03/2019 – Karl Heinzen e le origini del terrorismo contemporaneo

Abstracts

Andrea Beccaro, Karl Heinzen and his importance for modern terrorism

The importance of Karl Heinzen’s Murder and Liberty in the history of terrorist thought has long been recognized, however a study about his thinking and an Italian translation of his pamphlet lacked. The paper aims at presenting to Italian scholars and readers an in-depth overview of Karl Heinzen (1809-1880) ideas on revolution and terrorism, therefore it is divided into two sections. The first paragraph describes briefly Heinzen life and his role in the 1848 revolution, then it takes into account both the pamphlet Der Mord, which anticipates Murder and Liberty, and the links between his thinking and terrorism. The second section deals with the original feature of Murder and Liberty, such as the de-humanization of the enemy, the use of physics and chemistry for the revolution, the strategic role of terrorism, and the fact that he conceives terrorism as a transnational phenomenon.

Karl Heinzen, Murder and Liberty

Karl Heinzen’s Murder and Liberty can be defined as the first modern pamphlet that supports the use of terrorism in the frame of a revolution. It represents both a turning point in the evolution of tyrannicide theory and a watershed moment in the history of political violence. In the text, Heinzen invents a new vocabulary (for instance, he uses for the first time the notion of Freiheitskäpmpfer, i.e. freedom fighters), one might even say a new vision, of political violence. The paper is the first Italian translation of this seminal pamphlet and the first Heinzen’s writing in Italian. Murder and Liberty is an important document for whom interested in the history of terrorism, its evolution, and its strategic theory.

Pasquale Menditto, The folds of the earth. Ethnography of a Parisian border

This article analyses the specific governance of migration articulated by the French institutions to regulate the migrant presence in Paris. Since the 2015 informal camps of migrants have spread to the margins of the city, causing the State to intervene through vast operations of police and OFII (Office français de l’immigration et de l’intégration) agents. Eventually in November 2016 a Humanitarian Centre was built in the area of Porte de la Chapelle (XVIII Arrondissement). Starting from an ethnographic account of migrants’ condition in that area, this article demonstrates how specific practices of bordering have been employed to control the emerging presence of social and political forces that resulted from the assemblage of migrants, NGOs, and political activists. This phenomenon has indeed produced an internal displacement of the frontier, which this article depicts as related to the constitution of a new political surface caused by particular processes of deterritorialization. Highlighting the shape of a flexible regime of mobility, the article outlines the importance of locating the analysis beyond the description of the political devices displayed by the French institution. By doing so, the article aims at reaching the fold where the relations of power interact with the forces of resistance, which represent the cause of the transformation of specific governmentality.

Angela Sagnella, Boundaries over-determination and identities reconfiguration: the case of Ceuta and Melilla

Ceuta and Melilla, two very small Spanish cities in Morocco, stand in the way of the Maghreb’s narrative continuity to rise as microcosms steeped in cultural contradictions and discontinuities. The polymorphous identity of the enclaves has in fact been constructed through continuous and different colonial sediments, religious alterities and unstoppable migratory flows. The sharp functionality of the border identified by Lord Curzon at the beginning of the twentieth century can be projected with extreme contingency on the Spanish-Moroccan frontier, that is to say where the geopolitical interests of the parties involved crystallize, as well as the encounters /clashes that the enclaves generate due to their condition of «middle lands» between Africa and Europe, Islam and Christianity, North and South of the world. Specifically, the creation of the European area of ​​free circulation approved in Schengen has contributed, primarily and in a more evident form, to the polarization of the Spanish-Moroccan border: in 1985, Ceuta and Melilla, were converted from historical areas of free commercial and cultural transit into a geopolitical fault able to alter and modify the millenary tradition of flexible passage to Europe.

This redefinition of the border space, together with the migratory upheavals driven by the sub-Saharan centrifugal forces, has slowly violated and changed the sense of the border, transforming it, through a dramatic hyperbole, first into a rigid frontier and then into an ultra-technological wall capable of hinder migration movements. The foregoing finds its value in the theory of the French philosopher Étienne Balibar who considers the boundaries to be determined by the states; in other words, state actors not only define borders but reshape them according to changing geopolitical needs. The present contribution is part of the just outlined scenario, in an attempt to dissect the consequences that the over-determination has on the Spanish-Moroccan border, trying to understand the important effects on the identity reconfiguration of the two Spanish enclaves.

Sara Nanetti, The socio-political boundaries of Union citizenship. An analysis on the new transnational balance between borders and identities in Europe

The present contribution aims to define the boundaries, in a post-national perspective, analysing the specific case of the European Union. From the beginning, will be investigated the theoretical perspectives of Beck and Brague, which are oriented to a procedural definition of European political and socio-cultural borders. Subsequently, citizenship will be identified as a political-social synthesis of European borders with a procedural and supra-national character. Finally, through the lens of European citizenship and its empirical implications, will be proposed a reading of relational and open boundaries.

Alessandro Campi, The “rational” of Fascism between history and social science. In memory of Anthony James Gregor

Among the scholars of international reputation studying fascism, A. James Gregor (1929-2019) has been one of the more stimulating and original. His studies of the “rational” nature of fascism ideology together with his interpretation of fascism as a “dictatorial revolutionary mass movement of development” were articulated in the sixties and seventies in books like The Ideology of Fascism (1969), The Fascist Persuasion in Radical Politics (1974), Italian Fascism and Developmental Dictatorship (1979), and Young Mussolini and the Intellectual Origins of Fascism (1979). Together with a few other scholars, Gregor can be considered one of those authors it is necessary to consult if one wishes to adequately study the fascist phenomenon. After his death, this article provide a critical introduction to his interpretation of fascism (and also a personal memory).

Antonio Zotti, The reluctant leader: the myth of Germany’s role within the European Union

The leading role assumedly played by Germany within the European Union, as well as the country’s reluctance to accept responsibilities that comes with it, are frequently identified as a «myth» in the general public and the scientific debate. The identification often entails the intent to qualify, circumscribe and, when deemed necessary, downgrade the existence and the benevolent and/or reluctant character of the country’s outstanding position. The implied assumption is that a myth – even more so a political myth – is just a distorted representation of reality, if not an utter fabrication, designed to impress and influence a target audience. Conversely, the article sets out to apply to Germany’s particular status within the Union a notion of myth as a narration aimed at providing «significance» to its object, a story that makes meaningful a world that otherwise tends to become a collection of mere facts. Accordingly, a political myth is one that re-produces and adjusts accounts of political realities, so as to keep them «close» to the member of a political community, for the ultimate purpose to fight back the so-called «absolutism of reality». Hence, the purpose of the article is to provide a preliminary appraisal of the analytical usefulness of this notion of myth and to examine the opportunities it offers to gain a deeper comprehension of the meaning of Germany’s famed leadership of the European Union.

Serena Meattini, Europe between secondarity and identity: perspectives and shifts into contemporary french thought

European cultural identity is an important issue of contemporary french thought. The paper explores the different meanings that the concept assumed during the 1990’s and the 2000’s. The point of departure is the notion of European cultural identity that Rémi Brague shows in its 1992 Europe, la voie romaine. The 1990’s Brague’s concept is very dynamic and open but it seems to be changing with 2000’s political and social events. The reflection is becoming increasingly urgent and a description gets more and more stringent, as the 2018’s Paris Statement shows.

Leonardo Varasano, Familiar waves of banal nationalism

Nation and nationalism  survived globalisation and are far from dead. Sometimes they come up aggressively; more often, they creep up in socially accepted forms, banal in their appearance. Almost without realising it, we live on daily basis with continuous references made to a sense of nation which is both familiar and beyond doubt. The idea of nation is around us every day, and especially when it is not mentioned: in sport, music, in the weather forecast, literature, in adverts, and so on. Banal Nationalism, by M Billing, puts forward interesting ideas and – albeit with its limits – helps reflecting upon causes and forms of nationalist flags of our days, out of notice but not out of sight.