PROBLEMATIZING LIBERAL COSMOPOLITANISMS: FOUCAULT AND NEOLIBERAL COSMOPOLITAN GOVERNMENTALITY
2014; Volume: 6; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2162-2752
Autores Tópico(s)Global Economic and Social Development
ResumoABSTRACT.This paper begins by problematizing liberal cosmopolitanisms by reference to Foucault's work and according to his notion of govemmentality and his approach of problematization. The paper investigates the philosophical source of liberal cosmopolitanism in its historic moral, legal and economic forms and by reference to the concept of neoliberal cosmopolitan govemmentality it postulates a form of economic cosmopolitanism beginning in the early modem period and with strong links to Scottish political economy that provides a strong moral characterization of the market based on rule of law and the doctrine of free trade. The paper suggest that this form of economic cosmopolitanism is inextricably intertwined with its moral and legal forms, and functions to support the system of American hegemony that control the global world system. It argues that a Foucauldian notion of economic cosmopolitan govemmentality best captures the layered reality of a global world system where economic, moral and legal forms of cosmopolitanism operate. This paper recommends that teacher education programs concerned with fostering cosmopolitanism adopt Foucault's approach of problematization as a means for encouraging a critical awareness of cosmopolitanism and the complexity of world politics.Keywords: economic cosmopolitanism; problematization; neoliberal; Foucault; govemmentalityFrancois Quesnay was the leading figure of the Physiocrats, generally considered to be the first school of economic thinking. The name Physiocrat derives from the Greek words physis, meaning nature, and kratos, meaning power. The Physiocrats believed that an economy's power derived from its agricultural sector. They wanted the government of Louis XV, who ruled France from 1715 to 1774, to deregulate and reduce taxes on French agriculture so that poor France could emulate wealthier Britain, which had a relatively laissez-faire policy. Indeed, it was Quesnay who coined the term laissez-faire, laissez-passer.The Concise Encyclopedia of Economicshttp://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Quesnay.html1. Problematizing Liberal CosmopolitanismsThe Syrian crisis that dominated international politics in 2012 indicates that the legacy of a Cold War standoff between the US and its Western allies on the one hand and Russia and China on the other in the Security Council. This standoff has prevented any cosmopolitan agreement on how to halt the wholesale slaughter by al-Assad's regime of its own population, including women and children, of some reported 20,000 death toll (until early August 2012). Russia, China and Iran have remained steadfast in their opposition to UN sanctions or indeed any kind of intervention. Russia has supplied arms to the Syrian government and stands to lose a profitable arms contract and one of its few strategic bases in the region if it concedes to US-led human- itarian demands. China, intent on preserving its ties with Russia, has refrained from giving its consent to international intervention. Iran for its part has been vocal in support of the Syrian government and reported given it financial support to help withstand Western sanctions. Meanwhile Middle East critics of the US accuse it of wanting to create a new Greater Middle East controlled by the U.S. and Israel in order to control energy resources during the 21st century, where gas will play the most important role and Syria occupies the strategic path to reach the Mediterranean ports through gas pipelines from Iran, Iraq and Qatar.1In this terrible wholesale slaughter that represents perhaps the most important crisis of the string of events called the Arab Spring any attempted cosmopolitanism has been encumbered by past histories and alliances where the moral, the legal and the economic are all part of the same complex reality. In the Western media the heroic moral leadership by the US has provided the dominant form of cosmopolitanism whereas sanctions and striking a legal agreement over the administration of sanctions by the Security Council has provided a means for this moral (and so far failing) cosmopolitanism. …
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