My contribution interprets Foucault's recurrent post-1970 reflections on the appropriate method for analysing power relations on the basis of two archival documents: a reading note on Erich Ludendorff's 'Der totale Krieg' and a manuscript in which Foucault discusses his concept of 'governmentality'. I use the Ludendorff note to propose that his method for analysing power relations from the first half of the 1970s, whose basic assumption is that power relations are warlike in essence, may not immediately be derived from a reading of Nietzsche but from a projection of Ludendorff's ideas onto Nietzsche's work. The note on 'governmentality' is used to argue that despite a very significant post-1976 revision of his method for analysing power, Foucault retained the notion that politics is warfare, this time leaning on Carl Schmitt's political theory.

I finished writing this article in early 2024. I am very glad that it has finally seen the light of day, and in such an overall impressive issue of Foucault Studies at that.

https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/974018

#Foucault #power #war, #governmentality #Nietzsche #histodons #history #PoliticalTheory #HistoryofIdeas

/2 AM opens with discussion of #Governmentality, drawing on Foucault and @Katecrawford

Data Power and AI in India reproduces colonial surveillance and biopower from earlier tech like telegraph through internet and now "AI."