Episode 35: Questions of Violence and Sovereignty Under the US Empire with Darryl Li

In the Context of Empire

Jon and Matt were joined by Dr. Darryl Li to speak about a number of topics including the concepts of jihadism, national sovereignty, so called "humanitarian intervention" and some other dark realities of the US empire Dr. Li Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago, an attorney, and the author of The Universal Enemy: Jihad, Empire, and the Challenge of Solidarity.

Discussed in this Episode:

- Darryl's background and his interest in US imperialism

- "Foreign Fighters" outside of the perspective of nation states- IE Arab fighters that traveled to Bosnia to fight in the 90's vs the US soldiers who traveled to fight in Arab world more recently

- The limitations of viewing the world through the lens of the nation state.

- Universalism, the danger of universalistic claims- seen in both Jihad and UN Peacekeeping

- Jihad and how the concept varies across the Muslim world

- Skepticism regarding humanitarian interventions and peacekeeping missions

-Independence vs sovereignty and US hegemony in the War on Terror

- The limitations of looking at US imperialism through just the actions of the US government (invasions, sanctions, coups, etc, most of the work of the empire is delegated to US clients!

- The hypocrisy of the US to label Muslims "out of place" as "foreign fighters" while occupying nations 7,000 miles from the homeland

Our Work:

Read our "In the Context of Empire" blog with corresponding and expanded posts to this content!

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