Thinking With and Beyond the Global War Regime

This article develops and extends Michael Hardt and Sandro Mezzadra’s diagnosis of an emerging “global war regime,” suggesting that war has shifted from a clearly demarcated and episodic event to a generalized mode of governance and accumulation. The global war regime emerges from a post-hegemonic order shaped by decades of US warfare, geopolitical fragmentation, and revived territorial competition. The absence of a global hegemon and effective international institutions, the constant threat of war, alongside sanctions, tariffs, and techno-military competition, destabilizes global accumulation while normalizing permanent mobilization, securitization, and resilience. The article proposes “desertion” as a strategic response to this regime, which thrives on and excels at direct conflict. Desertion in this context denotes a collective and internationalist withdrawal from the social relations that sustain war, drawing on the autonomist strategy of exodus. Because there is no outside to escape to and withdrawal invites repression, desertion must be an engaged practice that combines refusal with organization and targeted interventions at logistical, financial, and political chokepoints, while building transnational networks of solidarity and alternative infrastructures.