“The politics of the pandemic remains one of the most intriguing issues in today’s complex world. Practical Biopolitics of COVID-19 investigates how the pandemic came to be played out politically in Russia and Indonesia, offering invaluable evidence to advance our understanding of how Covid became a political illness at a time of democratic decay. A very revealing read.”

Luca Anceschi, professor at the University of Glasgow

“In this highly creative engagement with state responses to Covid-19 leading into Russia's war on Ukraine, Makarychev and Wicaksana profoundly challenge traditional distinctions between sovereignty and governmentality, normalization, and exceptionalism. Applying their concept of "practical biopolitics" to the cases of Indonesia and Russia, they masterfully expose the different strategies of power in health security policies. This book will make readers fundamentally re-think their assessment of the role of the state in today's risk societies.”

Thomas Diez, University of Tüebingen

“This is an innovative and intellectually astute undertaking to assess the usefulness of theoretical concepts such as biopolitics and governmentality even outside of the liberal, Western context where they are usually applied. The analysis of illiberal Russian and Indonesian political practices during the exceptionality of the COVID-19 pandemic is timely, interesting and well argued, as are the authors’ views on how pandemic-time experiences have contributed to the further development of disregard of human lives so evident in Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine.”

Bo Petersson, Malmö University, Sweden