In the Name of Security: Controlling Knowledge in Times of Staatsräson

My paper interrogates the deployment of Germany’s Staatsräson— its proclaimed reason of state centered on Israel’s security—in its effects on the securitization of academic knowledge production. Drawing on Louis Althusser’s conceptual distinction between ideological and repressive state apparatuses, I analyze how Staatsräson functions not only through overt state repression but also through ideological interpellation, geared towards the production of compliant (academic) subjects. I argue that universities, as a core site of the ideological state apparatus, enact the logics of Staatsräson by normalizing police force on campuses, surveillance, (self-)censorship, and anticipatory compliance under the guise of acting against “(Israel-related) antisemitism” and “(Islamist) extremism.” My paper investigates Staatsräson as a speech act that securitizes dissent, by framing critical voices as threats to public order and legitimizing exceptional state measures, including the surveillance of knowledge production.