Pharmacotic War and the Ethical Dilemmas of Engagement

Pharmacotic wargames: Military play as ritual sacrifice

“…The theory of pharmacotic war was originally proposed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to account for the relation between foreign wars and the internal ontopolitical dynamics then unfolding within the USA. It does so by exploring how political order and the political relations among internal groups and subjects are reconstituted before, during, and after wars through: (1) the targeted demonization and scapegoating of subaltern groups; (2) the normative social and political reconstruction, reframing, and redefinition of moral categories, and of related norms and standards of innocence, guilt, and responsibility that coalesce affectively around relations of sacrifice, victimization, and culpability generated through various kinds and forms of sacrificial political violence; and (3) processes of interpellation and subjectification productive of new, reconstructed/reconstituted individual and collective moral and political subjects (Debrix and Lacy, 2009: 34–53; George, 2002, 2003, 2005).…”

Beyond Choice: The Onto-politics of Critique

“…As George argues, challenging Western ethical discourse, and especially the limited resources that have underpinned the moral discourse of international politics, 'is the major theoretical task confronting intellectuals interested in the ethics of international political engagement'. 13 What is important to note is that this theoretical task is likely to be simultaneously 'against theory' in so far as it will depend upon and produce an understanding of the ethical relation rather than a theory of ethics, where the latter is understood as systematic, abstract principles. 14 One key strand of this endeavour involves an appreciation of Levinas's thought, because Levinas more than almost any other intellectual radically refigures our understanding of responsibility, subjectivity and ethics.…”

Ethics and Practices of Engagement: Intellectuals as Experts

“…2 The urgent question, according to Vivienne Jabri, becomes how to find any form of political agency -how to find an intellectual voice and a point of engagement -in the face of what Larry George calls 'pharmacotic war'. 3 Is it possible to 'speak truth to power', or is it, as Deleuze reminds us, that 'not being a power, philosophy can't battle with the powers that be'? 4 Jabri puts the question this way: 'When war is used as a technology of global control, how do we articulate a presence that is other to this totalising practice?'…”