"Foucault and the Modern International is an intellectually dense and highly analytical text that contributes to the debate on the place of Foucault in the evolution of IR, both as a discipline and a reality to be studied. Its contribution is an important one ... ." (Julien Pomare de, European Review of International Studies ERIS, Vol. 5 (1), 2018)
1. Introduction: The International as an Object for Thought
Philippe Bonditti
SECTION 1 — DE-DISCIPLINING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL
2. The Figure of Foucault and the Field of International Relations
Nicholas Onuf
3. Michel Foucault and International Relations: Cannibal Relations
Didier Bigo
4. Microphysics Of Power Redux
William Walters
SECTION 2 — BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND METHOD
5. Political Spirituality: Parrhesia, Truth And Factical Finitude
Michael Dillon
6. Power as Sumbolon: Sovereignty, Governmentality and the International
Mitchell Dean
7. Foucault and Method
Michael J. Shapiro
SECTION 3 — INTERNATIONAL?
8. Silencing Colonialism: Foucault And the International
Marta Fernández and Paulo Esteves
9. Violence and the Modern International: An Archaeology of Terrorism
Philippe Bonditti
10. Foucault and the Historical Sociology of Globalization
Jean-François Bayart
SECTION 4 — (NEO-)LIBERAL?
11. On Liberalism: Limits, the Market and the Subject
Frédéric Gros
12. On Bureaucratic Formalization: The Reality-Like Fiction of Neoliberal Abstractions
Béatrice Hibou
13. Too-Late Liberalism: From Promised Prosperity to Permanent Austerity
Laurence McFalls & Mariella Pandolfi
SECTION 5 — BIOPOLITICAL?
14. Biopolitics in the Twenty-First Century: The Malthus-Marx Debate and the Human Capital Issue
Luca Paltrinieri
15. Mesopolitics: Foucault, Environmental Governmentality and the History of the Anthropocene
Ferhat Taylan
SECTION 6 — GLOBAL?
16. The Word and the Things: An Archaeology of An Amnesic Notion
Armand Mattelart
17. Foucault and Geometrics
Stuart Elden
18. Conclusion: Which Foucault? Which International?
R.B.J Walker
Philippe Bonditti holds a doctorate in Political Science from Sciences Po Paris, France, and is currently Lecturer at the European School of Political and Social Science (ESPOL-UCL), France. Previously, he was Assistant Professor at the Institute of International Relations of the Pontificial Universidade Catholica in Rio de Janeiro (IRI/PUC-Rio), Brazil, and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Watson Institute, Brown University, US. His research interests focus on contemporary discourses on violence, war, and security, the transformations of the modern state and the art of government, (critical) International Relations theory, (critical) security studies, contemporary French philosophy, and political theory.
Didier Bigo is Associate Professor (tenure) at Sciences-Po, France and Professor of International Relations at Kings College London, UK. Bigo is Editor-in-Chief of the French quarterly journal Cultures & Conflits and launched, with R. B. J. Walker, the journal International Political Sociology. His research interests include security and liberty, biometrics identifiers and databases, antiterrorist policies in Europe after 9/11, the merging of internal security and external security, migrants and refugees in Europe, critical security studies, and international political sociology.
Frédéric Gros is Professor of Philosophy at Sciences Po Paris, France. His research focuses on contemporary French philosophy—in particular the thought of Michel Foucault, whose writings, such as Subjectivity and Truth, he has edited—the foundations of the right to punish, issues of war and security, and the ethics of the political subject.
This book addresses the possibilities of analyzing the modern international through the thought of Michel Foucault. The contributors question four of the most self-evident characteristics of our contemporary world—‘international,’ ‘(neo)liberal,’ ‘biopolitical’ and ‘global’—and thus fill significant gaps in both international and Foucault studies. The chapters discuss what a Foucauldian perspective does or does not offer for understanding international phenomena while also questioning many appropriations of Foucault’s work. This transdisciplinary volume will serve as a reference for scholars and students of international relations, international political sociology, international political economy, political theory/philosophy and critical theory more generally.
Philippe Bonditti is Assistant Professor at the European School of Political and Social Science (ESPOL-UCL), France.
Didier Bigo is Associate Professor at Sciences Po Paris, France, and Professor of International Relations at Kings College London, UK.
Frédéric Gros is Professor of Philosophy at Sciences Po Paris, France.