Reflections on biopolytics, violence and terrorism

Abstract

The bipolitics is characterized by the relation of politics to the biological body of the person who is subject to a sovereign power. The increasing delimitation of the territorial State through policies of border control and the extension of its right of surveillance is the immediate consequence of the securitization of international relations, since the discourse against the enemy of the state is also seen as a device of biopower, which inserts lines of action and control into state policies. This security discourse transfers issues from the political plane to the security agenda, which now has the legitimacy to act with prohibitive norms and rules, and the use of force is an ever-present possibility. War power ended up being unequally divided between countries and within countries - and the monopoly of force is no longer only to the state, although only the state can legitimately use it. In this context, the phenomenon of terrorism is characterized by a method of political action because it is based on national and social demands, but can also manifest as a logic of action, since it defines the actor and gives the mobility of the struggle, generating extreme violence and the order of ends and means is reversed. Thus, this essay intends to explore some initial theoretical considerations on the biopolitical theme of violence and the issue of international terrorism.