Geographies of neoliberalism and global conflicts: Imperialism of Exclusion, Barbarization, and Genocidal Population Management

Abstract

Originally produced for a roundtable at the 16th ENANPEGE, this essay analyzes the geographies of neoliberalism and the escalation of global conflicts. It is argued that neoliberalism constitutes, in fact, an intrinsically authoritarian project that does not oppose modern democracy, presented as the political form of subjection to the fetish of capital, with the state of exception becoming the permanent foundation of sovereignty in crisis. The central thesis states that the exhaustion of neoliberal governability culminates in an imperialism of exclusion, in which armed aggression replaces economic integration in territorial domination and the management of superfluous populations. Through El Salvador, Ukraine, Gaza, Venezuela, and Brazil, the text demonstrates the transition to a negative competition of crisis. It is concluded that barbarization is the inevitable horizon of current capitalist reproduction, leaving geography to imbue itself with radical critique to confront the rhetoric of ongoing processes.