Beyond Security, Ethics and Violence: War Against the Other (Routledge Advances in International Relations and Global Politics)

297 Pages·2006·1.58 MB·English

by  Anthony Burke

1111
Beyond Security, Ethics
2
3 and Violence
4
5
6
7
8
9
1011
1
2
3111 In a world plagued by war and terror, Beyond Security, Ethics and Violence
4 sounds a warning: not only are global patterns of insecurity, violence and
5 conflict getting ever more destructive and out of hand, but the ways we
6 understand and respond to them will only prolong the crisis. When security
7 is grounded in exclusion and alienation, ethics licenses killing and war,
8 and freedom is a mask for imperial violence, how should we act?
9 Anthony Burke offers a ground-breaking analysis of the historical roots
20111 of sovereignty and security, his critique of just war theory, and important
1 new essays on strategy, the concept of freedom and US exceptionalism.
2 He pursues searching critical engagements with thinkers such as Giorgio
3 Agamben, Hardt and Negri, Emmanuel Levinas, Carl von Clausewitz, Jean
4 Bethke Elshtain, Michael Walzer, Michel Foucault and William Connolly.
5 Combining a diversity of critical thought with analyses of the war on
6 terror, Iraq, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the Vietnam war, the Indonesian
7 crisis, globalisation and the new drive for empire, Burke refuses easy
8 answers, or to abandon hope.
9 This innovative study will be of key interest to students and researchers
30111 of politics and international relations, security studies, social and cultural
1 theory and philosophy.
2
3 Anthony Burke is Senior Lecturer in the School of Politics and
4 International Relations at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.
5
6
7
8
9
40111
1
2
3
4
45111
1111 Praise for Beyond Security, Ethics and Violence
2
3
4 It’s time someone in international relations penetrated the many rationales for
5 security that enable us to get away with murder. To Burke, security is a self-
6 justifying system of politics that operates mainly to keep itself going. How
7 leading philosophers, scholars and governments bolster that system becomes clear
through Burke’s careful, fearless, innovative, tender and important analysis.
8
Professor Christine Sylvester, University of Lancaster, UK
9
1011
In a lucid and compelling book Anthony Burke dissects the politics of security
1
in several theories of state territory. He also addresses closely a series of recent
2
state practices of security. In doing so, he opens the door to a post-security
3111 politics, a politics that goes beyond the construction of permanent, unspecified
4 enemies.
5 Professor William E. Connolly, Johns Hopkins University, USA
6
7 It is rare to find a work of political philosophy that so skilfully combines a
8 detailed knowledge of the contemporary scenes of national and international
violence with close attention to the ontological and ethical principles by which
9
we might regard and evaluate them. This properly scathing treatment of the
20111
modern paradigm of ‘security’ opens the way to an urgently demanded inter-
1
rogation of the terms on which the lauded freedom of the West might be pursued
2
beyond its current blatant disregard for the life of the Other.
3
Dr Fiona Jenkins, Australian National University, Australia
4
5 The volume engages many of the major figures in political and ethical thinking
6 in a dialogue that is both informative and self-reflective. Burke refuses to duck
7 the big questions or take sides in some of the more polarised debates about inter-
8 national ethics. As such these meditations are provocative critical essays that
9 should raise numerous talking points for scholarly discussion. Pitched as such
to critical scholars looking for a fresh innovative theoretically informed but non-
30111
dogmatic voice in the seminar room, this book should do very well.
1
Professor Simon Dalby, Carleton University, Canada
2
3
This is a very substantial book with an excellent and timely analysis of many
4
significant security issues currently at play in the international community.
5 Professor Thomas Keating, University of Alberta, Canada
6
7 Beyond Security, Ethics and Violence is one of those rare books that success-
8 fully combine sophisticated philosophical reflections with meticulous analyses
9 of concrete political situations. In a series of compelling studies that range from
40111 the Middle East to East Timor, and from Vietnam to the war on terror, Burke
convincingly demonstrates that the strategic use of violence is far less control-
1
lable – and far less ethical – than commonly assumed. Beyond Security is a
2
must-read for anyone interested in critical moral reasoning at a time when war
3
has become widely accepted as a normal and rational way of pursuing political
4
objectives.
45111
Associate Professor Roland Bleiker, University of Queensland, Australia
1111 Beyond Security, Ethics
2
3 and Violence
4
5
War against the Other
6
7
8
9
1011
1
2
Anthony Burke
3111
4
5
6
7
8
9
20111
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
30111
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
40111
1
2
3
4
45111
1111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1011
1
2
3111
First published 2007
4 by Routledge
5 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
6 Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
7
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
8
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
9
20111 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
1 “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
2
3 © 2007 Anthony Burke
4 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
5 or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
6
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
7 storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
8 from the publishers.
9 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
30111 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burke, Anthony, 1966–
2
Beyond security, ethics and violence: war against the other/
3 Anthony Burke.
4 p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
5
1. Security, International.2. National security – International
6 cooperation.I. Title.
7 JZ5588.B88 2007
355′.033 – dc222006017558
8
9
ISBN 0-203-96570-1 Master e-book ISBN
40111
1
2 ISBN10: 0–415–38464–8 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–415–41088–6 (pbk)
3
ISBN10: 0–203–96570–1 (ebk)
4
45111 ISBN13: 978–0–415–38464–3 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–41088–5 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–96570–2 (ebk)
1111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1011
1
2
3111 In memory of Joachim and Paul
4
5 And dedicated to those who loved them:
6
Nicola, Bernard and Robyn
7
8
9
20111
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
30111
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
40111
1
2
3
4
45111
1111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1011
1
2
3111
4
5
6
7
8
9
20111
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
30111
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
40111
1
2
3
4
45111
1111
Contents
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1011
1
2
3111 Acknowledgements ix
4
5
Introduction: security, freedom and death 1
6
7
8
PART I
9
Security 25
20111
1
1 Aporias of security: from the Leviathan to the 27
2
security state
3
4
2 Poetry outside security: the jagged edges of 54
5
Southeast Asia
6
7
3 Security after security: Israel, Palestine and the wall 66
8
9
30111 PART II
1 Ethics 99
2
3 4 Strangers without strangeness: power and difference 101
4 between Australia and Indonesia
5
6 5 The perverse perseverance of sovereignty 120
7
8 6 Just war or ethical peace? Morality and strategic 139
9 violence after 9/11
40111
1
2 PART III
3 Violence 167
4
45111 7 Violence and reason on the shoals of Vietnam 169
viii Contents
1111 8 Iraq: strategy’s burnt offering 187
2
3 9 Freedom’s freedom: American enlightenment and 212
4 permanent war
5
6
Notes 238
7
Index 274
8
9
1011
1
2
3111
4
5
6
7
8
9
20111
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
30111
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
40111
1
2
3
4
45111
1111
Acknowledgements
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1011
1
2
3111 The sole name of an author always disguises their debts. Mine are in-
4 estimable: this book reflects many conversations with, and the advice and
5 generosity of, a great many people. My wife, Jenny Millea, has been a
6 wonderful source of inspiration and support in this book’s long life, through
7 four cities and much happiness, travel and change. I hope its rhythms
8 echo those of our many long walks; conversation and silence intermingling
9 with the sound of the wind, wheeling birds, and the glimpse of new land-
20111 scapes around every twist in the path. Jim George supervised an early
1 part of this book at the ANU and provided valuable guidance and advice.
2 Matt McDonald has been an important sounding board over many years,
3 reading virtually the whole of the manuscript and providing incisive feed-
4 back on many parts. Christine Sylvester has also read a number of chapters
5 and her friendship, hospitality and generosity are much valued.
6 Marianne Hanson and Alex Bellamy stimulated the writing of Chapter
7 6 with an invitation to their Ethics and Foreign Policy symposium in 2003
8 at the University of Queensland. Their colleague, Roland Bleiker, encour-
9 aged me to write about the unlikely combination of poetry and security
30111 for his 2000 Alternatives issue, and invited me to give a presentation of
1 Chapter 3 to the School of Political Science and International Studies. He
2 has long been a good friend and intellectual collaborator. Fiona Allon,
3 Fiona Nicoll and Brett Neilson commissioned Chapter 5 for a symposium
4 on sovereignty in 2001, and David Campbell and Michael Hardt also
5 provided helpful comments. Catherine Mills and Fiona Jenkins generously
6 provided detailed responses (and Michael Shapiro some useful guidance)
7 to Chapter 9, as did Ann Murphy, Dirk Moses, William Connolly, Geoff
8 Levey and Ephraim Nimni for Chapter 3. Daniel McLoughlin helped with
9 the complexities of Agamben for the Introduction. Chris Reus-Smit,
40111 Michael Humphries and Robyn Eckersley provided welcome comments
1 on Chapter 8, which I presented to the Sources of Insecurity conference
2 at RMIT in 2004. In Tel Aviv, Oxford and Jerusalem, Yossi Alpher, Avi
3 Shlaim, Martin Van Creveld and Uri Avnery generously gave their time
4 to sit for interviews that I have drawn upon in this book. In particular,
45111 Uri Avnery’s invitation to observe an international protest at the site of