Theorizing the Temporal Exception

The Importance of the Present for the Study of War

Bibliographic Data

ID13020102
AuthorsChristopher Mcintosh (0000-0001-7350-2579, Bard College, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume5
Issue4
Pages543-558
Publication date2019-09-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Global Security Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2057-3189 • E-ISSN: 2057-3189
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/jogss/ogz040
OpenAlexW2982469903
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited74

Despite an increasing focus on the importance of temporality, time, and timing in international relations (IR) and security studies, there has been relatively less movement toward thinking about the temporal present as a conceptual area of inquiry. This article argues that taking the present seriously as a concept, method, and theoretical area of analysis offers unique value for the study of war. Paying attention to the manner in which the present time of war (wartime) is sociopolitically articulated as a space of temporal exception exposes how it is understood as diverging from representations of politics, past and future. It also foregrounds war's irreducible temporal dimension and exposes the relational bases of wartime's apparent universality. This article uses a close reading of Clausewitz's On War (1832) as generative dialogue and illustrative example, showing how an awareness of the importance of temporal dynamics—particularly, the concept of the present—is both valuable and workable in the study of war. A temporal imaginary of war centered on what Hutchings calls the “heterotemporal” present enhances inquiry into contemporary political violence, the ontology of war, and the emergent attributes of collective violence

Dimension (graph theory · Epistemology · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Temporality · The Imaginary · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Military History and Strategy · Peacebuilding and International Security · Psychology · Law · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub