Book Review: Earthbound: The Aesthetics of Sovereignty in the Anthropocene

Abstract

As is stated, it is “a monograph about great power, namely the national (Argentine) and transnational (French) institutional perpetrators who were complicit in the great crime of torture” (157). Collard’s analysis also provides a proposed framework to resist and hold accountable not just the “torturing rogue” state, but as important, the broader system and structures exporting, teaching, and enabling torture across the globe. This includes adopting the concepts of “transnational institutional tortures” and “transnational state violence” to advance a “progressive political project”. After all, one would be hard pressed to identify an example of state violence that did not involve the implicit or complicit involvement of external states and/or corporations (e.g. Libya, Syria, or Yemen) that result in vast harms, oppressions, and deaths. Overall, Collard provides an insightful analysis that scholars, students, governmental and nongovernmental organizations will find insightful.