Terror and Modernity

Description

We are inclined to see terrorist attacks as an aberration, a violent incursion into our lives that bears no intrinsic relation to the fundamental features of modern societies. But does this view misconstrue the relationship between terror and modernity?   In this book, philosopher Donatella Di Cesare takes a historical approach and argues that terror is not a new phenomenon, but rather one that has always been a key part of modernity. At its most basic level, terrorism is about the struggle for power and sovereignty. The growing concentration of power in the hands of the state, which is a constitutive feature of modern societies, sows the seeds of terrorism, which is deployed as a weapon by those who are exposed to the violence of the state and feel that they have no other recourse.   As Di Cesare illustrates her argument with examples ranging from the Red Brigades and 9/11 to jihadism and ISIS, her sophisticated analysis will appeal to anyone who wishes to understand contemporary terrorism more deeply, as well as to students and scholars of philosophy and political theory. Cover Title page Copyright page Contents 1: Planetary Terror 1 Bataclan 2 War on terror 3 Global civil war 4 The bomb of modernity 5 The ghost of bin Laden 6 Philosophies of terrorism 7 Red Brigades, the Red Army Faction (RAF), and the impossible exchange 8 The absolute weapon of one’s own death 9 Atmoterrorism: Auschwitz, Dresden, Hiroshima, and so on 10 Heidegger and the ban of existence from the biosphere 11 The monopoly of negation 12 The metaphysics of the terrorist attack 2: Terror, Revolution, Sovereignty 1 A brand name 2 Defusing terrorism 3 Notes on fear, anxiety, and terror 4 Revolutionary terror is not terrorism 5 Are terrorists nihilists? 6 Why defend anarchists? 7 Dostoyevsky and the terrorist inside me 8 Terror and sovereignty: on Lenin 9 “Once upon a time there was a revolution” 10 The partisan, the guerrilla, the terrorist 3: Jihadism and Modernity 1 Radicalization 2 The political theology of the planetary neocaliphate 3 The postmodern horsemen of the Apocalypse 4 The path to terror 5 Cyberterrorism 6 Jihadist thanatopolitics 7 Media, new media, and terror 8 The car bomb 9 Explosions, massacres, decapitations 10 Vulnerability, or innocence lost 11 The negated ethics of the hostage 12 The future in the time of terror 4: The New Phobocracy 1 Clash of civilizations, class struggle, or “holy” war? 2 The offensive of radicalized secularism 3 Hermeneutics counters violence 4 Sedative or stimulant? Religion according to Marx 5 The left and jihad 6 Spanish brigades, Syrian brigades 7 The terrorism of global capitalism 8 Democracy put to the test by antiterrorism 9 Snowden: on planetary surveillance 10 The new phobocracy Notes Notes to Chapter 1 Notes to Chapter 2 Notes to Chapter 3 Notes to Chapter 4 Selected Bibliography EULA