Rengger on War: Conversations, Subversions, Disorientations

Abstract

Kennedy-Pipe’s recent provocation invites us to consider Nicholas J. Rengger’s writings on war in pacifist terms. Rengger’s subversive war scholarship is timely in its disruption of mainstream war narratives: it emphasises the centrality of uncertainty, judgement, and failure in place of the rationalisation, sanitation, and fetishisation of war so prevalent in post-9/11 politics. However, we ultimately disagree with the characterisation of his thought as pacifist and offer an alternative reading of his legacy that frames his interventions as anti-Pelagian and, as such, deeply resistant to theoretically-driven practice. We explore the connections and divergences between Rengger’s writings and critical war and peace studies discourses arguing that although disruptive of mainstream narratives of war and peace, Rengger’s work continues to be predicated on a problematic Eurocentric war/peace binary and a more thoroughgoing commitment to ‘deal in darkness’ would wrestle with the colonial legacies that continue to shape global politics.