Once war begins, law and philosophy stop theorizing the enemy’s becoming

Evidence

Generally speaking, the “absence” of the enemy from discussions of war is more pervasive than any discussion confined to the Middle Ages could reveal. The question of the enemy is, of course, not reducible to war as a political and military enterprise. It is as if the enemy not only exceeded the thinking of war, but had altogether transcended it, disappeared from it. Otherwise put, once there is war, law and philosophy are silent, and the enemy need no longer be thought or accounted for: No account of his becoming enemy would be necessary. “Once there is war”-but is there any other time than the time of war? — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 899