Globalization: Appadurai, Gupta & Ferguson, Life and Debt, Private Mercenaries

Question 1

Arjun Appadurai - crises of circulation

Answer 1

crises of the flows of images, capital, finance, networks, technologies. These flows are not synchronous.

Question 2

What is Appadurai’s main concern?

Answer 2

He contextualizes terrorism within the tensions between cellular and vertebrate world systems, a tension that is due to crises of circulations created by globalization.

Question 3

Appadurai - cellular system

Answer 3

a global system that is fluid, off-network, outside of the nation-state

Question 4

Appadurai - vertebrate system

Answer 4

the world of the nation-states, a global system that though decentralized, is regulated by rules, protocols, and norms.

Question 5

Appadurai - what are some effects of globalization?

Answer 5

• a capitalism that has both cellular and vertebrate aspects
• a transnational capitalism that crosses borders
• crises of circulation
• emergence of populism and nationalism as a reaction to global economy

Question 6

Appadurai - what are some effects of the global politics surrounding terrorism?

Answer 6

• creation of an environment of fear and violence
• fear is in the everyday, the quotidian
• order is organized around violence: peace is no longer the default
• distinction between peace and violence has been blurred
• nation-state as provider of order is questioned

Question 7

Gupta & Ferguson - vertical encompassment

Answer 7

How the state is spatialized.
Vertical: it is imagined as something “above”
Encompassment: it conforms the nation

Question 8

How is vertical encompassment reproduced/established?

Answer 8

Through everyday interactions that reproduce the state versus the local

• hierarchies: higher-ups have dominion over larger terrain
• “local” authorities (limited to the local)
• surveillance
• freedom of movement

Question 9

Gupta & Ferguson - transnational governmentality

Answer 9

A type of governmentality that exceeds the boundaries of the state. IMF, World Bank, international networks, NGOs,

Governmentality : the construction and internalization of conduct

Question 10

What consequences of globalization and neoliberalism are Gupta & Ferguson observing?

Answer 10

The delegation of state operations to nonstate actors such as private companies, NGOs and transnational organizations like the IMF. This had led to a crumbling sovereignty and authority of developing countries, which now have policies forced upon them by the IMF or World Bank (recolonization).
At the same time, transnational networks are allowing local actors to challenge the state’s authority by referring to NGOs like Amnesty International.

Question 11

What does vertical encompassment look like under globalization?

Answer 11

The nation-state still exists, but the concept of spatiality has transformed and been extended to nonstate transnational actors, like the IMF.

Question 12

structural adjustment programs

Answer 12

Loans that were given to countries by the IMF, which decided the economic policies and forced countries into growing debt

Question 13

What are some reasons a state might hire a private mercenary?

Answer 13

• can evade responsibility for human rights violation
• can bring about a desired outcome without being directly involved
• decreased cost
• can protect a politician (ex. a president) from a coup

Question 14

What are some consequences of private militaries and drones?

Answer 14

• According to Sean McFate, it makes war more likely. Since citizens are not involved, it can lower restrictions to enter a conflict.
• War is commodified. Offers are made.
• state loses monopoly on legitimate force