Alliance of International Production Houses

For a long time, war no longer seemed to be part of political debates – it seemed to be merely a phenomenon from the past or the fate of distant countries. In 2018, the Italian philosopher and post-operaist Maurizio Lazzarato explained in his book with Éric Alliez why war never disappeared but rather remains a constitutive element of the relationship between the state and capitalism. In “Wars and Capital”, he argues that we are witnessing wars of class, race and gender; wars of civilisation and environment; or wars of subjectivity, which are the secret engine of neoliberal governance. “Frieden” is therefore not an alternative to war, but its continuation, according to Lazzarato. In the third edition of the HAU discourse series “On Violence”, Lazzarato talks about the permanent continuity of warlike violence and its most recent formations.