Security, Economy, Population: The Political Economic Logic of Liberal Exceptionalism 1 Jacqueline Best, University of Ottawa Note: This is a pre-publication version of an article forthcoming in Security Dialogue in October 2017. Abstract In an era in which scholars have become increasingly skeptical about the concept of exceptionalism, this article argues that instead of rejecting it, we should rework it: moving beyond seeing it primarily as a security practice by recognizing the crucial role of political economic exceptionalism. Drawing on Foucault’s later lectures on security, population and biopolitics, this article suggests that we can understand exceptionalist moves in both security and economic contexts as efforts to manage and secure a population. Focusing on three key moments in the production of exceptional politics— defining the limit of normal politics, suspending the norm, and putting the exception into practice—I examine the parallels, intersections and tensions between political economic and security exceptionalism, using this framework to make sense of the 2008 global financial crisis. Taking seriously Foucault’s insights into the political economic character of liberal government holds out the promise of providing scholars in both the fields of critical security studies and cultural political economy with a richer understanding of the complex dynamics of exceptionalist politics—a promise that is particularly valuable at the present political juncture. Keywords: exceptionalism; securitization; international political economy; emergency; global financial crisis; critical security studies These are interesting times for scholars of exceptionalism. Just a few months ago, before the recent wave of right-wing election results, it seemed that we were living in a post-exceptionalist moment: a decade and a half after 9-11, many scholars and 1 Earlier versions of the ideas put forward in this article were presented at invited talks at the University Cambridge, the University of Amsterdam, and the University of Victoria, where I benefitted greatly from the feedback that I received. I would particularly like to thank Daniel Mügge, Marieke de Goede, Helen Thompson, Michelle Bonner, Warren Magnusson and Simon Glezos for asking some tough and helpful questions, as well as William Walters and Regan Burles for their comments on earlier versions of this article, and the four anonymous reviewers who commented to this article. I would also like to thank Benoit Metlej for his excellent research assistance. This research was made possible by an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.