Suchergebnisse

1. Introduction: Problematising the Present -- 2. The Nation/State Fantasy: From Gellner to Lacan -- 3. The State as One: The 'Union of Men', the 'People' and the 'State' in Early Modernity -- 4. The Fragmentation of the State as Modality of Unity and the Rise of the Fantasy of Nation/State Congruency -- 5. Fantasies of Nationalism: Between Nation/State Dialectic and Liberal Thought -- 6. The Nation/State Fantasy and the Production of the 'International' in IR Theory -- 7. Back to the Present: The Contemporaneous Re-Homogenisation of the 'International' -- 8. Conclusions: Engaging with the Ethico-Political

Abstract
Interpellation, the production and hailing of subjectivities, is key to poststructuralist international relations (IR) theory and yet with some notable exceptions interpellation/hailing as an analytical concept remains somewhat undertheorized. This paper presents a Lacanian–Žižekian psychoanalytical theorization of interpellation in IR, while engaging with the ontology and epistemology of belonging. More specifically, this paper develops four major psychoanalytical concepts: void/lack, fantasy, jouissance, and desire, as it argues that void/lack at the subjective and objective levels renders interpellation possible and destabilises it, thus accounting for the im/possibility of belonging. This paper illustrates the psychoanalytical framework of interpellation by analyzing national-populism as manifested in the Brexit discourse in the UK as well as the interpellation in homonationalism.

This paper suggests that the notion of nation-state congruency has become a 'leitmotif' in International Relations (IR) theory, especially since the end of the Cold War. Congruent states are often constructed as the precursor of liberal democracy, peace, and modernity, while security in particular is discursively intertwined with nation-state congruency. This paper asks: how has this congruency discourse become so embedded in IR theory and, consequently, what can we learn about the nexus between IR and the states/international system? These questions are of a 'how-possible' and critical nature that engage with the power dynamics and thus the effects that emerge from this 'congruency bias'. To answer these, I deploy the 'discursive practices approach' and show the various practices/strategies through which congruency is constituted and established, naturalised and legitimated. Finally, I conclude by proposing to inquire genealogically into the conditions of emergence of nation-state congruency in IR and modernity. Adapted from the source document.

In 2000 the leftist camp in Israel experienced a crisis of meaning and identity. This was the result of the failure of the 2000 Camp David Talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The atmosphere that emerged amongst the Israeli left was one of despair and disillusion, a void of meaning. Recently, however, a new Zionist "national left" discourse emerged, which refutes the idea of peace and reconstructs the ideology of the Israeli left. This paper engages critically with this discourse by deploying a discourse analytical approach, as it draws on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's theory of hegemony as well as semantic analysis, specifically the use of "semantic fields" and "semantic networks". This paper looks at a variety of public texts, which are exemplary of the "national left" discourse in Israel.

Since the late 1980s, international relation (IR) scholarship has been experiencing an interdisciplinary opening and expansion, entailing both the incorporation of non-traditional/post-positivist approaches, and expanding the subject matter of the discipline. IR scholars have found inspirations in particular in French or more broadly contemporary continental philosophy. IR, therefore, is no stranger to the importance and effects of language and discourse, practice and social construction, the workings of emotions and affect, and/or the need to rethink the discipline's Eurocentric and racist origins. It is therefore surprising that up until recently Lacanian psychoanalysis has remained largely marginalized, perhaps even suppressed, in the various theorizations of IR, that is, both with respect to knowledge production in our discipline and in the analysis of global politics. Why that was the case up until recently we can only speculate. While Lacan's major contributions to critical thought have been well acknowledged outside of our discipline, IR scholarship has tended to engage with Derrida, Foucault, Butler, and Deleuze, among others, while ignoring Lacan's contribution. That is perhaps even more surprising as the above mentioned thinkers, all pivotal for the development of critical IR, have developed their work in relation to or as a response to Lacan's work.