Necropolitics and Neo-Orientalism: Theory and Practice

In the theory of necropolitics, we read how a nation, or a group of people, uses power, both military or political, to dictate how certain people in a region can live and how some must die. The Middle East has been a focal point in US foreign policy for five decades, shaping neo-orientalist discourse, American political rhetoric, policy decisions, presidential elections and, crucially, cultural hegemony through the institution of neo-orientalism. This article focuses on the imperial use of power – political and military – in the theoretical framework of necropolitics and neo-orientalism. To this end, this article presents an articulation of the role of necropolitical power as a conceptual tool that accounts for the overwhelming presence of death in contemporary politics of superpowers such as the United States. Necropolitics as an unauthorized element of neo-orientalism; it takes a primary role in shaping neo-orientalist discourse while accounting for cultural hegemony, political disorder, and neo-colonial interests. Through situating cultural hegemony within the framework of necropolitics, we can move from discourse to death with respect to the contemporary politics of neo-orientalism, and we can find how necropolitics provides a helpful tool of analysis for culturally invoked violence, and specifically death resulting from necropolitical practices.