Biopolitical Imperialism applies Michel Foucault’s notion of biopolitics to analysing international dynamics since the beginning of the twentieth century, pointedly disagreeing with the tendency of Foucault-inspired international relations theory to posit new forms of global biopolitical order, in favour of the conclusion that analysing the world biopolitically shows that the international politics in the twentieth century is marked by the strategy of power relations long diagnosed as ‘imperialism’. Kelly argues that biopolitics has united the populations of the imperialist centre against the periphery, whereas the development of biopolitics in the periphery has been tendentially retarded by various policies pursued by the imperialist powers, from military aggressions to well-meaning aid programs.
Biopolitical Imperialism
