Governmentality of What? Populations, States and International Organisations

As more work on governmentality appears in International Relations (IR), it is time to take stock and deal with a few questions. In social theory, the governmentality approach has mainly addressed “advanced liberal” societies and can be defined as having the health, wealth and well-being of populations as its target and governance from a distance through the “conduct of conduct” as its means of operating. There are two major problems in transferring governmentality to IR. First, not all societies can be described as “advanced liberal” ones. Second is the problem of whether there is such a thing as “global governmentality”. This article argues that the lack of the necessary social conditions does indeed make it difficult to apply the technologies of governmentality to various parts of the world. However, the aim of international organisations might be less the regulation of populations as the application of governmentality to states.