Germ Warfare: A Coming-of-Age Genocide Strategy

The weaponised use of a biological agent in the course of war, has led to the replacement of the thermonuclear warfare with a highly contagious germ warfare. A bio war is a post-modern strategic game in which an interplay of political relations occurs, making it a bio political icon. Through the novel Whiteout, Ken Follett has described the menacing jeopardy of a virus outbreak which generates a network of crises including death politics. The political game of life and death penetrates deep into the idea of bio politics that Foucault describes as a methodology to sustain and maintain life. In this deadly virtual war, panopticism and quarantine is issued to achieve normalcy. As a complex structure that involves political interplay and scientific knowledge, bioterrorism can be highlighted as an extreme version of bio politics.