‘A Brighter and Nicer New Life’: Security as Pacification

Abstract

The article argues that the process of securing the insecurity of capitalist accumulation might best be understood as a process of pacification. Pacification is closely connected to the Vietnam War, but the article suggests that pacification has a much longer history, linking the original accumulation in the colonies with the movement towards capitalism in the West. Read in this way, pacification is a form of police power, securing the insecurity of capitalist order. This helps us make sense of the permanent 'wars on . . . ' being declared by capitalist states, from the war on drugs to the war on terror, and suggests that 'pacification' is a crucial concept for understanding security.Early in The Manifesto of the Communist Party Marx and Engels make the following claim:The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are

When the illiberal and the neoliberal meet around infectious diseases: an examination of the MERS response in South Korea

“…Zakaria (1997) points out that constitutional liberalism, that is, the notion of individuals' civil rights and freedoms; economic liberalism, that is, various entities freedoms to do business; and democracy are not inherently related. Further, from Karl Marx to Michel Foucault, many critical thinkers have fundamentally highlighted that characteristics of liberalism or neoliberalism are inherently violent and abusive (e.g., Fraser, 2015;Harvey, 2007;Neocleous, 2011;Sparke, 2006). Agreeing that liberalism has more often than not involved non-democratic, unequal and abusive manifestations, we argue that liberalism's ill-liberal impulses in EID managementor in public health in a broader senseneed to be thoroughly scrutinized, regardless of the label we apply to the country wherein an EID outbreak occurs.…”

The Expansion of Conducted Energy Weapon Use in Ontario: Pacification and Policy Development

“…The term "pacification" has been long associated with war and military operations, and dates back to the sixteenth-century (Neocleous, 2011). However, the concept has been revived recently by several critical socio-legal theorists.…”

“…He traces its origins throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and explains that pacification was used as a feature of war as described in Captain Bernardo de Vargas Machuca's manual of counter-revolutionary warfare. Neocleous (2011) also claims that around the same time, the word 'pacification' was used as a power by a prince or the state "to put an end to strife or discontent, and to reduce to peaceful submission a population" (p. 198). In this early usage there is no indication that pacification is necessarily violent; however, it is open to interpretation of how the concept was particularly used.…”

“…Some meanings entail "the use of force for the submission of subjects"; however, all dictionary sources indicate a meaning of "peace." Neocleous (2011) explains that the evolution of the term 'pacification' has been closely connected to the concept of security. In contrast, most of the published material from this period is indicative of one common theme: peace.…”

“…In contrast, most of the published material from this period is indicative of one common theme: peace. 13 During the late sixteenth century Philip II of Spain uses the term 'pacification' to replace that of 'conquest' relating to a variety of discoveries that his people were making in the new world [the Americas] (Neocleous, 2011). In 1573, Philip II refers to pacification by saying that '"discoveries' are to establish friendship and cooperation" (Neocleous, 2011;Todorov, 1984).…”