The Political Subject of Violence

This book examines the relationship between modern reason, modern violence and modern politics by drawing upon Nietzschean and Heideggerean critiques of modern thought. The essays, which unite the work of philosophers and some of the leading critics of the political theory of international relations, argue that reason and violence are intimately connected in contemporary politics. Just as violence is the "ultima ratio" of the modern political subject, so modern reason is deeply complicit in the violence of the political subject's constitution. The essays then move on to attempt a reconceptualization of the political in the aftermath of the "end of philosophy thesis", to prepare a critical genealogy of the value of security, and to examine how political actors constitute the objects of political violence - the Gulf War provides a essential case study. Finally, they provide a critique of the theory of politics within international relations, and consider the relationship between the ethical and the political prompted by the work of Emmanuel Levinas. The political subject of violence presents international relations with a powerful and radical challenge, arguing that the discipline translates the rich and disturbing phenomenology of political violence into a simple ontology of a rational political order.