When the nation outlives the state
Necropolitical disarticulation and counter-stateness in contemporary Iran
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21790657 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Reza Ashouri Talooki (0000-0001-5564-8216, Keyano College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of International Political Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1755-0882 • E-ISSN: 1755-1722 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/17550882261461854 |
| OpenAlex | W7167048140 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 24 |
This article theorises a historically neglected political phenomenon: the conditions under which citizens and diasporic populations sever national identification from their own state, to the point of welcoming external force against it as an act of national fidelity rather than betrayal. Advancing the concept of necropolitical disarticulation, the study synthesises Mbembe’s necropolitics, Puar’s theory of debilitation, state–nation decoupling frameworks, and Ahmed’s cultural politics of emotion to argue that sustained necropolitical governance progressively destroys the affective and symbolic infrastructure binding populations to the state, generating a normative inversion of patriotism and, ultimately, a counter-stateness in which national political identity is organised against rather than through the state. The article deepens Mbembe’s framework by engaging Al-Kassimi’s theological critique of necropolitics, demonstrating that the Islamic Republic’s governing logic is enabled not by revelation but by its systematic ideological distortion—a secularisation of scripture that insulates sovereign authority from theological accountability. Velayat-e Faqih is reframed accordingly as a secularised ideology of political power structurally analogous to other modern authoritarian formations. Through socio-historical analysis of Iran from 1979 to 2026, with comparative engagement with Syria and Belarus, the article contributes an exportable analytical concept to political sociology, nationalism studies, and diaspora politics
Authoritarianism · Governmentality · Ideology · Islam · Legitimacy · National identity · Nationalism · Patriotism · Politics · Sovereignty · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Islamic Studies and History · Turkey's Politics and Society
What is Political Discourse Analysis?
Cruel Optimism
Iran Between Two Revolutions
Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards
The Necropolitics of a Secular International Order
Revolution without Revolutionaries
Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation
Original Nation Approaches to “Inter-National” Law (Onail)
Nation v. State
Weeping without tears
Islamic Politics and Women's Quest for Gender Equality in Iran
The Iranian Green Movement
The “Woman, Life, Freedom” Uprising in Iran and Abroad
Woman Life Freedom and Political Activities of Diaspora Iranians
Transnationalism Within
Waving the Flag
Colonial sovereignty and religious necropolitics
Neither Islamic, nor a republic and not Iranian
The Right to Maim
Necropolitics
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |