Discourses of Biopolitics and Human Securityin the Context of New Challenges and Threats to Humanity

Abstract

The research aims at explicating two discourses that are most important for solv­ing global problems of humanity: biopolitics and human security. The similarity of the studied concepts is revealed. According to the authors, it consists in the sameness of their object, and the differences – in its interpretation. Biopolitics sees its interest in finding ways to control the impersonal “man in General”, and human security – in its individuation. The measure of correlation of these con­cepts and their relation to the philosophical discourse about freedom is revealed. The author traces the dialectics of biopolitics and human security, the moments when the biopolitical discourse of “insured” and “uninsured” life intersects with the “colonizing” discourse. It is concluded that the conflict of interests of the studied discourses is inevitable, none of them is able to “rise above the fray”, having the opportunity to answer complex questions of human security. The mea­sure of their effectiveness as an intellectual tool and practical mechanism for solving problems is illustrated by “fragile States” (the case of sub-Saharan Africa) and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic