The Black International conspiracy as security dispositive in the Netherlands, 1880-1900

Abstract

"In this paper the author introduces the fight against anarchism at the end of the 19th century as a security dispositive. An analysis of the emergence of the dispositive of the Black International conspiracy and the rise of new modes of governance in the wake of the fight against violent anarchism in the Netherlands is presented as a bottom-up process of securitization, enabled by two remarkable episodes of anarchist activities in the Netherlands in 1894 and 1895-1898. Regional prosecutors and Police commissioners capitalized on this (foreign) anarchist threat to instigate large-scale police reforms in terms of bureaucratization, standardization and centralization. New technologies of imagination, imported from abroad, helped to advance these processes of securitization and modernization." (author's abstract)