Discourses of War, Geographies of Abjection: Reading contemporary American ideologies of terror

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 26, Issue 7, 2005, Pages 1157-1172

  Debrix, Francois ^a  

^a FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

IDEOLOGY; NATIONAL SECURITY; POLITICAL CONFLICT; TERRORISM;

NORTH AMERICA; UNITED STATES;

EID: 28244497287     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436590500235769     Document Type: Review

References (73)

1. Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, p 1.
2. Kristeva, Powers of Horror.
3. To use O Tuathail's formulation. See Gearoid O Tuathail, Critical Geopolitics: The Politics of Writing Global Space, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.
4. Kristeva, Powers of Horror, pp 1-2.
5. Kristeva, Powers of Horror, Ibid, p 1.
6. Kristeva, Powers of Horror, p 1. Ibid.
7. Kristeva, Powers of Horror, Ibid, p 2.
8. For another analysis of this search for meaning through the image of terror and abjection, particularly that of 11 September, see François Debrix, The terror of the image: international relations and the global image circuitry', in Mehdi Semati (ed), New Frontiers in International Communication Theory, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004, pp 93-115.
9. Kristeva, Powers of Horror, p 3, emphasis in the original.
10. Kristeva, Powers of Horror, Ibid, p 3.
11. Kristeva, Powers of Horror, Ibid, p 2.
12. In this article I sometimes use the term America instead of the USA, because it is the preferred name used by many of the scholars whose works and ideologies I am discussing. 'America' is far less descriptive or denominational than the more common 'USA'. In common parlance, and devoid of any of its initial geographical significations (which extend far beyond the idea of the 'United States of America' to an entire continent or hemisphere), the term 'America' seems to evoke a certain geopolitical imaginary, a sense of nationhood, a collective entity, a republican idea around which a specific group of people rally.
13. Kristeva, Powers of Horror, p 8.
14. Robert D. Kaplan, Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos, New York: Random House, 2002.
15. Victor Davis Hanson, An Autumn of War: What America Learned from September 11 and the War on Terrorism, New York: Anchor Books, 2002.
16. Michael Ledeen, The War Against the Terror Masters: Why It Happened, Where We Are Now, How We'll Win, New York: St Martin's Press, 2002.
17. I place the pronouns 'we', 'us', and 'our' (as well as 'they', 'them' and 'their') in quotation marks to indicate the fact that these are mostly Kaplan's, Hanson's and Ledeen's own versions and interpretations of what America and Americans ('we') are supposed to be.
18. Kaplan, Warrior Politics, p 113.
19. Kaplan, Warrior Politics, Ibid, p 51.
20. Kaplan, Warrior Politics, Ibid, p 61.
21. Kaplan, Warrior Politics, Ibid, p 36.
22. Kaplan, Warrior Politics, Ibid, p 50.
23. See, on this topic, Simon Dalby, 'Reading Robert Kaplan's "Coming anarchy'", in Gearoid O Tuathail, Simon Dalby & Paul Routledge (eds), The Geopolitics Reader, New York: Routledge, 1998, pp 197-203;
24. and François Debrix, 'Tabloid realism and the revival of American security culture', Geopolitics, 8 (3), 2003, pp 151-190.
25. Kaplan, Warrior Politics, p 119.
26. Kaplan, Warrior Politics, Ibid, p 119.
27. Kaplan, Warrior Politics, p 113. Ibid.
28. Kaplan, Warrior Politics, Ibid, p 121.
29. Kaplan, Warrior Politics, Ibid, p 146.
30. Kaplan, Warrior Politics, Ibid, p 14.
31. Robert D Kaplan, back cover 'blurb' for Hanson, An Autumn of War.
32. Hanson, An Autumn of War, p xx.
33. Hanson, An Autumn of War, Ibid, pp 75-78.
34. Hanson, An Autumn of War, Ibid, p 110.
35. Hanson, a Professor of History at California State University in Fresno, apparently wishes to distance himself from his 'leftist' colleagues in American academia. Yet, interestingly enough, and despite having participated in several pro-Bush administration meetings and conferences, he describes himself as a democrat and a populist. In American conservative circles there has been a growing backlash against the so-called 'leftist curriculum' since Bush was elected president. See, for example, many of conservative chronicler John Leo's weekly interventions in the weekly magazine US News and World Report.
36. Hanson, An Autumn of War, p 78.
37. Hanson, An Autumn of War, Ibid, p 71.
38. Hanson, An Autumn of War, Ibid, p 72.
39. Hanson, An Autumn of War, ibid, p xiv.
40. Hanson, An Autumn of War, Ibid, p xiv.
41. Hanson, An Autumn of War, Ibid, pp xv-xvi.
42. Hanson, An Autumn of War, Ibid, pp xvi-xvii.
43. Hanson, An Autumn of War, Ibid, p xviii.
44. Hanson, An Autumn of War, Ibid, p 73.
45. Since the publication of his book Hanson has appeared in many US print, audio and visual media, and he has been the object of several biographical portraits in some of these outlets. See, for example, Andrew Curry, 'Arms and the man: portrait, Victor Davis Hanson', US News and World Report, 17 March 2003, pp 38-39.
46. Hanson, An Autumn of War, p 194, emphasis added.
47. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, p 211.
48. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p xxii.
49. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p 213.
50. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p xxi.
51. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p 215.
52. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p xxiii.
53. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, pp 113-114. One should note in passing that George W Bush - perhaps heeding Ledeen'splea - has done his fair share of 'rehiring' some former Iran-Contra key individuals.
54. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p 78.
55. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p 74.
56. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p 159.
57. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p 169.
58. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters,Ibid, p 185. The aftermath of the war in Iraq has demonstrated that this belief was far from the reality.
59. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, pp 188-189.
60. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p 195.
61. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p 206.
62. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p 206.
63. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p 150.
64. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, pp 150-151.
65. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p 155.
66. Similarly to Hanson, Ledeen's truth is so self-evident that his writing does not require much in terms of citation. Ledeen does not need to cite or quote sources for the information he provides because, as he puts it, 'once I decide that the information is reliable, I simply claim it as my own' Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, ibid, p 240.
67. Additionally, Ledeen explains that he often does not cite his sources on purpose because 'many of the best informed people will only be helpful if they are not identified, and I have respected their desire for anonymity' Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, p 239. Needless to say, this is extremely convenient. It helps Ledeen to claim to his readers that he is indeed the only one who knows, the only one with the truth.
68. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p 213.
69. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p 212.
70. Ledeen, The War against the Terror Masters, Ibid, p 213, emphasis added.
71. Kristeva, Powers of Horror, p 18.
72. For a theoretical analysis of the inversion of Clausewitz's famous adage, see Michel Foucault, 'Society Must Be Defended': Lectures at the College de France, 1975-76, New York: Picador Press, 2003.
73. Karl von Clausewitz, On War, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976.