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Ruling the Savage Periphery: Frontier Governance and the Making of the Modern State
A provocative case that "failed states" along the periphery of today's international system are the intended result of nineteenth-century colonial design.
From the Afghan frontier with British India to the pampas of Argentina to the deserts of Arizona, nineteenth-century empires drew borders with an eye toward placing indigenous people just on the edge of the interior. They were too nomadic and communal to incorporate in the state, yet their labor was too valuable to displace entirely. Benjamin Hopkins argues that empires sought to keep the "savage" just close enough to take advantage of, with lasting ramifications for the global nation-state order.
Hopkins theorizes and explores frontier governmentality, a distinctive kind of administrative rule that spread from empire to empire. Colonial powers did not just create ad hoc methods or alight independently on similar techniques of domination: they learned from each other. Although the indigenous peoples inhabiting newly conquered and demarcated spaces were subjugated in a variety of ways, Ruling the Savage Periphery isolates continuities across regimes and locates the patterns of transmission that made frontier governmentality a world-spanning phenomenon.
Today, the supposedly failed states along the margins of the international system--states riven by terrorism and violence--are not dysfunctional anomalies. Rather, they work as imperial statecraft intended, harboring the outsiders whom stable states simultaneously encapsulate and exploit. "Civilization" continues to deny responsibility for border dwellers while keeping them close enough to work, buy goods across state lines, and justify national-security agendas. The present global order is thus the tragic legacy of a colonial design, sustaining frontier governmentality and its objectives for a new age.
From the Afghan frontier with British India to the pampas of Argentina to the deserts of Arizona, nineteenth-century empires drew borders with an eye toward placing indigenous people just on the edge of the interior. They were too nomadic and communal to incorporate in the state, yet their labor was too valuable to displace entirely. Benjamin Hopkins argues that empires sought to keep the "savage" just close enough to take advantage of, with lasting ramifications for the global nation-state order.
Hopkins theorizes and explores frontier governmentality, a distinctive kind of administrative rule that spread from empire to empire. Colonial powers did not just create ad hoc methods or alight independently on similar techniques of domination: they learned from each other. Although the indigenous peoples inhabiting newly conquered and demarcated spaces were subjugated in a variety of ways, Ruling the Savage Periphery isolates continuities across regimes and locates the patterns of transmission that made frontier governmentality a world-spanning phenomenon.
Today, the supposedly failed states along the margins of the international system--states riven by terrorism and violence--are not dysfunctional anomalies. Rather, they work as imperial statecraft intended, harboring the outsiders whom stable states simultaneously encapsulate and exploit. "Civilization" continues to deny responsibility for border dwellers while keeping them close enough to work, buy goods across state lines, and justify national-security agendas. The present global order is thus the tragic legacy of a colonial design, sustaining frontier governmentality and its objectives for a new age.
- GenresHistory
288 pages, Hardcover
Published May 5, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 30, 2021
Promising concept but fails to deliver as much as it should....
This is an extremely interesting topic, looking at how the frontier zones of liminality in the age of colonialism and empire were almost self perpetuating. This led to consequences right up to the present day with the former frontiers of British India now the new front line of the War on Terror, whilst the Kenyan north has seen Islamist strife etc. Some frontiers are more settled and peaceful now, though in the cases of Argentina the SW USA etc this was achieved by force rather than masterful governance models and though peaceful today, we see exploitation still occurring.
With these examples the author has crafted a very engaging account of the governance but I'm ultimately left thinking "and?" as though the pattern and process is illustrated the theory and deeper meaning seems either beyond this book or not the goal. So whilst the examples are interesting, the argument that a specific style of frontier governance has led to specific frontier situations almost seems like stating the obvious - so much so that I ended up wondering if I'd missed something in terms of nuance etc.
That said it's still very interesting in how it establishes parallels and is food for thought for anyone interested in borderlands and colonial legacies.
This is an extremely interesting topic, looking at how the frontier zones of liminality in the age of colonialism and empire were almost self perpetuating. This led to consequences right up to the present day with the former frontiers of British India now the new front line of the War on Terror, whilst the Kenyan north has seen Islamist strife etc. Some frontiers are more settled and peaceful now, though in the cases of Argentina the SW USA etc this was achieved by force rather than masterful governance models and though peaceful today, we see exploitation still occurring.
With these examples the author has crafted a very engaging account of the governance but I'm ultimately left thinking "and?" as though the pattern and process is illustrated the theory and deeper meaning seems either beyond this book or not the goal. So whilst the examples are interesting, the argument that a specific style of frontier governance has led to specific frontier situations almost seems like stating the obvious - so much so that I ended up wondering if I'd missed something in terms of nuance etc.
That said it's still very interesting in how it establishes parallels and is food for thought for anyone interested in borderlands and colonial legacies.
June 27, 2022
A well researched (and copiously annotated) thesis about the lasting damage done by colonial & imperial powers to manage peoples considered uncivilized (and beyond civilization) within regions adjacent to (sometimes entirely within) the more formally governed areas. Certainly not the last word but an excellent place to begin the conversation and upon which to build additional scholarship.
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June 17, 2020I read the draft proof prior to publication. It is disturbing that the word "savage" is in quotation marks in the book's summaries but not in the book's title, thus confusing the reader as to the author's agenda in terms of his project of exposing colonial racism.
September 10, 2022
Well-written comparative history on borders in British Empire, US, and Argentina (most of the book is spent on the first). Convincingly articulated concept of "frontier govermentality."
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November 6, 2024f'23 - penny - global europe
December 24, 2024
Loved the introduction and the early chapter about NW colonial India.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews