Dr Brad Evans

Lecturer in Political Violence; Programme Director BA International Relations

Photo of Dr Brad Evans

Brad Evans is a Lecturer in Political Violence. His work focuses on the problems of Global Security, Post-Clausewitzean War, and the links between violence and political subjectivity. Working out of the Continental political and philosophical tradition, his current research explores the contemporary nature of terror, especially the unique role terror has assumed within the Liberal imaginary of threat; the re-problematisation of endangerment, particularly the ontological shift towards an emergent and recombinant notion of species life; the normalisation of violence, especially the violence which occurs within the remit of humanitarian discourses and practices; the implicit racism in modern bio-political reasoning, most notably the progressive account which emanates out of the Kantian schematic; along with the possibilities for non-violent and post-fascist ways of living, specifically how these can be reconciled with the ethics of political difference.

Brad is the Founder and Director of the Histories of Violence Project. His co-directed film “Ten Years of Terror” has received international acclaim, screening in various venues including the Guggenheim in New York (September 2011). Brad is a listed contributor for the Guardian Newspapers Comment is Free. He is also an affiliate member of the Zygmunt Bauman Institute.

Brad joined the School of Politics and International Studies in 2006. He is currently the undergraduate Program Director for International Relations.

Research Interests

Brad is currently working on a number of research projects. His monograph “Liberal Terror: Global Security, Divine Power & Emergency Rule” will offer an original genealogical investigation into the phenomenon of terror in the 21st Century. Providing a critical commentary, the monograph addresses the following key questions: How are we to understand terror in the contemporary world? What is particularly novel about the Liberal account of terror? Why does this account tend to give priority to life-centric approaches? To what extent have advances in complexity thinking engendered an altogether more powerful and dangerous bodily trope? How has this changed the moral basis for Liberal rule? What impacted has this had upon the Liberal understanding of security, war, and violence? And perhaps most importantly, what does the phenomenon of terror tell us about the nature of Liberal rationality today?

Brad is also working on a co-edited monograph titled “Deleuze & Fascism: Securitisation, War & Aesthetics”, which brings together, some of the best Deleuzian scholars to look at the problem of fascism in the 21st century.

Brad on Histories of Violence

Teaching

Brad is the leader for the level 3 module ‘Political Violence’. He also provides supervision to a number of PhD candidates with a broad interest in the problems of war and violence. In addition, Brad provides lectures on critical security studies/human security for the level 2 Security Studies module, along with lectures on post-modern and post-structural approaches to violence for various MA programs.

Key Publications

Books

B. Evans (2011 Forthcoming) Liberal Terror: Global Security, Divine Power & Emergency Rule (PRIO New Security Studies, Routledge)
B. Evans & J. Reid (2012 Forthcoming) Deleuze & Fascism: Securitisation, War & Aesthetics (Interventions, Routledge)

Edited Volumes

B. Evans (2011) “Liberal War” (South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 110 (3) ISSN 0038-2876)
B. Evans & C. Bell (2010) “Post-Intervention Societies” (Journal of Intervention & State Building, Vol. 4 (4) ISSN 1750-2977)
B. Evans & L. Guillaume (2010) Special Symposium on “Deleuze & War” (Theory & Event, Vol. 13 (3) ISSN 1092-311X)

Journal Articles

B. Evans (2011) The Liberal War Thesis: Introducing the Ten Key Principles of 21st Century Bio-Political Warfare (South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 110 (3) ISSN 0038-2876)
B. Evans & C. Bell (2010) Terrorism to Insurgency: Mapping the Post-Intervention Security Terrain (Journal of Intervention & State Building, Vol. 4 (4) ISSN 1750-2977) 9-28
B. Evans (2010) Terror in All Eventuality (Theory & Event, Vol. 13 (3) Special Symposium on Deleuze & War, ISSN 1092-311X)
B. Evans & M. Hardt (2010) Barbarians to Savages: Liberal War Inside and Out (Theory & Event, Vol. 13 (3) Special Symposium on Deleuze & War, ISSN 1092-311X)
B. Evans (2010) Foucault’s Legacy: Security, War & Violence in the 21st Century (Security Dialogue Vol. 41 (4) ISSN 1460-3640) 413-433
B. Evans (2010) Life Resistance: Towards a Different Concept of the Political (Deleuze Studies Vol. 4 (3) ISSN 1750-2241)

Chapters in Books

B. Evans & M. Duffield (2011 Forthcoming), Biospheric Security: How the Merger Between Development, Security & the Environment [Desenex] is Retrenching Fortress Europe. In P. Burgess & S. Gutwirth [eds.] A Threat Against Europe? Security, Migration and Integration (VUB Press, Brussels)
B. Evans (2012 Forthcoming) Oppression Desired: Fascism and the Security Imperative. In B. Evans & J. Reid [eds.] Deleuze & Fascism: Securitisation, War & Aesthetics (Interventions, Routledge)