An Empire of Indifference ― American War and the Financial Logic of Risk Management

Drawing on theorists including Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, and Achille Mbembe, Martin illuminates a frightening financial logic that must be understood in order to be countered. Martin maintains that finance divides the world between those able to avail themselves of wealth opportunities through risk taking (investors) and those who cannot do so, who are considered “at risk.” He contends that modern-day American imperialism differs from previous models of imperialism, in which the occupiers engaged with the occupied to “civilize” them, siphon off wealth, or both. American imperialism, by contrast, is an empire of indifference: a massive flight from engagement. The United States urges an embrace of risk and self-management on the occupied and then ignores or dispossesses those who cannot make the grade.

Randy Martin is Professor of Art and Public Policy at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. His books includeFinancialization of Daily Life, On Your Marx: Relinking Socialism and the Left, andCritical Moves: Dance Studies in Theory and Politics, also published by Duke University Press. He is a former editor of the journalSocial Text.