Exporting the Surplus of Violence and State-Building: Material and Discursive Foundations of the Territorial State System

In light of the ongoing atrocities in Palestine, Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, and other places, the question of how we can better understand the global challenges caused by this violence and its effects on future world orders has never been as urgent, both epistemically and morally. To achieve a more comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon, we must question the current configurations of the international community and the motivations that drive states to rely excessively on violence and force, rather than engaging in dialogue with those who challenge their authority. By examining the violent foundations of state-building processes, this paper aims to create room for an international political sociology of knowledge production.

Specifically, it explores how the state’s reliance on excessive and arbitrary violence and oppression towards its citizens, as well as the extension, articulation, positioning, and legalization of such practices within society, serve to establish, consolidate, and preserve political authority by suppressing the state's perceived enemies. This re-examination and exploration of non-Western experiences aim to (1) expose the discursive and material underpinnings of the territorial state system; (2) delink from the Eurocentric perspective that ignores the experiences and governing systems of other communities; (3) compel critical engagement with concepts not traditionally present in today’s international relations, such as lawmaking and lawpreserving violence that would contribute to expanding our understandings of the international, political, and sociological in world politics.

This paper traces the unseen causes of the continuation of repressive modes and measures against the opposition. It did so mainly by questioning the origin of these practices, and the role of power structures and power relations in (re)constituting and preserving these modes. Contrapuntally, it examined how these practices and modes have been extended, allocated, and positionalised within the society, either through the excessive use of violence by legalising power practices, or both.