Includes bibliographical references and index.

In this impassioned argument, Étienne Balibar boldly confronts the insidious causes of violence, racism, nationalism, and ethnic cleansing worldwide. Through a novel synthesis of theory and empirical studies of violence drawn from contemporary life, Balibar tests the limits of political philosophy to formulate new, productive conceptions of war, revolution, sovereignty, and class. Using the pathbreaking thought of Derrida as a starting point, Balibar designs a topography of cruelty converted into extremism by ideology, juxtaposing its subjective forms (identity delusions, the desire for exter.