Fracturing the Insularity of the Global State: War and Conflict in Moira Buffini's Welcome to Thebes

Abstract

Conflicts have always played a role in human society, but the recent global and local economic conditions have led to an increase in their intensity, and complexity. States are under siege from marauding powers whose intentions are sometimes either politically or economically ambiguous though with clear outcomes of imposition of political will for economic benefit. The economic gains are usually tilted towards the invading, or liberating, power. These invading powers often metamorphose as mercurial peacekeepers, impatient to humanise their plunder and present a passionate view of justice, even as they supplant the legitimate authority of the ‘colonised’ state on several bases.