Schizorevolutions versus microfascisms: The fear of anarchy in state securitisation
| Author | Andrew Robinson,Athina Karatzogianni |
| Published date | 01 October 2017 |
| Date | 01 October 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1755088217718570 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1755088217718570
Journal of International Political Theory
2017, Vol. 13(3) 282 –295
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1755088217718570
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Schizorevolutions versus
microfascisms: The fear of
anarchy in state securitisation
Athina Karatzogianni
University of Leicester, UK
Andrew Robinson
Independent Scholar, UK
Abstract
This article investigates the role of ‘anarchy’ in state securitisation. First, we discuss
state hierarchies’ struggle with active and reactive anarchic networks, theorising a state
in existential crisis, which exploits anti-anarchist discourses to respond to network
threats. In the second part, we illustrate with examples the use of fear of anarchy in
hierarchical productive structures of securitisation. As an ‘antiproduction assemblage’,
the state treats logics stemming from the ‘social principle’ as a repressed Real, the
exclusion of which underpins its own functioning. The scarcity and fear resulting
from state terror ensure responses to this structural violence by reactive networks,
while paradoxically also exacerbating reactive tendencies within social movements. In
the concluding part, we discuss visions of desecuritising society, breaking away from
majoritarian logics of control and the coming of other worlds counterposed to the
hierarchies producing and reproducing an eternal loop of state and network terror.
Keywords
Anarchy, control, hierarchies, networks, securitisation, terrorism
Introduction
Contrary to the traditional International Relations (IR) argument that there is ‘anarchy’
in the international system, meaning that is there is no hierarchically superior, coercive
power that can resolve disputes, enforce law or order the system of international politics,
Corresponding author:
Athina Karatzogianni, School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester, Bankfield
House, 132 New Walk, Leicester LE1 7JA, UK.
Email: athina.k@gmail.com
718570IPT0010.1177/1755088217718570Journal of International Political TheoryKaratzogianni and Robinson
research-article2017
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