Sammendrag
To contribute to the development of an international sociology of punishment, this chapter offers an analysis of penal power when it is detached from its association with national justice and enters the realm of the international. Specifically, the chapter contributes a comparative analysis of Nordic discourses driving penal power in two overlapping yet nonetheless distinct areas of transnational concern – namely the field of international criminal justice, and the prosecution of foreign fighters. It argues that whereas a humanitarian discourse drives the Nordic engagement in the larger field of international criminal justice, the discourse on foreign fighters is characterized by ‘securitization’– transforming the prosecution of international crimes into a matter of national security. As such, the analysis raises interesting questions about penal logics in international politics, and about how penal power beyond the nation state remains receptive to securitization in spite of political support for an international system of criminal justice.
Penal Logics in International Politics: Nordic Foreign Policy on International Justice