Seven Theses on Terror, Security and The New World Order: Thesis 3
Thesis 3: When considering the fundamental role of endocolonization as a manifestation of pure war, we can see that the biopower of Empire attempts to subsume life itself into a new and radically disembodied system of neuropolitical control.
The new biopower by means of which Empire rules is the same as what Virilio once termed ‘endocolonization’. The becoming global of Empire is not merely a function of the aggressive incorporation of the outside, but also entailed an equally aggressive ex-corporation of ‘others within’. In this world, war is not primarily happening between states, but within states – as forms of policing, of mobilizing resources, of ghettoizing frontiers. Long before Empire, Negri had already coined the term ‘warfare state’ to describe how the late-modern state has transformed its urban-civic landscape into virtual battlefields.
The US may have been the earliest to actively pursue endocolonization, but Europe is catching on fast. The events of September 11 have marked a decisive twist in the tale. The speed with which various governments have been able to process new, draconian ‘security measures’ suggests that many of these plans were already waiting to be introduced. The warfare state is no accidental occurrence – but a strategic and intentional feature of late-capitalist societies. Subsequent political actions in many European states have focused on hardening an anti-immigration ethos. Lumping together immigration, political refugees, Islam and ethnicity has provided an effective platform from which the society of control could target and process the multitude. The ‘headscarf ban’ in France, for example, is much more than merely a continuation of the Enlightenmen’s assault on religion (in search of a new, secular, universalism), but an integral part of its own mode of endocolonization.
It is the capacity to present this ‘war’ in service of peace, justice and rights that marks the effectiveness of Empire. It is the assertion of a universalism that no longer depends on any mode of sovereignty that marks the ascendance of Empire over the nation state. The reaction by a radical Islamist group in Iraq to kidnap two French journalists equally plays into the hands of Empire – affirming both the banality of the war on terror (as a matter of military-controlled policing; e.g. the ease with which war and crime are merged into war-crime) and the absoluteness of its adversary (the evil of Islamic fundamentalism – the Enemy).
“The traditional concept of just war involves the banalization of war and the celebration of it as an ethical instrument. These two traditional characteristics have reappeared in our postmodern world: on the one hand, war is reduced to the status of police action, and on the other, the new power that can legitimately exercise ethical functions through war is sacralized (Hardt and Negri, 2000: 12).”
Also:
Seven Theses on Terror, Security and The New World Order: Thesis 2
Seven Theses on Terror, Security and The New World Order: Thesis 1