Biopower as a supplement to sovereign power: Prison camps, war, and the production of excluded bodies

Following the tragic events of 9/11, thousands of people were taken off the streets and deported from the U.S., two wars were launched, and tens of thousands of people have been detained worldwide in what has come to be known as the “war on terror.” In this “new type of war, " we are told that “new techniques” have been “necessary” to uphold international law, order, and peace (Gray 2004; Michaelson and Shershow 2004). Among such techniques are torture, extraordinary rendition, and indefinite detention, which are becoming increasingly widespread and defended as a practice in order to uphold law, order, and the liberal democratic state. The need for a physical space to use such “new techniques” has resulted in the opening of prison camps Delta and X-Ray at Guantánamo Bay, which, among many other mushrooming detention centers around the world, have become infamous spaces beyond the law.¹.