IN THIS AND THE CHAPTER THAT FOLLOWS, I REFLECT ON HOW AND WHY Foucault's meditations on politics, war and surveillance have been used to explore issues relating to what has been called ‘postmodern conflict’. Likewise, I consider how some Foucauldian interventions on AIDS, as well as the microphysics of power and struggle, provide an intriguing prism through which to view Secrets. If Foucault's meditations on disciplinary procedures can inform a reading of the Variations sequence, this final instalment of the Blood in the Sun cycle begins to probe similar questions in relation to the body as hosting viruses that spill over various geo-political borders. Whilst I do not seek to draw any easy lines of equivalence, it seems sufficient to note that the trajectories of both Farah's and Foucault's later discourse are, for varying reasons, increasingly preoccupied with the ‘global equalizer’ of AIDS. As I suggest throughout my analyses of what comes after Blood in the Sun, Farah will explore some of the avenues of inquiry tentatively set up here in both fiction and non-fiction. As Menkhaus’ epigraph suggests, issues ranging from global security to international migration and the threat of pandemics have dominated contemporary discourse on Somalia. As such, they inform much of Farah's most recent work.