Ekspertens brød, den intellektuelles død? Politik, viden og teknologi under den nukleare revolution

The relationship between science and politics is not singular. In this article we focus on the thermonuclear revolution that resulted in dramatic changes to modern knowledge economies. During the 1950s and early 1960s the production of scienti c knowledge was increasingly militarized and a general trend in the role of knowledge providers – away from the sage or intellectual and towards the expert – was accelerated. ere were, however, countertrends. We describe how some of the most signi cant and thoroughgoing critique of the nuclear age was formulated on the margins of or outside the academic world by a group of thinkers (that we term nuclear realists). For these thinkers, the thermonuclear revolution became the catalyst for new visions of global politics that sought to undermine and transgress the ideological rationale behind national security and the establishment of the military-industrial complex, particularly in the United States. Although the historical analysis of the thermonuclear revolution constitutes an extreme case, it harbours signi cant chal- lenges in relation to the nexus between politics, scienti c knowledge and global politics.

Ekspertens brød, den intellektuelles død? Politik, viden og teknologi under den nukleare revolution

The relationship between science and politics is not singular. In this article we focus on the thermonuclear revolution that resulted in dramatic changes to modern knowledge economies. During the 1950s and early 1960s the production of scienti c knowledge was increasingly militarized and a general trend in the role of knowledge providers – away from the sage or intellectual and towards the expert – was accelerated. ere were, however, countertrends. We describe how some of the most signi cant and thoroughgoing critique of the nuclear age was formulated on the margins of or outside the academic world by a group of thinkers (that we term nuclear realists). For these thinkers, the thermonuclear revolution became the catalyst for new visions of global politics that sought to undermine and transgress the ideological rationale behind national security and the establishment of the military-industrial complex, particularly in the United States. Although the historical analysis of the thermonuclear revolution constitutes an extreme case, it harbours signi cant chal- lenges in relation to the nexus between politics, scienti c knowledge and global politics.

Governing terrorism through risk: Taking precautions, (un)knowing the future

The events of 9/11 appeared to make good on Ulrich Beck's claim that we are now living in a (global) risk society. Examining what it means to ‘govern through risk’, this article departs from Beck's thesis of risk society and its appropriation in security studies. Arguing that the risk society thesis problematically views risk within a macro-sociological narrative of modernity, this article shows, based on a Foucauldian account of governmentality, that governing terrorism through risk involves a permanent adjustment of traditional forms of risk management in light of the double infinity of catastrophic consequences and the incalculability of the risk of terrorism. Deploying the Foucauldian notion of ‘dispositif’, this article explores precautionary risk and risk analysis as conceptual tools that can shed light on the heterogeneous practices that are defined as the ‘war on terror’

Insuring terrorism, assuring subjects, ensuring normality: the politics of risk after 9/11

Security has been located either in the political spectacle of public discourses or within the specialized field of security professionals, experts in the management of unease. This article takes issue with these analyses and argues that security practices are also formulated in more heterogeneous locations. Since the early days of the 'war on terror,� the insurance industry has had an instrumental role and 'underwriting terrorism' has become part of the global governmentality of terrorism. We explore the political implications of the classificatory practices that insurance presupposes and argue that the technologies of insurance foster subjects who are consistent with the logic of capitalism. Insurance entrenches a vision of the social where antagonisms have been displaced or are suspended by an overwhelming concern with the continuity of social and economic processes. These effects of insurance will be discussed as the 'temporality,� 'subjectivity,� and 'alterity' effects

Poststructuralism, continental philosophy, and the remaking of security studies

This chapter traces the contribution of critical scholarship to security studies since the 1990s.Drawing on continental philosophy more largely has allowed security scholars to challenge dominant understandings and practices of security and add new dimensions to the poststructuralist questions about the significance of identity construction and discourse analysis, particularly by focusing on ‘unmaking security’. Aradau and van Munster explore analyses of security as a principle of formation, through exceptional logic, biopolitics and domination

Taming the Future: The Dispositif of Risk in the War on Terror

About the book: This book offers the first comprehensive and critical investigation of the specific modes of risk calculation that are emerging in the so-called War on Terror. Risk and the War on Terror offers an interdisciplinary set of contributions which debate and analyze both the empirical manifestations of risk in the War on Terror and their theoretical implications. From border controls and biometrics to financial targeting and policing practice, the imperative to deploy public and private data in order to ‘connect the dots’ of terrorism risk raises important questions for social scientists and practitioners alike. How are risk technologies redeployed from commercial, environmental and policing domains to the domain of the War on Terror? How can the invocation of risk in the War on Terror be understood conceptually? Do these moves embody transformations from sovereignty to governmentality; from discipline to risk; from geopolitics to biopolitics? What are the implications of such moves for the populations that come to be designated as ‘risky’ or ‘at risk’? Where are the gaps, ambiguities and potential resistances to these practices

Exceptionalism and the 'War on Terror': Criminology meets international relations

Criminology and International Relations (IR) share a relatively wide vocabulary: political violence, crime, security, deterrence, war on terror, risk, human rights and freedom. Particularly in the case of the ‘war on terror’, similar concerns and conceptual tools have increasingly surfaced on both sides. Nonetheless, one debate—namely Carl Schmitt's theory of the exception and its uptake in IR—has travelled less well. This article argues that there is value in engaging with the IR debates on the exception. From the perspective of IR, the exception makes possible different insights about the dialectics between law and crime by unpacking the constitutive role of the politics of fear, the importance of the ‘international’ and the transformed relationship to the future. It also exposes the deteriorating effects of the ‘war on terror’ on justice, democracy and social transformation

Politics of Catastrophe: Genealogies of the Unknown

This book argues that catastrophe is a particular way of governing future events – such as terrorism, climate change or pandemics – which we cannot predict but which may strike suddenly, without warning, and cause irreversible damage. At a time where catastrophe increasingly functions as a signifier of our future, imaginaries of pending doom have fostered new modes of anticipatory knowledge and redeployed existing ones. Although it shares many similarities with crises, disasters, risks and other disruptive incidents, this book claims that catastrophes also bring out the very limits of knowledge and management. The politics of catastrophe is turned towards an unknown future, which must be imagined and inhabited in order to be made palpable, knowable and actionable. Politics of Catastrophe critically assesses the effects of these new practices of knowing and governing catastrophes to come and challenges the reader to think about the possibility of an alternative politics of catastrophe. This book will be of interest to students of critical security studies, risk theory, political theory and International Relations in general