War, terrorism and violence

Code Cours
2223-ESPOL-IR-EN-5002
Langue d'enseignement
Français, Anglais
Ce cours apparaît dans les formation(s) suivante(s)
Responsable(s)
PHILIPPE BONDITTI
Période

Présentation

Objectifs

A major change occurred these last twenty years in ‘world politics’: the gradual elaboration of terrorism—or what we want to name so—as the new political and strategic enemy by governmental elites. If all governments throughout the world do not necessarily share the same vision as for how to fight ‘terrorism’, they all seem to agree about the urgent necessity to eradicate it. For this purpose, states have developed important so-called antiterrorist capabilities ranging from the increase of the means of surveillance to the development of military and police special operations and forces. And yet, not only nothing seem to stop “terrorism”, but “terrorism” on the one hand, states on the other now seem to be engaged in a violent planetary competition that runs the risk of what Clausewitz had called the “rise to extremes.” This course aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to understand how the ‘world’ has come into such a dead end by re-seizing the issue of ‘terrorism’ and ‘antiterrorism’ from the perspective of the contemporary transformations of the modern discourse on violence and the corresponding transformations of the modern states’ security architecture.

Présentation

Session 01 – General Introduction



  • Aim and approach – The historicity of the ‘terrorism’ issue, the relationship to violence and the question of (political) modernity; Brief overview of the literature on ‘terrorism’ and ‘counterterrorism’; A discourse approach to ‘terrorism’: benefits and limits;

  • Course structure and evaluation - Overview of each the course sessions; Work expected from the students (how to read?) and distribution of the presentations in class.


Session 02 – The Modern Problematization of War and Violence



  • Violence under modernity: between legitimisation and spatialisation – Modernity and political modernity; monopolisation/concentration of (the means of) violence; the centrifugal logic; the modern International/Spatiality (Inside/Outside) and the corresponding categorisation of violence; war, enmity and the equilibrium issue (identification and symmetrisation).


Session 03 – Terrorism: the Definitional Problem



  • Demarcating the problem – What’s at stake with defining? On the difficulty/impossibility to define; language/words vs discourse/concept: the different modes of abstraction; practical vs speculative knowledge?; operational vs analytical definitions?; concepts and categories; interrogating the impossibility to define rather than forcing the definition.


Session 04 – ‘Terrorism’ and the Military-Strategic Discourse



  • De-symmetrising military conflict and hostility – The context of the Cold war and the balance of Terror; the military-strategic discourse in the post-WWII era; the emergence of the counter-insurgency discourse and the fabric of a military doctrine (1950s and 1960s); from enemy and state-centric to population and environment-centric strategy; Concepts of ‘threat’ and ‘network’ (terror network theory) in military-strategic discourse.


Session 05 – ‘Terrorism’ and the Institutional/Expert Discourse



  • The making of a ‘category’ The growth of institutional programs and reports on ‘terrorism’ and political violence; ‘Terrorism’ as an object of knowledge/study: figures, statistics and maps; the birth of the ‘expert discourse’ on ‘terrorism’; the intensification of the ‘definitional work’ and the (institutional) definitions of ‘terrorism’; ‘Terrorism studies’: the emergence of a field of study; Critical terrorism and studies.


Session 06 – ‘Terrorism’ and the Legal/judicial discourse



  • Criminalising political contest – A brief history of the counter-subversion discourse: the case of the United States; the growth of legal definitions of ‘terrorism’; from the ‘terror network’ theory in the 1980s to the ‘terrorist networks’ discourse in the 1990s.


Session 07 – ‘Terrorism’ and the Security Discourse



  • Governing violence through terrorism – the emergence of the ‘security discourse’ and the formation of the National Security State; Security, what do you mean? (defence, law enforcement); the rise of the anticipatory logic; anticipatory logic vs permanent alertness; the role devoted to Intelligence; the liberty vs security debate.


Session 08 – ‘Terrorism’ and the Border Security and Migration Discourse



  • Discretizing the border – the terrorism/migration nexus; controlling mobility and technologising border (control); controlling at a distance: the spread of the visa logic; politics of movement or politics as movement; traceability as a technology of government.


Session 09 – ‘Terrorism’ and the Radicalisation Discourse



  • Consecrating terrorism – on radicality and violent extremism; the emergence of the radicalisation discourse; the ‘terrorism’ religion connection; the homegrown terrorism discourse; the question of death and sacrifice; from count

Modalités

Modalités d'enseignement

This course will meet once weekly. At the start of each class, students will be asked to present the readings listed in the syllabus. These presentations will be followed by an in-depth discussion which will be the occasion for the students to connect the conceptual discussion to the pragmatic realities of security as they experience it in the daily life. After a short break, I will then lecture with the aim of grasping the most crucial elements isolated during the discussion.

Évaluation

Ressources