Political Violence in International Relations after the Death of God

A workshop exploring the role of the sacred in relation to identity, community and violence in a (post-)Nietzschean world University of Leeds, UK May 12th 2012

Supported by: BISA Post-structural Politics Working Group School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Leeds The Centre for the Study of Politics Community, Kings College London Histories of Violence Project, University of Leeds Participants include: Professor Michael Dillon, Universities of Lancaster and Sehir; Dr. Brad Evans, University of Leeds; Professor Mustapha Pasha, University of Aberdeen; Professor Julian Reid, University of Lapland

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Nietzsche, The Gay Science Nietzsches proclamation that man has killed God poses profound and enduring questions for scholars and students concerned with the political, broadly conceived. As Nietzsche illustrates, insofar as the death of God signifies the undermining of originary or enduring foundations upon which transcendental values might be based, it renders mans situation limitlessly precarious and uncertain. This workshop interrogates the relationship between political violence, political identity and the sacred. It will explore, on the one hand, the extent to which the (post-)modern condition has borne witness to the destruction of the sacred as a guide to, and principle directing, political action, whilst also, on the other hand, focussing upon the enduring place of the sacred in much of contemporary political theorising and praxis. The workshop invites a particular focus on the place of the sacred in individual and community identity production and in political violence and war-making in the contemporary world; examining the extent to which collective being, belonging and security are desirable or possible in light of the sacred or its absence will comprise the core threads of the workshop. These questions frustrate the boundaries of any one academic discipline. Accordingly, we invite potential participants from across IR and related disciplines to submit abstracts of no more than 300 words by February 29th 2012, drawing upon, but not limited to, such issues and questions as:

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Is political violence indissociably linked to the spectre of the sacred? To what extent is there a continued reliance upon the transcendental or divine in international politics and theory? Do war-making and terrorism always amount to forms of sacred politics? What are the possibilities for political community in the absence of the sacred? How might the relationship between Gods death and critical and post-structural theory be understood? What have been the implications, contributions and problems of Nietzsches thought relating to the death of God, and that of his interlocutors and inheritors, for international politics? What is the relationship between postcolonial theory and the death of God? How might the sacred and the divine be differently conceptualised? If modernity replaced God with Reason, has late-modernity replaced God with Contingency? How is the sacred linked to the governmental problematisation of risk? What is the relationship between the post-political and the death of God? What festivals of atonement or sacred games are practiced in the contemporary world to mitigate the void left following the death of God? What might be the relationship between the death of God and the tragic? What is the role of the messianic in international politics? Is Gods death the necessary condition for, or does it preclude the possibility of, ethico-political responsibility? Has the greatness of the deed proven too great for man?

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Please send abstracts to: Dr Aggie Hirst: a.a.hirst@leeds.ac.uk and Dr Nick Michelsen: nicholas.michelsen@kcl.ac.uk Please address any inquiries to: Dr Aggie Hirst Lecturer in US Foreign Policy POLIS University of Leeds 0113 343 9205 Dr Nick Michelsen Teaching Fellow Department of War Studies Kings College London 07970 437 790