Student ID: 1321935

PO381 Critical Security Studies

A biopolitical reading of liberal practices in the

context of the War on Terror

Introduction

Since the onset of the global War on Terror, Foucaults concept of biopoltics has been
systematically employed in analyzing the exceptional practice that liberal regimes have appealed
to, in order to defend their societies from an enemy defined as inhuman. The aim of this essay is
to expose how the liberal practices deployed in the context of this war are symptomatic of the
liberal mode of governance, which has sought from its inception to order the life of its society
using principles derived directly from its war requirements. In doing so, the paper firstly engages
in a theoretical discussion of the notion of biopolitics as defined by Foucault and later used by
Reid and Jabri in developing the concepts of logistical life and matrix of war respectively.
Using these concepts, the second part of the essay analyzes the killing of Jean Charles de
Menezes and the context of the liberal practices adopted in the UK in response to terrorism. By
appealing to the reactions that followed the death of de Menezes, the last section of the essay
discusses possible sites of resistance to biopolitcal governance.

I.

Politics is a continuation of war by other means

Foucault (1976:241) explains that the hallmark of liberal modernity is the emergence of a new
form of power that complements and permeates the medieval sovereign right of letting live and
making die: the power to make live and let die. While disciplinary power is corporeal and
exercised on the man-as-body, rendering it visible and controllable, this new technology of
power is exercised on the man-as-species and is both individualizing and totalizing. There is both
an anatomo-politics of the general mass of people affected by general processes related to birth,
death, longevity etc. and a biopolitics that is concerned with the spontaneous biological
processes such as birth rate, mortality, life expectancy etc. which are measured scientifically
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through statistics, demographics and so on and which affect the population as a whole (Ibid.).
Security technologies are then established around the aleatory biological process with the aim of
improving and standardizing the way in which life is lived in order to extract its maximum
potential. In this context, the question Foucault is concerned with is how do political rationalities
evolve when the biological comes under state control and what happens to security practices
when the life of species becomes their referent object (Dillon and Lobo-Guerrero, 2008). In the
age of biopolitics, the sovereign resorts to racism in order to be able to exercise its right to kill.
Nonetheless, killing does not necessarily include only murder per se, but also every indirect form
of political killing, such as expulsion or the increased change of exposing the population to death
(Foucault, 1976:256). The role of state racism is twofold. Firstly, it introduces caesuras into the
biological continuum of the population for the purposes of control and establishment of what
must live and what must die. Secondly, it permits the establishment of a positive relationship,
guided by the logic of if-you-want-to-live-you-must-take-lives or the-more-lives-you-take-themore-you-will-live. This is essentially the logic of war: in order for you to live, your enemies
must die. Nonetheless, the relationship is not political, but biological: the continuation and well
being of the species (rather than of the individual) depends on the elimination of those deviant
and abnormal (Ibid.:255).
Drawing on Foucaults analysis, Reid (2006) develops the concept of logistical life when
arguing the war on terror is effectively a war over the political constitution of life (Ibid:ix) that
brings to the surface the initial dilemmas of liberal regimes. By observing the evolution of
modern military sciences and analyzing the disciplinary logic of practices such as enclosure,
portioning, ranking and serialization involved in the making of the soldiers, Foucault
contended that this form of organization provided a model framework for thinking about the
ordering and governing of societies (Reid, 2008). In turn, Reid (2006:18) contests the claim that
liberal regimes have sought since their inception to remove life from the conditions of war and
argues that they have pursued strategies of pacification of the society and what they have actually
achieved is the transformation of human vitality into logistical life. Logistical life is thus life
lived under the duress of the command to be efficient (Ibid:20), to communicate transparently
and, to use time efficiently and move where required, while at the same time praise and hold
these values as the ones for which one would sacrifice both himself and the others. He argues
that the capacity to be logistical has become the norm that establishes which life is included
within society and that in the in the context of the War on Terror, is the logistical efficiency has
become the value which must be secured against the enemy (Ibid.:35).
Building on similar assumptions, Jabri (2006) develops the concept of matrix of war in
analyzing the practices constitutive of war in general and of the War on Terror in particular. The
matrix includes states with their bureaucracies and non-state actors, targets other states,
communities and individuals and is mobilized in the name of humanity. Nonetheless, it is the
whole of humanity that becomes the target of control through violence. Similar to Reid, she
understands the measures adopted in response to global terror as an extension, and not an
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exception, of liberal governmentality. The very liberal order is protruded with the elements of
war, which exist as continuities in the political and social life, elements which are grounded in
and enabling of the materiality of war in its traditional sense. The practices that form the matrix
of war are inextricably connected to the creation of different forms of subjects and are thereby
differently experienced. In turn, this experience differs according to how the subject of politics is
defined in governmentalizing terms. Since this definition is not necessarily dependant on
geophysical space, but may be grounded in class, gender or culture, she contends that the
boundary is no longer the legal boundary of the state, but that it is carried and re-inscribed upon
the body of the other (Ibid.). Therefore, the practices constitutive of the matrix of war prioritize
violence, which is directed against the very corporeal presence of those portrayed as threats to
the existing order (Ibid.).

II.

The target is in the eye/I of the beholder

This section of the essay illustrates how the above identified elements of the matrix of war and
of the conception of logistical life are present in the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes,
framed in British public discourse as a tragic mistake. Nonetheless, in accordance with the
theories previously discussed, this event is analyzed as part of a tragic continuum, rather than as
tragic exception.
Firstly, it is important to establish a few characteristics of the security practices related to the war
on terror in the British context. While in the UK there is no substitute for the US Department of
Homeland Security, partly due to a different historical experience with terrorism, UK Home
Office has responded to this threat through civil contingencies legislation, particular counterterrorism measures as well as a civil protection capabilities enhanced programme (Peoples and
Vaughan-Williams, 2015:145). However, British counter-terrorism measures have been heavily
criticized for their infringement of the civil liberties of refugees, non-citizens or the citizens of
Middle Eastern descent (Turan, 2006:120). Of particular importance is the Prevention of
Terrorism Act of 2005 that involves controversial measures like restrictions on communication or
association with particular groups or persons, constraints on using services like the Internet or
phones, the need to remain indoors in a place established by authorities and which may be
searched by them at any time etc (Ibid.). At the heart of this act lies the provision of detention
without trial. The 2005 act thus essentially establishes the primacy of suspicion over fact
(Ibid.:121), which is grounded in and leads to forms of racial or ethnical profiling (Ibid.). A
series of developments are thus evident as well in the UK context: policing removed from
judicial control, the emergence of an anticipatory logic which appeals to worst case scenarios,
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the encouragement of a climate of suspicion that legitimizes a certain treatment of groups or

individuals who have been risk profiled (Peoples and Vaughan-Williams, 2015:145,147).
Characteristically, these illiberal practices are justified by recourse to discourses of
exceptionalism and in turn enable modes of biopolitical governance (Ibid.).
Given that security practices are being increasingly equated with surveillance and control and
that they involve not only the vigilance of the state, but also that of other citizens and since risk
profiling is predominantly understood in racial terms, the role of vision should also be clarified.
Sight represents the means of screening the population and deciding upon the general norm and
deviations (Amoore, 2007). The state is protected against the threat posed by the other via
identity, sight becomes fore-sight and therefore vision becomes the means for establishing
belonging and expelling (Ibid.). The body becomes the key signifier of identity (Masters,
2007:51) and within the security practices deployed, what one looks like becomes the criteria for
identifying the threat. The very recognition of the self, the determining of a we is also based on
the claim of being able to identify the other, the threat (Amoore, 2007). Policing the edge
between self and other is done through these stereotypes. Therefore, through these security
practices based on racial stereotypes, the very subjects and objects of liberal governance are
constituted.
It is in this context that the death of Jean Charles de Menezes should be understood. He was
killed in the aftermath of the London bombings of 7 July 2005 by the officers of the London
Metropolitan Police Service on the London Underground, after having been misidentified as one
of the suicidal terrorists involved in the failed bombings attempts of the previous day (Alan
Travis, 2016). In the morning when he was shot, he left to work from his apartment in South
London and was pursued by a surveillance team who suspected he was Hussain Osman, a
Pakistani terrorist. The aim of the police operation was to stop and arrest anyone leaving from
the terrorists flat. Nonetheless, the crew kept pursuing de Menezes because they were uncertain
of his identity (Bailey, 2008:23). Nonetheless, his departure from the flat has triggered a regime
of visuality (Pugliese, 2006) which led from practices of ethnical profiling to a scenario in
which he was produced as guilty before having committed any crime. His appearance (though he
was Latino and not East Asian), clothing and gestures played into this scenario. This racialized
way of seeing and looking thus led to a situation in which what was actually seen was the result
of the superimposition of stereotypical representations on the object of perception (Ibid.).
Furthermore, eyewitnesses from the underground stop also reported seeing an Asian man being
stopped by the police. Throughout his journey, his body movements: the looking over his
shoulder, twitching, and an apparently nervous attitude were also interpreted as signs of his guilt.
The initial report, confident of having stopped a terrorist attempt, also stated that the suspect did
not comply and resisted the arrest (Bailey, 2008:24).
The official statements of the surveillance team and of those who witnessed the killing also
reveal clues which help us retrieve the mental maps we use in identifying threat in daily
encounters. The team expected to see an Asian suicide bomber, and when civilians thought they
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were witnessing the police stopping a terrorist, they also imagined they had seen an Asian
(Ibid:29). Interestingly, testimonies of witnesses reveal that one of the members of the police
crew was also thought to be an Asian terrorist (Ibid.:24). As Jabri suggests, the identification of
the other is necessarily color-bound. The violence with which he was killed once he was
identified as a target is also remarkable: he was shot seven times in the head. This reflects
another aspect of the matrix of war: an extraordinary violence that legitimizes the corporeal
removal of the other. Furthermore, Sir Ian Blair, who while framing the incident as a mistake,
also declared that These are fantastically difficult timeIts still happening out there, there are
still officers having to make those calls as we speak. Somebody else could be shot (VaughanWilliams, 2007:189). This illustrates what both Jabri and Reid signal, that while extraordinary
violence is said to be used to protect humanity, society, it is the very society that becomes the
target in the process. In addition, the initial public sympathy for the police officers who
misidentified their target is representative of a general acceptance not only of the extraordinary
practices that are deployed in this war, but also of the values underpinning them. Therefore, the
physical extermination of the other defined and racial terms is revealed as the value for which the
entire population would willingly expose itself to death and accept the scenario in which the
actions of the police, mean to protect life, ended up destroying it.
Nonetheless, the killing of the Brazilian also reveals the limitations of Jabris matrix of war.
Given that a Latino was taken for Asian proves that the identification of the other depends more
on racial stereotypes held by the individual who is watching and which are mobilized by the
preemptive logic of the war on terror, rather than on what stereotype the watched body carries.
Believing is seeing rather than the other way around. Since in this case the entire population
could have been potentially targeted and exposed to death, this event also helps expose the
illusion that security and certainty are attainable.

III.

Resistance as remembering differently

As the previous section has demonstrated, the social order that we are a part of is incomplete and
fragile. Through emergency measure the biopolitical authority helps sustain the illusion that had
it not been for a one isolated occurrence, everything would be fine. In this context, this section is
concerned with exploring sites of resistance, in relation to the killing of Jean Charles de
Menezes.
Within a society operating in biomode, in marking the end of life, death also marks the end o
power, thereby falling outside the power-relationship (Foucault, 1976:248). Masters (2007:46)
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argues that the dead body itself has the potential to destabilize hegemonic discourse, because it
is the site not only upon which biopower is inscribed, but also where it can be subverted, in the
refusal of the narrative assigned to it, or in the articulation of other narratives. In this sense, it is
worth noting that the Metropolitan Police denied any other authorities access to the crime scene
for three days (Vaughan-Williams, 2007:181). Nonetheless, what is particularly relevant and
visible in the case of this killing is the way in which it is remembered. The way in which
traumatic episodes are remembered and fixed in collective memory can mean a reversal of a
language that claims security is reachable (Edkins, 2008). The recognition of traumatic events is
particularly important for political struggle, especially because those who have experienced them
have come closer to encountering the fragility of the forms of social and political organization
(Ibid.). To commemorate the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, a colorful mosaic has been
created by a local artist at the Stockwell Station, the place of his death. The shrine features a
picture of the Brazilian, with the word INNOCENT written underneath (Siddique, 2010). The
story of de Menezess death has also been present in the media in various forms. For example, a
film documenting his life, entitled Jean Charles, was produced in 2008 (Goldman et. al, 2009).
The shooting of the Brazilian was also the subject of a factual drama entitled Stockwell and
broadcasted on British television in 2009 (Rudd et. al, 2009). The event was also documented by
popular culture. The folk musician Chris Wood recorded on the album Handmade Life a song
entitled Hollow Point in which he critically tells the story of the shooting. His piece won the
award Song of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2011. Pet Shop Boys, an electronic
pop duo, also recorded the song Were all criminals now (petshopboys.co.uk, 2013) in
reference to the same event. During the The Wall tour, Roger Water of Pink Floyd also added an
acoustic follow-up to Another Brick in the Wall with lyrics to commemorate de Menezes (Else!,
2013). These examples thus constitute instances of resistance to biopower, because they refuse
the official discourse of tragic mistake and provide an alternative way of remembering the event
and in doing so they become sites of political struggle over memory and forgetting.

Conclusion

The essay has discussed the liberal practices deployed in the United Kingdom in the context of
the war on terror, with particular reference to the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes. This
example has helped reveal both the biopolitical mode of governance of the British state and its
fragility. While the very purpose of the security practices at work has been to protect life, they
have ended up posing an imminent threat to it. After the most important elements of Foucaults
theory have been identified and the concepts of logistical life and matrix of war have been
explained, these principles have been employed in analyzing the British response to terror. The
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case of the Latino mistaken for a Pakistani and killed by accident also helped illustrate in
practice the theories of Reid and Jabri and at the same time demonstrate further implications for
that of the latter. However, the body was analyzed both as a site of political struggle and as a site
of resistance. The reactions that have followed the killing of de Menezes have been thus
interpreted as a possible resistance to biopolitical governance in the context of the war on terror,
through their refusal of accepting the imposed narrative of a tragic one death, necessary to
prevent millions of others.

Word count: 2982

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