Foucault in Guantánamo: Towards an Archaeology of the Exception

Abstract

This article offers a critique of the discourse that has emerged around the problem of ‘the exception’. ‘The exception’ is shorthand for the problem of certain events and situations, such as 9/11, being designated as ‘exceptional’ in order to legitimate exceptional policies, practices, executive measures and laws. The article terms this discourse and practice ‘exceptionalism’. It begins by identifying problems in the treatment of the exception and exceptionalism in the work of Carl Schmitt, Giorgio Agamben and securitization theorist Ole WÊver. A different theoretical approach to the problem of the exception is then offered, drawing upon Michel Foucault's early work, The Archaeology of Knowledge. The narrative focuses on the detail of Foucault's ‘archaeological’ methodology, relating it to specific problems in the political-theoretical discourse of exceptionalism. The reasons for an emphasis on ‘archaeology’ rather than Foucault's later ‘genealogical’ slant are explained. The article concludes by arguing that ‘archaeology’ – conceived as a neo-Kantian mode of critique that is discursive and historicist – is a more appropriate and less problematic method for engaging with the problem of the exception.