Identifying Racism as a Structural Logic of Foreign Policy: A Case Study and Analytic Framework

• In Event: 41020 - Section on Political Economy of the World-System Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: State

Abstract

This research article theorizes how to identify racism as a structural logic of foreign policy. To do so, it places structural, sociological theories of racism in dialogue with psychoanalytic theories of ideology, fantasy, and jouissance (enjoyment). Both modes of historical and comparative analysis are interested in how structure/form determines an individual or collective’s investment and participation in acts of racist violence. Using this cross-disciplinary theoretical framework, the article identifies the mechanisms by which political elites produce racist ideological fantasies. In particular, this framework would be useful for studying foreign policies deriving from the global north, oriented towards peoples of the global South. To illustrate the dynamism and applicability of this framework, I offer a case study of US foreign policy towards Somalia, spanning the late 20th through early 21st centuries. This conjunctural period saw the emergence of political and ideological conditions where the US could claim a need to surveil and eradicate so-called 'warlords,' 'thugs,' 'pirates,' and 'terrorists' in Somalia. The post-Cold War period of so-called 'humanitarian interventions,' plus the waging of a 'global war on terrorism' created conditions where anti-Black, Islamophobic fantasies spread across the US. This case study illustrates how material practices of racist violence are linked to ideological processes, through which US citizens come to see the racialized ‘other’ as a potential threat to their existence. Methodologically, this article offers a perspective for comparative and historical sociologists to construct a multi-leveled analysis, to study short-to-medium term political discourses, and how they are structured by longer-term political, economic, and ideological forces.

Author

• Jason C. Mueller, Kennesaw State University