Papers by Ian Robert Douglas
Jeffrey A. Hart and Aseem Prakash (Eds.), Globalization and Governance (New York: Routledge, 1999)., 1999
I argue in this essay that globalization is in not in tension with governance, indeed each is the... more I argue in this essay that globalization is in not in tension with governance, indeed each is the logic of the other. The root of this equivalence can be found deep within the genealogy of the modern state. In tracing this equivalence I suggest not only that we re-examine popular notions concerning the decline of public authority and the hollowing out of states, but also that we pay greater attention to the political genealogy of concepts such as autonomy, freedom and participatory democracy. In so doing we can open a space for a fresh evaluation of contemporary discourses and practices of global governance — a disciplinary governance that has become our destination and law, and a politics of bringing order to the world.
Christian Scherrer (Ed), Iraq: Genocide by Sanctions (Pulau Pinang: Penerbit, USM, 2011), pp. 330-390. , Jun 1, 2007
The illegal US invasion of Iraq was and is a humanitarian catastrophe. Some try to explain this c... more The illegal US invasion of Iraq was and is a humanitarian catastrophe. Some try to explain this catastrophe as a byproduct. They justify their concept on the absence of intent. Reviewing applicable principles of international law and US policy towards Iraq, this paper aims to prove that the humanitarian catastrophe present in Iraq is an essential component of US policy, constituting premeditated genocide against the people of Iraq. The intent that some propose is absent is flagrantly evident. Consequently, this paper constitutes a call to jurists, law associations, and individuals from all walks of life to act on ending genocide in Iraq. This study was made not only because of the horrid consequences of the illegal US invasion of Iraq, but to lay a basis for stopping imperial adventures and to enrich the political thinking of instruments that can save our civilisation.
This paper argues for a sustained revaluation of the concept of ‘globalization’. Developing a pos... more This paper argues for a sustained revaluation of the concept of ‘globalization’. Developing a poststructural reading, it focuses on the context in which the concept has arisen, and the mechanisms through which it has disseminated. Drawing on a range of continental thinkers, from Foucault through Virilio, to Cassirer and Deleuze, I develop a framework through which we may better understand how the discourse of globalization has been normalised, and transformed from concept to action. These developments are part of what I take to be the configuration of three new social spheres in late modernity: ‘reflex-politics’; ‘speed-politics’; and ‘mytho-politics’, wherein we are witness to new modes of objectification and governmentality. ‘Globalization’ itself becomes a powerful structure of governance as we pass the millennium. When the discourse has become a vector of power, our best hope might be to ‘forget globalization’.
Teaching Documents by Ian Robert Douglas
In this course we will examine the joyful philosophy of Michel Foucault (1926-1984), late profess... more In this course we will examine the joyful philosophy of Michel Foucault (1926-1984), late professor of "the history of systems of thought" at the Collège de France, Paris. Widely regarded as among the most important thinkers of the 20th century, Michel Foucault has nonetheless been widely misunderstood. His thought is not difficult or obscure, but rather full of passion and wonder. We will examine in Foucault’s work the possibility of overcoming the nihilism of the modern age. We will place Foucault’s work in the milieu of 1960’s France, where it seemed for a moment that the very fundaments of society might be overturned. His experience in activism, his uncovering of relations of power and domination, his laughter—we will explore his formative influences, his philosophy, his fears, his hopes, and his courage.
“Everything is dangerous”, wrote Michel Foucault. We will test this hypothesis by looking closely... more “Everything is dangerous”, wrote Michel Foucault. We will test this hypothesis by looking closely at the birth of modern society and its various institutions. Through close readings of several of Foucault’s texts (including Madness & Civilization, Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality), this course will serve as a radical introduction to the politics of social order. Examining asylums, hospitals, prisons, factories, funfairs, and schools we will uncover the power relations that codify modern existence; the domains of everyday experience around which our lives revolve.
How was the human - the animal being - secured in it’s relation to the world? By what techniques,... more How was the human - the animal being - secured in it’s relation to the world? By what techniques, and under which rationalities, were the permanent parameters of our experi- ence (society, knowledge, subjectivity) established? Such questions are marginal in po- litical science. Most especially in international relations, where so often the complexity of this ‘question of security’ is effaced: reduced to three types of accumulation; the accu- mulation of territory (realism), the accumulation of laws and regimes (liberalism), or the accumulation of material resources (marxism). We tend only to think of security between states. But what about the regularization of the human animal? In this unit we will seek to get closer to a true representation of the complexity of security by highlighting a fourth type of accumulation: what Michel Foucault called the “accumulation of men”.1 With a flickering light we will venture into an alternative archive, listen to lost voices, discover new chambers and caverns, uncover a history forgotten yet central to modernity’s fascination with security. From the waning of the Middle Ages to the Information Revolu- tion, we will chart thresholds in the discourses and practices of this broader political technology of security, and in doing so, look deeper into the birth of our world, and its unsteady, but regular journey toward universal order.
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Papers by Ian Robert Douglas
Teaching Documents by Ian Robert Douglas