The Pirate Myth: Genealogies of an Imperial Concept

ISBN-13: 9781138211308 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 244 str.

Amedeo Policante

Opis

The image of the pirate today haunts the imagination of statesmen, diplomats and international legal scholars as an unlikely global security threat. But what are the origins of the ‘pirate myth’ in the Western political imagination? Drawing on history, international law, literature and politics, this book offers an original genealogy of this myth. From the persecutio piratarum that inaugurates the Imperial phase of Roman history to the contemporary global mobilization against Somali pirates, this book shows that the ways in which pirates have been used, criminalized, condemned and suppressed by European powers continues to be a fundamental element in the formation of the world market.

Spis treści

Introduction Part I: Pirate Figures (1400-1800) 1. Persecutio Piratarum: Pirate Outlaws and the Roman Empire 2. The Christian Commonwealth: Pirates, Heretics and Inquisitors 3. Zones of plunder: Piracy and primitive accumulation 4. Enemies of All Nations: Piracy and the World Market, Intermezzo: The Romance of Piracy Part II Pirate Spectres (1800-2012) 5. The Empire of Free Trade: Liberal Universalism and the Pirate States 6. Pirate Spectres: Rightless Outlaws in the Age of Total War 7. Terrorists, Pirates and Rogue States: Global Police Today,  Conclusion

O autorze

Amedeo Policante is based in Department of Politics, Goldsmiths College