Balakrishnan Gopal: Antagonistics

Antagonistics addresses core political and theoretical questions: How should we
conceive the relations between neo-imperial warfare and neoliberalism,
American hegemony and capitalist globalization? Reflections on the central
issues of the post-9/11 order are set within a larger framework, tracing the
intertwined evolution of the modern state system and the capitalist mode of
production, from the Treaty of Westphalia to the Occupation of Iraq.
Balakrishnan interrogates three key political perspectives-liberalism
(Tocqueville), the radical right (Schmitt), and the Marxist left (Althusser)-for
their insights on state power and civil society, democracy, and class.
Antagonistics combines intellectual history, political philosophy, and historical
sociology to produce a highly distinctive portrait of an age of capital and war.