I participated in the 7th Annual Conference of the International Association for Reconciliation Studies, held in Nicosia, Cyprus, from June 19 to 22, 2026. The theme of the conference was Paths Toward Peace: Reconciliation in Theory and Practice. True to this theme, researchers from diverse backgrounds delivered presentations that (re)examined reconciliation and peace from both theoretical and practical perspectives. It can be said that the conference was truly an intellectual forum in which multiple “paths” toward reconciliation were explored.
My research presentation was part of a panel titled Building the Scaffolding: Theoretical and Philosophical Discussions of Reconciliation Studies. This panel brought together presentations that either examined reconciliation primarily from a theoretical perspective or explored the theoretical foundations of reconciliation studies as a discipline.
The title of my presentation was “Reconciliation in the Age of Necropolitics: Guided by Frantz Fanon, Achille Mbembe, and Judith Butler.” This presentation had three main features. First, I examined the possibility of reconciliation from the perspective of poststructuralist philosophy. Second, I analyzed Achille Mbembe’s concept of “necropolitics” and argued that it constitutes the core form of power underlying the neoliberal governance dominant in the contemporary world. Third, I discussed how this form of power functions as an obstacle to reconciliation and how it might be resisted.
From the perspective of poststructuralist philosophy, the subject and its psychic life are understood to be constituted through the internalization of power and subjection to it (Sato, 2008). In other words, the nature of the subject and its psychic life is shaped, if not “completely,” then to a considerable extent, by the nature of power. Therefore, in order to consider how to halt the division of a population and bring about reconciliation, we must ask what forms of power we have internalized and to which we have become subject.
Drawing on Mbembe, I therefore proposed “necropolitics” as a form of power characteristic of the contemporary era. This concept was developed in contrast to Michel Foucault’s “biopower” (power to make people live as a labor power and to maximize their exploitation). It demonstrates that modern power no longer aims to make people live but instead makes killing its primary objective. This form of power divides a population into lives worth living and disposable lives and actively affirms the killing of the latter (Mbembe, 2019).
I then demonstrated that this necropolitics can be observed within neoliberal governance, the dominant form of governance in the contemporary world. As Foucault and his interpreters have shown, under neoliberal governance, people are compelled to become subjects who engage in self-management as entrepreneurs of themselves (Foucault, 2004; Read, 2009； Butler, 2015; Sato, 2026). Those who fail to achieve this form of subjectivation are excluded and dispossessed under the logic of personal responsibility. Here, I identified the operation of necropolitics, which divides the population into lives worth living and disposable lives.
According to Butler (2015), our lives are possible only through interdependence, but nevertheless, neoliberal governance compels us to submit to the logic of personal responsibility, thereby destroying these relationships of interdependence and deepening social divisions. How, then, can we resist this neoliberal governance—and the necropolitics operating at its core—and become agents of reconciliation? In this presentation, I drew the following proposal from Mbembe (2022) and Butler (2015): by exposing the interdependence that constitutes the conditions of our lives, it becomes possible to resist necropolitical subjectivation and to become subjects of reconciliation. At the conclusion of the presentation, I proposed that future research explore whether Frantz Fanon’s clinical practice as a psychiatrist could be reinterpreted as a practice of reconciliation. Specifically, I suggested that, in his clinical work, Fanon actively sought to perceive the suffering of the Other—which becomes imperceptible because of the division of populations produced by necropolitics—and that this could be understood as an attempt to reconstruct interdependence with the Other.
Incidentally, during opportunities for academic exchange, such as coffee breaks and excursions, I received positive feedback on my presentation from numerous participants. Particularly common were comments along the lines of, “Although I have not engaged extensively with the theories of Mbembe or Butler, I have come to realize that they offer significant insights into the issues addressed in reconciliation studies.” These comments led me to realize that, while poststructuralist philosophy constitutes an important intellectual current for critically reexamining the conditions of reconciliation, it has not yet been sufficiently incorporated into the field of reconciliation studies.
Furthermore, as mentioned at the beginning of this article, the conference featured not only theoretical research but also numerous case studies of reconciliation practices. As I listened to these presentations, I was able to reaffirm that necropolitics is at work in conflicts across various regions of the world.
Throughout my participation in the conference, I came to envision that further developing my research might contribute a new theoretical framework to the study of reconciliation. I hope to develop these findings into a journal article and eventually submit it to international academic journals specializing in critical theory, such as Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory.
【Image】The University of Nicosia, the conference venue.
References
Butler, J. (2015). Notes toward a performative theory of assembly (Kindle ed.). Harvard University Press.
Foucault, M. (2004). Naissance de la biopolitique: Cours au Collège de France 1978–1979 (M. Senellart, Ed.). Gallimard/Seuil.
Mbembe, A. (2019). Necropolitics (S. Corcoran, Trans.). Duke University Press.
Mbembe, A. (2022). The earthly community: Reflections on the last utopia (S. Corcoran, Trans.). V2_Publishing.
Read, J. (2009). A Genealogy of Homo-Economicus: Neoliberalism and the Production of Subjectivity. Foucault Studies, 25–36. https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.v0i0.2465
Sato, Y. (2008). Kenryoku to teiko: Fuko, Douruzu, Derida, Aruchuseru [Power and Resistance: Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida, and Althusser]. Jinbun Shoin.
Sato, Y. (2026). Shin jiyūshugi kenryoku to teikō [Neoliberal power and resistance] (Kindle ed.). Jinbun Shoin.