The Neoliberal Way of War: A Critical Analysis of Contemporary British Security in Policy and Practice Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Politics and International Relations Ben Whitham August 2014 ABSTRACT Dominant paradigms of causal explanation for why and how Western liberal-democracies go to war in the post-Cold War era remain versions of the 'liberal peace' or 'democratic peace' thesis. Yet such explanations have been shown to rest upon deeply problematic epistemological and methodological assumptions. Of equal importance, however, is the failure of these dominant paradigms to account for the 'neoliberal revolution' that has gripped Western liberal-democracies since the 1970s. The transition from liberalism to neoliberalism remains neglected in analyses of the contemporary Western security constellation. Arguing that neoliberalism can be understood simultaneously through the Marxian concept of ideology and the Foucauldian concept of governmentality – that is, as a complementary set of 'ways of seeing' and 'ways of being' – the thesis goes on to analyse British security in policy and practice, considering it as an instantiation of a wider neoliberal way of war. In so doing, the thesis draws upon, but also challenges and develops, established critical discourse analytic methods, incorporating within its purview not only the textual data that is usually considered by discourse analysts, but also material practices of security. This analysis finds that contemporary British security policy is predicated on a neoliberal social ontology, morphology and morality – an ideology or 'way of seeing' – focused on the notion of a globalised 'network-market', and is aimed at rendering circulations through this network-market amenable to neoliberal techniques of government. It is further argued that security practices shaped by this ideology imperfectly and unevenly achieve the realisation of neoliberal 'ways of being' – especially modes of governing self and other or the 'conduct of conduct' – and the re-articulation of subjectivities in line with neoliberal principles of individualism, risk, responsibility and flexibility. The policy and practice of contemporary British 'security' is thus recontextualised as a component of a broader 'neoliberal way of war'. ii DECLARATION OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP I, Ben Whitham, confirm that this is my own work and the use of all material from other sources has been properly and fully acknowledged. 15th August 2014 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The writing of this thesis was a long, arduous, sometimes painful and frustrating, and occasionally hilarious process and, like all such processes, it involved many other people. I must first thank the Leverhulme Trust for generously supporting the first three years of my research. For his relentlessly critical deconstructions of draft chapters of this thesis, often over a beer or several, and for making me take Foucault seriously, I thank my principal supervisor, Dr. Andreas Behnke. I am also grateful to my co-supervisor, Professor Alan Cromartie, whose unparalleled grasp of an incredible range of social and political thought was helpful – especially in the early stages – in challenging many of my assumptions about the nature of my research problem. Other staff at the University of Reading who have helped me along the way are Dr. Alan Renwick, who proved an excellent Director of Postgraduate Research Studies, bringing cohesion and even the odd moment of fun to an otherwise rather pessimistic cohort of PhD students, and the departmental administrators, including Melanie Richardson, Caroline Walter, Julia Joyce, Susie Newton and Patricia Hicks. I am also very grateful to Helen Apted for helping me to keep a work space in Old Whiteknights House, which was immensely helpful in the final stages. Outside of the university, particular thanks for assisting with my research go to: Megan Nash of the Economic Club of Chicago for obliging me with original audio recordings of Tony Blair’s speech there; Cerie Bullivant, whose honest and fascinating interview gave me an insight into the injustice of control orders; and the staff of the Social Sciences Reading Room at the British Library, who were always helpful in locating obscure material. Following my first, very enjoyable forays into teaching during these last few years, I am also thankful to the undergraduates I have taught at the University of Reading, London Met and UEL, who often challenged my increasingly entrenched perspectives. Friends whose support, encouragement and argument I especially valued during the course of my PhD include Donna Arrondelle, Adam Beach, Jon Traynor, Beth Summers, Simon White and the squatpigs/boatpigs (James, Bryn, B-52, Pat, Kate, Mike, Alfie). My family – Trish, John, Jamie and Lucy – have helped and supported me in reaching this point too, as did my old colleagues in the Admissions Office at London Met. I am furthermore grateful to those lecturers whose teaching on my undergraduate and taught postgraduate degrees inspired me to continue in higher education – especially Erika Cudworth, Tim Hall, Steve Hobden, John McGovern, Steven Curtis, Shahin Malik, Dermot McCann and Jeff Haynes. The greatest debt of gratitude I owe is, however, to the people I have truly shared this experience with – my fellow PhD students at Reading. The Liberal Way of War crew (especially Max, Steph, Cath, Charlie and Laura), the fantastic Foucault Society of Reading (including Corinne Heaven, Norma Rossi and Malte Riemann, who I am proud to count among my closest friends), and the wider cohort, including Marco, Vicki, Nicola and David, acted as a sort of support group, and from Minibar Mondays to Park House pizzas, provided a lot of fun along the way. Of course of all those I have met, Nadya occupies a very special position, exercising a benevolent sovereignty and providing love and support without which life would have become unbearable; thank you for putting up with me! This thesis is dedicated to my grandfather, Denys Whitham, who guessed I’d grow up to be a ‘scholar’ long before I knew what the word meant. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. II DECLARATION OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP ........................................................................... III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................. IV LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... VIII 1. INTRODUCTION: A NEOLIBERAL WAY OF WAR? .................................................................. 1 1.1 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM: AN ‘AGE OF LIBERAL WARS’ OR A NEOLIBERAL WAY OF WAR? ....................... 1 1.2 CONTEXT: LIBERAL WARS, THE CONTEMPORARY BRITISH SECURITY IMAGINARY, AND THE NEOLIBERAL REVOLUTION ............................................................................................................................... 2 1.2.1 IMAGINING TERROR AFTER 9/11 ................................................................................................ 2 1.2.2 FROM LIBERAL PEACE TO LIBERAL WARS: THE PERSISTENCE OF AN EXPLANATORY PARADIGM 6 1.2.3 THE NEOLIBERAL REVOLUTION: PUTTING ‘LIBERAL WARS’ IN THEIR PLACE ....................................... 8 1.3 APPROACHING THE RESEARCH PROBLEM ................................................................................... 10 1.3.1 A ‘CRITICAL’ ORIENTATION TO CAUSAL EXPLANATION.................................................................. 10 1.3.2 CRITICAL WAR STUDIES (CWS): RE-WRITING ‘SECURITY’ AS WAR ................................................ 15 1.4 OUTLINE OF THE THESIS ......................................................................................................... 17 2. LIBERAL WARS DO NOT EXIST: LITERATURES ON LIBERALISM, NEOLIBERALISM AND WAR ............... 21 2.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 21 2.2 LIBERALISM AND WAR I: FROM INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM TO THE ‘DEMOCRATIC PEACE’ .......................... 24 2.3 LIBERALISM AND WAR II: POST-COLD WAR ‘HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTIONS’ .................................. 32 2.4 (NEO-)LIBERALISM AND WAR III: THE ‘WAR ON TERROR’............................................................. 37 2.5 CONCLUSIONS AND DIRECTIONS .............................................................................................. 47 3. WAYS OF SEEING, WAYS OF BEING: (RE-)THEORISING NEOLIBERALISM .................................... 53 3.1 INTRODUCTION: NEOLIBERALISM AS AN OBJECT OF RESEARCH ....................................................... 53 3.2 SOME CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND ........................................................................................... 55 3.3 RETHINKING NEOLIBERALISM: CRITICAL EXPLANATION, IDEOLOGY AND GOVERNMENTALITY ................. 62 3.3.1 MARX VERSUS FOUCAULT? CRITICAL CONCEPTUALISATIONS OF NEOLIBERALISM ........................... 65 3.3.2 NEOLIBERALISM AS IDEOLOGY .................................................................................................. 66 3.3.3 NEOLIBERALISM AS GOVERNMENTALITY .................................................................................... 79 3.4 WAYS OF SEEING, WAYS OF BEING: NEOLIBERALISM AS IDEOLOGY AND GOVERNMENTALITY................. 91 3.5 CONCLUSION