Sovereignty and Governmentality: From the Problematics of the “New World Order” to the Ethical Problematic of the World Order

The constitution of (inter) national political order is undisputedly a creation of power. But how? And can raising the central question of power, once more, cast any new light on the condition of (inter) national politics now that the question of (inter) national order as such has been so forcefully re-posed in the aftermath of the ending of the Cold War and the dissolution of the postwar order?1 I think the answer to this second question is, yes it can, and that that answer serves to clarify the first. If we look outside of the canon of international political theory, I also think we can find an understanding of power that will afford some new interpretive purchase upon contemporary (inter) national politics. This understanding is made available in Continental European philosophy, specifically in the work of Michel Foucault.