Security, economy, population: The political economic logic of liberal exceptionalism. (October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Best, Jacqueline
• Is Part Of: Security dialogue. Volume 48:Number 5(2017)
• Page Start: 375
• Page End: 392
• Publication Date: 2017-10
• Subjects: Critical security studies -- emergency -- exceptionalism -- global financial crisis -- international political economy -- securitization; Security, International -- Periodicals; International relations -- Periodicals; 327.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0967010617712683
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0967-0106

Abstract

In an era in which scholars have become increasingly skeptical about the concept of exceptionalism, this article argues that instead of rejecting it, we should rework it: moving beyond seeing it primarily as a security practice by recognizing the crucial role of political economic exceptionalism. Drawing on Foucault's later lectures on security, population, and biopolitics, this article suggests that we can understand exceptionalist moves in both security and economic contexts as efforts to manage and secure a population. Focusing on three key moments in the production of exceptional politics – defining the limit of normal politics, suspending the norm, and putting the exception into practice – I examine the parallels, intersections, and tensions between political economic and security exceptionalism, using the concept of economic exceptionalism to make sense of the 2008 global financial crisis. Taking seriously Foucault's insights into the political economic character of liberal government holds out the promise of providing scholars in the fields of both critical security studies and cultural political economy with a richer understanding of the complex dynamics of exceptionalist politics – a promise that is particularly valuable at the present political juncture.