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Observant States: Geopolitics and Visual Culture

Book by Fraser MacDonald · 3 quotes · Class Struggle, Famine, Global Politics

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All Class Struggle Famine Global Politics Governance International Politics National Safety Poverty Security Weapons

Observant States: Geopolitics and Visual Culture Quotes

“Famine images remain powerful and salient in modernity because they recall a precarious pre-modern existence that industrialised society has allegedly overcome. Understood as a natural disaster in which there is a crisis of food supply, famine is seen as a symptom of a lack of progress that results in the death of an innocent. It is for this reason that famine images are, more often than not, of individuals, frequently including children, barely clothed, staring passively into the lens, flies flitting across their faces.”

Poverty Famine Class Struggle

Book:Observant States: Geopolitics and Visual Culture

Source: Observant States: Geopolitics and Visual Culture

“The whole point of a doomsday guided missile was that it would instill the confidence of the citizenry in the defence capabilities of the state, as well as offering a certain diplomatic leverage in international affairs. In short, it had to be known and seen in order to be effective.”

Weapons Global Politics National Safety

Book:Observant States: Geopolitics and Visual Culture

Source: Observant States: Geopolitics and Visual Culture

“The aspiration to security is thus misguided and certainly unachievable. As Foucault (2007) has remarked, security is not a state to be realised; it is always elusive, an absolute end that cannot be attained. But it is also through this pervasive sense of insecurity that populations are governed, from the scale of the body to the realms of international politics.”

Security Governance International Politics

Book:Observant States: Geopolitics and Visual Culture

Source: Observant States: Geopolitics and Visual Culture