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Studying Danger in Central Asia: Towards a Concept of Everyday Securityscapes

Marc von Boemcken

in Surviving Everyday Life: The Securityscapes of Threatened People in Kyrgyzstan

This conceptual chapter situates the theoretical and empirical approach adopted here within the wider body of literature on security and danger in Central Asia. It is, in this sense, in parts a ... More

This conceptual chapter situates the theoretical and empirical approach adopted here within the wider body of literature on security and danger in Central Asia. It is, in this sense, in parts a literature review. Moreover, it explains the concept of securityscapes in terms of combining two established analytical perspectives in (Critical) Security Studies, namely a focus on the individual human being as principal referent-object ('deepening' of security) and an understanding of security as a social practice rather than an objectively measurable condition of existence (praxeology of security). All the subsequent empirical chapters proceed from the conceptual clarifications presented here.Less

Agents of Security

Chris Rossdale

in Resisting Militarism: Direct Action and the Politics of Subversion

This is the first of two chapters to reflect on how anti-militarists relate to the politics of security. This chapter begins by outlining the intimate relationships between militarism and security, ... More

This is the first of two chapters to reflect on how anti-militarists relate to the politics of security. This chapter begins by outlining the intimate relationships between militarism and security, before showing how Critical Security Studies has called for alternative/non-militarised practices of security. The second part of the chapter suggests that anti-militarist direct action could be read as an alternative, anti-hegemonic practice of security where, faced with indifferent or complicit states, activists seek to combat insecurity themselves. The third part of the chapter complicates this story, introducing three more vignettes to reflect on the ways that, even as they seek to ‘do’ security differently, activists remain entangled within hegemonic logics and practices.Less

Reimagining Grand Strategy

Georg Löfflmann

in American Grand Strategy under Obama: Competing Discourses

This chapter provides an introduction into the concepts of grand strategy and geopolitics, and their conventional conceptualization in the International Relations (IR) literature. This is juxtaposed ... More

This chapter provides an introduction into the concepts of grand strategy and geopolitics, and their conventional conceptualization in the International Relations (IR) literature. This is juxtaposed with the main theoretical and methodological perspectives developed by the literature in critical security studies and critical geopolitics that have informed the theoretical-methodological framework guiding the book’s critical discourse analysis. The chapter provides a detailed exploration of the key concepts of power/knowledge, discourse, intertextuality, and identity that are applied to the study of American grand strategy under Obama and detailed in the subsequent chapters. The chapter introduces the three basic discourse of American grand strategy under Obama (hegemony, engagement, and restraint) and the concept of hybrid discourses: hegemonic engagement and hegemonic restraint that juxtapose identity and practice.Less

Introduction

in The evolving role of nation-building in US foreign policy: Lessons learned, lessons lost

Introduces the subject and sets forth the argument regarding nation building in American foreign policy, describes the overall approach and explains the rationale for the case studies used. Provides ... More

Introduces the subject and sets forth the argument regarding nation building in American foreign policy, describes the overall approach and explains the rationale for the case studies used. Provides a brief overview of how and why foreign aid programs and specifically nation building became a key instrument of US security policy. The chapter also introduces the book's critique of Realism and the Critical Security Studies School with respect to containment, security and development.Less

Sustainable Critique and Critical IR Theory: Against Emancipation

Daniel J. Levine

in Recovering International Relations: The Promise of Sustainable Critique

How does sustainable critique differ from other appropriations of Frankfurt school social theory—the focus of “third” and “fourth” debate—into IR? The answer lies in differentiating the work of ... More

How does sustainable critique differ from other appropriations of Frankfurt school social theory—the focus of “third” and “fourth” debate—into IR? The answer lies in differentiating the work of contemporary Frankfurt school theorists, in particular Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth, from that of their predecessors: Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse. I argue that IR has been too quick to dismiss these earlier scholars. Building on Max Weber’s notion of a constellation and Graham Allison’s classic Essence of Decision, I suggest a basis for their re-consideration.Less

Resisting Security

Chris Rossdale

in Resisting Militarism: Direct Action and the Politics of Subversion

This chapter builds on the critiques introduced in latter parts of the preceding chapter to argue that, beyond viewing activists as alternative agents of security, we might read them as resisting ... More

This chapter builds on the critiques introduced in latter parts of the preceding chapter to argue that, beyond viewing activists as alternative agents of security, we might read them as resisting security. It begins by outlining why the particular political, conceptual and metaphysical promises of security render it an unlikely candidate for rehabilitation, before considering what it would mean to resist security. The second part of the chapter explores how anti-militarists resist security by evading state security practices, placing particular attention on how they contend with possible police and corporate infiltration. The third part draws on two vignettes to consider how anti-militarists resist security by subverting the binary logics of security/insecurity and mobilising a positive politics of anarchy. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the limits of such resistances, insofar as they are always vulnerable to recuperation within spectacular logics of (in)security.Less

Conclusion: An Ontology of the Historic Battlefield

John Carman and Patricia Carman

in Battlefields from Event to Heritage

This chapter offers a review of the book as a whole and the contribution it makes to understanding historic battlefields as particular kinds of place. Here the aim of contributing to Critical ... More

This chapter offers a review of the book as a whole and the contribution it makes to understanding historic battlefields as particular kinds of place. Here the aim of contributing to Critical Military and Strategic Studies is made clear by highlighting the benefits of taking a long-term approach to the investigation of sites of conflict. It looks at the battlefield as a particular kind of object that is the creation of perception, which challenges conventional readings. Reflecting on the preceding chapters, this concluding chapter discusses ideas about human security, the institutions involved in military conflict, warfare practices and processes, and approaches to space.Less

Insurrection as anti-securitization communication

Michael Loadenthal

in The Politics of Attack: Communiqués and Insurrectionary Violence

In the final chapter, the reader is tasked with evaluating three central claims. First, the question of canonization is revisited to argue not for a library of thought based in aged texts, but rather ... More

In the final chapter, the reader is tasked with evaluating three central claims. First, the question of canonization is revisited to argue not for a library of thought based in aged texts, but rather a fluid framework based in action and post-action analysis. Secondly, using the lens of poststructuralism the notion of deterritorialized power is discussed as conceived of by non-insurrectionary theorists. Through the exploration of key thinkers such as Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the book argues that the insurrectionary notion of “The Totality” serves to expand the notion of intersectionality, making key connections that allow a critical understanding of structural violence and security. Finally, the chapter examines the performative and spectacular nature of insurrectionary violence specifically, and political violence generally. Through a discussion of speaking via communiqués, the chapter concludes by modeling a relationship between those that produce spectacle as a form of communication, and the audience the traditionally receives it.Less