US Ideology and the War in Iraq

Abstract

(2ifek 1989, 1994). Yet, apart from a few incursions in matters of national identity, postcommunism, and postdemocratic transition (hizek 1993), 2izek's philosophical reflections were never directly about international relations. To say that ZiZek reverses this trend in Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle would be an overstatement given that this book starts with current geopolitical issues (the war in Iraq and US imperialism since September 11), but it quickly moves on to more traditional Zizekian problematiques-such as the conceptualization of the subject in Lacan's psychoanalysis and the place of ideology in twentieth-century political practice. Still, in this collection of discontinuous but often spontaneous thoughts prompted by the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003 (p. 7), Ziiek covers many issues of central importance to contemporary international relations-from the making of US foreign policy after September 11 and the reconstruction of security discourses to the place of Europe in twenty-first century geopolitics and worldwide reactions to economic