International Journal of Philosophy

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The Permanent Condition of War-And-Peace: From the Total Mobilization to the Absolute Construction of the Event

Received: 02 June 2018    Accepted: 19 June 2018    Published: 10 July 2018
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Abstract

In the present consideration the author tries to explain on three levels a fundamental shift which occurred and changed the dynamics of the binary opposition of war and peace and the globally defined area, the post-national sovereignty. Those levels are: (1) transition from the metaphysics of modern history to the production of bio-political power on a global scale between the "Empires" (United States, Russia and China) against "rogue states which calls into question the ontological definition of the modern war as a civilian, guerrilla as warfare or ethnic conflict; (2) definition of the world as a total mobilization (techno-science and capital) which necessarily leads to the possibility of total war as the absolute construction of events on a planetary scale; (3) review of the Enlightenment's ideas of Kant's "perpetual peace " in correlation with the condition of permanent "state of emergency" on a global level, which break up the Manichean logic “either war or peace”, because we are living in an age characterized by the logic of war and peace in the intervals it constructed crisis of the global security. Therefore, the question of "human nature" as good or bad does not make decisive philosophical meaning, and even theological problem, because the ethics of responsibility becomes only a weak appeal for the preservation of life on earth and the theology of salvation already assumed the fight against evil in the form of negative theodicy. What, then, is left of the idea of not only world history but also of the different versions of the "just war" at a time when terror, total control and politics should decide on events in the world? The answer could not lie in the pseudo-humanization of the world and the inflation of ethical doctrine as a treatment for a technology-designed apocalypse. Instead of utopias and apocalyptic narratives, the solution lies in rethinking the constellation of techno-cybernetic thinking as the dangers that allow conditions of "total mobilization" and "absolute construction".

DOI 10.11648/j.ijp.20180602.14
Published in International Journal of Philosophy (Volume 6, Issue 2, June 2018)
Page(s) 40-54
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Permanent Condition, Total Mobilization, Planetary, Biopolitics

References
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[13] Zourabicvili, Franҫois (1994) Deleuze - Philoisophie de l'évenément. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France; van Tuinen, Sjoerd and McDonnell, Niamh (eds.) (2004), Deleuze and the Fold: A Critical Reader. Palgrave MacMillan; Davis, Martin (2000) The Universal Computer: The Road from Leibniz to Turing. New York: WW Norton & Comp.
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[18] Paić, Žarko (2015) "Metapolitics and Evil: About Heidegger's" Spiritual Nazism", in Totalitarianism? Zagreb: Meandarmedia.. 135-206.
[19] Nossack, Hans Erich (2004) THE END: Hamburg 1943. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Translated from German by Joel Agee) and Sebald, WG (2003)
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[21] In both cases, as evident in the Soviet occupation and attempted conquest of Afghanistan in the 1980s, and the US military intervention in the fight against the Taliban as part of the "war on terror" (Afghanistan and Iraq), the differences in ideological-political and the strategic goals of the imperial forces are evident. But they are not of particular importance because it is only a different way of conquering a sovereign and independent state. Therefore, to to talk about contemporary forms of wars between global empire (the United States and Russia) and their satellites in the 21st century against "rogue states" (rogue states), it is necessary to separate three levels of speculative-reflexive considerations of what is being done here as a singular event of war: (1) the geopolitical and strategic level of occupation of the country as a space for all available resources (water, oil, gas, noble metals); (2) the ideological-political level of governmentality in "warfare-information-communication protocols"; (3) self-determination of total power in the absolute structure of an event in which a war from the military-political conflict moves into the dimension of the permanent condition. And this state can be called a stand-by position. There are many posthumanists/transhumanists claiming that Silicon Valley is more important than Valley of Kings or Arab Deserts for upcoming interplanetary exodus and "star wars". See Al-Rodhan, Nayef (2009) Neo-statecraft and Meta-Geopolitics. Reconciliation of Power, Interests and Justice in the 21st Century. Zürich: LIT.
[22] Schmitt, Carl (2006) Theorie des Partisanen: Zwischenbemerkung zum Begriff des Politischen. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, Berlin.
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[29] Derrida, Jacques (2005) Rogues: Two Essays on Reason. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. (Translated from French by Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas).
[30] Heidegger, Martin (2004) Zu Ernst Jünger. 232.
[31] Heidegger, Martin (1997) Besinnung. GA, vol. 66. Frankfurt/M: V. Klostermann.
[32] Sloterdijk, Peter (1986) Kopernikanische Mobilmachung und ptolemäische Abrüstung. Frankfurt/M: Suhrkamp.
[33] Paić, Žarko (2017) The Age of the Oligarchy; From Information Economy to the Politics of Event. Zagreb: Litteris.
[34] Virilio, Paul (2005) L’accident originel. Paris: Galilée and Baudrillard, Jean (1993) Der reine Terror: Gewalt von Rechts. Wien: Passagen.
[35] Jünger, Ernst (1926) Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis. Berlin: ES Mittler & Sohn.
[36] Scheler, Max (1982) "Der Genius des Krieges under Deutschen Krieg" in Gesammelte Werke. Bern-Műnchen: Francke.
[37] Patočka, Jan (2015) "Heretic Essays on the Philosophy of History", European Messenger. No 20. 612. (Translated from Czech to Croatian by Matija Ivačić).
[38] Heidegger, Martin (1998) Die Geschichte des Seyns. GA. vol. 69. Frankfurt/M: V. Klostermann.
[39] Kant, Immanuel (1903), Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay. London: Georg Allan & Unwin Ltd. (Translated from German by Campbell M. Smith, M. A.). 182-183.
[40] Archibugi, Daniele (eds.) (2003) Debating Cosmopolitics. London-New York: Verso.
[41] Paić, Žarko (2016b) Refugee Cities: From Ethics of Hospitality to Friendship Policy (Lévinas-Derrida. Zagreb: Pan Liber and Institute for European and Globalization Studies.
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    Žarko Paić. (2018). The Permanent Condition of War-And-Peace: From the Total Mobilization to the Absolute Construction of the Event. International Journal of Philosophy, 6(2), 40-54. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20180602.14

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    Žarko Paić. The Permanent Condition of War-And-Peace: From the Total Mobilization to the Absolute Construction of the Event. Int. J. Philos. 2018, 6(2), 40-54. doi: 10.11648/j.ijp.20180602.14

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    AMA Style

    Žarko Paić. The Permanent Condition of War-And-Peace: From the Total Mobilization to the Absolute Construction of the Event. Int J Philos. 2018;6(2):40-54. doi: 10.11648/j.ijp.20180602.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijp.20180602.14,
      author = {Žarko Paić},
      title = {The Permanent Condition of War-And-Peace: From the Total Mobilization to the Absolute Construction of the Event},
      journal = {International Journal of Philosophy},
      volume = {6},
      number = {2},
      pages = {40-54},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijp.20180602.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20180602.14},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijp.20180602.14},
      abstract = {In the present consideration the author tries to explain on three levels a fundamental shift which occurred and changed the dynamics of the binary opposition of war and peace and the globally defined area, the post-national sovereignty. Those levels are: (1) transition from the metaphysics of modern history to the production of bio-political power on a global scale between the "Empires" (United States, Russia and China) against "rogue states which calls into question the ontological definition of the modern war as a civilian, guerrilla as warfare or ethnic conflict; (2) definition of the world as a total mobilization (techno-science and capital) which necessarily leads to the possibility of total war as the absolute construction of events on a planetary scale; (3) review of the Enlightenment's ideas of Kant's "perpetual peace " in correlation with the condition of permanent "state of emergency" on a global level, which break up the Manichean logic “either war or peace”, because we are living in an age characterized by the logic of war and peace in the intervals it constructed crisis of the global security. Therefore, the question of "human nature" as good or bad does not make decisive philosophical meaning, and even theological problem, because the ethics of responsibility becomes only a weak appeal for the preservation of life on earth and the theology of salvation already assumed the fight against evil in the form of negative theodicy. What, then, is left of the idea of not only world history but also of the different versions of the "just war" at a time when terror, total control and politics should decide on events in the world? The answer could not lie in the pseudo-humanization of the world and the inflation of ethical doctrine as a treatment for a technology-designed apocalypse. Instead of utopias and apocalyptic narratives, the solution lies in rethinking the constellation of techno-cybernetic thinking as the dangers that allow conditions of "total mobilization" and "absolute construction".},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

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