Foucault, Biopower & International Relations: A Methodological discussion

Talk of biopower in International Relations is coming into vogue. Drawing on works by Foucault, Hardt & Negri, and Agamben, IR scholars either talk of global biopower in service to some transcendent liberal regime, or existing in zones of sovereign exception.  I argue that such predominant theorisations of biopower uncritically scale up Foucault’s concept, and are not consistent with Foucault’s methodological presuppositions. I argue that talk of biopower in IR does not resonate with what Foucault sought to uncover.  Hazy notions of empire, or zones of sovereign exception are unclearly linked to the specifics of biopower, and the concept is thus ambiguously deployed to problematically theorise a number of disparate phenomena. These conceptualisations fail to accurately grasp the way biopower might be operating beyond the state.  While accepting that helpful insights are generated by these deployments of biopower in IR, and that Foucault himself warned against slavish devotion to his work, I maintain that an accurate exposition of (Foucauldian) biopower in IR must adhere to the methodological principles Foucault outlined often and at great length. While the presumed benefits of the deployment of Foucault in IR have been noted, an in-depth explanation of how these benefits are to be achieved is yet to be put forward. I will contribute to this project by elucidating how biopower emerges beyond the state while maintaining the tripartite relation between sovereignty, disciplinary power, and governmentality.   I believe an investigation of biopower in international relations that subscribes to Foucault’s methodological precautions provides an ideal test case with which a Foucauldian IR can outlined, ideal because it connects the subjectification of individuals to phenomena of totalisation.  Global or international biopower should be identified by the way it links up with “domestic” biopolitical regimes; I will suggest how an ascending analysis of (bio)power can be carried out in IR by adhering to Foucault’s methodological principles