TY - THES

T1 - OBSERVING THE INTERNATIONAL

T2 - GOVERNMENTALITY OF GEOPOLITICS, VISUAL CULTURE AND THE SOCIAL LOGISTICS OF WAR MAKING

AU - Eken, Mehmet

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - It is common in International Relations to read that “war made states and states made war”. Despite a growing literature on the relationship between visual culture and geopolitics, there is a gap around the manner in which war-making ability of states is dependent upon the population and the conduct of geopolitical subjects. This doctoral thesis interrogates the ways in which the mainstream US visual culture structures the possible field of geopolitical actions and imaginations of the population during the Global War on Terror (GWoT) to understand and explain why this gap matters. It analyses how visual culture encapsulates the population as an affective interpretative repertoire and is conducive to the war-making ability of the US. The project contributes to academic literatures on `Governmentality Studies`, `Critical Geopolitics`, `Critical Military Studies`, `Visual Culture ` and `the Sociology of the State` and offers a framework for making sense of the relationship between visual culture, war-making and governmentality. To do so, a new methodological approach, procedural rhetorical analysis is developed to empirically document the ways in which geopolitical subjectivities are produced through visual culture. Following theoretical discussions, there are three case studies, each focusing on a different visual cultural platform to analyse the patterns recurring in these platforms: documentaries; films; and first person shooter video games. Overall, the thesis argues for the significance of visual culture in sustaining the social logistics of war making ability of the population during the GWoT.

AB - It is common in International Relations to read that “war made states and states made war”. Despite a growing literature on the relationship between visual culture and geopolitics, there is a gap around the manner in which war-making ability of states is dependent upon the population and the conduct of geopolitical subjects. This doctoral thesis interrogates the ways in which the mainstream US visual culture structures the possible field of geopolitical actions and imaginations of the population during the Global War on Terror (GWoT) to understand and explain why this gap matters. It analyses how visual culture encapsulates the population as an affective interpretative repertoire and is conducive to the war-making ability of the US. The project contributes to academic literatures on `Governmentality Studies`, `Critical Geopolitics`, `Critical Military Studies`, `Visual Culture ` and `the Sociology of the State` and offers a framework for making sense of the relationship between visual culture, war-making and governmentality. To do so, a new methodological approach, procedural rhetorical analysis is developed to empirically document the ways in which geopolitical subjectivities are produced through visual culture. Following theoretical discussions, there are three case studies, each focusing on a different visual cultural platform to analyse the patterns recurring in these platforms: documentaries; films; and first person shooter video games. Overall, the thesis argues for the significance of visual culture in sustaining the social logistics of war making ability of the population during the GWoT.

KW - Geopolitics

KW - Visual culture

KW - Popular culture

KW - Subjectivity

KW - Governmenality

KW - Technologies of the Self

KW - War Making

KW - War Films

KW - War Documentaries

KW - Video games

KW - Global War on Terror

KW - Umberto Eco

KW - Critical War Studies

KW - Critical Military Studies

KW - State Making

M3 - Doctoral Thesis

ER -