Phiosopher, ::%(Stanford 5ni-ersity Press Kaifornia, Homo Sacer< So-ereignPo0er and :are RifeF,http<''000!thing!net'rdom'ucsd'biopoitics'HomoSacer!pdf , #'7'"Q, KN*The foo0ing e-idence has been gender modi2ed The exception is that 0hich cannot be subsumed@ it de2es generacodi2cation, but it simutaneousy re-eas a speci2cay ;uridica formaeement< the decision in absoute purity! The exception appears in its absouteform 0hen it is a 4uestion of creating a situation in 0hich ;uridica rues canbe -aid! E-ery genera rue demands a reguar, e-eryday frame of ife to

0hich it can be factuay appied and 0hich is submitted to its reguations! The rue re4uires a homogeneous medium! This factua reguarity is notmerey an externa presuppositionF that the ;urist can ignore@ it beongs,rather, to the rue8s immanent -aidity! There is no rue that is appicabe tochaos! Order must be estabished for ;uridica order to ma3e sense! A reguarsituation must be created, and so-ereign are they 0ho de2nitey decides ifthis situation is actuay eBecti-e! A a0 is situationa a0!F The so-ereigncreates and guarantees the situation as a 0hoe in its totaity! They ha-e themonopoly over the 2nal decision ! Therein consists the essence of Stateso-ereignty, 0hich must therefore be propery ;uridicay de2ned not as themonopoy to sanction or to rue but as the monopoy to decide, 0here the0ord monopoyF is used in a genera sense that is sti to be de-eoped! The

decision re-eas the essence of State authority most ceary! Here thedecision must be distinguished from the ;uridica reguation, and (to formuateit paradoxicay* authority proves itself not to need law to createlaw! ! ! ! The exception is more interesting than the reguar case! The latterproves nothing? the e!ception proves everything! The exception doesnot ony con2rm the rue@ the rue as such i-es oB the exception aone! AProtestant theoogian 0ho demonstrated the -ita intensity of 0hichtheoogica reMection 0as sti capabe in the nineteenth century said< Theexception expains the genera and itsef! And 0hen one reay 0ants to studythe genera, one need ony oo3 around for a rea exception! +t bringse-erything to ight more ceary than the genera itsef! After a 0hie, onebecomes disgusted 0ith the endess ta3 about the genera = there are

exceptions! +f they cannot be expained, then neither can the genera beexpained! 5suay the dicuty is not noticed, since the genera is thoughtabout not 0ith passion but ony 0ith comfortabe super2ciaity! The exception,on the other hand, thin3s the genera 0ith intense passion!F (Poitische Theoogie, pp! ".%$$* +t is not by chance that in de2ning the exceptionSchmitt refers to the 0or3 of a theoogian (0ho is none other than Sqren)ier3egaard*! >iambattista Vico had, to be sure, armed the superiority ofthe exception, 0hich he caed the utimate con2guration of facts,F o-er

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positi-e a0 in a 0ay 0hich 0as not so dissimiar< An esteemed ;urist is,therefore, not someone 0ho, 0ith the hep of a good memory, masterspositi-e a0 Yor the genera compex of a0sZ, but rather someone 0ho, 0ithsharp ;udgment, 3no0s ho0 to oo3 into cases and see the utimatecircumstances of facts that merit e4uitabe consideration and exceptionsfrom genera ruesF (De anti4uissima, chap! $*! Net no0here in the ream of

the ;uridica sciences can one 2nd a theory that grants such a high position tothe exception! 9or 0hat is at issue in the so-ereign exception is, according toSchmitt, the -ery condition of possibiity of ;uridica rue and, aong 0ith it,the -ery meaning of State authority! Through the state of exception, theso-ereign creates and guarantees the situationF that the a0 needs for itso0n -aidity! :ut 0hat is this situation,F 0hat is its structure, such that itconsists in nothing other than the suspension of the rueL The Vichianopposition bet0een positi-e Ja0 (ins theticum* and exception 0e expressesthe particuar status of the exception! The exception is an eement in a0 thattranscends positi-e a0 in the form of its suspension! The exception is topositi-e a0 0hat negati-e theoogy is to positi-e theoogy! 1hie the atterarms and predicates determinate 4uaities of >od, negati-e (or mystica*theoogy, 0ith its neither !!! nor !!! ,F negates and suspends the attribution to>od of any predicate 0hatsoe-er! Net negati-e theoogy is not outsidetheoogy and can actuay be sho0n to function as the principe grounding thepossibiity in genera of anything i3e a theoogy! Ony because it has beennegati-ey presupposed as 0hat subsists outside any possibe predicate candi-inity become the sub;ect of a predication! Anaogousy, ony because its-aidity is suspended in the state of exception can positi-e a0 de2ne thenorma case as the ream of its o0n -aidity! "!$! The e!ception is a kind of e!clusion! 1hat is excuded from the genera rue is an indi-idua case! :utthe most proper characteristic of the exception is that 0hat is excuded in it isnot, on account of being excuded, absoutey 0ithout reation to the rue! Onthe contrary, 0hat is excuded in the exception maintains itsef in reation tothe rue in the form of the rue8s suspension! The rue appies to the exceptionin no onger appying, in 0ithdra0ing from it! The state of exception is thusnot the chaos that precedes order but rather the situation that resuts from itssuspension! +n this sense, the exception is truy, according to its etymoogicaroot, ta3en outside (ex%capere*, and not simpy excuded! +t has often beenobser-ed that the ;uridico%poitica order has the structure of an incusion of0hat is simutaneousy pushed outside! >ies Deeue and 9ix >uattari 0erethus abe to 0rite, So-ereignty ony rues o-er 0hat it is capabe ofinterioriingF (Deeue and >uattari, Gie pateaux, p! &&Q*@ and, concerningthe great con2nementF described by 9oucaut in his Gadness andKi-iiation, Gaurice :anchot spo3e of society8s attempt to con2ne theoutsideF (enfermer e dehors*, that is, to constitute it in an interiority ofexpectation or of exception!F Konfronted 0ith an excess, the systeminteriories 0hat exceeds it through an interdiction and in this 0aydesignates itsef as exterior to itsefF (R8entretien in2ni, p! $.$*! Theexception that de2nes the structure of so-ereignty is, ho0e-er, e-en morecompex! Here 0hat is outside is incuded not simpy by means of aninterdiction or an internment, but rather by means of the suspension of the ;uridica order8s -aidity = by etting the ;uridica order, that is, 0ithdra0 fromthe exception and abandon it! The exception does not subtract itself from

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the rule? rather, the rule, suspending itself, gives rise to thee!ception and, maintaining itself in relation to the e!ception, 2rstconstitutes itself as a rule! The particuar forceF of a0 consists in thiscapacity of a0 to maintain itsef in reation to an exteriority! 1e sha gi-e thename reation of exception to the extreme form of reation by 0hichsomething is incuded soey through its excusion! The situation created in

the exception has the pecuiar characteristic that it cannot be de2ned eitheras a situation of fact or as a situation of right, but instead institutes aparadoxica threshod of indistinction bet0een the t0o! +t is not a fact, since itis ony created through the suspension of the rue! :ut for the same reason, itis not e-en a ;uridica case in point, e-en if it opens the possibiity of the forceof a0! This is the utimate meaning of the paradox that Schmitt formuates0hen he 0rites that the so-ereign decision pro-es itsef not to need a0 tocreate a0!F 1hat is at issue in the so-eteign exception is not so much thecontro or neutraiation of an excess as the creation and de2nition of the-ery space in 0hich the ;uridico% poitica order can ha-e -aidity! +n thissense, the so-ereign exception is the fundamenta ocaiation (Ortung*,0hich does not imit itsef to distinguishing 0hat is inside from 0hat is outsidebut instead ttaces a threshod (the state of exception* bet0een the t0o, onthe basis of 0hich outside and inside, the norma situation and chaos, enterinto those compex topoogica reations that ma3e the -aidity of the ;uridicaordet possibe! The ordering of spaceF that is, according to Schmitt,constituti-e of the so-ereign nomos is therefore not ony a ta3ing of andF(Randesnahme* = the determination of a ;uridica and a territoria ordering (ofan Ordnung and an Ortung* = but abo-e a a ta3ing of the outside,F anexception (Ausnahme*! Since there is no rue that is appicabe to chaos,Fchaos must 2rst be incuded in the ;uridica order through the creation of aone of indistinction bet0een outside and inside, chaos and the normasituation = the state of e!ception!

The state of e!ception has a predilection towardse!emplary punishment – the aD cannot reconcile thecongruity of the e!ception and the rule"1gamben, Phiosopher, ::%(Stanford 5ni-ersity Press Kaifornia, Homo Sacer< So-ereignPo0er and :are RifeF,http<''000!thing!net'rdom'ucsd'biopoitics'HomoSacer!pdf , #'7'"Q, KN*+t may seem incongruous to de2ne the structure of so-ereign po0er, 0ith itscrue factua impications, by means of t0o innocuous grammatica

categories! Net there is a case in 0hich the inguistic exampe8s decisi-echaracter and utimate indistinguishabiity from the exception sho0 anunmista3abe in-o-ement 0ith the po0er of ife and death! 1e refer to theepisode in Judges "$!@ in 0hich the >aatians recognie the MeeingEphraimites, 0ho are trying to sa-e themse-es beyond the Jordan, by as3ingthem to pronounce the 0ord Shibboeth,F 0hich the Ephraimites pronounceSibboethF (The men of >iead said unto him, ?Art thou an EphraimiteL8 +f hesaid, ?ay@ then they said unto him, ?Say no0 Shibboeth8< and he saidSibboeth< for he coud not frame to pronounce it right! Then they too3 him,



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and se0 him at the passages of JordanF*! +n the Shibboeth, exampe andexception become indistinguishabe< ShibboethF is an exempary exceptionor an exampe that functions as an exception! (+n this sense, it is notsurprising that there is a predilection to resort to e!emplarypunishment in the state of e!ception!* "!Q! Set theory distinguishesbet0een membership and incusion! A term is incuded 0hen it is part of a set

in the sense that a of its eements are eements of that set (one then saysthat b is a subset of a, and one 0rites it b a*! :ut a term may be a memberof a set 0ithout being incuded in it (membership is, after a, the primiti-enotion of set theory, 0hich one 0rites b a*, or, con-ersey, a term may beincuded in a set 0ithout being one of its members! +n a recent boo3, Aain:adiou has de-eoped this distinction in order to transate it into poiticaterms! :adiou has membership correspond to presentation, and incusioncorrespond to representation (re%presentation*! One then says that a term is amember of a situation (in poitica terms, these are singe indi-iduas insofaras they beong to a society*! And one says that a term is incuded in asituation if it is represented in the metastructure (the State* in 0hich thestructure of the situation is counted as one term (indi-iduas insofar as theyare recodi2ed by the State into casses, for exampe, or into eectoratesF*!:adiou de2nes a term as norma 0hen it is both presented and represented(that is, 0hen it both is a member and is incuded*, as excrescent 0hen it isrepresented but not presented (that is, 0hen it is incuded in a situation0ithout being a member of that situation*, and as singuar 0hen it ispresented but not represented (a term that is a member 0ithout beingincuded* (R8tre, pp! .Q%""Q*! 1hat becomes of the exception in thisschemeL At 2rst gance, one might thin3 that it fas into the third case, thatthe exception, in other 0ords, embodies a 3ind of membership 0ithoutincusion! And this is certainy :adiou8s position! :ut 0hat de2nes thecharacter of the so-ereign caim is precisey that it appies to the exception inno onger appying to it, that it incudes 0hat is outside itsef! The so-ereignexception is thus the 2gure in 0hich singuarity is represented as such, 0hichis to say, insofar as it is unrepresentable! 1hat cannot be incuded in any0ay is incuded in the form of the exception! +n :adious scheme, theexception introduces a fourth 2gure, a threshod of indistinction bet0eenexcrescence (representation 0ithout presentation* and singuarity(presentation without representation*, something i3e a paradoxicaincusion of membership itsef! The exception is 0hat cannot be incuded inthe 0hoe of 0hich it is a member and cannot be a member of thewhole in which it is always already included" 1hat emerges in this imit2gure is the radica crisis of e-ery possibiity of clearly distinguishingbetween membership and inclusion, between what is outside andwhat is inside, between e!ception and rule! :adiou8s thought is, fromthis perspecti-e, a rigorous thought of the exception! His centra category ofthe e-ent corresponds to the structure of the exception! :adiou de2nes thee-ent as an eement of a situation such that its membership in the situationis undecidabe from the perspecti-e of the situation! To the State, the e-entthus necessariy appears as an excrescence! According to :adiou, the reationbet0een membership and incusion is aso mar3ed by a fundamenta ac3 ofcorrespondence, such that incusion a0ays exceeds membership (theorem of the point of excess*! The exception expresses precisey this impossibiity of a

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system8s ma3ing incusion coincide 0ith membership, its reducing a its partsro unity! 9rom the point of -ie0 of anguage, it is possibe to assimiateincusion to sense and membership to denotation! +n this 0ay, the fact that a0ord a0ays has more sense than it can actuay denote corresponds to thetheorem of the point of excess! Precisey this dis;unction is at issue both inKaude R-i%Strauss8s theory of the constituti-e excess of the signi2er o-er

the signi2ed (there is a0ays a ac3 of e4ui-aence bet0een the r0o, 0hichis reso-abe for a di-ine inteect aone, and 0hich resuts in the existence ofa superabundance of the signi2er o-er the signi2eds on 0hich it restsFY+ntroduction k Gauss, p! xixZ* and in Emie :en-eniste8s doctrine of theirreducibe opposition bet0een the semiotic and the semantic! ?The thoughtof our time 2nds itsef confronted 0ith the structure of the exception in e-eryarea! Ranguage8s so-ereign caim thus consists in the attempt to ma3e sensecoincide 0ith denotation, to stabiie a one of indistinction bet0een the t0oin 0hich anguage can maintain irsef in reation to its denotata byabandoning them and 0ithdra0ing from them into a pure angue (theinguistic state of exceptionF*! This is 0hat deconstruction does, positingundecidabes that are in2nitey in excess of e-ery possibiity of signi2cation!"!! This is 0hy so-ereignty presents itsef in Schmitt in the form of a decisionon the exception! Here the decision is not the expression of the 0i of asub;ect hierarchicay superior to a others, but rather represents theinscription 0ithin the body of the nomos of the exteriority that animates itand gi-es it meaning! The so-ereign decides not the icit and iicit but theoriginary incusion of the i-ing in the sphere of a0 or, in the 0ords ofSchmitt, the norma structuring of ife reations,F 0hich the a0 needs! Thedecision concerns neither a 4uaestio iuris nor a 4uaestio facti, but rather the-ery reation bet0een a0 and fact! Here it is a 4uestion not ony, as Schmittseems to suggest, of the irruption of the eBecti-e ifeF that, in the exception,brea3s the crust of a mechanism gro0n rigid through repetitionF but ofsomething that concerns the most inner nature of the a0! The a0 has areguati-e character and is a rueF not because it commands and proscribes,but because it must 2rst of a create the sphere of its o0n reference in reaife and ma3e that reference reguar! Since the rue both stabiies andpresupposes the conditions of this reference, the originary structure of therue is a0ays of this 3ind< +f (a rea case in point, e!g!< si membrum rupsit*,then (;uridica conse4uence, e!g!< taio esto*,F in 0hich a fact is incuded inthe ;uridica order through its excusion, and transgression seems to precedeand determine the a0fu case! That the a0 initiay has the form of a extaionis (taio, perhaps from tais, amounts to the thing itsefF* means thatthe ;uridica order does not originay present itsef simpy as sanctioning atransgressi-e fact but instead constitutes itsef through the repetition of thesame act 0ithout any sanction, that is, as an exceptiona case! This is not apunishment of this 2rst act, but rather represents its incusion in the ;uridicaorder, -ioence as a primordia ;uridica fact (permittit enim exparem-indictam, for the a0 ao0s e4uitabe -engeanceF YPompeius 9estus, De-erborum signi2cations &.! "QZ*! +n this sense, the exception is the originaryform of a0! The cipher of this capture of ife in a0 is not sanction (0hich isnot at a an excusi-e characteristic of the ;uridica rue* but guit (not in thetechnica sense that this concept has in pena a0 but in the originary sensethat indicates a being%in%debt< in cupa esse*, 0hich is to say, precisey the

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condition of being incuded through an excusion, of being in reation tosomething from 0hich one is excuded or 0hich one cannot fuy assume!>uit refers not to transgression, that is, to the determination of the icit andthe iicit, but to the pure force of the a0, to the a08s simpe reference tosomething! This is the utimate ground of the ;uridica maxim, 0hich is foreignto a moraity, according to 0hich ignorance of the rue does not eiminate

guit! +n this impossibiity of deciding if it is guit that grounds the rue or therue that posits guit, 0hat comes ceary to ight is the indistinction bet0eenoutside and inside and bet0een ife and a0 that characteries the so-ereigndecision on the exception! The so-ereignF structure of the a0, its pecuiarand origina force,F has the form of a state of exception in 0hich fact and a0are indistinguishabe (yet must, ne-ertheess, be decided on*! Rife, 0hich isthus obiged, can in the ast instance be impicated in the sphere of a0 onythrough the presupposition of its incusi-e excusion, ony in an exceptio! There is a imit%2gure of ife, a threshod in 0hich ife is both inside andoutside the ;uridica order, and this threshod is the pace of so-ereignty! Thestatement The rue i-es oB the exception aoneF must therefore be ta3en tothe etter! Ra0 is made of nothing but 0hat it manages to capture inside itsef through the incusi-e excusion of the exceptio< it nourishes itsef on thisexception and is a dead etter 0ithout it! +n this sense, the a0 truy has noexistence in itsef, but rather has its being in the -ery ife of men!F Theso-ereign decision traces and from time to time rene0s this threshod ofindistinction bet0een outside and inside, excusion and incusion, nomos andphysis, in 0hich ife is originariy excepted in a0! +ts decision is the positionof an undecidabe! ot by chance is Schmitt8s 2rst 0or3 0hoy de-oted tothe de2nition of the ;uridica concept of guit! 1hat is immediatey stri3ing inthis study is the decision 0ith 0hich the author refutes e-ety technico%formade2nition of the concept of guit in fa-or of terms that, at 2rst gance, seemmore mora than ;uridica! Here, in fact, guit is (against the ancient ;uridicapro-erb There is no guit 0ithout rueF* 2rst of a a process of inner ife,F

Inclusive=;!clusionThe inclusive e!clusion is the ab@ect between ‘us and‘thememblylas, + (Gichainos of Open 5ni-ersity of Kyprus, icosia 0ithexpertise in Educationa Theory and Peace Education, Agamben8s Theory of:iopo0er and +mmigrants'efugees'Asyum See3ers< Discourses ofKitienship and the +mpications9or Kurricuum TheoriingFhttp<'';ourna!;ctonine!org'index!php';ct'artice'-ie09ie'".Q'/7*''GE:Kritica and transnationa discourses on citienship can use Agamben8s -ie0s to raise 4uestions aboutidentity, membership and citienship—4uestions that are issues of pubic debate, yet in curricuar textssuch 4uestions are marginaied ()night Abo0it [ Harnish, $66*! 9or exampe,immigrants'refugees'asyum see3ers can be considered as ?imit concepts8 (e!g!, see Agamben, "..&* toradicay ca into 4uestion the fundamenta categories of the nation=state, incuding rights and citienship!+mmigrants'refugees'asyum see3ers are po0erfu 2gures that in-ite educators, curricuum theorists,students, and the 0hoe community to confront the poitics of 0hat Agamben has described as ?incusi-e

excusion!8 This inclusive e!clusion brings to mind Qristevas &:%* viewof the ab@ect" The ab@ect for Qristeva is an ob@ect which is e!cluded

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but which still challenges .its master/ &:%*, p" *" 1lthough it ise!cluded, it is simultaneously included in that it continues to disturbborders &between ‘us and ‘them and norms" Thus the ab@ect .doesnot stand opposed to the sub@ect, at a distance, de2nable" Theab@ect is other than the sub@ect but is only @ust the other side of theborder/ &[oung, ::+, p" 55*! 1hat is of interest here is an

understanding of ab;ection as that 0hich disturbs borders and norms such asrights and citienships! The immigrantE refugee E asylum seeker

becomes the ab@ect Kther, the homo sacer who has been left behind

or been e!cluded from the territorial boundaries that confer the

rights of citi0enship &$apastergiadis, *++"

Sovereignty can only operate through the inclusivee!clusion1yten, Professor of poitica theory and human rights, *+*

Y:arnad%Koege Koumbia 5ni-ersity, Potentiaities of humanrights< Agamben and the narrati-e of fated necessityF,http<''000!pagra-e%;ournas!com'cpt';ourna'-""'n"'fu'cpt$6"6&Qa!htm,#''"Q KNZ+n "../ 9rance introduced an amendment to its a0 on the ?Konditions ofEntry and esidence of 9oreigners8! This ega amendment granted residencypermits to non%citiens 0ho ha-e ?ife%threatening8 pathoogies that 0oud notbe propery treated if they 0ere to be deported to their home countries(Tic3tin, $66*! The amendment 0as moti-ated by humanitarian concerns@indeed, it 0as groups such as Gdecins sans 9rontires that pushed for sucha ega change! This humanitarian pro-ision, aiming to care for the suBering

body, ho0e-er, had some unanticipated and paradoxica eBects< +ntroducedat a time 0hen strict asyum and immigration poicies made it increasingydicut for non%citiens to egay reside in 9rance, this iness cause 0asindeed one of the fe0 options for securing basic rights! Net, as Giriam Tic3tin($66* underscores, troubing eBects of this humanitarian pro-ision came tothe fore shorty< increasing number of undocumented immigrants started toinfect themse-es 0ith H+V, re;ected treatment for inesses such as cataract,or too3 on the identity of peope 0ith A+DS to be abe to get residencepermits! This disconcerting case, iustrating ho0 humanitarian poitics aimingto care for ife can ha-e the paradoxica eBect of producing disabed andinfected bodies, pro-ides signi2cant insights into the pertinence ofAgambens account of so-ereignty in the current poitica context! Particuary

in Homo Sacer, 1gamben argues that sovereignty consists in adecision over life, which always produces bare lives vulnerable toviolence! One of the most contro-ersia caims he ma3es is that humanrights and humanitarianism, usuay concei-ed as normati-e setbac3s toso-ereign po0er, actuay 0or3 in 0ays to reinscribe it! They do this preciseyby -aoriing ife and turning it into a site of poitica decision! +n the case ofthe humanitarian pro-ision in 9rance, for instance, to be abe to grantresidence permits on the basis of ?ife%threatening8 pathoogies, there needsto be a decision about 0hat ?ife8 is in the 2rst pace (Tic3tin, $66, p! &$*!



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These -ita decisions and their eBects are at the center of Agambensanaysis of the inimica eBects of a poitics centered on so-ereignty andhuman rights! :eo0 + 0i outine Agambens anaysis of biopoiticaso-ereignty to pro-ide the ground0or3 for a discussion of his criti4ue ofhuman rights! To understand the insidious eBects of a po0er that ma3es thecare of ife its centra tas3, Agamben dra0s on the 0or3 of Giche 9oucaut! Of

particuar interest is 9oucauts contention that in modernity 0e see theemergence of biopo0er, 0hich diBers from the archaic so-ereign po0er thatreies on the threat of death and is instead centered on reguating andmanaging the bioogica ife of the indi-idua and species (9oucaut, ".//, p!"&7@ $667, p! $&"*! Kontra 9oucaut, Agamben argues that biopower is nota distinctively modern form of power but is always alreadyimplicated in sovereignty (Agamben, "../, pp! , .*! +t is the type ofpo0er at 0or3 not ony in modern democracies but aso in absoutemonarchies! To the extent that so-ereignty, in its archaic and modern forms,a0ays consists in a decision on ife, it is indeed inseparabe from biopo0er!$Agamben starts oB his anaysis of this intersection bet0een so-ereignty andbiopo0er 0ith the premise that ?the production of a biopoitica body is theorigina acti-ity of so-ereign po0er8 ("../, p! @ emphasis in the origina*! Ashe 0or3s on this premise, he ea-es aside 9oucauts geneaogy, and engagesinstead in a ?ogico%forma8 anaysis that aims to deineate 0hat is a0aysaready biopoitica in the permanent structure of so-ereignty throughout1estern poitics ("../, p! "6.*! To do this, he dra0s on Kar Schmittsde2nition of so-ereignty as the decision on the exception (Agamben, "../,pp! "., #, /7@ Schmitt, $66Q, p! Q*! 9or both Agamben and Schmitt,sovereignty cannot ground itself in legal norms@ it is in need of an?exteriority8 or ?factuaity8 to ground itsef! To understand the reation bet0eenso-ereign a0 and this exteriority, Agamben turns to the etymoogy of?exception8 (ex%capere*, 0hich indicates that so-ereign exception is notmerey excusion@ it is more precisely an ‘inclusive e!clusion, whichsigni2es a double movement – capturing at the very moment ofe!cluding ("../, p! $"*! On the basis of this etymoogy, Agamben arguesthat the ogic of so-ereignty consists in capturing, ta3ing in, 0hat is outsideof the ;uridico%poitica order! 1hat is this ?exteriority8 that is captured inso-ereign a0L The simpe ans0er is ?ife8! Agambens reading of Schmittsuggests that a0 cannot ha-e a concrete meaning 0ithout a reation to ife("../, p! $#*! Dra0ing on 1ater :en;amin, Agamben aso concudes that thisreationship bet0een a0 and ife a0ays necessitates the isoation of a ?bareife8 that can be 3ied 0ith impunity" 'ife can be included in thesovereign sphere only in the form of an e!clusion, or its capacity tobe killed ("../, p! /*! To understand ho0 ?bare ife8 is produced and to seeho0 Agamben estabishes the continuity of biopoitica so-ereigntythroughout 1estern history, it is important to oo3 at his reading of theancient >ree3 opposition bet0een o and bios! According to Agamben, orefers to the ?simpe fact of i-ing common to a i-ing beings (animas, men,or gods*8 0hereas bios denotes excusi-ey ?the form or 0ay of i-ing properto an indi-idua or a group8 ("../, p! "*! Dra0ing on Aristotes Poitics,Agamben caims that this opposition underies the excusion of natura ifefrom the pois and its reegation to the oi3os ("../, p! $*!7 +t is thisbiopoitica di-ision of poitica and natura ife that a0ays produces

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remainders and turns certain categories of i-ing beings into ?bare ife8!& :areife then is neither simpe natura ife of o nor poiticay 4uai2ed ife ofbios@ rather it is the ife produced as a resut of so-ereign decisions regarding0hat is distincti-ey human ("../, pp! .6, "6, "6.*! :y arguing that the?incusi-e excusion8 of ife has been the permanent characteristic ofbiopoitica so-ereignty, Agamben contests 9oucaut and argues that the

no-ety of modern biopoitics consists neither in the incusion of o in thepoitica sphere nor in the fact that poitics is concerned 0ith ife (Agamben,"../, p! .*! 1hat is distincti-e about modern po0er in this ne0 account isthat natura ife, 0hich 0as con2ned to the sphere of the oi3os in the cassica0ord, becomes the foundation of poitics, and 0hat used to be an exception =bare life – becomes the rule and comes to de2ne the life of everyciti0en and human being, blurring the distinctions between polis andoikos, bios and 0o`, right and -ioence ("../, p! .*! As moderndemocracies dedicate themse-es to the tas3 of ta3ing care of and protectingo, they end up sub@ecting every aspect of life to sovereign powerand turning each political sub@ect virtually into bare life ("../, p!"""*! Agamben attributes a signi2cant roe to modern ;uridico%poiticainno-ations such as habeas corpus and decarations of rights in this ma;orhistorica transformation, and it is to these that + no0 turn to discussAgambens distincti-e contribution to contemporary debates on humanrights!

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Citi0enshipThe rights of the citi0en versus the rights of the humandemonstrate the formulaic e!emption of the law resulting

in the camp – Sode!ho underpaying refugees and1ustralia detain refugees demonstrate the paradigm6assen, (Stina 1assen, &%$$%$6"Q, Are There Peope Outside of+dentityL, E%+nternationa eations, http<''000!e%ir!info'$6"Q'6&'$$'are%there%peope%outside%of%identity' '')* The sight of the camp is the ocation of the specialisation of sovereign power0ithin 0hich the production of bare life is transformed frome!emption into rule (Ginca, $6""*! 9or Agamben, the ;uridica%poitica structure ofthe camp = be it the concentration camps of the Second 1ord 1ar, themodern detention camps for refugees and asyum see3ers, or the infamousKamp Deta at >uantanamo :ay = is the site 0here the suspension of the

law it reproduced" This suspension ao0s for acts of immense cruety not ony to be committed,but aso utimatey to go unpunished (Puggioni, $66*! As Agamben has decared, the campen-isages the structure in 0hich the absoutisation of the biopo0er of di far-i-ere Y?to ma3e i-e8Z intersects 0ith and e4uay absoute generaisation ofthe so-ereign po0er di far morire Y?to ma3e die8ZF (Agamben, "...< /7*! +mportanty,

according to Agamben, once a geographica ocation is con-erted into this particuarpo0er structure , a space of e!emption, .ife is per se reduced to bare ife,and its contro resides excusi-ey on the so-ereign po0er of campadministratorsF (Puggioni, $66< #6*! The 0ay in 0hich the refugee camp produces homo sacer has

been examined in depth by se-era schoars! 9or instance, :ent Di3en has sho0n ho0 the idea ofexception increasingy contros a aspects of the refugee8s ife ($66&*!+ustrati-e is the case of the 9rench company, Sodexho, 0hich, in running a

detention centre for asyum see3ers outside of Rondon, is ao0ed by the 5)authorities to pay camp residents 7&p an hour for ceaning and coo3ing in thecamp! An amount 0hich is far beo0 the ega minimum 0age in the 5) (ibid*!Another exampe of ho0 the refugee is reduced to homo sacer, is the 0ay in0hich asyum see3ers can be arbitrariy reegated to detention! +n Austraiafor instance, refugees are mandatoriy detained as a resut of the poicy thata asyum caims are seen as 2ctitious unti pro-ed other0ise (ibid*! 9urther, asthe inter-ie0s 0ith & asyum see3ing 0omen in the 5) in $6"$ by 1omen for efugee 1omen (191*ma3es e-ident, detention is -ery common and can span bet0een a period of a fe0 days up unti ""months! On a-erage, the 0omen inter-ie0ed had been detained for three months (191, $6"&*! As one0oman tod the inter-ie0ers< The most depressing thing is that you don8t 3no0 ho0 ong you8re going tobe here or if you8 sti be here tomorro0F (ibid< &*! +n a of the abo-e exampes, the position of the asyumsee3er in contrast to the citien of the host state is teing! As Pointed out by Sa-o; ]i^e3, the 4uestion at

hand is if this distinction bet0een refugee and state citien indicate that 0hat

0e are seeing is a return to the diBerentiation bet0een the rights of theciti0en and the right of the humanW ($66$*! Aso, maybe the e-en more pressing issue isnot the 0ay in 0hich the peope 0ho are incusi-ey excuded are treated, but rather the fact that thesecases indicate that our most eementary, ?ero8, position is that of an ob;ect of biopoiticsF (ibid< .Q*!

http://www.e-ir.info/2015/04/22/are-there-people-outside-of-identity/




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3eclaration of the .rights/ of citi0ens enables modernbiopolitics – the outsideEinside dichotomy of citi0enshipcreates the homo sacer, thus allowing rights to be takenaway at will1gamben :%

(>iorgio, Homo Sacer< So-ereign Po0er and :are RifeF, pg! #%##, V1*$!$! 3eclarations of rights must therefore be viewed as the place inwhich the passage from divinely authori0ed royal sovereignty tonational sovereignty is accomplished! This passage assures the exceptioof ife in the ne0 state order that 0i succeed the coapse of the ancienrgime! The fact that in this process the .sub@ect/ is, as has beennoted, transformed into a .citi0en/ means that birth – which is tosay, bare natural life as such – here for the 2rst time becomes&thanks to a transformation whose biopolitical conse(uences we areonly beginning to discern today the immediate bearer ofsovereignty! The principle of nativity and the principle ofsovereignty, which were separated in the ancien rUgime &where birth

marked only the emergence of a su@et, a sub@ect, are nowirrevocably united in the body of the .sovereign sub@ect/ so that thefoundation of the new nation=state may be constituted" It is notpossible to understand the .national/ and biopolitical developmentand vocation of the modern state in the nineteenth and twentiethcenturies if one forgets that what lies at its basis is not man as afree and conscious political sub@ect but, above all, mans bare life,the simple birth that as such is, in the passage from sub@ect tociti0en, invested with the principle of sovereignty! The 2ction impicithere is that birth immediatey becomes nation such that there can be nointer-a of separation YscartoZ bet0een the t0o terms! )ights areattributed to man &or originate in him solely to the e!tent that man

is the immediately vanishing ground &who must never come to lightas such of the citi0en"W Ony if 0e understand this essentia historicafunction of the doctrine of rights can 0e grasp the de-eopment andGetamorphosis of decarations of rights in our century! 1hen the hiddendiBerence YscartoZ bet0een birth and nation entered into a asting crisisfoo0ing the de-astation of Europe8s geopoitica order after the 9irst 1ord1ar, 0hat appeared 0as aism and fascism, that is, t0o propery biopoiticamo-ements that made of natura ife the exempary pace of the so-ereigndecision! 1e are used to condensing the essence of ationa Sociaistideoogy into the syntagm bood and soiF (:ut und :oden*! 1hen Afredosenberg 0anted to express his party8s -ision of the 0ord, it is precisey tothis hendiadys that he turned! The ationa Sociaist -ision of the 0ord,F he0rites, springs from the con-iction that soi and bood constitute 0hat isessentia about >ermanness, and that it is therefore in reference to these t0ogi-ens that a cutura and state poitics must be directedF (:ut und Ehre, p!$&$*! Net it has too often been forgotten that this formua, 0hich is so highydetermined poiticay, has, in truth, an innocuous ;uridica origin! Theformula is nothing other than the concise e!pression of the twocriteria that, already in )oman law, served to identify citi0enship&that is, the primary inscription of life in the state order8 ius soli

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&birth in a certain territory and ius sanguinis &birth from citi0enparents" In the ancien rUgime, these two traditional @uridical criteriahad no essential meaning, since they e!pressed only a relation ofsub@ugation" [et with the Mrench )evolution they ac(uire a new anddecisive importance" Citi0enship now does not simply identify ageneric sub@ugation to royal authority or a determinate system of

laws, nor does it simply embody (as Khaier maintained 0hen hesuggested to the con-ention on September $7,"#.$, that the tite of citienbe substituted for the traditiona tite monsieur or sieur in e-ery pubic act*the new egalitarian principle? citi0enship names the new status oflife as origin and ground of sovereignty and, therefore, literallyidenti2es = to cite Jean%Denis Ran;uinais8s 0ords to the con-ention = esmembres du sou-erain, .the members of the sovereign"/ #ence thecentrality &and the ambiguity of the notion of .citi0enship/ inmodern political thought, which compels )ousseau to say, .Noauthor in Mrance""" has understood the true meaning of the term‘citi0en" Hence too, ho0e-er, the rapid gro0th in the course of the 9renche-oution of reguatory pro-isions specifying 0hich man 0as a citien and0hich one not, and articuating and graduay restricting the area of the iussoi and the ius sanguinis! 5nti this time, the 4uestions 1hat is 9renchL1hat is >ermanLF had constituted not a poitica probem but ony one themeamong others discussed in phiosophica anthropoogies! Kaught in a constant0or3 of rede2nition, these 4uestions no0 begin to become essentiaypoitica, to the point that, 0ith ationa Sociaism, the ans0er to the 4uestion1ho and 0hat is >ermanLF (and aso, therefore, 1ho and 0hat is not>ermanLF* coincides immediatey 0ith the highest poitica tas3! Mascismand Na0ism are, above all, J :iopoitics and the ights of Gan ##W

rede2nitions of the relations between man and citi0en, and becomefully intelligible only when situated – no matter how parado!ical itmay seem – in the biopolitical conte!t inaugurated by nationalsovereignty and declarations of rights" J Knly this tie between therights of man and the new biopolitical determination of sovereigntymakes it possible to understand the striking fact, 0hich has often beennoted by historians of the 9rench e-oution, that at the very moment inwhich native rights were declared to be inalienable and indefeasible,the rights of man in general were divided into active rights andpassive rights" +n his Priminaires de a constitution, Sieys aready cearystated<W Natural and civil rights are those rights for whosepreservation society is formed, and political rights are those rightsby which society is formed" Mor the sake of clarity, it would be bestto call the 2rst ones passive rights, and the second ones activerights"""" 1ll inhabitants of a country must en@oy the rights of passiveciti0ens """ all are not active citi0ens! 1omen, at east in the presentstate, chidren, foreigners, and aso those 0ho 0oud not at a contribute tothe pubic estabishment must ha-e no acti-e inMuence on pubic matters!(vcrits poiti4ues, pp! "/.%$6*W And after de2ning the membres du sou-erain,the passage of Ran%;uinais cited abo-e continues 0ith these 0ords< .Thuschildren, the insane, minors, women, those condemned to apunishment either restricting personal freedom or bringing disgrace Ypunition aeti-e ou inMammanteZ !!! will not be citi0ens/ (4uoted in

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Se0e, Re citoyen,F p! "6Q*!W Instead, of viewing these distinctions as asimple restriction of the democratic and egalitarian principle, inHagrant contradiction to the spirit and letter of the declarations, weought 2rst to grasp their coherent biopolitical meaning" Kne of theessential characteristics of modern biopolitics &which will continueto increase in our century is its constant need to rede2ne the

threshold in life that distinguishes and separates what is inside fromwhat is outside! Knce it crosses over the walls of the oikos andpenetrates more and more deeply into the city, the foundation ofsovereignty – non political life – is immediately transformed into aline that must be constantly redrawn" Knce 0o` is politici0ed bydeclarations of rights, the distinctions and thresholds that make itpossible to isolate a sacred life must be newly de2ned" 1nd whennatural life is wholly included in the polis – and this much has, bynow, already happened – these thresholds pass, as we will see,beyond the dark boundaries separating life from death in order toidentify a new living dead man, a new sacred man"

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Impacts

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RenocideState of e!ception mobili0es genocidal violence in thename of the law

)ogers, % (icoe of Southern Kross Schoo of Ra0 and Justice, Terrorist -so-ereign< ega performances in a state of exceptionFhttp<''epubs!scu!edu!au'cgi'-ie0content!cgiLartice"6Q&[contexta0Ipubs*''GE:There is no doubt that legal contests between the accused terroristand the sovereign are occurring with some fre(uency in the state ofe!ception which arguably characterises contemporary 6esternsocieties! Their -ery occurrence coud be percei-ed as an anomay gi-en thetheoretica parameters of the state of exception as a a0ess -oid! Ho0e-er,1gamben describes a relationship of mutual dependency in whichthe @udicial order ‘must seek in every way to assure itself a relationwith this ‘space devoid of law ($66Q<Q" *! +n any e-ent, some of these ?ega8

performances, for instance those staged by the :ush administration in processing the >uantanamo :aydetainees, are 4uasi%ega proceedings and not necessariy representati-e of the rue of a0! 9eur Johnsre;ects this concusion and contends that the regime at >uantanamo :ay is, in fact, ?a profoundyantiexceptiona ega artefact8 ($66Q< "Q* 0ith no space for option, doubt and responsibiity in the ega

procedures 0hich appy therein! This "& ogers description, ho0e-er, suggests bureaucracyrather than law > the sort of murderous bureaucracy which

engendered mass genocide during the Third eich< the ‘governmental

violence that > while ignoring international law e!ternally and

producing a permanent state of e!ception internally > nevertheless

still claims to be applying the law (Agamben $66Q< /#*! +n fact, the ega

performances 0hich are ta3ing pace in the contemporary state of exception can be di-ided into threecategories! +n the 2rst category 0e 2nd the true ega bac3 hoes, in 0hich the courts refuse to ;udge the

actions of the executi-e! Net such performances are imited in number! Gore common are the secondcategory of ega performances, in 0hich the courts conduct ony a procedura re-ie0 and ignore thesubstance of the rue of a0 (Dyenhaus $66< 7Q*! 9rom these performances emerge 0hat Da-id

Dyenhaus has abeed the legal grey holes — far more dangerous, in his -ie0,than the bac3 hoes ($66< Q6* because in deferring to the e!ecutive the @udiciary ‘place a thin veneer of legality on the political ($66< 7.*!Into this category fall challenges by accused terrorists to varyingcircumstances of non=criminal detention, rigorous conditions ofsurveillance and e!treme restrictions on their freedom of movementand association! +n the 2na category, ho0e-er, 0e 2nd ega contests bet0een accused terroristsand the so-ereign in 0hich, despite the depoyment of biopoitica strategies and an o-ert dispay ofintimidatory force on the part of the so-ereign, the courts ha-e demonstrated an adherence to the rue ofa0 and a resistance to the )af3a%es4ue 4uaities of the state of exception! +n this 2na category of egaperformances the so-ereign is indeed constrained by the rue of a0!

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Turns Case – <ore SurveillanceThe biopolitical management of life in sovereigntyre(uires mass surveillance attempting to control the

population3ouglas, : (Jeremy, independent schoar, Disappearing Kitienship<sur-eiance and the state of exceptionFhttp<''ibrary!4ueensu!ca'o;s'index!php'sur-eiance%and%society'artice'-ie0'7&6$'77Q*''GE: This type of structure, 0hich ao0s for an unseen seer to 0atch o-er indi-iduas occupying a gi-enterritory, is nothing ne0 = in fact, such sur-eiance structures ha-e been recorded from as far bac3 as theEary :rone Age (7666%$Q6 :K* (ibid, #/%/Q*! Ho0e-er, these earier sur-eiance systems 0ere used inorder to guard a territory against an attac3, as 0ith the oo3out to0ers constructed at the top of castes!1hat distinguishes the oman 0or3 camp from other ancient sur-eiance mechanisms is the 0ay in 0hich

is it integrated into, and in many 0ays the precondition for, the poitica structure that creates the camp!The encampment of rebellious Pews characteri0es the state ofemergency, in which ‘normal law is suspended in order to use any

means necessary to protect the interest of the sovereign ! Thus, the

Pews in the camp must be removed from the political realm andtreated as bare life that must be constantly monitored and e!posedto the potentiality of violence" 1s we shall see, this camp serves aparadigmatic e!ample of aDects of surveillance, insofar as it is theamalgamation of the state of e!ception, bare life, violence, law,biopolitics, territory, and governmentality@ not to mention that e-idence ofsur-eiance and camp structures that existed thousands of years ago demonstrates that none of these

concepts are ne0 and modern phenomena! Rovernmentality is able to function asthe control of the population and the creation of bare life because it

employs surveillance as a crucial tactic in the management of life =

this is ceary presented in the oman camp exampe! Ho0e-er, athough many of theconcepts and techni4ues 0e see at 0or3 in the camp are not fundamentay diBerent today, not e-erything

has remained the same! The importance of a @uridical=political system thatacts according to the state of e!ception, or suspension of the law, isevident in the emergence of recent totalitarian and ‘democraticpermanent states of emergency? for e!ample, the 4Q and the 4Shave normalised the e!ception through the passing of ‘laws&Terrorism 1ct, $atriot 1ct, etc" that essentially nullify theapplication of normal laws protecting human rights, while still

holding them technically ‘in force " 6e see also that these

‘e!ceptional laws go hand in hand with increased surveillance, both

of which are tactics that establish control of the population ! Net 0hat

remains to be anaysed is the reation(s* bet0een sur-eiance, territory, and the state of exception = ho0does sur-eiance ao0 for the rise of the state of exception and the campL And, more broady, ho0 are a

there concepts integrated in an art of go-ernmentL Surveillance must be regarded asthe point at which the camp and the bare of the state of e!ceptionintersect in the governmental control of the population"

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The CampState of e!ception creates an omnipresent threat ofconcentration camps reemerging> the constant ‘security

threat created by the sovereign legitimi0es e!tremeaction3ouglas, : (Jeremy, independent schoar, Disappearing Kitienship<sur-eiance and the state of exceptionFhttp<''ibrary!4ueensu!ca'o;s'index!php'sur-eiance%and%society'artice'-ie0'7&6$'77Q*''GE:+n order to understand ho0 bare ife is produced and ho0 it can exists both 0ithin and outside of the pois,it is necessary to introduce another concept< state of exception! This notion is deri-ed, by in arge, fromKar Schmitt8s boo3 Poitica Theoogy, as 0e as from a fairy extensi-e debate bet0een 1ater :en;amin

and Schmitt concerning the nature of the state of exception! The state of e!ception is a.suspension of law/, which is usually instituted during a period ofwar or another state of emergency8 .The e!ception, which is not

codi2ed in the e!isting legal order, can at best be characteri0ed as acase of e!treme peril, a danger to the e!istence of the state, or thelike/ (Schmitt ".$$, *! 5nder the state of exception there becomes a?threshod8 bet0een a0 that is in the norm but is suspended and a0 that isnot the norm = i!e! not necessariy part of the ;uridica order = but is in force@so, in the state of exception there appears this ambiguous and uncertainone in 0hich de facto proceedings, 0hich are themse-es extra% oranti;uridica, pass o-er into a0, and ;uridica norms bur 0ith the mere fact =that is, a threshod 0here fact and a0 seem to become undecidabeF(Agamben $66Q, $.*! 1hat needs to be underined here is the reationbet0een the state of exception and bare ife! This point is absolutelycrucial for 1gamben and for understanding the role of governmental

surveillance8 the state of e!ception opens up the possibility of barelife and of the camp, where bare life is outside law but constantlye!posed to violence and .unsanctionable killing/ (Agamben "..&, /$*!Agamben8s position can be understood in the triadic reation ?state ofexception%camp%bare ife8@ the utimate po0er of the so-ereign, and thecomplete dissolution of democracy into totalitarianism – two politicalsystems that, according to 1gamben, already have an .inner

solidarity/ &ibid, + – happens at the point when the state of

e!ception becomes the rule and the camp emerges as the

permanent reali0ation of the indistinguishability between violenceand law, to 0hich 0e a, as homines sacri, are exposed! The paradigmatic

exampe is, of course, ai >ermany@ but 0hat remains to be seen is ho0 thistriad can be appied to our current poitica miieu!

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The camp is the paradigm of modern sovereignty –anything becomes possible, as the law and fact are fusedand confused – the state of e!ception is normali0ed, andthe citi0en becomes homo sacer"1gamben :% (>iorgio, prof of phiosophy at uni-ersity of Verona, Homo

Sacer< So-ereign Po0er and :are Rife, pg! #$ DRS*#!7! The paradoxica status of the camp as a space of exception must beconsidered! The camp is a piece of and paced outside the norma ;uridicaorder, but it is ne-ertheess not simpy an externa space! 1hat is excuded inthe camp is, according to the etymoogica sense of the term exceptionF (ex%capere*, ta3en outside, incuded through its o0n excusion! :ut 0hat is 2rst of a ta3en into the ;uridica order is the state of exception itsef! +nsofar as thestate of e!ception is .willed,/ it inaugurates a new @uridicopoliticalstructure in which the state of e!ception = the possibiity of deciding on0hich founds so-ereign po0er = is reali0ed normally! The sovereign nolonger limits itself, as it did in the spirit of the 6eimar constitution,to deciding on the e!ception on the basis of recogni0ing a given

factual situation &danger to public safety8 laying bare the innerstructure of the ban that characteri0es his power, he now de factoproduces the situation as a conse(uence of his decision on thee!ception! This is 0hy in the camp the 4uaestio iuris is, if 0e oo3 carefuy,no onger stricty distinguishabe from the 4uaestio facti, and in this senseevery (uestion concerning the legality or illegality of what happenedthere simply makes no sense! The camp is a hybrid of a0 and fact in0hich the t0o terms ha-e become indistinguishabe! Hannah Arendt onceobser-ed that in the camps, the principle that supports totalitarianrule and that common sense obstinately refuses to admit comes fullyto light8 this is the principe according to 0hich everything is possible!FOny because the camps constitute a space of exception in the sense 0e

ha-e examined = in 0hich not ony is law completely suspended but factand law are completely confused – is everything in the camps trulypossible! If this particular @uridico=political structure of the camps –the task of which is precisely to create a stable e!ception – is notunderstood, the incredible things that happened there remaincompletely unintelligible" 6hoever entered the camp moved in a0one of indistinction between outside and inside, e!ception and rule,licit and illicit, in which the very concepts of sub@ective right and @uridical protection no longer made any sense! 1hat is more, if theperson entering the camp 0as a Je0, he had aready been depri-ed of hisrights as a citien by the uremberg a0s and 0as subse4uenty competeydenationaied at the time of the 9ina Soution! Insofar as its inhabitants

were stripped of every political status and wholly reduced to barelife, the camp was also the most absolute biopolitical space ever tohave been reali0ed, in which power confronts nothing but pure life,without any mediation! This is why the camp is the very paradigm ofpolitical space at the point at which politics becomes biopolitics andhomo sacer is virtually confused with the citi0en! The correct 4uestionto pose concerning the horrors committed in the camps is, therefore, not thehypocritica one of ho0 crimes of such atrocity coud be committed against



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human beings! It would be more honest and, above all, more useful toinvestigate carefully the @uridical procedures and deployments ofpower by which human beings could be so completely deprived oftheir rights and prerogatives that no act committed against themcould appear any longer as a crime" &1t this point, in fact, everythinghad truly become possible"

The state of e!ception authori0ed the camp, legitimi0inganything1gamben :%(>iorgio, Homo Sacer< So-ereign Po0er and :are RifeF, pg! .%.#, V1*#!$! The importance of this constituti-e nexus bet0een the state of exceptionand the concentration camp cannot be o-erestimated for a correctunderstanding of the nature of the camp! The protectionF of freedom that isat issue in Schuthaft is, ironicay, protection against the suspension of a0that characteries the emergency! The no-ety is that Schuthaft is no0

separated from the state of exception on 0hich it had been based and is eftin force in the norma situation! The camp is the space that is openedwhen the state of e!ception begins to become the rule" In the camp,the state of e!ception, which was essentially a temporarysuspension of the rule of law on the basis of a factual state ofdanger, is now given a permanent spatial arrangement, which assuch nevertheless remains outside the normal order! 1hen Himmerdecided to create a concentration camp for poitica prisonersF in Dachau atthe time of Hiter8s eection as chanceor of the eich in Garch ".77, thecamp 0as immediatey entrusted to the SS and = than3s to Schuthaft =paced outside the rues of pena and prison a0, 0hich then andsubse4uenty had no bearing on it! Despite the mutipication of the often

contradictory communi4us, instructions, and teegrams through 0hich theauthorities both of the eich and of the indi-idua Rwnder too3 care to 3eepthe 0or3ings of Schuthat as -ague as possibe after the decree of 9ebruary$/, the camps absolute independence from every @udicial controland every reference to the normal @uridical order was constantlyrearmed! According to the ne0 notions of the ationa Sociaist ;urists(among 0hom Kar Schmitt 0as in the front ines*, 0hich ocated the primaryand immediate source of a0 in the 9hrer8s command, Schuthaft had,moreo-er, no need 0hatsoe-er of a ;uridica foundation in existing institutionsand a0s, being an immediate eBect of the ationa Sociaist re-outionF(Drobisch and 1ieand, System, p! $#*! :ecause of this = that is, insofar asthe camps 0ere ocated in such a pecuiar space of exception = Dies, the

head of the >estapo, coud decare, either an order nor an instructionexists for the origin of the camps< they 0ere not instituted@ one day they 0erethere Ysie 0aren nicht gegrndet, sie 0aren eines Tages daZ (4uoted ibid!, p!76*!W Dachau and the other camps that 0ere immediatey added to it(Sachsenhausen, :uchen0ad, Richtenberg* remained amost a0ays inoperation = 0hat -aried 0as the sie of their popuation (0hich in certainperiods, in particuar bet0een ".7Q and ".7#, before the Je0s began to bedeported, diminished to #,Q66 peope*! :ut in >ermany the camp as such hadbecome a permanent reaity!W #!7! The paradoxica status of the camp as a

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space of exception must be considered! The camp is a piece of and pacedoutside the norma ;uridica order, but it is ne-ertheess not simpy anexterna space! 1hat is excuded in the camp is, according to theetymoogica sense of the term exceptionF (ex%capere*, ta3en outside,incuded through its o0n excusion! :ut 0hat is 2rst of a ta3en into the ;uridica order is the state of exception itsef! +nsofar as the state of exception

is 0ied,F it inaugurates a ne0 ;uridico% poitica paradigm in 0hich the normbecomes indistinguishabe from the exception! The camp is thus theW TheKamp as omos .#W structure in which the state of e!ception – thepossibility of deciding on which founds sovereign power – is reali0ednormally! The so-ereign no onger imits himsef, as he did in the spirit of the1eimar constitution, to deciding on the exception on the basis of recogniinga gi-en factua situation (danger to pubic safety*< aying bare the innerstructure of the ban that characteries his po0er, he no0 de facto producesthe situation as a conse4uence of his decision on the exception! This is 0hy inthe camp the 4uaestio iuris is, if 0e oo3 carefuy, no onger strictydistinguishabe from the 4uaestio facti, and in this sense e-ery 4uestionconcerning the egaity or iegaity of 0hat happened there simpy ma3es nosense! The camp is a hybrid of a0 and fact in 0hich the t0o terms ha-ebecome indistinguishabe!W Hannah Arendt once obser-ed that in the camps,the principle that supports totalitarian rule and that common senseobstinately refuses to admit comes fully to light8 this is the principleaccording to which .everything is possible"/ Knly because the campsconstitute a space of e!ception in the sense we have e!amined – inwhich not only is law completely suspended but fact and law arecompletely confused – is everything in the camps truly possible! +fthis particuar ;uridico%poitica structure of the camps = the tas3 of 0hich isprecisey to create a stabe exception = is not understood, the incredibethings that happened there remain competey uninteigibe! 6hoeverentered the camp moved in a 0one of indistinction between outsideand inside, e!ception and rule, licit and illicit, in which the veryconcepts of sub@ective right and @uridical protection no longer madeany sense! 1hat is more, if the person entering the camp 0as a Je0, he hadaready been depri-ed of his rights as a citien by the uremberg a0s and0as subse4uenty competey denationaied at the time of the 9ina Soution!Insofar as its inhabitants were stripped of every political status andwholly reduced to bare life, the camp was also the most absolutebiopolitical space ever to have been reali0ed, in which powerconfronts nothing but pure life, without any mediation" This is whythe camp is the very paradigm of political space at the point atwhich politics becomes biopolitics and homo sacer is virtuallyconfused with the citi0en" The correct (uestion to pose concerningthe horrors committed in the camps is, therefore, not thehypocritical one of how crimes of such atrocity could be committedagainst human beings" It would be more honest and, above all, moreuseful to investigate carefully the @uridical procedures anddeployments of power by which human beings could be socompletely deprived of their rights and prerogatives that no actcommitted against them could appear any longer as a crime" &1t thispoint, in fact, everything had truly become possible"

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The modern biopolitical 4nited States, through the stateof e!ception, is no diDerent from the concentration campof Na0i Rermany – legitimi0ing -$s and human

e!perimentation1gamben :%(>iorgio, Homo Sacer< So-ereign Po0er and :are RifeF, pg! /.%.", V1*Q!"! On Gay "Q,".&", Dr! oscher, 0ho for some time had been conductingexperiments on rescue operations from high atitudes, 0rote to Himmer! Heas3ed whether, considering the importance of his research for the i-es of>erman piots, the mortal risk his e!periments constituted for -$s&-ersuchspersonen, human guinea pigs and the fact that nothing ofuse could be gained from conducting e!periments on animals, itmight be possible to provide him with .two or three professionalcriminals/ for his work ! :y this point the air 0ar had aready entered, thestage of high%atitude Mying, and the ris3 of death 0oud be great if, under

these conditions, the pressuried, cabin 0ere damaged or the piot had toparachute from the pane! The 2na resut of the exchange of etters bet0eenoscher and Himmer (0hich is preser-ed in its entirety* 0as the instaationat Dachau of a compression chamber to continue the experiments in a pacein 0hich VPs 0ere particuary easy to 2nd! 1e sti possess the records(furnished 0ith photographs* of the experiment conducted on a 7#%year%od Je0ish VP in good heath 0ho 0as sub;ected to the e4ui-aent pressure of"$,666 meters of atitude! After four minutes,F 0e read, the VP began tos0eat and to sha3e her head! After 2-e minutes cramps 0ere produced@bet0een six and ten minutes breathing acceerated and the VP ostconsciousness@ bet0een ten and thirty minutes breathing so0ed do0n tothree breaths a minute, and then ceased atogether! At the same time s3in

coor became strongy cyanotic and foam appeared around the ips!F Thenfollows the report of the dissection conducted to ascertain anypossible organic lesions on the corpse!W At the uremberg trias, theexperiments conducted by >erman physicians and scientists in theconcentration camps 0ere uni-ersay ta3en to be one of the most infamouschapters in the history of the ationa Sociaist regime! +n addition toexperiments pertaining to high%atitude rescue operations, experiments 0ereaso conducted at Dachau on the possibiity of sur-i-a in ice%cod 0ater andon the potabiity of sat 0ater (these experiments, too, 0ere designed tofaciitate the rescue of saiors and piots 0ho had faen into the ocean*! +n thecod%0ater experiments, VPs 0ere hed under cod 0ater unti they ostconsciousness, 0hie researchers carefuy anayed the -ariations in body

temperature and possibiities of reanimation! Particuary grotes4ue 0as theexperiment on so%caed anima heat reanimation, in 0hich VPs 0ere paced ina cot bet0een t0o na3ed 0omen 0ho had aso been ta3en from among the Je0s detained in the camps@ the documentation tes of a VP 0ho 0as abe toha-e sexua reations, 0hich faciitated the recuperation process! Theexperiments on the potabiity of sat 0ater 0ere instead conducted on VPschosen from among the prisoners bearing the bac3 triange (i!e!, >ypsies@this symbo of the genocide of a defenseess popuation ought to be

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remembered aongside the yeo0 star*! These VPs 0ere di-ided into threegroups< one that simpy had to abstain from drin3ing atogether@ one thatdran3 ony sat 0ater@ and one that dran3 sat 0ater mixed 0ith :er3ausat,a chemica substance that, according to the researchers, essened the harmof the sat 0ater!W Another important area of experimentation in-o-edinocuation 0ith petechia fe-er bacteria and the Hepatitis endemica -irus in

the hope of producing -accines against t0o infectious diseases that 0ereespeciay threatening to the heath of >erman sodiers on the battefronts,0here ife 0as hardest! Experimentation on nonsurgica steriiation bymeans of chemica substances or radiation, 0hich 0as to ser-e the eich8seugenic poitics, 0as, in addition, particuary se-ere and painfu for sub;ects!Ress often, experiments 0ere aso conducted on imb transpants, ceuarinMammations, and so on!W .6 PAT THEE< THE KAGP AS :+OPOR+T+KARPAAD+>G O9 THE GODEW Q!$! eading the testimony of VPs 0ho sur-i-ed,in some cases the testimony of the -ery sub;ects described in the extantrecords, is such an atrocious experience that it is very tempting toconsider the e!periments as merely sadocriminal acts with norelation to scienti2c research" Fut unfortunately this cannot be

done! To begin 0ith, some (certainy not a* of the physicians 0ho conductedthe experiments 0ere 4uite 0e respected by the scienti2c community fortheir research! Professor Kauberg, for exampe, 0ho 0as responsibe for thesteriiation program, 0as the in-entor of the Kauberg testF onprogesterone action, 0hich 0as commony used in gynecoogy unti a fe0years ago! Professors Schrder, :ec3er% 9reyting, and :ergbc3, 0ho directedthe experiments on the potabiity of sat 0ater, en;oyed such a good scienti2creputation that after they 0ere con-icted, a group of scientists from -ariouscountries submitted a petition to an internationa congress of medicine in".&/ so that these scientists might not be confused 0ith other criminaphysicians sentenced in uremberg!F And during their tria, Professor Voardt,a professor of chemistry at the 5ni-ersity of 9ran3furt, 0ho 0as notconsidered to ha-e sympathies for the ai regime, testi2ed before the courtthat from the scienti2c point of -ie0, the preparation of these experiments0as spendidF = a curious ad;ecti-e, if one considers that the VPs reachedsuch a e-e of prostration in the course of the experiment that they t0icetried to suc3 fresh 0ater from a rag on the Moor!W 6hat is decisively moredis(uieting is the fact &which is une(uivocally shown by the scienti2cliterature put forward by the defense and con2rmed by the e!pertwitnesses appointed by the court that e!periments on prisonersand persons sentenced to death had been performed several timesand on a large scale in our century, in particular in the 4nited States&the very country from which most of the Nuremberg @udges came" Thus in the :*+s, %++ people held in 4nited States prisons wereinfected with malaria plasmodia in an attempt to 2nd an antidote topaludism" There were also the e!periments – widely held to bee!emplary in the scienti2c literature on pellagra – conducted byRoldberg on twelve prisoners sentenced to death, who werepromised the remission of their penalty if they survivede!perimentation! Outside the 5nited States, the 2rst experiments 0ithcutures of the beriberi bacius 0ere conducted by ! P! Strong in Gania onpersons sentenced to death (the records of the experiment do not mention

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0hether participation in the experiment 0as -ountary*! +n addition, thedefense cited the case of Qeanu &#awaii, who was infected withleprosy in order to be promised pardon, and who died following thee!periment!W Konfronted 0ith this documentation, the @udges were forcedto dedicate interminable discussions to the identi2cation of criteriathat might render scienti2c e!periments on human guinea pigs

admissible" The 2nal criterion, which elicited general agreement,was the necessity of an e!plicit and voluntary consent on the part of the sub@ect who was to be submitted to the e!periment" Theconsistent practice in the 5nited States 0as (as sho0n by a form in use in thestate of +inois 0hich 0as dispayed before the ;udges* to ha-e the sentencedperson sign a decaration in 0hich the foo0ing, among other things, isstated<W + assume a the ris3s of this experiment and decare that + abso-ethe 5ni-ersity of Khicago and a the technicians and researchers 0ho ta3epart in the experiment, as 0e as the go-ernment of +inois, the directory ofthe State penitentiary and e-ery other ocia, e-en as concerns my heirs andrepresentati-es, of any responsibiity! + therefore renounce e-ery caim to anydamage or disease, e-en fata, 0hich may be caused by the experiment!W The

obvious hypocrisy of such documents cannot, fail to leave oneperple!ed" To speak of free will and consent in the case of a personsentenced to death or of a detained person who must pay seriouspenalties is, at the very least, (uestionable" 1nd it is certain thateven if similar declarations had been signed by the people detainedin the camps, the e!periments that took place would not have beenconsidered ethically admissible" 6hat the well=meaning emphasis onthe free will of the individual refuses to recogni0e here is that theconcept of .voluntary consent/ is simply meaningless for someoneinterned at 3achau, even if he or she is promised an improvement inliving conditions" Mrom this point of view, the inhumanity of thee!periments in the 4nited States and in the camps is, therefore,substantially e(uivalent" J VP ."W or 0as it possibe to in-o3e a diBerenceof ends in order to e-auate the diBerent and speci2c responsibiities in thecases at issue! An obser-ation by Aexander Gitscherich, the doctor 0ho,together 0ith 9! Gie3e, pubished the 2rst account of the physicians8 trias inuremberg in ".&#, bears 0itness to the dicuty of admitting that theexperiments in the camps 0ere not 0ithout medico%scienti2c precedent!1hen Professor ose 0as tried for experiments 0ith -accination againstpetechia fe-er (0hich had brought death to .# of 7.$ VPs*, he defendedhimsef by citing the anaogous experiments conducted by Strong in Ganiaon persons sentenced to death! ose compared the >erman sodiers 0hodied of petechia fe-er to the peope 0ith beriberi for 0hose bene2t Strongsresearch 0as intended! At this point Gitscherich, 0ho other0ise distinguisheshimsef by the sobriety of his comments, ob;ects< 1hie Strong 0as trying to2ght against the misery and death caused by a scourge of the natura order,researchers i3e the accused Professor ose 0or3ed, in the confusion of adictatorship8s inhuman methods, to maintain and ;ustify cruetyF (Gitscherichand Gie3e, 1issenschaft, pp! ""%"$*! As a historico%poitica ;udgment, theobser-ation is exact! +t is cear, ho0e-er, that the ethico%;uridica admissibiityof the experiments coud not in any 0ay depend on either the nationaity ofthe peope for 0hom the -accine 0as destined or the circumstances in 0hich

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they had contracted the disease!W The ony ethicay correct position 0oudha-e been to recognie that the precedents cited by the defense 0erepertinent, but that they did not diminish the responsibiity of the accused inthe sightest! :ut this 0oud ha-e meant thro0ing a sinister shado0 oncommon practices of the medica profession! (Since the time of the tria, e-enmore sensationa cases of mass experiments conducted on citiens ha-e

come to ight, for exampe, in the study of the eBects of nucear radiation!* Ifit was theoretically comprehensible that such e!periments would notraise ethical problems for ocials and researchers inside atotalitarian regime that moved in an openly biopolitical hori0on, howcould e!periments that were, in a certain sense, analogous havebeen conducted in a democratic countryWW The only possible answeris that in both conte!ts the particular status of the -$s was decisive?they were persons sentenced to death or detained in a camp, theentry into which meant the de2nitive e!clusion from the politicalcommunity" $recisely because they were lacking almost all the rightsand e!pectations that we customarily attribute to human e!istence,and yet were still biologically alive, they came to be situated in a

limit 0one between life and death, inside and outside, in which theywere no longer anything but bare life" Those who are sentenced todeath and those who dwelt in the camps are thus in some wayunconsciously assimilated to homines sacres, to a life that may bekilled without the commission of homicide" 'ike the fence of thecamp, the interval between death sentence and e!ecution delimitsan e!tratemporal and e!traterritorial threshold in which the humanbody is separated from its normal political status and abandoned, ina state of e!ception, to the most e!treme misfortunes" In such aspace of e!ception, sub@ection to e!perimentation can, like ane!piation rite, either return the human body to life &pardon and theremission of a penalty are, it is worth remembering, manifestationsof the sovereign power over life and death or de2nitively consign itto the death to which it already belongs" 6hat concerns us most ofall here, however, is that in the biopolitical hori0on thatcharacteri0es modernity, the physician and the scientist move in theno=mans=land into which at one point the sovereign alone couldpenetrate"

Ritmo is the manifestation of the 4"S" state of e!ception –it has become the camp"Mranks, J!D! from Har-ard Ra0, *++

(Gary Anne, $66Q, Scribner, >uantanamo 9ore-er< 5nited States So-ereigntyand the 5nending State of Exception,Fhttp<''000!hpronine!com'-o"no"'fran3s!pdf , accessed #'/'$6"Q, JA)* The name >uantanamo :ay is no0 inextricaby in3ed 0ith images W ofshac3ed men in orange ;umpsuits and bac3 hoods, 0ith the designation W ofenemy combatants,F and 0ith the uncertain, possiby se-ere -ioenceW to0hich they are sub;ected! The camps, in their strange positioning J

between the rule of law and utter lawlessness, stand for the outerlimit of J 4"S" sovereign power! >uantanamo functions as this imit in t0o

http://www.hlpronline.com/vol1no1/franks.pdf

http://www.hlpronline.com/vol1no1/franks.pdf

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simutaneousW but paradoxica senses! The camps at Ruantanamo are2rst andJ foremost a creation of the 4nited States, and thosedetained there are held J pursuant to the e!ercise of 1mericansovereign power ! At the same time, W ho0e-er, the 5!S! go-ernment assertsthat American courts ha-e no ;urisdiction, W and 5!S! a0s do not appy, in>uantanamo! Ruantanamo is thus J a kind of no mans land where

traditional conceptions of human rights do J not e!ist, and where 4"S"sovereign power is allegedly impotent to guarantee W the basic humanrights that are the cornerstone of democracy! W The go-ernment has attemptedto ;ustify the extraordinary measures W ta3en at >uantanamo—the tacticsempoyed in capturing and 3eeping theW prisoners, the creation of enemycombatantF status, the use of torture orW other 4uestionabe measures inextracting information from the prisoners,W the denia of due process, and thetrying of prisoners by miitary commissionsW rather than fu courts—asnecessary responses to an extraordinary W situation< a post=September ""0ord facing imminent danger fromW a shado0y and po0erfu enemy! Inshort, the 4"S" government has @usti2edJ the parado! of Ruantanamothrough the invocation of the state of emergency, J or what Carl

Schmitt called the state of e!ception"* W The dar3 and paradoxicadimension of the state of exception, as theorists such as >iorgio Agambenand Sa-o; ]i^e3 ha-e pointed out, is that the state of e!ception, which ismeant to be a temporary provisional suspension of the norm, ofteninstead becomes the norm>the law>itself" As Agamben 0rites, Y TBhestate of e!ception is not a special kind of law &like the law of war?rather, insofar as it is a suspension of the @uridical order itself, itdenies laws threshold or limit concept"/7 The conse(uences of thisperpetua state of exception for the democratic pro;ect are becomingbrutally clear in light of the seemingly endless .war on terror"/

Fecause state has power to declare both homo sacer andstate of e!ception, potential for the emergence ofconcentration camp=like situations is high)obinson, political theorist, *+ (Andre0, +n Theory >iorgioAgamben< the state and the concentration campFhttps<''cease2remagaine!co!u3'in%theory%giorgio%agamben%the%state%and%the%concentration%camp'*''GE:The danger of being declared homo sacer is built into the e!perienceof life in societies ruled by states! 9or Agamben, the ability to declaresomeone homo sacer is fundamental to the sovereignty claimed bystates! This is sho0n in the historic concept of the ?ban8! The term ?ban8 refers both to the so-ereign8s

standard (the banner or Mag* and to the act of outa0ing someone (origin of Engish ?ban8, ?banish8 and?bandit8*! This sho0s the deep connection bet0een so-ereignty and homo sacer! This 3ind of practice 0assupposed to be stopped in modern iberaism, 0ith ideas such as due process and habeas corpus, but

1gamben views it as a permanent aspect of sovereignty which keepsreturning and which is becoming increasingly central today, in the

emergence of states of e!ception such as camps" +t is aso cear in a certain

popuist discourse often found in the taboid press and among the more bigoted poiticians, in 0hich various people deemed ‘monsters, ‘animals, ‘scum and so on aretaken not to deserve human or civil rights! 9or instance, the former Tory GP Andre0





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Gac3ay said in pariament that gypsies 0ho camp in car par3s are ?scum8 0ho ?do not deser-e the samehuman rights as my decent constituents8! (His o0n expense 2dding being, presumaby, a diBerent matter*!Such cases are for Agamben e-idence of the spread of the ogic of so-ereignty, 0hich 0as ne-er reay

eiminated to begin 0ith! In any state regime, everyone is vulnerable, at riskof being declared homo sacer! In the case of democratic discourse,this does not change? at most, it @ust means that, while everyone ispotentially vulnerable, everyone is also potentially a sovereign, ableto declare others homo sacer (for instance, through mora panics*! There are many diBerent

3inds of ?exceptiona8 po0er to 0hich Agamben8s concepts are fre4uenty appied! The sovereignpower to declare an e!ception is associated with the suspension ofnormal legal guarantees and protections, and the denial of basicrights" Sometimes, such a situation can pertain across an entire society! States of exception arecearest in the 3ind of 8emergency8 po0ers 0hich states use to suspend norma a0s in speciacircumstances, such as :ritain8s Ki-i Kontingencies Act! These 3inds of a0s ha-e been 0idey used inRatin American and some European countries to suppress protests and socia unrest! States of exception

aso exist in other 3inds of spaces de2ned as margina or outside norma a0s! Kases of prisoncamps i3e >uantanamo :ay, 0hich 0as asserted by the :ush regime to beoutside American a0, and Abu >hraib, 0here 5S sodiers committed abuseunder the co-er of miitary impunity, are straightfor0ard exampes of the

state of exception! The theory aso tends to be appied to prisons and poicing regimes morebroady, especiay 0hen they are apparenty a0ess or outside norma a0s = the refugee detention and

border contro regime for exampe! http<''noborders!org!u3' $risons, too, are becomingcamp=like, with impunity for abuses by guards and, most recenty, aegationsthat guards pro-o3ed the Goorand uprising in an attempt to a-oid ;ob cuts! There is aso a strongsimiarity bet0een medie-a outa0ing and measures such as AS:Os and contro orders, 0hich simiaryde2ne certain indi-iduas seected by the state as outside the rights recognised in ordinary a0! +n earierhistorica periods, and sti today in 0arones, there is a tendency for coonies to be treated as states of

exception = the rights 0hich appy in the homeand don8t appy in the periphery! 1gambendiscusses the denigration of ‘savages and ‘primitives as a means torelegate groups of people to bare life by rendering themindistinguishable from animals, which had already been consigned tobare life"

The #olocaust revealed how the logic of sovereignty is theenemy> @ust because Na0i Rermany is gone does notmean camps are)obinson, political theorist, *+ (Andre0, +n Theory >iorgioAgamben< the state and the concentration campFhttps<''cease2remagaine!co!u3'in%theory%giorgio%agamben%the%state%and%the%concentration%camp'*''GE: The ai Hoocaust mar3s a second turning point in 0hich the horrors of the camp are re-eaed in a their

monstrosity! The #olocaust happened 0hen and 0here it did for contingent, historica reasons, but

its real causes were the creation of a particular kind of space, the

‘camp, where people were de2ned as having lives not worth living,

and as being vulnerable to being killed with impunity" Ausch0it is the high

point of the ogic of so-ereignty, sho0ing its ontoogica nature in its reaisation< it sho0s 0here the

combination of biopoitics and so-ereignty eads! 1uschwit0 marks the point of noreturn which reveals the nature of sovereignty for what it really is! Itthus marks the starting point for a new politics" This new politics is

http://www.scribd.com/doc/23331666/Civil-Contingencies-Act-Hitler-s-Enabling-Act


https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/in-theory-giorgio-agamben-the-state-and-the-concentration-camp/www.cageprisoners.com/

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150096366971000&comments





https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/in-theory-giorgio-agamben-the-state-and-the-concentration-camp/www.cageprisoners.com/





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not @ust about opposing Na0is speci2cally, but 2ghting the logic ofsovereignty which generated the #olocaust! According to Agamben, the camp

doesn8t ;ust exist in ai >ermany, or e-en in totaitarian regimes! The camp e!ists,potentially at least, wherever there are states" It is built into thelogic of political sovereignty" It is permanently possible in the spacesof e!ception which states constantly create" 1hether or not peope in these

spaces are actuay 3ied does not depend on any ega protection (0hich is either nonexistent orineBecti-e*, but entirey on the 0hims or ethics of the agents of the state 0ho are exercising its so-ereignpo0er! +t exists particuary strongy in contemporary states, because the ogic of so-ereignty has unfodedto a certain point (Agamben seems to thin3 of the changes in the state o-er time as something a3in to asaping gro0ing into a giant, fuy de-eoped tree*! Agamben famousy caims that the camp is the nomosof modernity = the moment of naming, of recognition and derecognition, 0hich creates the po0er (andautonomy* of the modern state! 1hie it is pecuiary modern, the camp aso mar3s the fu2ment of theinterna de-eopment of so-ereignty!

6ere not physically tramped in camps right now, butthere is huge potential to be treated as sub=human andkilled, all without punishment to the state

)obinson, political theorist, *+ (Andre0, +n Theory >iorgioAgamben< the state and the concentration campFhttps<''cease2remagaine!co!u3'in%theory%giorgio%agamben%the%state%and%the%concentration%camp'*''GE:Doubtess some 0i re;ect his theories for -ioating >od0in8s Ra0F, or because they fee it is tri-iaising ordecontextuaising the camp to compare it to e-ery instance of repression! This, + suspect, is based on a

misunderstanding! 9or one thing, 1gamben is not actually saying that we are alltreated like camp inmates, simply that were all at risk from beingtreated as if we are of this status – we could be killed by the statewith impunity, even if we arent! Aso, this is not ;ust a case of Agamben caing peopehe disi3es ais! There are cear, structura reasons for the paraes he dra0s! + 0oud argue that, in

contrast, the tabooing of discussion of fascistic elements of presentstate practices is based on a kind of irrational splitting, which wardsoD the subversive implications of .never again/ by keeping them ata distance, pretending they .dont apply to us/, they only apply toissues behind some imaginary boundary (in undemocraticF societies for instance* 0hichhistoricay 0oud pro-e to be far more porous! +t is, + thin3, a pecuiar perspecti-a boc3age of radicaismsin countries i3e :ritain to con2ne anti%fascism to opposing sma neo%ai groups! +n contrast, >ermanantifa ha-e ong recognised the paraes bet0een the repressi-e practices (and e-en the personne* of the

current >erman state and those of the Third eich@ so ha-e radicas in +tay, Spain, >reece and Japan! Itis only in countries like Fritain and 1merica, with no recent fascist pastto compare to, where the e!istence of a continuum between fascismand the ‘deep state is something of a public secret, even amongradicals!

Camp is the space where bare life and state of e!ceptionoverlapTas, Rraduate Student in Sociology at Foga0ici 4niversity, (Sercan, Godernity, Kamp and ?Homo Sacer8 in >iorgioAgambenFhttp<''000!academia!edu'7/QQ..6'GodernityIKampIandIHomoISacer IinI>iorgioIAgamben*''GE:



http://www.antifa.de/cms/


http://www.academia.edu/3855990/Modernity_Camp_and_Homo_Sacer_in_Giorgio_Agamben)//MEB








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According to Agamben, poitics is a0ays biopoitics and biopoitics is the centre of so-ereign po0er! +n thisight, modernity is not a brea3 0ith the historica tradition, but it generaies and radicaies 0hat 0as

present in the beginning of poitics! Ho0e-er, modernity is diDerent from pre=moderntimes because bare life, which was once located at the margins ofpolitical life is now occupying more and more space inside thepolitical domain! 1gamben Sees camp as the matri! of modernity"

Camp is a .hidden matri!/ because it is an event that repeats itselfon daily basis of the political domain" (" * The camp, for Agamben is not ony aphysica entity surrounded by fences and materiaity but it symboies the ine bet0een bare ife and

poitica existence! So, Na0i concentration camps are not the only campsthat 1gamben sees as the nomos of modernity, but every singlespace that produce bare life like ghettos can be counted as camp"The camp is the space that is opened when the state of e!ceptionbecomes the rule" ("/* Camp is the space, the state of e!ceptionwhere law and fact, rule and e!ception overlap" This is not pace but spacebecause the one does not ha-e to ha-e a character speci2c to it! The bombing of obos3i as an exampepro-es it! Heron panes determined the coordinates of the -iagers and bombed them! So, e-ery one can

be a space and a state of exception! Fare life and camp are essential parts of ourcontemporary political rationality" Agamben says a poitics is biopoitics

but modernity is the most exceent age of biopoitics because only inmodernity rule and e!ception have become indistinguishable! There is anincreasing aggra-ation of biopoitics in modernity! He says that biopoitics has passed beyond a ne0threshod! 9or exampe, ai biopoitics concentrated on identi2abe indi-iduas or speci2c popuations!

Ho0e-er, .in our age, all citi0ens can be said, in a speci2c bute!tremely real sense, to appear virtually as homices sacri "FF ("""* Theborderine th at separated indi-iduas and groups in the past is no0 found in inside the indi-idua body! Theine of separation bet0een poitica existence and bare ife mo-ed inside e-ery human ife and e-erycitien!

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#omo Sacer'aw has abandoned those within the camp – their killingno longer calls for punishment, but @ust the capacity to be

killed" They have become homo sacer"Kwnbey, Has a PhD in Engish and 0or3s on human rights initerature 0ithin the context of stateessness, *+G(Karoyn, &'$6"7, discosure< A Journa of Socia Theory, The Abandonment of Godernity< :are Rife and the Kamp in Homo Sacer and Hote 0anda,Fhttp<''u3no0edge!u3y!edu'cgi'-ie0content!cgiLartice"6"#[contextdiscosure, accessed #''$6"Q, JA)*The homo sacer stands outside the law, and is abandoned by it"1gamben calls the homo sacer .simply set outside human @urisdiction without being brought into the realm of divine law/ &%*" The homo sacer, externa to the a0, sti, ho0e-er, remains intimatey ".

bound to it! He does not simpy ha-e no reation to the a0@ he reates to thea0 precisey through his excusion from it! Agamben expains this as theso-ereign ban of the homo sacer from the so-ereign sphere—in other 0ords,as the state of exception! He says, The origina poitica reation is the ban(the state of exception as one of indistinction bet0een outside and inside,excusion and incusion*F ("/"*! :eing excuded from the a0, the homo sacercannot appea to the a0@ it cannot protect him! His banishment from thesphere of a0 reduces him—from a poiticay ree-ant person, a citienprotected by the a0 and 0ithin the a0—to his bare ife aone! As such, as acreature possessing bare ife ony, the homo sacer may become sub;ect todeath or punishment at the hands of anyone! Agamben expains that in thestate of exception, human ife is poiticied ony through an abandonment to

an unconditiona po0er of deathF (.6*! 5sing the exampe of the Je0 in ai>ermany, Agamben identi2es, a Hagrant case of homo sacer in thesense of a life that may be killed but not sacri2ced" #is killingtherefore constitutes X neither capita punishment nor a sacri2ce, butsimply the actuali0ation of a mere ‘capacity to be killed/ (""&*! The Je0 in ai >ermany demonstrates exacty those t0o traits Agamben has todus are a0ays present in the homo sacer< his abiity to be 3ied 0ithout beingthe -ictim of homicide, and his inabiity to be sacri2ced! Agamben continues,saying, The truthX is that the Je0s 0ere exterminated not in a mad andgiant hoocaust but exacty as Hiter had announced, ?as ice,8 0hich is to say,as bare ifeF (""&*! +n the same 0ay, the exterminating Hutus, particuary thegroup caed the +nterham0e, ca the Tutsis coc3roachesF (66<Q$" The

homo sacer no longer signi2es anything beyond his bare life? he hasno political relevance but for his mere e!istence outside the law,banished from the law, abandoned by it! Agamben expains, The ifecaught in the so-ereign ban is the ife that is originariy sacredX and, in thissense, the production of bare ife is the originary acti-ity of so-ereignty! Thesacredness of ife, 0hich is in-o3ed today as an absoutey fundamenta rightin opposition to so-ereign po0er, in fact originay expresses precisey bothife8s sub;ection to a po0er o-er death and ife8s irreparabe exposure in thereation of abandonmentF (/7*! Feing abandoned by the law, and as

http://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=disclosure




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such being reduced to bare life, does not necessarily indicate thatthe abandoned sovereign sub@ect, the homo sacer, will be tortured,murdered, or the like &although this is not out of the realm ofpossibility , and indeed there a0ays seems to be a sense of dangerhaunting the homo sacer*! It simply means the law no longer applies?the homo sacer cannot appeal to anyone for help, not to the law, the

sovereign, or the police"

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$olice StateThe proliferation of policing and surveillance technologiesstrips the capacity for social or political identities –

security has left the police state as a black hole1gamben, Phiosopher, *+5Yationa +nternationa, 9rom the State of Kontro to a Praxis ofDestituent Po0erF, http<''roarmag!org'$6"&'6$'agamben%destituent%po0er%democracy', #'Q'"Q, KNZ+ 0i rather try to sho0 ho0 the paradigm of security and the securityapparatuses ha-e payed a decisi-e roe in this process" The growinge!tension to citi0ens of technologies which were conceived forcriminals inevitably has conse(uences for the political identity of theciti0en" 9or the 2rst time in the history of humanity, identity is no longer afunction of the social personality and its recognition by others, but

rather a function of biological data, which cannot bear any relationto it, i3e the arabes4ues of the 2ngerprints or the disposition of the genes inthe doube heix of DA! The most neutral and private thing becomesthe decisive factor of social identity, which loses therefore its publiccharacter" If my identity is now determined by biological facts that inno way depend on my will and over which I have no control, then theconstruction of something like a political and ethical identitybecomes problematic" 6hat relationship can I establish with my2ngerprints or my genetic codeW The new identity is an identitywithout the person, as it 0ere, in 0hich the space of politics and ethicsloses its sense and must be thought again from the ground up! 1hiethe cassica >ree3 citien 0as de2ned through the opposition bet0een the

pri-ate and the pubic, the oi3os, 0hich is the pace of reproducti-e ife, andthe pois, pace of poitica action, the modern citi0en seems rather tomove in a 0one of indiDerence between the private and the public,or, to (uote #obbes terms, the physical and the political body" Themateriali0ation in space of this 0one of indiDerence is the videosurveillance of the streets and the s(uares of our cities! Here again anapparatus that had been concei-ed for the prisons has been extended topubic paces! Fut it is evident that a video=recorded place is no morean agora and becomes a hybrid of public and private? a 0one ofindiDerence between the prison and the forum! This transformationof the political space is certainly a comple! phenomenon thatinvolves a multiplicity of causes, and among them the birth of

biopower holds a special place" The primacy of the bioogica identity o-erthe poitica identity is certainy in3ed to the poiticiation of bare ife inmodern states! Fut one should never forget that the leveling of socialidentity on body identity begun with the attempt to identify therecidivist criminals! 6e should not be astonished if today the normalrelationship between the state and its citi0ens is de2ned bysuspicion, police 2ling and control" The unspo3en principe 0hich ruesour society can be stated i3e this< every citi0en is a potential terrorist"Fut what is a state ruled by such a principleW Can we still de2ne it as

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democratic stateW Can we even consider it as something politicalL +n0hat 3ind of state do 0e i-e todayL Nou 0i probaby 3no0 that Giche9oucaut, in his boo3 Sur-eier et Punir and in his courses at the Koge de9rance, s3etched a typoogica cassi2cation of modern states! He sho0s ho0the state of the Ancien egime, 0hich he cas the territoria or so-ereignstate and 0hose motto 0as faire mourir et aisser -i-re, e-o-es progressi-ey

into a popuation state and into a discipinary state, 0hose motto re-ersesno0 into faire -i-re et aisser mourir, as it 0i ta3e care of the citien8s ife inorder to produce heathy, 0e%ordered and manageabe bodies! The state inwhich we live now is no more a disciplinary state! >ies Deeuesuggested to ca it the vtat de contre, or contro state, because what itwants is not to order and to impose discipline but rather to manageand to control" Deeue8s de2nition is correct, because management andcontrol do not necessarily coincide with order and discipline! o onehas tod it so ceary as the +taian poice ocer, 0ho, after the >enoa riots in Juy $66" decared that the go-ernment did not 0ant for the poice tomaintain order but for it to manage disorder! American poitica scientists 0hoha-e tried to anaye the constitutiona transformation in-o-ed in the PatriotAct and in the other a0s 0hich foo0ed September $66" prefer to spea3 of asecurity state! :ut 0hat does security here meanL +t is during the 9renche-oution that the notion of security = suret, as they used to say — is in3edto the de2nition of poice! The a0s of Garch ", "#." and August "", "#.$introduced thus into 9rench egisation the notion of poice de suret (securitypoice*, 0hich 0as doomed to ha-e a ong history in modernity! +f you readthe debates 0hich preceded the -ote on these laws you will see thatpolice and security de2ne one another, but no one among the spea3ers(:rissot, Heraut de Schee, >ensonn* is abe to de2ne poice or security bythemse-es! The debates focused on the situation of the police withrespect to @ustice and @udicial power" RensonnU maintains that theyare .two separate and distinct powers,/ yet, while the function ofthe @udicial power is clear, it is impossible to de2ne the role of thepolice! An anaysis of the debate sho0s that the pace and function of thepoice is undecidabe and must remain undecidabe, because, if it 0ere reayabsorbed in the ;udicia po0er, the poice coud no more exist! This is thediscretionary po0er 0hich sti today de2nes the actions of poice ocer,0ho, in a concrete situation of danger for the pubic security act, so to spea3,as a so-ereign! :ut, even when he e!erts this discretionary power, thepoliceman does not really take a decision, nor prepares, as is usuallystated, the @udges decision! E-ery decision concerns the causes, 0hiethe poice acts on eBects, 0hich are by de2nition undecidabe! The name ofthis undecidabe eement is no more today, i3e it 0as in "#th century, raisond8vtat, or state reason! It is rather .security reasons/" The securitystate is a police state, but, again, in the ;uridica theory, the police is akind of black hole! 1ll we can say is that when the so called .scienceof the police/ 2rst appears in the %th century, the .police/ isbrought back to its etymology from the Rreek politeia and opposedas such to .politicsF! :ut it is surprising to see that poiceF coincides no00ith the true poitica function, 0hie the term poitics is reser-ed for foreignpoicy! Thus Von Justi, in his treatise on Poicey%1issenschaft, cas Poiti3 thereationship of a state 0ith other states, 0hie he cas Poiei the reationship

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of a state 0ith itsef! +t is 0orth0hie to reMect upon this de2nition< .$olice isthe relationship of a state with itself"/ The hypothesis + 0oud i3e tosuggest here is that, pacing itsef under the sign of security, the modernstate has eft the domain of poitics to enter a no man8s and, 0hosegeography and 0hose borders are sti un3no0n! The security state, 0hosename seems to refer to an absence of cares (securus from sine cura* shoud,

on the contrary, ma3e us 0orry about the dangers it in-o-es for democracy,because in it poitica ife has become impossibe, 0hie democracy meansprecisey the possibiity of a poitica ife!

-iolenceSovereignty inscribes self=preservation as a @usti2cationfor all violence within the law – it is still naked power, theviolence of the strongest is all that can be produced"1gamben, +taian continenta phiosopher, :% (>iorgio Agamben,

Homo Sacer, p! 7Q%7*$!7! The -ery sense of this opposition, 0hich has had such a tenacious ineage in the poitica cuture of the

1est, 0i be considered here in a ne0 0ay! The Sophistic poemic against nomos in fa-orof nature (0hich de-eoped 0ith e-er%increasing urgency during the course of the fourth century* can be considered the necessary premise of theopposition between the state of nature and the 7commonwealth,

0hich Hobbes posits as the ground of his conception of so-ereignty! +f for the Sophists the anteriorityof physis ultimately @usti2es the violence of the strongest, for Hobbesit is this very identity of the state of nature and violence &homohominis lupus that @usti2es the absolute power of the sovereign! +nboth cases, e-en if in an apparenty opposed fashion, the physis nomos antinomyconstitutes the presupposition that egitimates the principe of so-ereignty,the indistinction of a0 and -ioence (in the Sophists strong man or Hobbess so-ereign*! t is

important to note that in Hobbes the state of nature sur-i-es in the person of the so-ereign, 0ho is theony one to preser-e its natura ius contra omnes! Sovereignty thus presents itself asan incorporation of the state of nature in society, or, if one prefers, asa state of indistinction between nature and culture, betweenviolence and law, and this very indistinction constitutes speci2callysovereign violence! The state of nature is therefore not truy externa to names but rathercontains its -irtuaity! The state of nature (certainy in the modern era, but probaby aso in that of theSophists* is the being%in%potentiaity Yessere%in%potenaZ of the a0, the a0s sef% presupposition as

natura a0! Hobbes, after a, 0as perfecty a0are, as Strauss has underscored, that the state ofnature did not necessariy ha-e to be concei-ed as a rea epoch, but rathercoud be understood as a principe interna to the State re-eaed in themoment in 0hich the State is considered as if it 0ere disso-ed (ut tan4uam

dissouta comideretur YHobbes, De due, pp! #.%/6**! ;!teriority=the law of nature andthe principle of the preservation of one9s own life=is truly theinnermost center of the political system, and the poitica system i-esoB it in the same 0ay that the rue, according to Schmitt, i-es oB theexception!

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)acismFiopolitical surveillance reduce black 1mericans to barelife and enforce the white norm through cycles of

punishment and disciplineSantori *(>regg, Doctor of Phiosophy, :acheor8s in Poitica Science and >o-ernment,and Visiting Professor in the Department of Poitica Science at the 5ni-ersityof Kaifornia, Pro;ect Guse, Sua and the Socioogist< Toni Gorrison onAmerican :iopo0er after Ki-i ightsF,https<''muse!;hu!edu';ournas'theoryIandIe-ent'-6"Q'"Q!"!santori!htm,Accessed< #!Q!"Q, V1*5timatey, e8s choice dangerousy exposes her! e does not comprehendher uni4ue pace as a bac3 0oman 0ithin 0hite ci-iiation8s bio%poitics@ asystem in 0hich her body and her sexua beha-ior is no ess signi2cant to the

community than those of a prostitute! 1hie 0e ha-e ong poicedprostitution, ony the bio%poitica state considers a 0oman8s non%pro2t sexuaacti-ity—and especiay that of bac3 0omen recei-ing pubic bene2ts—aproper focus of pubic poicy!W +n Agamben8s terminoogy, black 1mericansare e!posed to sovereign power by being reduced to bare life? blackwomen are relevant to the state insofar as they may produce welfarebabies, black men are relevant inasmuch as it costs the state tomaintain their bodies during periods of incarceration"W Gorrison isconcerned 0ith pri-acy because its re-ocation reduces us to bare ife! :utsuch exposure is not soey the resut of a0 and so-ereignty@ nor iscon-entiona, domestic pri-acy necessariy a bu0ar3 against it! After a, eexposes hersef to the 0hims of the 0hite 0ord in the pri-acy of her o0n

home by accepting and internaiing the expectations of the dominantcuture! Fecause bio=politics functions through thenormalEpathological distinction certain bodily behaviors areconsidered a priori normal" In 1merican racial politics the behaviorof whites is considered the standard by which all others aremeasured" Thus @ust as blacks are e!posed, whites are insulatedfrom e!posure by their normality" Flacks further e!pose themselvesby futilely attempting to emulate normal behavior when their ownbodies and behaviors are what form, discursively, the content of thepathological—made e-ident in the fate of Khic3en Ritte8s body! The:ottom8s bac3 community insuated itsef from this exposure by maintainingspatia distance from the 0hite 0ord@ the mobiity of the ri-er changed a of

this for Khic3en Ritte8s body much the same 0ay the integrated spaces of".Q 0oud for a bac3 Americans! The <oynihan )eport spells the endof privacy for them8 once a voiceless subpopulation ignored by white1merica, black 1mericans are increasingly the sub@ect of publicpolicy and sub@ect to state intervention!QW The increasedsurveillance of black 1mericans &whether by the police, socialscientists, or the media and the disciplinary cycles accompanyingthis shift constitute new forms of e!posure to state power" Thenorms of behavior corresponding to the normalEpathological register

https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/v015/15.1.santori.html

https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/v015/15.1.santori.html

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are normali0ing, disciplinary and their disciplinary nature tends to @ustify and establish cycles of punishment whether state= or self=inHicted! +n this regard both 0hat Gorrison suspected in the eary ".#6s and0hat 0e ha-e come to understand today as the ‘prison=industrialcomple! and the attack upon the welfare state suggest that thepost=civil rights period represents the apogee of 1merican bio=

politics and of black 1mericans e!posure to it! To act as e does is todisregard this exposure and its attendant dangers! 5ni3e Danie8s Shadrach,e has been 0orshiping the 0rong god and her fase baptism in normaity0i not sa-e her from the 2re!W The transformation of 1merican racialpolitics from Pim Crow white supremacy to <oynihans bio=politics2nds e!pression in Sulas 2re and water images! Mire is poitica< it 3isin a many fashion and represents conHict, interracial contact,adaptation to such e!posure, and survival! +t means, in Arendtian terms,doing something ne0 and doing it in opposition to the oi3os" The Goynihaneport de%poiticies race by reocating the origin of racia probems in thehousehod@ Gorrison8s 2re, and the interest her characters ta3e in it, opposehis bio%poitica depoiticiation of race—hence Pum8s immoation! :eingbac3 and pursuing bios ought to be synonymous@ this is the esson to beearned! :eing bac3 and pursuing a better form of ife must be e4ui-aentsbecause the spaces in 0hich bac3 ife unfods, by -irtue of their beingdeemed pathoogica, are inherenty poitica spaces@ blacks have no choicebut to do something new, given the impositions of the white world"J

On the other hand, there is 0ater! +f 2re faciitates dying i3e a man, waterrepresents the so0 socia death at the hands of a matriarcha famiy or—more accuratey—socia scienti2c interpretations of it! The cooness of 0atersuggests the dispassionate and de=politici0ing activities of the‘ob@ective scientist whose narratives de2ne black 1mericans bytheir bodies, their biological life" 6ater also forms the river ofmobility that prematurely transgresses spatial segregations,ma!imi0ing the e!posure of blacks (thin3 here of Khic3en Ritte* tomisrecognition (the bargeman* and the bio=political state! This isencapsuated in the image of the bood%tainted 0ater E-a 2nds on Pum8sbureau the night she sets him abae< Pum8s heath probems stem from hisser-ice to 5nce Sam@ 5nce Sam8s response to its bac3 -eterans is a cooone@ in this regard it is 0ater—ordinariy understood to be soothing—and not2re that is tainted 0ith bood!W Soothing narrati-es characterie the bio%poitica state! Socioogy, for exampe, is both normaiing and detached frompoitica hostiities by its notion of pathos, the ine-itabiity of decay! The sociasciences are therefore mechanisms by 0hich the state practices bio%poiticsand conceas its o0n po0er! 9rom this 0e may surmise that racia poiticsafter ci-i rights and Jim Kro0 has eft the 0ord of 2re, the terrain of thepropery poitica! )acial politics is now an o!ymoron? race itself hasbeen captured by the cool, dispassionate, and de=politici0ed world of social=scienti2c evaluations of normality and pathology? but ascontemporary literature on racism suggests, theres blood in thiswater as well" Gorrison here echoes ietsche8s ausion to the sociasciences as the 0ater 0ith 0hich 1esterners 0i attempt to ceansethemse-es after the death of their >od!#W e8s probem—the danger abac3 Americans face after ci-i rights—is that she mista3es 2re and 0ater!

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Nel lives in the past and presumes that the assimilation of whitevalues will protect her from the 2re of racism" Fut racism haschanged from a hot politics to the cool, detached study of behaviorsand pathologies" In order to protect herself, Nel should fear watermore than 2re? her strategy should challenge, rather thanaccommodate, the behavioral e!pectations of whites" This is

confusing, of course, because the notion that blacks could be thebehavioral e(ual of whites>while long a staple of the blackintelligentsia>is seriously entertained by whites only after civilrights inclusiveness" 6hat once seemed a solution to racialmisrecognition is now the snare of the bio=political state"

The white ga0e can be traced to the generali0ation of thestate of e!ception – the spread of the camp has madepolice the sovereign and 1frican 1mericans the prisoners")oos, PhD esearcher at the Department of Poitica and Socia Sciences of

the European 5ni-ersity +nstitute in 9orence, ‘5(Jerome, /'$&'$6"&, OA Gagaine, 1hat happens in 9erguson does notstay in 9erguson,F http<''roarmag!org'$6"&'6/'ferguson%state%of%exception',accessed #''$6"Q, JA)*9or Agamben, the state of e!ception 2nds its topological e!pression inthe camp, which .delimits a space in which the normal order is defacto suspended and in which whether or not atrocities arecommitted depends not on law but on the civility and ethical senseof the police who temporarily act as sovereign"/ 9or those on the 0rongside of the 0ar on terror, the camps are caed Abu >hraib or >uantanamo:ay! Mor 1frican 1mericans, the camp is prison > or, increasinglyoften, the labor camp" +f current incarceration trends continue, one in

three bac3 maes born today can expect to spend at east part of their i-esbehind bars! 1hie ony "$ percent of the 5S popuation is bac3, AfricanAmerican maes ma3e up &6 percent of the tota $!" miion prison popuation!Gore bac3 men are in prison today than 0ere ensa-ed before the Ki-i 1arin "/Q6"J 1s the state of e!ception becomes generali0ed, however, theboundaries between inside and outside begin to blur and the twogradually blend into one another" Fit by bit, the logic of the campspills over into society at large" Ra0a, which has been describedeven by 4Q $rime <inister 3avid Cameron as an open=air prisoncamp, is perhaps the clearest contemporary e!pression of thisphenomenon! :ut similar &though much less e!treme processes areafoot in the 4S and elsewhere, as spatial segregation becomes the

hallmark of the neoliberal urban geography! Today, the ghettos ofDetroit and the outer neighborhoods of St Rouis, i3e the to0nships of Johannesburg and the fa-eas of io de Janeiro, increasingy ta3e on the formof open%air prison camps, in 0hich the police permanently act astemporary sovereign, and in which poor blacks > and male youths inparticular > are simply considered free game for the racist fantasiesof white ocers" J

http://roarmag.org/2014/08/ferguson-state-of-exception/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/racial-disparities-criminal-justice_n_4045144.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics_of_incarcerated_African-American_males

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/12/michelle-alexander-more-black-men-in-prison-slaves-1850_n_1007368.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-10778110


http://roarmag.org/2014/08/ferguson-state-of-exception/



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics_of_incarcerated_African-American_males

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/12/michelle-alexander-more-black-men-in-prison-slaves-1850_n_1007368.html



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Render -iolenceRendered violence results from invoking bare life1gamben :%

(>iorgio, Homo Sacer< So-ereign Po0er and :are RifeF, pg! #/%#., V1* The pamphet Ga3e Gore of an EBort, 9renchmen, if Nou 1ant to :eepubicans, read by the ibertine Domanc in the Gar4uis de Sade8sPhiosophy in the :oudoir, is the 2rst and perhaps most radica biopoiticamanifesto of modernity! At the -ery moment in 0hich the re-oution ma3esbirth = 0hich is to say, bare ife = intoW :iopoitics and the ights of Gan #.W

the foundation of so-ereignty and rights, Sade stages (in his entire 0or3, andin particuar in "$6 Days of Sodom* the theatrum poiticum as a theater ofbare ife, in 0hich the very physiological life of bodies appears,through se!uality, as the pure political element! :ut the poiticameaning of Sade8s 0or3 is no0here as expicit as it is in this pamphet, in0hich the maisons in 0hich e-ery citien can pubicy summon any othercitien in order to compe him to satisfy his o0n needs emerge as the poiticaream par exceence! ot ony phiosophy (Refort, vcrire, pp! "66%"6"* butaso and abo-e a poitics is sifted through the boudoir! +ndeed, in Domanc8spro;ect, the boudoir fully takes the placeof the citU, in a dimension inwhich the public and the private, political e!istence and bare lifechange places"J The growing importance of sadomasochism inmodernity has its root in this e!change" Sadomasochism is preciselythe techni(ue of se!uality by which the bare life of a se!ual partneris brought to light" Not only does Sade consciously invoke theanalogy with sovereign power &.there is no man,/ he 0rites, .whodoes not want to be a despot when he has an erection/, but we also2nd here the symmetry between homo sacer and sovereign, in thecomplicity that ties the masochist to the sadist, the victim to thee!ecutioner" J Sade8s modernity does not consist in his ha-ing foreseen theunpoitica primacy of sexuaity in our unpoitica age! On the contrary, Sadeis as contemporary as he is because of his incomparablepresentation of the absolutely political &that is, .biopolitical/meaning of se!uality and physiological life itself" 'ike theconcentration camps of our century, the totalitarian character of theorgani0ation of life in Sillings castle – with its meticulousregulations that do not spare any aspect of physiological life &noteven the digestive function, which is obsessively codi2ed and publi=ci0ed – has its root in the fact that what is proposed here for the2rst time is a normal and collective &and hence politicalorgani0ation of human life founded solely on bare life"

3ocile FodiesSurveillance creates the public space into a prison – turnsthe human in to docile bodies"1gamben, Phiosopher at The 5ni-ersity of Verona, *++:

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(>iorgo, $66., Stanford 5P, 1hat is an ApparatusL< And OtherEssays,F accessed #'Q'$6"Q, JA)* This, abo-e a, is the source of the pecuiar uneasiness of po0er preciseyduring an era in 0hich it confronts the most docie and co0ardy socia bodythat has e-er existed in human history" It is only an apparent parado!

that the harmless citi0en of postindustrial democracies (the Bloom, asit has been eBecti-ey suggested he be caed*, who readily doeseverything that he is asked to do , inasmuch as he ea-es his e-erydaygestures and his heath, his amusements and his occupations, his diet and hisdesires, to be commanded and controed in the smaest detai byapparatuses, is aso considered by po0er==perhaps precisely because ofthis––as a potential terrorist" 1hie a ne0 European norm imposesbiometric apparatuses on a its citiens by de-eoping and perfectinganthropometric technoogies in-ented in the nineteenth century in order toidentify recidi-ist criminas (from mug shots to 2ngerprinting*, surveillanceby means of video cameras transforms the public space of the cityinto the interior of an immense prison" In the eyes of authority––and

maybe rightly so––nothing looks like a terrorist than the ordinaryman"

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FiopoliticsFio politics turns the state into a killing machine thatannihilates those deemed unworthy"

Thorup, Assistant Professor at the +nstitute of Phiosophy and the History of +deas at the 5ni-ersity of Aarhus, Denmar3, *+*(Gi33e, $6"$, outedge, A +TERREKT5AR H+STON O9 TEO< 1ar,Vioence, and the State,F accessed #'.'$6"Q, JA)* This is 0here heath campaigns and extermination programs connect@ aconnection one shoudn8t exaggerate but aso not o-eroo3! The ais 0erethe 2rst to impement an anti%smo3ing campaign and 0e shoud see this notas the dar3 secret behind the present heath crae but as the range of bio%poicies! 1hen, as 4uoted abo-e, Rifton spo3e of the destruction of theboundary bet0een heaing and 3iingF or the per-ersion of the HippocraticOath into a commitment of 3iing, 0e can expore it as the dispacement of

the oath from the indi-idua body to the nationa body, from the indi-idua ifeto the ife of the nation! This is what bio=politics does" It view lifethrough a statist, economist, nationalist or racist perspec=tive and itmeasures its worthiness according to collective standards! The aiin-ention8 or radicaiation of bio=politics is to declare war on theunworthy life" udof Hess is supposed to ha-e said aism is appiedbioogy and there is the truth in it that modern racism is a bioogiation ofpoitics=a bioogist 0ay of de2ning 0hat used to be the inter%state 0ar ofsur-i-a but 0hich no0 becomes the interna 0ar of race sur-i-a defendingagainst the death of the peopeF YVo3stodB" The bio=political wardeclares war on ones own population8 e!ception, lawElawless,friendEenemy of the nationalEinternational divide is doubled within

the nation state itself" The borderland is reinstated as the e!ception"Then, the state becomes, in the 0ords of Agamben, .a killing machine"/ The brea3do0n of the diBerentiations is 0here the state of exception and bio%poitics meet, reaching its utimate point in Ausch0it 0here .people didnot die? rather, corpses were produced/–meaning this was, in theeyes of the killers, not human life but @ust inferior biological materialto dispose of! +n the bio%poitica enmity, 0e can see ho0 arbitrary thedi-iding ine bet0een friend and enemy is! The enemy is not gi-en as enemy,as the many discussions in ai circes about 0ho 0as and 0ho 0asn8t a Je0testify to! :io%poitica enmity is another sign of the dicuties encounteredby the state in imiting or containing the enemy category! The bio%poiticaenemy can be e-eryone=one8s bood, heritage, disease or 0hate-er is not

necessariy identi2abe! Enmity is generaied! The bio%poitica enmity isperhaps the cearest exampe of the burring of diBerentiations, and it8s aso0here the exception becomes truy permanent! Instead of a war containedin time we get a process of permanent puri2cation, turning everinwards until self=annihilation? a point on 0hich 9oucaut and Arendtconcur< the logical end point of totalitarianism is suicide"

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1lternative

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6hatever FeingESingularity6hatever being entails a lack of classi2cation as anindividual, giving the individual a belonging to itself>

solves sovereign powerCaldwell, 1ssistant $rofessor in the 3epartment of$olitical Science at the 4niversity of 'ouisville, +5 (Anne,:io%So-ereignty and the Emergence of HumanityFhttps<''muse!;hu!edu';ournas'theoryIandIe-ent'-66#'#!$cad0e!htmauthbio* ''GE:1gamben9s alternative is therefore radical! He does not contest particuar aspectsof the tradition! He does not suggest 0e expand the range of rights a-aiabe to ife! He does not ca us to

deconstruct a tradition 0hose po0er ies in its indeterminate status!$" +nstead, he suggests wetake leave of the tradition and all its terms" 6hatever being is a lifethat de2es the classi2cations of the tradition, and its reduction of allforms of life to homo sacer! 1hate-er being therefore has no common ground, nopresuppositions, and no particuar attributes! +t cannot be bro3en into discrete parts@ it has no essence tobe separated from its attributes@ and it has no common substrate of existence de2ning its reation toothers! 1hate-er being cannot then be bro3en do0n into some common eement of ife to 0hich additi-e

series of rights 0oud then be attached! 6hatever being retains all its properties,without any of them constituting a diDerent valuation of life ("..7<"/!.*! 1s a result, whatever being is 7reclaimed from its having thisor that property, which identi2es it as belonging to this or that set,to this or that class (the reds, the 9rench, the Gusims* %% and it isreclaimed not for another class nor for the simple generic absence of any belonging, but for its being=such, for belonging itself"7 (6!"%"!$*!1e shoud pay attention to this comparison! 9or what 1gamben suggestsis that whatever being is not any abstract, inaccessible life, perhaps

promised to us in the future" 6hatever being, should we care to seeit, is all around us, wherever we re@ect the criteria sovereign powerwould use to classify and value life" +n the 2na instance the State canrecognie any caim for identity %% e-en that of a State identity 0ithin theState ! ! ! 1hat the State cannot toerate in any 0ay, ho0e-er, is that thesinguarities form a community 0ithout arming an identity, that humans co%beong 0ithout a representabe condition of beonging (Agamben"..7</Q!*! 1t every point where we refuse the distinctionssovereignty and the state would demand of us, the possibility of anon=state world, made up of whatever life, appears"

To escape the logic of the sovereign, we must embrace‘whatever=singularity as an alternative – recogni0esethical value in whatever they are and do")obinson, Poitica theorist and acti-ist, *+(Andre0, "'$"'$6"Q, Kease2re Gagaine, +n Theory >iorgio Agamben<destroying so-ereignty,F https<''cease2remagaine!co!u3'in%theory%giorgio%agamben%destroying%so-ereignty', accessed #''$6"Q, JA)*



https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/v007/7.2caldwell.html#FOOT21


https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/in-theory-giorgio-agamben-destroying-sovereignty/







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1gamben proposes ‘whatever=singularity as an alternative basis forpolitical action, which escapes the logic of sovereignty! Ta3en fromDeeue and >uattari8s thought, a singuarity is something 0hich is uni4ueand 0hich can8t be reduced to a measurement or representation! Agambeni3es it because it a-oids his ha-ing to choose bet0een uni-ersaity andparticuarity! 1hate-erF in Engish has unfortunate o-ertones of indiBerence

(0hate-er, ta3 to the handF* 0hich is not at a 0hat Agamben means!ather, he is referring to something mattering whatever it is, a0aysmattering regardess of 0hat it is = as opposed to the sovereign decisionto divide life into things which matter and things which dont" A0hate-er%singuarityF is neither reducibe to its attributes nor expressibe asan abstract generaity such as uni-ersa humanity@ rather, it is something0hich has genera -aue as it is, 0ith a of its attributes (and especiay, aspotentiaity or possibiity*! +t does not depend on any standard of conformityor sub;ecti2cation or normaity, or on beonging to the peope or masses! Italso denies that there is any particular essence which makes peoplehuman – instead, being human is a scattering of singularities"1hate-er%singuarity is aso a 3ind of being 0hich peope are assumed toaready ha-e, 0hich for instance moti-ates resistance to being normaised!W +na sense, this is a radicaised -ersion of human rights discourse, since anyone,whatever they are and whatever they do, is recognised as having akind of autonomous ethical value! This is fundamentay an ethics of?etting be8 (0ith o-ertones of ?being 0ho you are8*! +t entais doing a0ay 0ithnormati-ity as usuay de2ned, 0ith standards of good and e-i 0hich decarecertain peope to be -aueess because of some particuary heinous de-iantact they8-e committed (in contrast to the more common approach of eithercontracting normati-ity to co-er a smaer range of acts, or atering it to focuson oppressi-e abuses*! 9or instance, Agamben argues that ideas such as guitand responsibiity are deri-ed from ega thought and hence from so-ereignty!The ethical challenge 1gamben poses is to still view every person –and, in line with the discussion in The Kpen, every animal – asfundamentally valuable in their own life, as ha-ing forms of ife andparticuarity 0orthy of respect and autonomous existence, regardess of ho0?bad8 they are or 0hat ?crimes8 they commit! +n eBect, Agamben aims to ta3ea0ay, through choices in terms of anguage, ethics and phiosophy, the threatposed by others8 ethica ;udgements in constituting a person or being as-unerabe! This does not remove human vulnerability per se, butdoes remove the particular risk of being made into homo sacer! +tdoes, ho0e-er, ea-e a particuar ethica probem< are agents of so-ereigntyaso to be treated as ?0hate-er%singuarities8, or as the negation of a suchsinguaritiesLW The ?coming community8 corresponds on a coecti-e e-e to?0hate-er%singuarity8! +t is reated to the ?peope to come8, a concept Deeueand >uattari borro0 from :ergson, and to messianic ideas of a comingiberation! Agamben refers to the coming community as a form of sociatogetherness 0hich is aso a ?non%state8 and is counterposed to the ogic ofso-ereignty! The coming community is de2ned in Agamben as a 3ind of post%consumerist condition, emerging from a passage through current forms ofife, such as the indiBerence of mass media images and of commoditiesthrough 0hich one can reshape one8s identity! +t passes through and beyondsuch forms of ife by radicaising their chaenge to normati-ity and

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so-ereignty! +t is not a hybrid space = hybridity is aready actuaised in homosacer and the so-ereign = but rather, a negation, the ?un%man8! +t is based on?0hate-er%singuarities8 in their antagonism 0ith the state and so-ereignty(hence it cannot see3 to seie state po0er*! 1gamben believes thatwhatever=singularities can form communities without arming‘representable conditions of belonging &such as laws, norms, etc" It

also does not rest on categories of identity &even the identity ofe!cluded or marginalised groups, which for 1gamben, remaintrapped within old forms of politics which reproduce sovereignty(mainy because the recognition of an identity is necessariy separate fromthe processes of ife 0hich constitute it*! +n conditions of so-ereignty, ife hasto separate itsef from the orders of sub;ects and ob;ects, to free itsef frombiopo0er and from hierarchica reations 0ith i-ing things, to become0hate-er%singuarity and to attain radica immanence! +n Potentiaities,Agamben argues for an amost :uddhist stance of contempati-e separation0hich preser-es instead of deciding! W Agamben8s stance aso has are-outionary aspect! ather than starting from identity, Agamben8s ethicatheory starts from the standpoint of bare ife! +n emnants of Ausch0it,Agamben argues that the ethica standpoint from 0hich one shoud start ispro-ided by the experience of concentration camp inmates! Gore precisey, itshoud start from the standpoint of the most ab;ect sub%group of inmates, theso%caed Gussemanner 0ho 0ere near death and had ost the 0i to i-e,0ho hence embodied directy the idea of bare ife! This is because of aparticuar moment of in-ersion! The moment of catastrophe is ta3en aso tocontain the moment 0here sa-ation becomes possibe, 0ith passage throughthe o0 point of the current expansion of so-ereignty acting as a transition toiberation " This is a rather strange argument, but based on a viableobservation8 that only when the logic of sovereignty is fully unfolded(ony 0hen 0e are faced 0ith a giant tree instead of a saping* does thenature of the problem – or the nature of what needs to be got rid of –become clear ! This aso means that, in Agamben8s -ie0, iberation isambiguousy tied to so-ereignty, as its negation!

Cut oD from ties to society, we embody the .whateverbeings/, escaping biopolitics, which neutrali0es rigidopposition3amai +(Puspa, 1inter $66Q, Garsha Digita Schoar, The )iing Gachine ofException< So-ereignty, Ra0, and Pay in Agamben8s State of ExceptionF,http<''mds!marsha!edu'cgi'-ie0content!cgiL

artice"676[contextengishIfacuty, Accessed< #!#!"Q, V1*PAAD+>G , EAGPRE , AD THE EKEPT+OW As 0e 3no0, one of the tas3s inthe State of Exception is to ans0er the 4uestion,W 0hat does it mean to actpoiticayL Net uni3e Kar Schmitt, 0ho,W in his boo3 The Koncept of thePoitica (".#*, de2ned the inherenty ob;ecti-eW nature and autonomy ofpoitica action as its abiity to treat, distinguish,W and comprehend the friend%enemy antithesis independenty of W Puspa Damai j $.W other antithesesF($#*, the biopolitical plane is a perpetual conHict? it isJ the site oftensions in which the struggle traverses through the plane" ToW 4uote

http://www.answers.com/topic/muselmann-1



http://www.answers.com/topic/muselmann-1



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from Agamben8s $66$ ecture at the European >raduate Schoo,W 1hat is aParadigmLF< YThe biopolitical plane isZ depoar and not W dichotomic, it istensiona, not oppositiona, it produces a 2eld of polarJ tensions whichtends to form a 0one of undecidability which neutrali0esJ every rigidopposition"FW Thus, the tension in the biopoitica pane is paradigmaticinasmuch asW a paradigm is a nondichotomic 2ed of ceaseess tensions< it is

neither uni-ersaW nor particuar, neither genera nor indi-idua, it is asinguarity,W 0hich sho0ing itsef as such, produces a ne0 ontoogicacontextF ($66$*!W The singuarity of the paradigm that produces the ne0ontoogicaW context is compared to the exampe in another -ery important0or3 byW Agamben, The Koming Kommunity (".."*! Ri3e paradigm, anexampe isW neither particuar nor uni-ersa@ it is a singuar ob;ect thatpresents itsef W as such! The >ree3 paradeigma, i3e the >erman :ei%spie—0hich paysW aongsideF—is that 0hich is sho0n aongside! Hence theproper pace of W the exampe is a0ays beside itsef, in the empty space in0hich itsW inde2nabe and unforgettabe ife unfods! This ife is pureyinguistic ifeFW ("..", .*!W Eary in the State of Exception, Agamben remar3sthat the state of e!ceptionJ tends to appear as the .dominant

paradigm of government in contemporaryJ politics/ to the e!tentthat this paradigm, which has transformedJ e!ceptional measuresinto a .techni(ue of governmentF ($*, has alreadyJ threatened todismantle traditional distinctions between constitutionalJ forms, likedemocracy and absolutism, by introducing a 0one of indeterminacyJwithin them" #is notion of the paradigm as a singular e!ample canJhelp us understand how he understands the problem of theconstitutionalJ diDerence" 1s an e!ample, the paradigm is neitherparticular nor universal"J In order to be an e!ample, it has to besingular" Since it is singular, theJ e!ample becomes the e!ample ofthe rule that cannot be stated" In otherJ words, the e!amplefunctions as a paradigm to guide the investigationJ in the absenceof rules" Thus, by 0reathing together paradigm, exampe,W and theexception, Agamben seems to suggest that 0e can in-estigate theW $#6 j The )iing Gachine of ExceptionW phenomenon of exceptionaity ony 0hen0e thin3 about it at the e-e ofW singuar exampes 0ithin -ariousconstitutiona forms!W Ri3e angue 0ithout any rea denotation, a paradigm is asinguar exampeW that has se-ered its ties from 0hat it exempi2es! Thedis@unctionJ between birth and nation=state, which constitutes thespace of e!ception orJ the camp, therefore, is like grammar, which inproducing a speech withoutJ denotation isolates language fromdiscourse and law from concrete custom"J The dis@uncture betweenlangue and parole, grammar and the concreteJ pra!is, form ane!emplary analogy with the state of e!ception in which>asJ in thepassage from langue to parole where the individual enunciation hastoJ create a 2ctional ne!us between the signi2er and the signi2ed>.the normJ is in force without any reference to realityF (Agamben$66Qb, 7*! AgambenW tries to interpret the syntagm of the force of a0 in thissense, because theW state of exception is an anomic space in 0hich 0hat isat sta3e is a force of W a0 (0hich shoud therefore be 0ritten< force of a0*F($66Q, 7.*!W This is an interesting moment in the discussion, but not becausebyW using the image of the Moating signi2er of the force of a0 that can beW

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caimed both by the state authority and by any re-outionary organiationW

Agamben again conMates the -ioence perpetuated by the state 0ith theW

counter%-ioence mounted by the re-outionary forces ined up against theW

state! 1hat ma3es Agamben8s use of paradigm and exampe interesting isW

the convergence between the paradigm of e!ception and theparadigmaticJ singularity of pure Feing in play that he postulates

against e!ceptionalism!W +n order to foo0 this curious turn, 0e need againto har3 bac3 to theW idea of paradigm and exampe in The KomingKommunity, 0here immediateyW after de2ning exempary ife as inguistic ife,0hich is singuar besideW itsef in its o0n empty space, he goes on toeaborate the nature of thisW being! This e!emplary being, whose othername is .whatever being,/ is notJ de2ned by any property, e!ceptby being called or being interpellated>not,J however, by theideological state apparatuses, as in 1lthusser, but by no oneJ otherthan itself" Mor these .pure singularities communicate only in theJempty space of the e!ample, without being tied by any commonproperty,J by any identity/ (Agamben "..", .="6*! Thus disengagedfrom any ties andJ cut oD from all communities, these whatever

beings, like the HoatingW Puspa Damai j $#"W signi2ers of the force oflaw, can only turn to themselves, as does <elvillesJ Fartleby, whopreferring not to, comes back to himself through a pure actJ ofcalling himself ("..", 7*! W Thus 1gamben envisions a space forthought to think itself as meansJ without end" 1nd this auto=reHection is possible only through the state ofJ e!ception, becauseas he reminds us in the State of ;!ception, there is noJ return toclassical politics from the death camps or the e!ception (/#*! W Poitica Theoogy (Schmitt ".#&* de2ned the exception as the suspension of W theentire existing order! +n such a situation, 0rites Schmitt, it is cear thatW thestate remains, 0hereas a0 recedesF ("$*! Kontrary to this, AgambenW

proposes a human action that not ony hats the state%machine but asosucceedsW in shutting the actor, or more accuratey the patient, oB from theW

machine, as if the dis;unction bet0een birth and nation%state created by theW

exception 0ere the ony poitica ground to intensify the dis;unction W bet0eenbare ife and the state! As a resut, bare ife becomes a sef%encosedW

paradigm communicating to itsef as pure means 0ithout end!W + T H E P RAN % RADW This pure act of communication and :eing, predicated upon thecompeteW hating of the machine of the state, its so-ereignty, and its rights,guidesW Agamben8s notion of exposing and se-ering the 2ctiona ties bet0eenbirthW and the nation! :ut seen from a diBerent perspecti-e, this biopoiticapaneW or poitics transcending itsef into theory— exempi2ed by thoughtthin3ingW itsef, anguage communicating itsef, or pure means 0ithout end—isW the cessation of a poitics, too! This 0ord of paradigmatic singuaritiesW

0ithout aiances or responsibiity for the other, therefore, ironicayW

resembes the 0ord of the penniess o-ers in Tiec38s story tited Rife8sW

SuperMuity!F The couple in the story, after renouncing all possessionsandJ connections to the world outside, 2nally burn the woodenladder that connectedJ their room to the rest of the house so that,comments Agamben inW +nfancy and History ("..7*, .they are left inisolation from the outside world,J owning nothing and alive tonothing but their love/ ("Q " If the .I prefer notJ to/ of Fartleby is

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the e!ample or paradigm of 1gambens .politics,/ thenW $#$ j The)iing Gachine of ExceptionW the whatever beings and their completeseverance of ties with the state cannotJ be political because the -eryconcept of the poitica, to in-ert KarW Schmitt8s e4uation of the poitica andthe state in The Koncept of theW Poitica, presupposes the state (Schmitt".#, ".*! Thus, the State ofW Exception that sets out to retrie-e poitics

ironicay ends 0ith a ca to endW it for pay! Agamben -isuaies thisphantasm of pay—a Disneyand beyondW a0 and -ioence—in -ery propheticterms in the text<W One day humanity 0i pay 0ith a0 ;ust as chidren pay0ith disusedW ob;ects, not in order to restore them to their canonica use butto free themW from it for good! 1hat is found after the a0 is not a moreproper and originaW use -aue that precedes the a0, but a ne0 use that isborn ony after it!W And use, 0hich has been contaminated by a0, must asobe freed from itsW o0n -aue! This iberation is the tas3 of study, or of pay!And this studiousW pay is the passage that ao0s us to arri-e at ! ! ! ;ustice!(Agamben $66Q, &*W

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1lternative – ImpotentialityKur alternative is to embrace our impotentiality to restoreour potentiality, we refuse to participate in the modes of

sovereignty or else we will enter a politics of destruction"Falskus + (Eiabeth, Ph!D! Department of Phiosophy 5ni-ersity ofOregon, Examining Potentiaity in the Phiosophy of >iorgio Agamben $6"6,accessed #'#'"Q, 9U* This hao, this recognition of the contingency of our situation, is moreattainabe than it 0oud at 2rst appear! As Agamben has pointed out, 0eaready possess the means@ the key is potentiality" Roing far beyondthe classical de2nition of potentiality as the ability of something tobe or not be, potentiality becomes, for Agamben, the most signi2canttruth of our e!istence and the only basis for a coming politics notrife with destruction! 6e can see in Agamben8s conception of the

inoperati-e the call to, i3e :arteby, embrace our impotentiality and,instead of demanding speci2c changes, declare that we will notparticipate in the modes of sovereignty at play in todays society" 6esee in the concept of decreation the want to restore to all events theirinitial contingency or potentiality, to reali0e that things did not haveto and do not have to be the way they are" To, according to a 4uote from:en;amin that Agamben himsef empoys, restore possibiity to the past,ma3ing 0hat happened incompete and competing 0hat ne-er 0asF!"6 And0e see in the profane the need to grasp 0hat is aready at hand and pay0ith it!

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1T8 1D 1nswers

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1T8 $ermThe Perm cannot avoid codifying the exception of bare life

Agamben 98 (>iorgio, professor of phiosophy at the 5ni-ersity of Verona, Homo Sacer, pg! ""*

In contrasting the “beautiful day” (euemeria) of simple life with the “great difficulty” of political

bios in the passage cited above Aristotle may well have given the most beautiful formulation

to the aporia that lies at the foundation of !estern politics. The 24 centuries that have since gone by have

brought only provisional and ineffective solutions. In carrying out the metaphysical tas" that has led it

more and more to assume the form of a biopolitics !estern politics has not succeeded in

constructing the lin" be tween #oe and bios between voice and language that would have

healed the fracture. $are life remains included in politics in the form of the exception that is

as something that is included solely through an exclusion% &ow is it possible to “politici#e” the

“natural sweetness” of #oe' And first of all does #oe really need to be politici#ed or is politics

not already contained in #oe as its most precious center' The biopolitics of both modern

totalitarianism and the society of mass hedonism and consumerism certainly constitute

answers to these (uestions% )evertheless until a com pletely new politics*that is a politics no

longer founded on the exception of bare life*is at hand every theory and every praxis willremain imprisoned and immobile and the “beautiful day” of life will be given citi#enship only

either through blood and death or in the perfect senselessness to which the society of the

spectacle condemns it%

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1T8 CosmopolitanismThe )efugee is symptom of sovereign power, not ahistorical problem tied to the nation=state"

Cosmopolitanism &or world government cannot resolvethe dilemma of the camp"'arsen, * (Signe Rarsen, xx%xx%$6"$, efugees, nationaism, andpoitica membership, ordicum%Gediterraneum, http<''nome!una3!is'nm%maro%$6"$'-o%#%n%7%$6"$'Q&%conference%paper'7Q$%refugees%nationaism%and%poitica%membership '')*Arendt8s diagnosis of the probem of the refugee (the refugee as the manifestation of the probematic tiebet0een the nation%state and human rights* is the starting point for Agamben8s diagnosis of the probem

of the refugee! Agamben agrees 0ith Arendt that the reason 0hy the refugee isnot protected by human rights is that rights can only be attributed to<an insofar as he is also a citi0en" 9rom this 0e can dra0 the paradoxicaconcusion that the refugee, in the eyes of the a0, is not e-en considered a

human being (Agamben, "../, pp! "$/%"$.*! Kontrary to Arendt , Agamben argues that theprobem of the refugee is best understood, not as a historicalproblem born with the nation=state, but as a symptom of theproblematic nature of sovereign power as such" 1here the probem ofthe refugee in Arendt8s perspecti-e is a symptom of the probematic historicaconnection bet0een human rights and the nation%state, the probem of therefugee in Agamben8s perspecti-e is a symptom of the probematic trans%cutura and trans%historica nature of so-ereign po0er! +n Agamben8s perspecti-e,

the e!clusion of the refugee>homo sacer>is the original andfundamental activity of sovereign power, and the production of refugeesas rightess human beings is thus not ony a necessary impication of nation%states, but of a so-ereign po0er! +t is this connection bet0een so-ereign po0er and the

rightess men that is the primary in4uiry in Agamben8s homo sacer pro;ectY/Z, to 0hich + 0i no0 turn! Thestarting point of the homo sacer pro;ect is the so-ereign paradox< The paradox of so-ereignty consists inthe fact the so-ereign is, at the same time, outside and inside the ;uridica orderF (Agamben, pp! "../,"Q*! The so-ereign is outside the ;uridica order in the sense that he has ;uridica immunity (the a0 doesnot appy to him* and he is inside the ;uridica order in the sense that he is the fundament of the ;uridicaorder! The structure of the so-ereign paradox is the structure of the exception, in the sense that theso-ereign is ony incuded in the ;uridica order by his excusion from it< the so-ereign is the exception ofthe a0, in the sense that the a0 appies to the so-ereign by no onger appying (Agamben, "../, pp! "Q,"/*! The core of state so-ereignty ies in this exception< the so-ereign is not de2ned by his monopoy toegisate but by his monopoy to decide 0hether the egisation appies or not!Y.Z The so-ereign has thepo0er to decare a state of exception, that is, the suspension of a a0s! The state of exception, Agambenargues, is a threshod bet0een inside and outside, bet0een a norma situation and chaos, 0here theboundaries bet0een a0 and -ioence become indistinguishabe and e-erything becomes possibe ("../,pp! 7#%7/*! The state of exception is the originary and forma structure of the ;uridica reation, in the sensethat the so-ereign decides 0hat is incuded in and 0hat is excuded from the ;uridica order (Agamben,"../, pp! $Q%$*! The state of exception is the principe of the a0 because it opens the -ery space of

;uridica order! The exception as the structure of so-ereignty is the originary structure of a0, in 0hich ifeis incuded in a0 by being suspended from it! This reation is named ban, that is, ban from the poiticasphere! The person 0ho is banned is by his excusion from the poitica sphere sti incuded in the poiticasphere as an exception or an excusion@ he is abandoned at the threshod of society in a one 0here theboundaries bet0een a0 and ife, inside and outside, disappear (Agamben, "../, pp! $/*! +n this one ofpure ban, Agamben argues, the a0 does no onger prescribe anything, and it is oddy enough in this onethat the a0 arms itsef most rigorousy, because iteray e-erything becomes possibe ("../, pp! &.%Q6*! The pure ban is the one 0here the a0 has no content and therefore the possibiity of prescribing

anything! +n this one of indistinction a human being is trapped as the bearer ofthe so-ereign ban! The banned is the refugee, the Mriedlos, the .barelife/ &Floes 'eben, homo sacer ! The existence of the banned is incuded

http://nome.unak.is/nm-marzo-2012/vol-7-n-3-2012/54-conference-paper/352-refugees-nationalism-and-political-membership






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in the poitica sphere ony through his excusion from the poitica sphere@ heis abandoned on the threshod of society 0here the boundaries bet0een-ioence and a0 become indistinguishabe! Homo sacer—iteray the sacredhuman being—is a 2gure from oman a0< he is the man no one can sacri2ce,but e-eryone can 3i 0ithout committing homicide (Agamben, "../, pp! #"*! At 2rstgance, as Agamben points out, the de2nition of homo sacer seems to be a sef%contradiction< if he is

sacred 0hy can e-eryone 3i him 0ithout committing homicideL ("../, pp! #$* The 4uestion is in 0hatdoes the sacredness of the sacred man consistL +n order to ma3e sense of this, Agamben states, one mustrecognie that sacrednessF is ambiguous< it is both something hoy and something damned or tabooed@something unceanF that has to be banned from the reigious sphere ("../, pp! ##, #.*! The ambiguity ofthe ban, i!e!, the incusion through excusion impies the ambiguity of sacredness< the tabooed is incudedin the reigious sphere by being excuded from it! Homo sacer, Agamben concudes, is not a hoy man but a

cursed man@ homo sacer is banned and tabooed@ he is an outcast, a 9riedos ("../, pp! #.*! #omosacer, 1gamben continues, is banned from both religion and society?from heaven and earth ("../, pp! /"%/$*! He is banned from ius humanum because e-eryonecan 3i him 0ithout committing homicide, and he is banned from ius di-inum because the sacri2ce 0oudbe a puri2cation rite and not stricty spea3ing a death penaty (if homo sacer 0as sacri2ced he 0oud bepuri2ed and thereby incuded in the reigious sphere*! The sacratio of homo sacer is then a doubeexception@ homo sacer is excuded both from the ius humanum and from the ius di-inum@ he is excudedboth from the sphere of the profane and from that of the reigious! 1e must understand that it is thisdoube excusion and not the ambiguity of the sacred that constitutes the core of homo sacer@ homo saceris a product of the so-ereign ban, the product of earthy, human action! Homo sacer is the human being0ho is trapped in the doube excusion@ he is trapped in a one 0here the distinction bet0een sacri2ce andhomicide disappears! This one of indistinction—the incusi-e%excusion from both ius humanum and iusdi-inum—is the so-ereign sphere< The so-ereign sphere is the sphere in 0hich it is permitted to 3i0ithout ceebrating a sacri2ce, and sacred ife—that is, ife that may be 3ied but not sacri2ced—is the ifethat has been captured in this sphereF (Agamben, "../, pp! /7*! The ife of homo sacer, bare ifeF orsacred ifeF, is the 2rst content of so-ereign po0er, because the so-ereign ban is the originary acti-ity ofthe so-ereignty, and the bearer of this ban is homo sacer! 9or this reason the probem of the refugee pointsto0ards the originary acti-ity of so-ereign po0er! +n Agamben8s perspecti-e, so-ereign po0er is foundedupon the excusion of some human beings 0ithin the so-ereign to 0hom the norma rues of the state donot appy! These human beings, the homini sacri, are a mirror of so-ereign po0er as such because they arethe exception that ao0s the normaityF to endure! The refugees, as homini sacri, are a ocus 0here thetruth about so-ereign po0er as the sphere in 0hich it is possibe to 3i 0ithout committing homicidediscoses itsef! +n the modern nation%state a ne0 space comes into existence, i!e! the so-ereign sphere asthe one of indistinction 0here homo sacer is 3ept and 0here e-erything becomes possibe discoses itsef<this ne0 space is the concentration camp! The camp is not de2ned by its geographica boundaries but byits ;uridica pacement outside the a0@ the camp is not born out of ordinary a0 but out of martia a0, that

is, out of a state of exception (Agamben, "../, pp! "#*! An important transition of so-ereign po0er in themodern nation%state is, in Agamben8s perspecti-e, the tendency to0ards decaring a state of 0iedexception,F ($66Q, pp! 7@ "../, pp! ".* or the permanent state of exception! :y this Agamben means thatthe state of exception becomes a paradigm for go-ernmentF< the exception is used, not out of necessity,but as a poitica too of go-ernmentaity ($66Q, pp! ", 76%7"*! The state of exception is 0iedF because itis an extremey eBecti-e too to carry out poitica actions that coud not ha-e been carried out undernorma circumstances,F that is, outside the exceptionF of martia a0! An exampe hereupon is the a0s in>ermany bet0een ".77 and ".&Q! +n ".77, 0hen the ais too3 po0er, a state of exception 0as decaredby the decree for the protection of the peope and StateF (Agamben "../, pp! "/@ Agamben $66Q, pp!$*! This decree remained de facto in force unti the end of the 0ar and in that sense ai >ermany can beunderstood as t0e-e years of state of exception, that is, a permanent state of exception, a state 0herethe exception has become the rue (Agamben "../, pp! "/%".@ Agamben $66Q, pp! "Q%"*! Theconcentration camp is the space 0here the permanent state of exception is in fu po0er! This means thatthe concentration camp is excuded from ordinary egisation and for this reason anything can happen0ithin the camp< there are no a0s 0ithin the camp except the a0 that no a0s appy! This is the meaningof Agamben8s cryptic formuation that the a0 in the permanent state of exception is in force as the

othing of e-eationF ("../, pp! Q"*< the a0 does not prescribe anything but that does not mean that asphere of freedom is created@ the camp is, on the contrary, the space 0here the highest possibe contro of human beings is possibe! +n the camp, the a0 is in force 0ithout signifying anything! This space of thecamp has become, in Agamben8s perspecti-e, the nomosF of the modern, meaning that the camp as a ;uridica space not ony exists in concentration camps but potentiay e-ery0here< in airports, in pubicareas and in outs3irts of cities in 0hich 0e i-e ("../, pp! "#Q*! +n modernity, the state of exceptionbecomes a atent possibiity e-ery0here, and it is thus a0ays possibe to reduce human beings to thena3ed ife of homo sacer< the 0ied state of exception signas the permanent possibiity of -ioentgo-ernment 0ithout ;uridica contro! 1hat is truy radica about the homo sacer pro;ect is the notion thatthe society 0e i-e in today is a permanent state of exception and that a of us (citiens and refugeesai3e* in a present%day societies (authoritarian and so%caed democratic* are reduced to the na3ed ife ofhomo sacer< +f today there is no onger any one cear 2gure of the sacred man, it is perhaps because 0e

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a are homini sacriF (Agamben, "../, pp! ""Q*! +n State of Exception, Agamben presents a theoretica andhistorica introduction to the ;uridica notion of the state of exception! 1hat becomes cear from hisanaysis is an inner reation bet0een the a0s in >ermany bet0een ".77%".&Q (Decree for the protectionof the peope and StateF* (Agamben, $66Q, pp! $* and the 5SA Patriot Act from $66", 0hich 0as passed toprotect the nationa security of the 5nited StatesF (Agamben, $66Q, pp! 7*< if you are suspected ofendangering nationa security, your constitutiona rights are de facto suspended! 1ith the 5SA Patriot Actas a roe mode, terror%a0sF ha-e been passed in most of Europe and at east to that extent it isunderstandabe 0hy Agamben understands the permanent state of exception as the ne0 paradigm for

go-ernment (Agamben, $66Q, pp! "%&*! +t is for this reason that Agamben argues that a present%daysocieties (totaitarian and so%caed democratic* are rued by a permanent state of exception 0here the a0discoses itsef as the pure othing of e-eationF and 0here a human beings (citiens and refugeesai3e* can be reduced potentiay to the status of the homo sacer and 0here a spaces can be transformed

potentiay into the ;uridica exception of the camp (Agamben, "../, pp! Q"*! Since, for Agamben,the origin of the problem of the refugee is the very nature ofsovereign power, it is, in this -ie0, necessary to chaenge and o-ercomeso-ereign po0er as such, if the probem of the refugee is to be so-ed! Putanother 0ay, for Agamben, it is necessary to go beyond poitics in order toso-e the probem of the refugee! One attempt to go beyond poitics 0oud bea cosmopoitan soution, such as the construction of a 0ord state@ somethingthat ho0e-er is incompatibe 0ith Agamben8s phiosophy! The cosmopoitansoution 0oud be to incude and unite a human beings in the 0ord in one

state and thereby do a0ay 0ith stateess and refugees simpy by eiminatingthe puraity of nation%states! 9oo0ing Agamben8s phiosophy, this soutiondoes ho0e-er not chaenge the probematic core of so-ereign po0er! Theproduction of the bio%poitica body of homo sacer 0oud aso be thefundament of so-ereign po0er of the 0ord state< there 0oud therefore stibe human beings 0ho are reduced to na3ed ife e-en though they, strictyspea3ing, might not be stateess or refugees! As countess exampes from$6th%century history sho0—concentration camps are ony the mostpredominant and surey far from the most recent exampe—it is 4uitepossibe to repress a part of the popuation 0ithin the boundaries of a state!Kosmopoitanism does therefore not e-en address the pi-ota probem ofso-ereign po0er! +f the probem of the refugee is to be so-ed, it is necessary

to 4uestion the notion of state%po0er as such!

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1D

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$ermutationThe perm solves>institutions already account for thecriti(ue and the idea of sovereign autonomy is a self=

serving constructChandler, I) professor at the 4niversity of 6estminster,+YDa-id, October $6"6, The 5ncritica Kriti4ue of ?Ribera Peace,8F e-ie0 of+nternationa Studies, Voume< 7, p! "6%"7, N>SZ

+t 0oud appear that the assumptions held to be driving liberal peaceapproachesW are very much in the eye of their critical beholders" Themost ob-ious empiricaW dicuty is that internationa poicy regarding inter-ention and statebuidingseemsW to ha-e itte transformati-e aspiration< far from assumptions of ibera uni-ersaism, it 0oudappear that, 0ith the faiure of post%coonia de-eopment, especiayW from the ".#6s on0ards,internationa poicyma3ers ha-e de-eoped historicayW o0 expectations about 0hat can be achie-edthrough externa inter-ention andW assistance! The ac3 of transformati-e beief is highighted by one of the

3eyW concerns of the poicy critics of the ibera peace = the focus on capacity%buiding W state institutionsand inter-ening to construct ?ci-i8 societies! The focus on institutional solutions (at

both the forma and informa e-es* to the problems ofW conHict and transition isindicative of the narrowing down of aspirations fromW transformingsociety to merely regulating or managing it = often understoodW criticay as the

?securitising8 of poicyma3ing! This is a long way from the promiseW of liberaltransformation and the discourse of ‘liberating societieseconomically W and politically!W In fact, it is the consensus of opinionon the dangers of democracy, which hasW informed the focus onhuman rights and good governance" 9or the poicy andW radica critics of ibera peace,ibera rights frame0or3s are often consideredW probematic in terms of the dangers of excusion andextremism! Today8s ?i ibera8W peace approaches do not argue for the export of democracy = the freeing upof theW poitica sphere on the basis of support for popuar autonomy! The anguage of W iibera

institutionaist approaches is that of democratisation< the probematisationW of the ibera sub;ect, hed tobe incapabe of mora, rationa choices at the baotW box, uness tutored by internationa expertsconcerned to promote ci-i society andW puraist -aues! +n these frame0or3s, the hoding of eectionsser-es as anW examination of the popuation and the beha-iour of eectora candidates, rather W than as aprocess for the ;udgement or construction of poicy (0hich it is assumedW needs externa or internationa

frame0or3s for its production*!W The focus on institutionalism does not stemfrom a criti(ue of liberal peaceW programmes? institutionalistapproaches developed from the :O+s onwards andW were rapidlymainstreamed with the end of the Cold 6ar"7 Mrom :%: onwards,W

6estern governments and donors have stressed that policy interventionscannotW @ust rely on promoting the freedoms of the market anddemocracy, but need to put W institutional reform and ‘goodgovernance at the core!7# ;ven in relation toW Central and ;astern

;urope it was regularly stressed that the people and electedW representatives were not ready for freedom and that it would take anumber ofW generations before it coud be said that democracy was‘consolidated!7/ TheW transitology literature was based on the criti(ueof liberal assumptions – this wasW why a transitional period wasnecessary" Transition implied that markets andW democracy could notwork without e!ternal institutional intervention to prevent W

instability" 1hie mar3ets needed to be carefuy managed through go-ernment poicyma3ing it 0ashed that ci-i society 0as necessary to ensure that theW popuation earnt ci-ic -aues to ma3e democracy

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-iabe!7.W It was through the engagement with ‘transition and theproblematic negotiation of ;4 enlargement that the discursiveframework of liberal institutionalism –W where human rights, the ‘ruleof law, civil society, and anti=corruption areW privileged overdemocracy – was programmatically cohered" It was also throughW thediscussion of ‘transition that the concept of sovereign autonomy

was W increasingly problematised, initially in relation to theprotections for minorityW rights and then increasingly e!panded tocover other areas of domestic policymaking!&6 It would appear thatthe key concepts and values of the ‘liberal peaceW held to have beenpromoted with vigour with the ‘victory of liberalism at the endW ofthe Cold 6ar were never as dominant a framing as their radical andpolicy W critics have claimed!&"W )ather than attempting to transformnon=6estern societies into the liberalW self=image of the 6est, itwould appear that e!ternal interveners have had muchW more status(uo aspirations, concerned with regulatory stability and regionalandW domestic security, rather than transformation" )ather thanimposing or ‘e!porting W alleged liberal 6estern models,

international policy making has revolved aroundW the promotion ofregulatory and administrative measures which suggest theW

problems are not the lack of markets or democracy but rather theculture of society W or the mechanisms of governance" ather than promoting

democracy and iberaW freedoms, the discussion has been how to 3eep the id on or tomanage the W ‘comple!ity of non=6estern societies, usuay percei-ed in terms

of 2xed ethnicW and regiona di-isions! The solution to the comple!ity of the non=liberal state and W society has been the internationalisation of themechanisms of governance,W removing substantive autonomy ratherthan promoting it"W 1hie it is true that the reconstruction or rebuiding of states is at the centre W

of externa pro;ects of inter-ention, it would be wrong to see the pro@ect ofW

statebuilding as one which aimed at the construction of a liberalinternational W order!&$ This is not @ust because e!ternal statebuildingwould be understood as a contradiction in liberal terms but, moreimportantly, because the states beingW constructed in these pro@ectsof post=conHict and faied state intervention are not W liberal states in thesense of having self=determination and political autonomy" TheW

state at the centre of statebuilding is not the ‘6estphalian state ofcassicaW +nternationa eations (+* theorising! 5nder the internationaised reguatory W mechanisms of

inter-ention and statebuiding the state is increasingly reduced to an W

administrative level, in which sovereignty no longer marks a clearboundary line W between the ‘inside and the ‘outside!&7 1hether 0e considerEuropean 5nionW (E5* statebuiding, expicity based on a sharing of so-ereignty, or consider other W statebuiding inter-entions, such as those by the internationa 2nancia institutionsW in sub%Saharan Africa,

it is cear that the state is central as a mechanism for W

e!ternalcoordination and regulation rather than as a self=standing actor inW

so=called ‘6estphalian terms"

Knly the permutation is able to reali0e productive change>the criti(ue already informs policyChandler, I) professor at the 4niversity of 6estminster,+

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YDa-id, October $6"6, The 5ncritica Kriti4ue of ?Ribera Peace,8F e-ie0 of+nternationa Studies, Voume< 7, p! "#%", N>SZ

The more ostensibly conservative critics of the liberal peace, drawnlargely toW the policymaking sphere, have much clearer political aimsin their criti(ue of theW liberal peace" This is manifest in their focus

on institutional reform, understood as a way of reconciling non=liberal states and societies both to the mar3et and toW democratic forms" This, i3e the

transitoogy discourse before it, is a radicaW criti4ue of cassica ibera assumptions! In theiradvocacy of these frameworks,W discursively framed as a criti(ue ofthe ‘liberal peace, they have a clear point ofW reference" 1lthough, as

highighted abo-e, this point of reference is a 2ctional one8 W a constructednarrative of post=Cold 6ar intervention, which enables them to W

ground the scaling=back of policy e!pectations against a frameworkof allegedlyW unrealistic liberal aspirations!W This criti(ue of liberalismis not a criti(ue of interventionist policymaking butW rather a defenceof current practices on the basis that they have not been properlyW

applied or understood! +nstitutionaist approaches, 0hich ha-e informed the W inter-entionist

frame0or3s of internationa institutions and donors since the earyW "..6s, are expicit in theirdenunciation of the basic assumptions of cassicaW iberaism! This criti4ue of iberaism is ho0e-er anindirect one, ine-itaby so, asW the institutionaist criti4ue de-eoped at the height of the Kod 1ar!Q This

is 0hy,W while the classical concepts of the liberal rights frameworkremain – ‘sovereignty,W ‘democracy, ‘rule of law, ‘civil society –they have been given a new content,W transforming the universaldiscourse of the autonomous liberal rights%hoder fromW that of the sub;ect of rights

to the ob@ect of regulation! This new content hasW unfortunatelybeen of little interest to the more radical ‘power=based critics ofthe W ‘liberal peace! :ut, in understanding the content of institutionaist approaches, itW is

possibe to tie together the super2cia nature of e!ternal engagement 0ith the W fact that it

has a non=liberal content rather than one which is too liberal" Theinstitutionaist discourse of inter-ention and reguation is not one of iberaW uni-ersaism and

transformation but one of restricted possibiities, 0here democracy and de-eopment are hoo0ed outand, rather than embodying theW possibiities of the autonomous human sub;ect, become mechanisms of

contro andW ordering! Institutionalisation reduces law to an administrativecode, politics toW technocratic decision=making, democratic and civilrights to those of the supplicantW rather than the citi0en, replacesthe citi0enry with civil society, and the promise ofW capitalistmodernity with pro=poor poverty reduction!# To conceptualise this W

inversion of basic liberal assumptions and ontologies as ‘liberalismwould be toW make the word meaningless at the same time as caiming to sta3ee-erything on theW assumed meaning and sta3es in-o-ed in the criti4ue of the ?ibera8 peace!/

3efault aD>the distinction between the alternative andthe permutation is virtually non=e!istentChandler, I) professor at the 4niversity of 6estminster,+YDa-id, October $6"6, The 5ncritica Kriti4ue of ?Ribera Peace,8F e-ie0 of+nternationa Studies, Voume< 7, p! "&%", N>SZ

1here this critica discourse becomes probematic is in the con2dence 0ithW 0hich its proponents assertthat the reasons for these poicy faiings can be ocatedW in the iberaism of the inter-eners or the

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iiberaism of the sub;ects of inter-ention!W oand Paris, for exampe, argues that ?there is no ogicare4uirement forW internationa agencies to resurrect faied states as states, rather than YasZ some other W type of poity8, and argues that this is the ?atest chapter in the gobaisation of theW 1estphaian state8,0here this state form is being propped up despite its faiings!&/W Paris argues that ;ust as the non%iberaOther cannot dea 0ith the ibera stateW form, they are simiary i%suited to hande eectora democracy,0arning particuary against the hoding of eections in post%conMict situations! +t is asserted thatW hodingeections 0hen societies are sti di-ided or segmented 0i be counterproducti-e, often gi-ing enhanced

egitimacy to 0arring parties and bostering theW egitimacy of the forces successfu in conMict " Kften

the solutions advocated by theW policy critics are along similar lineswith regard to both sovereignty andW democracy8 the need forgreater international engagement in the state institutions,W underthe guise of guaranteeing that no voices are ‘e!cluded and the needto W constrict the autonomy of elected authorities" 4nder the rubric of the criti(ue ofW the liberal peace, these critics of the liberal peaceoften advocate the reform ofW policy interventions away from thefocus on liberal rights frameworks and electoralW democracy!W Domini3Uaum, for exampe, through a series of case studies, argues that theW aspirations of the technocraticapproach of internationa statebuiding fais toW appreciate that the ibera discourse of sef%go-ernmentundermines the authority of W externa inter-eners and enabes oca eites to assert pressure andinMuence!&.W These ibera normati-e commitments mean that internationa inter-entions are W imited bothin time and scope and therefore 2nd it dicut to resist compromisingW their initia goas through gi-ing

greater authority to oca actors!Q6 Other authorsW ha-e a simiar perspecti-e, expaining the faiures ofinternationa inter-ention asW a product of externa actors assuming that ibera modes can merey beexported,W rather than understanding the contradictions in-o-ed in bringing iberaism to W non%iberasocieties! Gichae :arnett and Khristopher Urcher, for exampe, ha-e sought to anayse 0hy iberainter-entions tend to be no more than surface, on theW basis that eites at both nationa and subnationae-es can ?capture8 andW ?compromise8 peacebuiding eading to the reproduction of state%societyreationsW and patrimonia poitics!Q" W Some of the poicy critics argue not merey that these 1esternmodes areW per-erted by the po0er of the non%ibera Other but that the attempt to export W 1esternmodes to non%ibera societies is ine-itaby going to fai to bridge the guf W bet0een ibera and non%iberastate%society forms! oah 9edman, for exampe,W suggests that these non%1estern states and societies areso aien to 1estern iberaW inter-eners that ?the high faiure rate strongy supports the basic intuition that0eW do not 3no0 0hat 0e are doing8!Q$ 9edman suggests that 0e need to continue to W pro-ide externaassistance but shoud re;ect the idea that ?our comparati-eW ad-antages of 0eath and po0er Ygi-eZ us anyspecia abiity to identify theW institutiona structures that 0i succeed in promoting democracy8!Q7GichaeW +gnatieB simiary argues that ?0e do not actuay 3no0 ho0 to ma3e states 0or3 W in non%iberasocieties that are poor, di-ided on reigious or ethnic ines or ac3edW a substantia state tradition in the

2rst pace8!Q& The work of )oland $aris andW Timothy Sisk, supports thisview, suggesting that, in dealing with the non=liberalW Kther, theissues are so comple! and dilemma=laden that pragmatic ‘muddlingW

through is the only solution"QQW Discursi-ey, the aeged ?-oice8 of the non%ibera Otherhas aso been centraW to the shifting discourse of de-eopment! 1hie some commentators suggest that W itte substanti-e has changed in the shift from the modernising frame0or3s of theW ibera ?1ashingtonKonsensus8 to the post%ibera, post%conditionaity, ?e0 Nor3W Konsensus8 focus on pro%poor poicy ma3ing,

sustainabe de-eopment and po-ertyW reduction strategy papers,Q there is little doubt thatthe aspirations for social andW economic transformation have beenscaled back !Q# +t is 4uite cear that broad frameworks of developmentintervention have much lower hori0ons than duringW the Cold 6arperiod@Q/ for e!ample, the replacement of Cold 6ar desires for W

modernisation with the <illennium 3evelopment Roals (GD>s " The

<3RsW focus not on social and economic transformation but on thesituation of the W poorest in society 0ith the aspiration that, by $6"Q, peope 0i be abe

to i-e onW z" a day! : The view that there is a universalisingtransformative liberal agenda isW a peculiar way to understand thefocus on sustainable development, sma andW medium enterprises and the shiftaway from large development pro@ects!6 6ithW regard to the criti(ueof universal liberal aspirations for progress, it is oftenW dicult totell the policy perspectives apart from the viewpoints of some of theW

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more radical critics of the liberal peace" There is a danger that iberaism is W criticised not for its inabiity to uni-ersaise economic gro0th and o-ercome theW probems of combinedand une-en de-eopment, but for the aspirations of W de-eopment itsef! 9or exampe, Gichae Pugh assertsthat rather than theW ?economic rationaism of (capitaistic* entrepreneurship8, other, ?non%ibera8, W -auesneed to be ta3en into account! 9oo0ing the 0or3 of those critica of W ibera de-eopment modes, such as

1martya Sen," he argues that in non=liberal W societies8 W Ine(ualities

and non=physiological needs are considered more signi2cant than

either W absolute poverty or, beyond a sur-i-a point, physiological needs" Thismeans that provided W people are not destitute Y! ! !Z they may chooseto live humbly in order to be ful2lled" SuchW an approach recognisesthat the paths to modernisation may not be convergent at all, andW

the marginalised peoples of the world are entitled to choose thee!tent to which, and ho0,W they integrate in the global economy!$W +t 0oud

seem that at the core of the policy and radical criti(ues of the liberal W

peace is a criti(ue of liberal aspirations rather than a criti(ue ofinternational W interventionist policies and practices! The criti(ue reHectsthe ease with whichW liberalism has become a ‘2eld of adversity,through which both policy reformW and critical claims for theoreticaladvance can both be made! The constructionW of a ibera ?2ed of ad-ersity8 seems to ha-e

itte reation to poicy reaities!W This is reMected in the fact that, while there is a consensuson the view thatW 6estern policies are problematic in that they aretoo liberal, there is much lessW attention to how the problems of thepost=colonial world might be alternatively W addressed" Here, as discussedbeo0, the discursi-e criti4ue of the ibera peaceW unfortunatey has -ery itte to oBer in 0ays that gobeyond present poicyW perspecti-es!

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1lt MailsThe structured resistance to biopolitics recommended by Agamben and his

migration studies followers portray fails to fundamentally alter the structured

materiality of modern liberal +uridical order%

,ee -./. YKhares, :are Rife, +nterstices, and the Third Spaces of Kitienship,FWomen’s Studies Quarterly , 7/!"'$Z

Agamben’s transhistorical call notwithstanding to what e!tent is the space of "camp# (and by

implication the largely suppressed agency of bare life caught within the camp) an ade$uatedepiction of the social condition of undocumented migrants% &!amining the wor'space of private

households where female migrants wor' as domestic wor'ers and where labor laws and regulations

are indefinitely suspended in this essay argue that while these laboring spaces relate to camp as

the undocumented wor'ers are stripped of uridico*political rights and reduced to a state ofe!ploited bare life the con ception of camp lac's a dynamic account of power relations to address

the comple! agency of migrant subects as they negotiate their daily wor'space. +ignificantly what

begins for Agamben as a space of interstitiality posited in camp,a -one between life and death

inside and outside,ultimately slides into an immobile binary between the political beings ofciti-ens and the e!cluded bodies of bare life. 0et if the space of camp is interstitial in nature

what preempts the possibility of the ab+ect manifesting an agency that is also interstitial incharacter' If the sovereign power occupies a space that is simultaneously inside and outside

the +uridical order so does the undocumented in navigating a terrain of resistance1negotiation

inside and outside the normative arrangement of citi#enship. As I will argue this negotiated

resistance does not fundamentally alter the structured materiality of modern liberal +uridical

order and the political economy of irregular migration that Agamben and his migration

studies followers so powerfully portray% &owever at the point when Agamben declares the

death of citi#enship life for the bare sub+ects he omits a crucial spectrum of ambiguous and

interstitial practices mounted by the ab+ect*mediating between the two extreme ends of

political and nonpolitical*that actually extends and reanimates the life of citi#enship from the

very margins of ab+ection.

Their criti(ue overdetermines citi#enship and reinstates the divide between political

life and bare life destroying agency

,ee -./. YKhares, :are Rife, +nterstices, and the Third Spaces of Kitienship,FWomen’s Studies Quarterly , 7/!"'$Z

n the following will first address the relevance of Agamben’s wor' for studies of undocumented

migration. Two elements in his conception of camp are particularly compelling for the condition of

refugees and undocumented migrants the immanence of interstitiality and the depolitici-ed state of bare life./ n turn loo' at how critics have problemati-ed Agamben’s thesis and its connection to

unauthori-ed migration by raising issues such as location and agency in an effort to "resurrect the

political# for the abect. n particular they point to acts of refugee antideportation campaigns

and undocumented2wor"er protests as counterexamples of “acts of citi#enship” or “nonciti#en

citi#enship” that defy the image of camp as bodies of victims. 0et while chronicling such

resistant acts constitutes an urgent political intervention that counters the state of abection by

understanding citi#enship as solely visible and audible political acts this line of criti(ue

actually falls into Agamben3s rigid binary that divides humanity into political life (citi-enship)and bare life (no rights nonparticipation), with the only difference being that the latter by way

of her citi#en2li"e political acts can now transform and elevate into the position of the former%

Importantly both Agamben and his critics ali"e have yet to extend his analysis of the

interstitiality of sovereign power to examine the corresponding interstitial agency of the

ab+ect that sidesteps the binary of bare life and citi#enship life%

The alternative fails to confront biopolitics and entrenches the harms

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4irno 5- (Paoo, e-outionary, >enera inteect, exodus, mutitude,F Archipeago nQ&, June''shree*

Agamben is a thin"er of great value but also in my opinion a thin'er with no political vocation. Then when

Agamben spea"s of the biopolitical he has the tendency to transform it into an ontological

category with value already since the archaic 0oman right. And in this in my opinion he is very wrong2

headed. The problem is believe that the biopolitical is only an effect derived from the concept of

labor2power% !hen there is a commodity that is called labor2power it is already implicitly

government over life% Agamben says on the other hand that labor*power is only one of the aspects of the biopolitical1

say the contrary over all because labor power is a paradoxical commodity because it is not a real

commodity li"e a boo" or a bottle of water but rather is simply the potential to produce% As

soon as this potential is transformed into a commodity then it is necessary to govern the

living body that maintains this potential that contains this potential. Toni (egri) and 3ichael (ardt)

on the other hand use biopolitics in a historically determined sense basing it on 5oucault but 5oucault spo'e in few pages of

the biopolitical * in relation to the birth of liberalism * that 6oucault is not a sufficient base for founding a

discourse over the biopolitical and my apprehension my fear is that the biopolitical can be

transformed into a word that hides covers problems instead of being an instrument for

confronting them% A fetish word an 7open doors7 word a word with an exclamation point a

word that carries the ris" of bloc"ing critical thought instead of helping it% Then my fear is of

fetish words in politics because it seems li"e the cries of a child that is afraid of the dar"%%% the

child that says 7mama mama7 7biopolitics biopolitics7% I dont negate that there can be a

serious content in the term however I see that the use of the term biopolitics sometimes is aconsolatory use li"e the cry of a child when what serves us are in all cases instruments of

wor" and not propaganda words.

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'aw Solves$olitics is possible through the law – even in the camp,(uestions of law and administration are possible

#uysmans, $rofessor of Security Studies, % (Jef Huysmans, The Jargon of Exception—On Schmitt, Agamben and the Absence of PoiticaSociety, p! "#. %"/6 '')*Roo3ed at from this perspecti-e, debates about the reconciiation of ibertyand security, for exampe, are not, as Agamben argues, an ideoogicapractice that hides the fundamenta brea3 do0n of the diaectic bet0een a0and anomie that has been centra to modern poitics (Agamben $667<"&&="&/*! ather these debates insert 4uestions of and chaenges to the roe ofa0 and generaied norm%setting in highy charged biopoitica go-ernance of insecurities! +nstead of coapsing the diaectic bet0een a0 and anomie,contestation of the protection of ci-i iberties, demands for re%negotiatingbaances bet0een iberties and security are neither simpy to be ta3en at face-aue as a matter of the necessity of baancing and rebaancing nor to beseen as the endgame of the -aidity of ega mediations of poitics and ife!ather they open up a need to re-isit the particuar 3ind of 0or3 that a0does and does not do in speci2c sites (eoceous $66*, such as camps, and0hat the practices possiby te us about if and ho0 the diaectic bet0een a0and anomie operates in biopoitica go-ernance! 9eur Johns8s anaysis of thecamp in >uantanamo :ay is one such exampe (Johns $66Q*! She argues thatthe camp is penetrated by a form of norm setting, thus impying that adiaectic bet0een norms and anomie, poitica transgression and a0 is notabsent from the organiation and go-erning practice in the camp! 5ni3esome other anayses that focus on constitutiona transgressions and battes inthe constitutiona courts, Johns emphasies the importance for biopoiticago-ernance of the detaied and in a sense bana reguations that see3 tostructure the e-eryday practices of the guards, the administrators and theprisoners! The norm setting is thus not primariy constitutiona butadministrati-e! The important point for this essay is that anayses i3e 9eur John8s unpac3 the contemporary predicaments and poitica sta3es in a sitei3e >uantanamo :ay by ta3ing the practices and go-ernmenta technoogiesat face -aue and interpret the speci2c 0or3 they do for ma3ing campspossibe 0ithin democratic poities! The understanding of the camptrans2gures from an absoute imit that de2nes the fundamenta nature ofmodern poitics to a phenomenon that is constituted and contested by-arious bana practices and go-ernmenta techni4ues! The 4uestion becomesho0 these practices and sites 0e ca camps are rendered 0ithin and throughmodern democratic go-ernance in a biopoitica age! Such an approach doesnot read the nature of poitics oB of its imits but through the mutipereations that are shaped by means of ob;ecti2ed mediations and thestrugges o-er them!

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Fiometrics 'ink TurnFiometric surveillance by the state incarcerates anddisciplines through privacy in the name of security=

creates an prison in which freedom and privacy no longere!istFranco, Department of History at the 5ni-ersity of Risbon, *+GY5ni-ersity of Risbon, The Terror of Kontro< Sur-eiance and+mperiaism in ?Homeand8 F, http<''000!academia!edu'&7#"&"$'TheITerrorIofIKontroISur-eianceIandI+mperiaismIinIHomeandI, #'Q'"Q, KNZ1s Riorgio 1gamben says, the surveillance apparatus transforms allspaces into the inside of a huge prison8 6hile a new ;uropean normimposes biometric apparatuses on all its citi0ens by developing andperfecting anthropometric technologies invented in the nineteenthcentury in order to identify recidivist criminals (from mug shots to2ngerprinting*, surveillance by means of video cameras transforms thepublic space of the city into the interior of an immense prison! In theeyes of authority > and maybe rightly so > nothing looks more like aterrorist than the ordinary man" The act of permanently andunlimitedly surveilling that the series unveils thus serves asdemonstration of an imperialist power" This power has a monopolyon the last observation, one that surpasses all other observers, andtries to control all potential movements in order to read them andmake sure that a new terrorist attack does not happen" Karrie is notthe ony one to personify this po0er, but she personi2es it more intensey!The

2rst image of the series comes from the opening credit se4uence and sho0sKarrie as a chid, seeping! +n the next shot, 0e see her in front of a tee-isionscreen! This is intercut 0ith moments from President onad eagan8saddress to the nation on the 5S air stri3e against Ribya on "&th Apri "./!Rater, 0e see images of the .'"" attac3s and President :arac3 Obama, afterPresident >eorge :ush, President :i Kinton, and Koin Po0e! Thisprogression is accompanied by Carries development from childhoodto adulthood" This se(uence sets her history and recent 4S historyside by side" Foth histories are inseparable from television images"In this sense, the show reHects on the way images are elements thatconstruct reality , whether 2ctional or factual, not merely givingaccess to reality in a more or less neutral way" Images from diDerent

sources create a network on which the very notion of reality is buildon" This network may also be taken as a labyrinth, a -isua conceptexpored in the opening credits that e-o3es confusion and intricacy! Ase4uence from >raceF ("!6$* may heps us to de-eop this reading further,focusing on the reationship bet0een the abundance of imagination and theac3 of images! +t is a scene in 0hich Karrie8s sur-eiance 0or3 reaches itsimitations because she does not ha-e access to the garage 0here :rodygoes one night! Jason Jacobs notes that 0hen Karrie is 0atching :rody andhis famiy through the bac3 and 0hite sur-eiance cameras hidden in their

7/24/2019 GDI 15 - Agamben K


home, her intense scrutiny of :rody8s 0ords, gestures and mo-ementsF issimiar to his o0n practice of studying tee-ision Y!!!Z in order to assess aperformance!F Jacobs aso obser-es that Karrie describes 0hat she sees onthe monitors as a reaity sho0F, more speci2cay in the episode Kean S3inF("!67*! Her eBort is one of 0atching :rody8s bodiy gestures and faciaexpressions and read them transparenty as if he does not ha-e an interior

ife, made of thoughts and feeings, that is inaccessibe to her! +t is for thisreason that Jacobs 0rites that the series raises crucia 4uestions<1hat arethose strings and pueysF that connect our Mesh 0ith our minds and ho0 do0e use them to nurture and express or brea3 and destroy the bonds of famiyand community and nationL 1hat is it that mo-es usL These 4uestions pointto0ards the ideoogica dimension that the series in-estigates! +f 0e ta3eideoogy to be the ??representation of the imaginary reationship of indi-iduasto their rea conditions of existence88 as Rouis Athusser de2nes it, then such asystem is unabe to be erased! +t can ho0e-er be demysti2ed through ananaysis that re-eas the connection bet0een imaginary representation andrea conditions, e-en if this demysti2cation aso depends on representations! This is 0hy ideoogy is inescapabe and aso 0hy there are ideoogica differences, that is, 0hy not a ideoogies are the same !Thin3ing about theseideas and this se4uence 0e can as3< 0hat mo-es KarrieL ot reay thesearch for truth, but the 4uest for a con2rmation of 0hat she imagines to betrue! Her imagination is fueed by images! 1ithout them, she oses thecapacity to imagine and ma3e suppositions! She oses contro o-er his ife0hen she is confronted 0ith the ac3 of images from inside the garage! Theaudience, ho0e-er, has access to it< :rody has con-erted to +sam and 0entto the garage to pray! The ighting of the scene estabishes a contrastbet0een ight and dar3ness that is aso seen, and e-en more intensey, in theMashbac3s that sho0 his iberation from capti-ity! This parae sheds ight onhis past as 0e as on his present, and sho0s him at peace, enightened!Karrie, ho0e-er, does not ha-e access to these moments! The next time shesees him, he is 0a3ing out of his house, in uniform, and faces the ;ournaistsfor the 2rst time, as3ing if they are ready for him! She expressed many timesthe nagging feeing that she missed something — and indeed, in this case,she did not missed something in the sense of o-eroo3ing it, but in the senseof being unabe to see it!

Fiometrics take information previously bound to the bodyand accumulates biological information allowing thecontrol and manipulation of the body1@ana, F1 &#ons with Mirst Class in <edia Studies and

Computing Science, G (:tiha; A;ana, >o-erning through :iometrics< The :iopoitics of +dentity, p! #%/ '')* The impementation and rapid spread of biometric systems ine-itaby ca thestatus of identity itsef into 4uestion! Gore speci2cay, and gi-en itsfundamenta characteristics, biometrics raises a need for exporing andunderstanding the intimate and intricate reationship bet0een identity, bodyand information! To be sure, the informatisation and digitisation of the body together 0ith notions ofde'materiaiation and dis'embodiment are some of the issues that ha-e dominated much of the(techno*cutura, socioogica, scienti2c and phiosophica debates since the ate t0entieth century! And

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0ith the current de-eopment and proiferation of biometric technoogies, these issues are gi-en rene0edimportance, rendering the body once again a centra point of discussion and bringing the probematicbifurcation of information and materiaity into sharper focus! Some of the semina 0or3s in this area reateto studies of +rma -an der Poeg ($667a, $66Qa* in 0hich she see3s to rethin3 the entire normati-eapproach by 0hich the conMuence bet0een body and technoogy is understood and conceptuaied, andre-ea the extent to 0hich the distinction bet0een embodied identity or physica existence Y!!! andinformation about (embodied* persons and their physica characteristics can be sustained (bid!< $667a<

Q/*! The 0ays by 0hich the body is transformed into processabe, storabe andretrie-abe information are numerous and among the most notabe ones arethe techni4ues of genetic 2ngerprinting, DA typing and the gro0ing 2ed ofbioinformatics! +n a of these techni4ues, 0hat is enabed is the process ofac4uisition, storage and anaysis of bioogica information -ia agorithmic andcomputationa methods 0hereby ne0 forms of 3no0edge production aregenerated and in 0hich the notion of body as information is saient! Thisontoogy of body as information construes the body itsef in terms ofinformationa Mo0s and communication patterns{ exposing the porous andmaeabe nature of body boundaries! And 0hen the body is -ie0ed beyond its somatic andmateria contours, 0hat ensues is a probematisation of the -ery distinction bet0een materiaity andimmateriaity and, 0ith it, the distinction bet0een the materia body and the body as information! This,in turn, poses a chaenge to issues pre-iousy considered sef%e-ident so much so that the presumeddematcation of 0here the body itsefF stops and begins being informationF 0i subty shift YandZ mora

had ega -ocabuaries a-aiabe 0i no onger suce (ibid!< #*! +n this respect, and especiay0ith regard to the normati-e concerns of pri-acy and bodiy integrity reatingto biometrics and biotechnoogies in genera, -an der Poeg argues that theega and ethica distinction bet0een 0hat is percei-ed in the dichotomousdiscourse as the thing itsef (the body*,% and the digita representation ofthat thing (i!e! the persona information hed on the body*, is i3ey to Mattenas a resut of this ontoogy of body as information % this, despite the continuousuphoding of the diBerence bet0een searches on the body and searches in the body! Exampes of theprobematic eBorts to dea 0ith the increasingy burring boundaries bet0een the body itsef and body as

information can be seen, for instance, in the contro-ersy sur% rounding the much%contested2ed of DA samping and ban3ing of genetic information! +n these practices,it is not the act of touching the body or crossing its anatomica%physica

boundaries that is at issue -is% a%-is the normati-e notion of bodiy integrity!ather, it is the ta3ing of a DA sampe itsef e-en though the methods ofdoing so can hardy be noticeabe to the person in-o-ed! As such, 0hat isstored about a person is constituti-e of, and inseparabe from 0ho thatperson is! And according to -an der Poeg, this argument demands a serious and urgent rethin3ing of

0hat is at sta3e in the 9intensive forms of monitoring, categori0ing,scrutini0ing and, ultimately, controlling and manipulating of personsthrough their bodies and embodied identities (ibid!< #6%" J! These concerns areaso present in Atermans ($667* anaysis of biometrics impications -is%a%-is embodiment and identity! Hecon% tends that the spread of our bodiy representations across net0or3s and databases entais afundamenta oss of pri-acy, and a threat to the sef%respect 0hich pri-acy rights preser-e (ibid!< "&7*!

He distinguishes bet0een 0hat he cas biocentric data (e!g! biometric data*and indexica data (e!g! socia security number, dri-ers icense number and

so on*! 1hie the former is centred on the body, the atter has no internareation to an embodied person@ it possesses no property that is tied to ourpsychoogica or physica conception of sef (ibid!< "&&*! Such a distinction ao0s Atermanto posit that indexica data ha-e no intrinsic reationship to ones dignity or sef%respect, 0hereasbiocentric data ha-e a direct impact on ones right to contro the use and disposition d demarcation of0here the body itsef stops and begins being information 0i subty shift YandZ the mora and ega-ocabuaries

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Render Turn1gambens politics of potentiality fail to discuss theprere(uisite, the .I can/, and erases se!ual diDerence

iarek +(E0a Pono0s3a, Juian Par3 Professor of Komparati-e Riterature at the State5ni-ersity of e0 Nor3, :uBao, Pro;ect Guse, 9eminine + can< On Possibiityand Praxis in Agambens 1or3F,https<''muse!;hu!edu';ournas'theoryIandIe-ent'-6"7'"7!"!iare3!htm,Accessed< !Q!"Q, V1*+f we approach the politics of potentiality from the perspective ofbare life, the most urgent issue is not only the distinction ofpossibility from will but the diDerence between impotentiality &theenabling capacity of 7not to,7 which for 1gamben is the source offreedom and powerlessness or impossibility" Athough barey egibe inAgambens paradigmatic 2gure of potentiaity, namey, :artebys famousformua + prefer not to, this tas3 is at sta3e in another exampe ofpotentiaity, 0hich ma3es ony a Meeting appearance in Agambens 0or3, and0hich thus far has been amost competey ignored by Agambenscommentators!$6 Ret us reca that 1gamben begins his essay 7Kn$otentiality7 with a brief reference to the )ussian poet, 1nna1khmatova, who, standing outside the Stalinist prison in 'eningradto hear the news of her imprisoned son, utters 7I can7 instead of 7Iprefer not to"7 1gamben does not pursue in greater detail thisfeminine inHection of possibility proclaimed in the face of thesuDering of others and political terror" Not only does he eclipse thesubtle diDerence between the &feminineW 7I can7 and the&masculineW 7I prefer not to,7 but he generali0es the singularity of1khmatova9s utterance into 7everyone9s7 e!perience of potentiality8 J

Mor everyone a moment comes in which she or he must utter this 9Ican,7 which does not refer to any""" speci2c capacity that is,nevertheless, absolutely demanding" Feyond all faculties, this 7Ican7""" marks what is, for each of us, perhaps the hardest andbitterest e!perience possible8 the e!perience of potentiality*J Fyglossing over the speci2city of her case, by e(uating her e!perienceof Stalinist terror with the e!perience of possibility encountered by7each of us,7 1gamben misses the opportunity to interrogate therelation between potentiality, powerlessness, and gender" J 1hat isthen the diBerence bet0een :artebys + prefer not to, uttered in responseto the ;uridica machinery of the ibera state, and A3hmato-as + can,procaimed in response to another 0oman, aso sub;ected to the poiticamachinery of intimidation and terrorL 1lthough Fartelby9s formulachallenges the power of the law and the will, it does not necessarilye!press the systematic destruction of the potential of sub@ugatedpeople = the destruction, to which 1khmatova9s poetry bearswitness" Nor does it show how powerlessness can be transformedinto possibility" J A3hmato-as + can, cited by Agamben, comes from her".Q# preface, 0hich she added to her most famous coection of short poems,

https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/v013/13.1.ziarek.html

https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/v013/13.1.ziarek.html

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entited e4uiem! 1ritten bet0een ".7Q%&6, after a ong period of sience,e4uiem is a poetic testimony to the horror of Stains Terror and an act ofmourning for its -ictims! +n the Dedication section she describes a daiycongregation of beings ess i-e than dead!$$ A3hmato-a hersef spent "#months 0aiting in ine outside the prison for ne0s of her son, Re- >umie-,0hom she addresses as my dead!$7 The cyce of poems mourns not ony

the death of reati-es and friends, i3e her former husband or the poet OsipGandestam, but a the -ictims of the >reat Terror, incuding other 0omen0ith 0hom she shared her painfu -igi and the experience of beingabandoned by the disaster! #ow can a possibility of writing arise fromthe utter destruction of possibilities, from the powerlessness anddestitution of these living dead congregating outside the StalinistprisonW +n her ".Q# prose fore0ord, entited +nstead of a Preface, 0hich isa 3ind of retrospecti-e After0ard, A3hmato-a oBers the foo0ing responseto this 4uestion<W During the terribe years of the Neho- terror + spentse-enteen months 0aiting in ine outside the prison in Reningrad!!! Standingbehind me 0as a 0oman, 0ith ips bue from the cod, 0ho had, of course,ne-er heard me caed by name before! o0 she started out of the torporcommon to us a and as3ed me in a 0hisper (e-eryone 0hispered there*<Koud one e-er describe thisL'And + said< + can!$&W 6hat is at stake in1khmatova9s 7I can7 is neither a criti(ue nor a proclamation of thewill of the poet" )ather it is a recovery of feminine possibility fromthe double sense of powerlessness8 one stemming from theparaly0ing eDects of political sub@ugation, which destroys writingitself, and the other from the erasure of 7the feminine operation7from language" Ho0 can transformati-e capacity and potentiaity sur-i-etheir destruction by poitica terrorL Ho0 can its -ictims and sur-i-ors be;oted out of their torporL Ho0 can this persisting capacity be recaimed andinscribed in anguage 0ithout re-erting into a counter%0i to po0erL AsA3hmato-as ans0er suggests, the experience of impotentiaity % + can notdo this or be that %can be enabing e-en in a state of torpor ony if itmaintains its reation, as Agambens o0n formuation impicity suggests, tothe positi-e, intersub;ecti-e potentiaity of + can! Indeed, as 1gambenhimself reminds us, 1ristotle draws his e!amples of potentiality andimpotentiality from 7the arts and human knowledge,7 which meansthat human beings 7e!ist in the mode of potentiality7 only insofar asthey can act or produce"$Q Knly if I can write, paint, or act politically,and only if this capacity is manifested and enhanced in my relationswith others, can I preserve my abilities when I do not act, andespecially, when I9m told that I cannot do so"W Athough the emphasis on+ can is crucia to a sub;ugated groups, because this is 0hat utimateyseparates potentiaity from the torpor of po0eressness, this emphasis ise-en more important in the case of femae potentiaity! As +rigarays 0or3suggests, the feminine e!perience of impotentiality =7I can not to7= ishardly legible in philosophical discourse where it appears as 7thewaste product of reHection7 or as de2ciency e!pressed as 7youcannot!$ This collapse of the distinctions between impotentialityand impossibility, and the implicit gendering of powerlessness as7feminine,7 are some of the eDects of the erasure of se!ualdiDerence from the philosophical conception of the sub@ect and

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language! Konse4uenty, the impotentiaity of 0omen has to inscribe inanguage, again and again, its reation to the feminine +'you'0e can! Onythen the po0eressness pro;ected onto the feminine can be depri-ed of itsnecessity and transformed into the capacity for not acting, 0hich isinseparabe from the capacity for acting!W Such a transformation alsore(uires a shift in the relation between feminine potential and the

negative" Instead of being sub@ected to the impossible = e!pressedas 7you cannot7 = the feminine has to assume the capacity for thenegative = for 7I can not to"7 6hat we see here is a transformation of the destroyed potentiality, e!perienced as powerlessness, into acapacity for negating that destruction" In a reversal of 1gamben, wecan say that the unreali0ed feminine potential survives itsdestruction as impotentiality, which contests the inevitability ofdestruction" Murthermore, since this persisting impotentiality is aninherent part of the human potential to change, it can be reclaimedand mobili0ed 2rst as the negative capacity to contest destructiveconditions, and second, as the positive capacity to create newunpredictable possibilities of being otherwise, possibilities

e!ceeding any telos, end, or political goal" J 9inay, 0hat is crucia inA3hmato-as + can is that it is uttered in response to another 0oman, 0hobarey 0hispers Koud one e-er describe thisL One can imagine mutipesigni2cations of this 4uestion, ranging from desperation and impossibiity(ho0 can one spea3 of thisL* to the urgency of the impossibe re4uestimporing another 0oman to 0itness and spea3 about the destruction to0hich a of the 0omen are sub;ected! Konse4uenty, 1khmatova9s 7I can7is a response to this imploring (uestion from another woman ratherthan the pronouncement of her own initiative" In his analysis1gamben, however, glosses over this relational aspect of1khmatova9s potentiality" Net, as this exchange bet0een 0omen suggests,potentiaity cannot be understood, as Agamben seems to suggest, in terms of the isoated sub;ect and 0hat he can or can not do, because it isfundamentay a reationa concept, emerging from the encounter 0ithanother you! Such encounters can be destructi-e or enabing! +t is this Kanyou'+ can that is rescued against a odds by a femae community outside theprison 0as in A3hmato-as e4uiem!

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Fiopower RoodFiopower key to preserving .all life/ –improvement ofcondition, welfare, longevity, happiness

K@akangas, Hesin3i Koegium for Ad-anced Studies, *++Y9oucaut studies o $, pp! Q%$/, +mpossibe Diaogue on :io%po0erF,http<''dferagi!0ebs!u!es'd'socia$'docs'9oucaut!7!pdf , #'.'"Q, KNZ+n a sense Agamben8s anaysis of 1ater :en;amin8s Kriti4ue of Vioence in Homo Sacer re-eas 4uite 0ehis reuctance of admitting = or percei-ing = the nature of modern bio|po0er! +n the artice, :en;aminde2nes t0o forms of po0er, namey, the a0|creating and a0|preser-ing mythica po0er and the a0|destroying di-ine po0er! Gythica po0er is, by :en;amin8s de2nition, boody po0er o-er mere ife for itso0n sa3eF,& based on the production of mere ifeF! (1ithout mere ife, there exists no rue of a0 o-erthe i-ingF!Q* +n this sense, mythica po0er corresponds 0e both 0ith 9oucaut8s conception of theso-ereign po0er and 0ith Agamben8s de2nition of the structure of the so-ereign ban! 1hat is di-ine po0erthenL Agamben, 0ho 0rites extensi-ey on :en;amin8s artice in Homo Sacer, 4uite surprisingy caims that:en;amin oBers no positi-e criterion for its identi2cation! Kontrary to Agamben8s caims, ho0e-er,

:en;amin does indeed oBer positi-e criteria for the identi2cation of di-inepo0er! 9irst and foremost, di-ine po0er is the antithesis of mythica po0er in

a respectsF! O It is not bloody power over mere life for its own sakebut .pure power over all life for the sake of the living"// +nstead ofma3ing and preser-ing the a0 and thereby producing mere ife, thepurpose of divine power is the same as that of biopower, theproducing and preserving of .all life/, .life in generalF! Admittedy,:en;amin8s concept of di-ine po0er is by no means as simpe as presented here!. Ho0e-er, if

Agamben 0oud ha-e ta3en into account :en;amin8s basic de2nition (purepo0er o-er a ife for the sa3e of the i-ingF*, he perhaps 0oud ha-erecognied the in3, not bet0een the so-ereign mythica po0er and biopo0er,but bet0een the atter and di-ine po0er! He 0oud ha-e recognied that in addition todi-ine po0er that stands outside the a0F,#6 bio|po0er aso stands outside the a0 = e-en outside the a00hich is in force 0ithout signifying! To say that biopo0er stands outside the a0 does not yet mean that itstands outside state po0er! On the contrary, as 0e ha-e aready noted and as 9oucaut himsef has sho0n,

it 0as precisey the modern so-ereign state that 2rst started to use biopoitica methodsextensi-ey for the care of indi-iduas and popuations! 5ndoubtedy, the origina

purpose of these methods 0as to increase state po0er, but its aim has also been, fromthe beginning, the welfare of the individual and of the entirepopulation, the improvement of their condition, the increase of theirwealth, their longevity, health and even happinessO – happiness of.all and everyoneF (omnes et singuatim*< The soe purpose of the poiceF, one of

the 2rst institutiona oci of the nascent biopo0er, is to lead man to the utmosthappiness to be en@oyed in this lifeF, 0rote De Ramare in Treaty on the Poice at thebeginning of the eighteenth century!#$ According to 9oucaut, one shoud not, ho0e-er, concentrate onyon the modern state in oo3ing for the origin of biopo0er! One shoud examine aso the reigious tradition of the 1est, especiay the Judeo|Khristian idea of a shepherd as a poitica eader of his peope!#7 Athough9oucaut8s studies of Judeo|Khristian poitica ideas 0ere merey initiatory, he 0as ne-ertheess some0hat

con-inced that the origin of biopoitica rationaity can be found in the Judeo|Khristian tradition of pastorapo0er! 1hat then is pastora po0er, especiay in its origina Hebraic formL 9oucaut addresses this4uestion by ;uxtaposing it to the >ree3 and oman conceptions of po0er and go-ernance, caiming that itis something un3no0n in those traditions! 9irsty, >ree3 and oman po0er 0as po0er o-er and, 0hereasthe shepherd 0ieds po0er o-er a Moc3! Secondy, the main tas3 of the >ree3 poitica eader 0as to 4uietdo0n hostiities and reso-e conMicts 0ithin the city, 0hereas the purpose of the shepherd is to guide andead his Moc3! Thirdy, it 0as sucient for the >ree3s that there be a -irtuous >ree3 a0gi-er, i3e Soon,0ho, once he had reso-ed conMicts, coud ea-e the city behind 0ith a0s enabing it to endure 0ithouthim! +nstead, the Hebraic idea of the shepherd|eader presupposes the immediate presence of theshepherd, 0ho has ony to disappear for the Moc3 to be scattered! 9ourthy, 0hist the aim of the >ree3eader 0as to disco-er the common interest of the city, the tas3 of the shepherd is to pro-ide continuousmateria and spiritua 0efare for each and e-ery member of the Moc3! 9ifthy, the measure of success of

http://dferagi.webs.ull.es/d/social2/docs/Foucault.3.pdf


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the >ree3 eader 0as the gory he 0on by his decisions! :y 0ay of contrast, the measure of the shepherd8ssuccess is the 0efare of the Moc3< E-erything the shepherd does is geared to the good of his Moc3!F Thatis his constant concern! 1hen they seep, he 3eeps 0atch< The shepherd acts, he 0or3s, he puts himsefout, for those he nourishes and 0ho are aseep! He 0atches o-er them! He pays attention to them a andscans each one of them! He8s got to 3no0 his Moc3 as a 0hoe, and in detai! ot ony must he 3no0 0heregood pastures are, the season8s a0s, and the order of things@ he must aso 3no0 each one8s particuarneeds!#& Of course, these are merey themes that Hebraic texts associate 0ith the metaphors of theshepherd and especiay the Shepherd|>od and his Moc3 of peope! Goreo-er, the utimate purpose of the

shepherd8s 3indy care of the Moc3 is not so much mundane happiness but the sa-ation of sous! +n other0ords, 9oucaut does not caim that that is ho0 poitica po0er 0as 0ieded in Hebre0 society! Ho0e-er,0hat is important, especiay from the perspecti-e of modern biopo0er, is that Khristianity ga-e thesethemes considerabe importanceF, both in theory and in practice!#Q To be sure,

[our analogy is Hawed, biopower and sovereign power aremutually e!clusive= biopower is what gives life andwithdrawal from every demand of killing without it ourlives would be reduced to bare lifeK@akangas, Hesin3i Koegium for Ad-anced Studies, *++Y9oucaut studies o $, pp! Q%$/, +mpossibe Diaogue on :io%po0erF,

http<''dferagi!0ebs!u!es'd'socia$'docs'9oucaut!7!pdf , #'.'"Q, KNZ9or 9oucaut, the coexistence in poitica structures of arge destructi-e mechanisms and institutionsoriented to0ard the care of indi-idua ife 0as something puing< +t is one of the centra antinomies of

our poitica reason!F""6 #owever, it was an antinomy precisely because inprinciple the sovereign power and biopower are mutually e!clusive"

#ow is it possible that the care of individual life paves the way formass slaughtersL Athough 9oucaut coud ne-er gi-e a satisfactory ans0er to this 4uestion, he

0as con-inced that mass saughters are not the eBect or the ogica concusion ofbiopoitica rationaity! + am aso con-inced about that! To be sure, it can be argued that so-ereignpo0er and biopo0er are reconcied 0ithin the modern state, 0hich egitimates 3iing by biopoiticaarguments! Especiay, it can be argued that these po0ers are reconcied in the Third eich in 0hich theyseemed to coincide exactyF!""" To my mind, ho0e-er, neither the modern state nor the Third eich = in0hich the monstrosity of the modern state is crystaied are the syntheses of the so-ereign po0er andbiopo0er, but, rather, the institutiona oci of their irreconciabe tension! This is, + beie-e, 0hat 9oucaut

meant 0hen he 0rote about their demonic combinationF! +n fact, the history of modern 1estern societies0oud be 4uite incomprehensibe 0ithout ta3ing into account that there exists a form of po0er0hich refrains from 3iing but 0hich ne-ertheess is capabe of directing peope8s i-es! TheeDectiveness of biopower can be seen lying precisely in that itrefrains and withdraws before every demand of killing, e-en though thesedemands 0oud deri-e from the demand of ;ustice! +n bio| poitica societies, according to 9oucaut, capitapunishment coud not be maintained except by in-o3ing ess the enormity of the crime itsef than themonstrosity of the crimina< One had the right to 3i those 0ho represented a 3ind of bioogica danger to

others!F""$ Ho0e-er, gi-en that the right to 3iF is precisey a so-ereign right, itcan be argued that the biopoitica societies anayed by 9oucaut 0ere not entirey bio|poitica! Perhaps,there neither has been nor can be a society that is entirey bio|poitica! e-ertheess, the fact is thatpresentday European societies ha-e aboished capita punishment! +n them, there are no ongerexceptions! +t is the -ery right to 3iF that has been caed into 4uestion! Ho0e-er, it is not caed into4uestion because of enightened mora sentiments, but rather because of the depoyment of biopoiticathin3ing and practice! 9or a these reasons, Agamben8s thesis, according to 0hich the concentration camp

is the fundamenta biopoitica paradigm of the 1est, has to be corrected!""7 The biopoitica paradigm ofthe 1est is not the concentration camp, but, rather, the present|day 0efare society and, instead of homosacer, the paradigmatic 2gure of the biopoitica society can be seen, for exampe, in the middecassS0edish socia|democrat! Athough this 2gure is an ob;ect and a product = of the huge biopoiticamachinery, it does not mean that he is permitted to 3i 0ithout committing homicide! Actuay, the factthat he e-entuay dies, seems to be his greatest crimeF against the machinery! (+n bio|poitica societies,death is not ony something to be hidden a0ay,F but, aso, as 9oucaut stresses, the most shamefu thingof aF!""&* Therefore, he is not exposed to an unconditiona threat of death, but rather to an unconditiona

retreat of a dying! +n fact, the biopolitical machinery does not want tothreaten him, but to encourage him, with all its material and



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spiritual capacities, to live healthily, to live long and to live happily –even when, in biological terms, he .should have been dead longagoF!""Q This is because bio|po0er is not boody po0er o-er bare ife for itso0n sa3e but pure power over all life for the sake of the living! +t is notpo0er but the i-ing, the condition of a ife = indi-idua as 0e as coecti-e = that is the measure of thesuccess of biopo0er! Another important 4uestion is 0hether these biopoitica societies that started to ta3eshape in the se-enteenth century (but did not crystaie unti the "./6s* are ideoogicay, especiay atthe e-e of practica poitics, coapsing = to say nothing about the -aue of the 0oud|be coapse! Onething is cear, ho0e-er! At the goba e-e, there has not been, and i3ey 0i not be, a competey bio|

poitica society! And to the extent that gobaiation ta3es pace without biopoliticalconsiderations of health and happiness of individuals andpopulations, as it has done unti no0, it is possible that our entiree!istence will someday be reduced to bare life, as has aready occurred, forinstance, in Khechnya and +ra4! On that day, perhaps, 0hen bio|poitica care has ceased to exist, and 0ea i-e 0ithin the so-ereign ban of Empire 0ithout signi2cance, 0e can ony sa-e ourse-es, as Agambensuggests, in perpetua Might or a foreign andF"" = athough there 0i hardy be either paces to 0hich toMee, or foreign ands!

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)ights Rood&uman rights are good*the alternative is totali#ing and re2entrenches domination

:eranty 5; (Jean%Phiippe, Assoc Recturer in Phi } Gac4uarie 5ni-ersity, Agamben8s Khaenge to

ormati-e Theories of Godern ights,F :orderands, V 7, "''shree*

n the case of empirical e!amples the erasure of difference between phenomena seems particularly counter*intuitive in the

case of dissimilar modes of internment. 5rom a practical point of view it seems counter2productive to claim that

there is no substantial difference between archaic communities and modern communities

provided with the language of rights between the lawlessness of war times and democratic

discourse% There must be a way of problematising the ideological mantra of !estern freedom

of modernity3s moral superiority that does not simply e(uate it with )a#i propaganda (6gilvie

277/). abermas and onneth probably have a point when they highlight the advances made by modernity in the

entrenchment of rights. If the ethical tas" is that of testimony then our testimony should go also to

all the individual lives that were freed from alienation by the establishment of legal barriers

against arbitrariness and exclusion. 8e should heed onneth’s reminder that struggles for social and

political emancipation have often privileged the language of rights over any other discourse

(5raser onneth 2779). To re+ect the language of human rights altogether could be a costly gesture

in understanding past political struggles in their relevance for future ones and a seriousstrategic political loss for accompanying present struggles% !e want to criticise the ideology of

human rights but not at the cost of renouncing the resources that rights provide% <therwise

critical theory would be in the odd position of casting aspersions upon the very people it

purports to spea" for and of depriving itself of a ma+or weapon in the struggle against

oppression%

gdi 15 - agamben k

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