The Exploit: A Theory of Networks - asounder

Prolegomenon 9
Following Foucault, to become unilateral, it is necessary to become
multilateral, but via a veiled, cryptic sort of multilateralism. To become
singular, one must become plural.
The center of so - called American unilateralism is constructed
through its network properties. In a sense, any particular presidential
administration is only half aware of this. It has placed itself in a paradoxical
position. To ensure the cohesion of American unilateralism,
it must forge links outside its domain.
Provisional Response 3: Ubiquity and Universality
(the Determinist Argument)
Analyses of power relations often spend a great deal of time on the
ideological content of political struggle: how the values of Islamic
fundamentalism, or U.S. arrogance, produced within a certain historical
context, lead to or justify violent actions. However, there is another
view that focuses on the architecture of power, not just on its
ideological content.
The role that communications and information networks have played in
international terrorism and the “war on terror” has meant that media have
now become a core component of war and political conflict.
One result of this view is that media can be seen to determine the
very conditions of politics: the nexus of war and media makes war
less real, while its effects, following Jean Baudrillard and Paul Virilio,
take on the form of technological “accidents,” “information bombs,”
and a “spirit” of terrorism of which the body is a vehicle. When the
terms “power” and “control” are used in this context, this is really a
shorthand for the material effects of media systems—the materiality
of the media is, we are told, determinant of power relations, not the
reverse. For instance, from this viewpoint the networks of FedEx or
AT&T are arguably more important than that of the United States in
terms of global economies, communication, and consumerism. This
argument—what we might call a determinist argument—states that
to understand the political situation, it is necessary to understand