Benjamin Meiches
Biographic Data
| ID | 273422 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Benjamin Meiches |
| GIVEN NAMES | Benjamin |
| FAMILY NAME | Meiches |
| SIGNATURE | MEICHES B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Washington Tacoma |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2791-7244 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 39 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 15 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Ideology and Mass Killing
Book Forum
Species level threat
This article examines the securitization of ‘birdstrike’ or a vehicular collision between an aircraft and a bird. It examines how dominant understandings of birdstrike historically transformed from accidents or errors related to engineering, plane design, and manufacture into a problem of national and international security over the past few decades. Birdstrike represents one of the few cases where the agency of nonhuman animals become a problem …
Dreams of atomic genocide
This paper examines the influence of nuclear weapons on fantasies of racial violence. Specifically, it argues that weapons impact the emergence of social formations, producing unique patterns of thought, desire, anticipation, and identity. While the effects of nuclear power have been central to disciplinary debates in international studies, existing critical commentary has largely focused on the discriminatory nature of the global nuclear hierarc…
Genocide and the Brain
Genocide scholarship rarely gives direct consideration to the Genocide Convention’s description of “causing serious bodily and mental harm” as an act of genocide. This article examines the historical rationales for including this act in the international legal definition of genocide. It shows that mental harm was included because of a concern for the impact of narcotics and other substances on cognitive functioning and brain health. Building off …
Between Hagiography and Wounded Attachment
In this article, we outline the significance of the special issue on the scholarship of Raphaël Lemkin. We argue that genocide scholars tend to identify with one of three different types of Lemkin scholarship. Each of the articles for the special issue challenges these genres in an effort to extend the study of genocide in new directions. Moreover, we contend that this work suggests that genocide scholars should endeavor to extend the study of ge…
Wars of excess
Both classical and critical studies of warfare often comment on the relationship between war and excess. However, even in richly theoretical work, this connection is unanalyzed. This article focuses on the link between excess and war, and seeks to deepen our understanding of why excess reappears so frequently in the study of armed conflict and security studies. Specifically, the article turns to the work of Georges Bataille, an overlooked figure …
Politics of Annihilation
The Charge of Genocide
This article examines the role of racism in the development of genocide prevention and humanitarian intervention. It offers a brief history of the We Charge Genocide petition during the early 1950s. This petition demonstrated the potential for the emerging international law on genocide to challenge prevailing racial hierarchy. The movement triggered potent racialized anxieties amongst the United States and other colonial powers. Partly as a conse…
Traumas without Bodies
Fear, anxiety, shame, anger, and even love are terms that circulate throughout the literature of International Relations (IR), but, according to Emma Hutchison, not with the critical attention that they merit. Indeed, IR theory frequently embraces emotional and affective concepts, but without unpacking these terms or exploring the mechanisms that make emotion, particularly trauma, significant in world politics. Rather, dominant forms of IR theory…
Non-human humanitarians
The study of humanitarian intervention typically focuses on the human victims and saviours in armed conflict and natural disasters. Moreover, explanations of the virtues of humanitarian norms and ethics emphasise the importance of the university of suffering and the empathic nature of humanitarian efforts. In contrast, this article explores the neglected world of 'non-human humanitarians'. Specifically, the article outlines three cases of non-hum…
Speaking of Genocide
Genocide scholars have always argued over the best definition of genocide. However, recent genocide studies have begun to emphasize both the ‘contestable’ nature of genocide and, paradoxically, call for clear or rigid definitions of the term. This article evaluates this tension by examining the act of defining genocide as a type of epistemological practice. Placing the act of definition in the context of a complex socio-linguistic system, the art…
Weapons, desire, and the making of war
Weapons have been traditionally understood as tools of violence subject to human intentions. This article challenges this view of weaponry in favour of thinking of weapons as agentic entities with formative influence over human desires. It builds this account by using contemporary materialist theories to reconceptualise weapons as pluripotential entities that act in ways that exceed human intentions. The article argues this understanding of weapo…
A political ecology of the camp
Critical scholarship on the camp tends to focus on the institution’s historical role in producing forms of social exclusion often by linking the emergence of the camp to the creation of abstract political divisions such as citizenship and nationality. While this approach has unquestionable value, it overemphasizes the importance of social constructions in the history and development of the camp. This article calls for a re-examination of the mate…
The Responsibility to Protect and luxurious war
Since the creation of the Responsibility to Protect, many critics have focused on the risk that this doctrine creates a dangerous Western ‘right to intervene.’ This article argues that the ‘right to intervene’ thesis is only part of the story and that it fails to account for shifts in the practices of war that shape the Responsibility to Protect. Drawing on the work of Georges Bataille, Gilles Deleuze, and Felix Guattari, this article argues that…
A political ecology of the camp
Critical scholarship on the camp tends to focus on the institution’s historical role in producing forms of social exclusion often by linking the emergence of the camp to the creation of abstract political divisions such as citizenship and nationality. While this approach has unquestionable value, it overemphasizes the importance of social constructions in the history and development of the camp. This article calls for a re-examination of the mate…
Non-human humanitarians
The study of humanitarian intervention typically focuses on the human victims and saviours in armed conflict and natural disasters. Moreover, explanations of the virtues of humanitarian norms and ethics emphasise the importance of the university of suffering and the empathic nature of humanitarian efforts. In contrast, this article explores the neglected world of 'non-human humanitarians'. Specifically, the article outlines three cases of non-hum…
Weapons, desire, and the making of war
Weapons have been traditionally understood as tools of violence subject to human intentions. This article challenges this view of weaponry in favour of thinking of weapons as agentic entities with formative influence over human desires. It builds this account by using contemporary materialist theories to reconceptualise weapons as pluripotential entities that act in ways that exceed human intentions. The article argues this understanding of weapo…
Traumas without Bodies
Fear, anxiety, shame, anger, and even love are terms that circulate throughout the literature of International Relations (IR), but, according to Emma Hutchison, not with the critical attention that they merit. Indeed, IR theory frequently embraces emotional and affective concepts, but without unpacking these terms or exploring the mechanisms that make emotion, particularly trauma, significant in world politics. Rather, dominant forms of IR theory…
Wars of excess
Both classical and critical studies of warfare often comment on the relationship between war and excess. However, even in richly theoretical work, this connection is unanalyzed. This article focuses on the link between excess and war, and seeks to deepen our understanding of why excess reappears so frequently in the study of armed conflict and security studies. Specifically, the article turns to the work of Georges Bataille, an overlooked figure …
The Responsibility to Protect and luxurious war
Since the creation of the Responsibility to Protect, many critics have focused on the risk that this doctrine creates a dangerous Western ‘right to intervene.’ This article argues that the ‘right to intervene’ thesis is only part of the story and that it fails to account for shifts in the practices of war that shape the Responsibility to Protect. Drawing on the work of Georges Bataille, Gilles Deleuze, and Felix Guattari, this article argues that…
A political ecology of the camp
Critical scholarship on the camp tends to focus on the institution’s historical role in producing forms of social exclusion often by linking the emergence of the camp to the creation of abstract political divisions such as citizenship and nationality. While this approach has unquestionable value, it overemphasizes the importance of social constructions in the history and development of the camp. This article calls for a re-examination of the mate…
Speaking of Genocide
Genocide scholars have always argued over the best definition of genocide. However, recent genocide studies have begun to emphasize both the ‘contestable’ nature of genocide and, paradoxically, call for clear or rigid definitions of the term. This article evaluates this tension by examining the act of defining genocide as a type of epistemological practice. Placing the act of definition in the context of a complex socio-linguistic system, the art…
Weapons, desire, and the making of war
Weapons have been traditionally understood as tools of violence subject to human intentions. This article challenges this view of weaponry in favour of thinking of weapons as agentic entities with formative influence over human desires. It builds this account by using contemporary materialist theories to reconceptualise weapons as pluripotential entities that act in ways that exceed human intentions. The article argues this understanding of weapo…
Traumas without Bodies
Fear, anxiety, shame, anger, and even love are terms that circulate throughout the literature of International Relations (IR), but, according to Emma Hutchison, not with the critical attention that they merit. Indeed, IR theory frequently embraces emotional and affective concepts, but without unpacking these terms or exploring the mechanisms that make emotion, particularly trauma, significant in world politics. Rather, dominant forms of IR theory…
Non-human humanitarians
The study of humanitarian intervention typically focuses on the human victims and saviours in armed conflict and natural disasters. Moreover, explanations of the virtues of humanitarian norms and ethics emphasise the importance of the university of suffering and the empathic nature of humanitarian efforts. In contrast, this article explores the neglected world of 'non-human humanitarians'. Specifically, the article outlines three cases of non-hum…
Between Hagiography and Wounded Attachment
In this article, we outline the significance of the special issue on the scholarship of Raphaël Lemkin. We argue that genocide scholars tend to identify with one of three different types of Lemkin scholarship. Each of the articles for the special issue challenges these genres in an effort to extend the study of genocide in new directions. Moreover, we contend that this work suggests that genocide scholars should endeavor to extend the study of ge…
Wars of excess
Both classical and critical studies of warfare often comment on the relationship between war and excess. However, even in richly theoretical work, this connection is unanalyzed. This article focuses on the link between excess and war, and seeks to deepen our understanding of why excess reappears so frequently in the study of armed conflict and security studies. Specifically, the article turns to the work of Georges Bataille, an overlooked figure …
Politics of Annihilation
The Charge of Genocide
This article examines the role of racism in the development of genocide prevention and humanitarian intervention. It offers a brief history of the We Charge Genocide petition during the early 1950s. This petition demonstrated the potential for the emerging international law on genocide to challenge prevailing racial hierarchy. The movement triggered potent racialized anxieties amongst the United States and other colonial powers. Partly as a conse…
Genocide and the Brain
Genocide scholarship rarely gives direct consideration to the Genocide Convention’s description of “causing serious bodily and mental harm” as an act of genocide. This article examines the historical rationales for including this act in the international legal definition of genocide. It shows that mental harm was included because of a concern for the impact of narcotics and other substances on cognitive functioning and brain health. Building off …
Dreams of atomic genocide
This paper examines the influence of nuclear weapons on fantasies of racial violence. Specifically, it argues that weapons impact the emergence of social formations, producing unique patterns of thought, desire, anticipation, and identity. While the effects of nuclear power have been central to disciplinary debates in international studies, existing critical commentary has largely focused on the discriminatory nature of the global nuclear hierarc…
Book Forum
Species level threat
This article examines the securitization of ‘birdstrike’ or a vehicular collision between an aircraft and a bird. It examines how dominant understandings of birdstrike historically transformed from accidents or errors related to engineering, plane design, and manufacture into a problem of national and international security over the past few decades. Birdstrike represents one of the few cases where the agency of nonhuman animals become a problem …
Ideology and Mass Killing
Law (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Politics (7 works) · Genocide (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Global Peace and Security Dynamics (5 works) · Law (5 works) · History (4 works) · War, Ethics, and Justification (4 works) · Criminology (3 works)