Synopses & Reviews
Global politics is a crowded stage of players competing for power and authority. Who is in charge of what? How do they stay in charge and what are the effects? This volume raises these questions in case studies on regimes of torture and surveillance in womens rights, border control, media, global capital and religion. In an era of longing for hegemonic control (e.g. the US “war on terror”), the conclusions focus on the dilemmas of democratic accountability and how new spaces of resistance can be created.
Review
"Foucauldian analysis seems particularly apt to assess the emerging regimes of control, deception, and domestic and international imperialism that mark the contemporary era in global politics. This volume is especially useful because of the way it integrates analysis of gender and of hegemonic masculinity, the disciplining of women and of sexuality, and the use of self-disciplining mechanisms more generally, in a range of international policy arenas. The authors show both the expansive and overwhelming power in contemporary global politics of institutional entities that are deeply undemocratic and hostile to the lives of ordinary people, as well as the potential, albeit constrained, for resistance to these institutions."--Jyl Josephson, Director of Womens Studies and associate professor of political science, Rutgers University, Newark
“The chapters in this important book illuminatingly apply Foucaults approach in empirically analyzing many issues, including disciplining women, shielding America, the global media, citizenship, torture and corporate social responsibility. Some of the analyses also suggest the possibilities of resistance in power relations.”--Louis Kriesberg, Maxwell Professor Emeritus of Social Conflict Studies, Syracuse University
About the Author
Janie Leatherman is director of international studies and professor of politics at Fairfield University. She has authored numerous articles and book chapters on the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), conflict early warning and prevention, gender and violence, sex-trafficking, foreign policy and transnational politics. Her publications include Charting Transnational Democracy: Beyond Global Arrogance, edited with Julie Webber (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005); From Cold War to Democratic Peace: Third Parties, Peaceful Change and the OSCE (Syracuse University Press, 2003); and Breaking Cycles of Violence: Conflict Prevention in Intrastate Crises, co-authored with Raimo Väyrynen, William Demars and Patrick Gaffney (Kumarian, 1999). She is currently working on a book on Sexual Violence and Armed Conflict (under contract with Polity Press).
Table of Contents
Preface * Challenges to Authority in Global Politics--Janie Leatherman * Crossing the Line: Insights from Foucault on the U.S. and Torture--Julie Mertus and Kristin Rawls * Disciplining Women, Disciplining Womens Rights--Krista Hunt * Shielding America: Missile Defense and the Reification of Domesticity--Dawn Nowacki and David Gutterman * Citizenship as Government: Disciplining Populations post 9/1--Kim Rygiel * The Nation-State, Global Media and the Regime of Supervision--Ali Riaz and Anthony DiMaggio * Disciplining Perceptions, Punishing Violations: Captivity in Televisual Narratives of the Iraq Conflict--Michael Dartnell * Discipline and Resistance in Diplomacy: Religion and the UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/Aids--Evelyn Bush * The Global Compact and Its Critics: Activism, Power Relations, and Corporate Social Responsibility--Graham Knight and Jackie Smith * Illusions of Control--Janie Leatherman