Critical Security Studies

Belarus 2012: The Paradox of Europe and its Relations with the EU and Russia

by Sotirios Karampampas

published in Research Program on Foreign Policy, Defence & Security, Center of Russia, Eurasia & Southern Europe (CERE), Institute of International Relations (IIR), vol. 6, pp. 10-15.

Der Cyber-Krieg der (so) nicht kommt: Erzählte Katastrophen als (Nicht)Wissenspraxis

by Myriam Dunn Cavelty

forthcoming in: Leon Hempel, Marie Bartels (eds), Aufbruch ins Unversicherbare - Zum Katastrophendiskurs der Gegenwart (transcript 2012).

Das vorliegende Kapitel untersucht narrative Praktiken im Fall der Cyber-Apokalypse. Es geht der Frage nach, welche... more Das vorliegende Kapitel untersucht narrative Praktiken im Fall der Cyber-Apokalypse. Es geht der Frage nach, welche Methoden und Praktiken bei der Generierung von Narrationen im politischen Prozess angewandt werden, welche inhaltlichen Ausprägungen diese Narrationen im konkreten Fall aufweisen und was die Konsequenzen solcher Praktiken sind. In einem ersten Kapitel wird die Idee der erzählen Katastrophe näher erläutert und auf ihre spezifischen Merkmale eingegangen. Insbesondere wird die Rolle von Nichtwissen hervorgehoben. Im zweiten Kapitel wird konkreter auf die narrative Praxis von wissenschaftlichen und politischen Erkenntnisgemeinschaften eingegangen. Im abschließenden Kapitel werden die Konsequenzen solcher Prakti-ken diskutiert.

Globalization of Surveillance

by David Murakami Wood

In the Routledge Handbook of Surveillance Studies (eds. K. Ball, K.D. Haggerty and D. Lyon), 2012.

This chapter makes three main arguments. The first argument is that surveillance itself is one of the existing... more This chapter makes three main arguments. The first argument is that surveillance itself is one of the existing phenomena being rescaled and becoming global. The second is that in order to facilitate this rescaling and to enable governmental functions to operate on a global level, there is what might be called a ‘surveillance of globalization’. The third argument is that although there is an identifiable emerging and perhaps potentially hegemonic form of global surveillance, there are other types of surveillance at the global level, and that surveillance occurs in varied ways and has radically different and uneven outcomes.

The chapter outlines the recent historical origins of the globalization of surveillance in the post-WW2 world and considers three examples of contemporary global surveillance: the economy, public goods, and communications, before discussing the interaction of surveillance and global circuits of capital at the local level.

Review: Karen Lund Petersen, 2012. Corporate Risk and National Security Redefined. London: Routledge.

by Jonas Hagmann

Forthcoming in: Cambridge Review of International Affairs

Concerns with terrorism not only have a profound impact on Western security policies, they also affect the internal... more Concerns with terrorism not only have a profound impact on Western security policies, they also affect the internal political organisation of Western polities as such, with private actors being increasingly enlisted directly in the fight against terrorism. Karen Lund Petersen’s book is dedicated to such governmental attempts at ‘responsibilising’ companies. Looking at how politicians in Denmark and the United States formulate the need for society-wide responses to the risk of terrorism, her book analyses how novel conceptualisations of the private sector’s role in national security are projected onto the market, and how companies respond to such ideas.

[Book chapter] MATEOS, O. (2012) “Between virtual peace and the search for legitimacy”

by Oscar Mateos

in: FRANCIS, D. When War Ends. Building Peace in Divided Communities, Ashgate, Londres

This volume critically examines what happens when war formally ends, the difficult and complex challenges and... more This volume critically examines what happens when war formally ends, the difficult and complex challenges and opportunities for winning the peace and reconciling divided communities. By reviewing a case study of the West African state of Sierra Leone, potential lessons for other parts of the world can be gained. Sierra Leone has emerged as a 'successful' model of liberal peacebuilding that is now popularly advertised and promoted by the international community as a powerful example of a country that they finally got right.

Concerns about how successful a model Sierra Leone actually is, are outlined in this project. As such this volume:

- provides a critical understanding of the nature, dynamics and complexity of post-war peacebuilding and development from an internal perspective
- critically assesses the role and contribution of the international community to state reconstruction and post-war peacebuilding and evaluates what happens when war ends
- explores the potential relevance and impact of comparative international efforts of post-war state building and reconstruction in other parts of Africa and the world

The collection focuses not only on understanding the root causes of conflict but also identifying and appreciating the possibilities and opportunities for peace. The lessons found in this book resonate well beyond the borders of Sierra Leone and Africa in general.

'Catch and Remove': Detention, Deterrence, and Discipline in US Noncitizen Family Detention Practice

by Lauren Martin

Critical security scholars have argued that biometric identity technologies, databanking, digital surveillance, and... more Critical security scholars have argued that biometric identity technologies, databanking, digital surveillance, and risk analysis reveal not a blockaded boundary but a border that follows transboundary migrants as they move within and between national territories. Managed through risk-based technologies, this networked, contingent border respatialises inclusion and exclusion, forming a border that is potentially everywhere and nowhere in particular. At the same time, immigration scholars have shown how immigration authorities deploy policing, inspection, and identification practices both within and beyond territorial boundaries, making life increasingly uncertain for noncitizens. In the US, Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) authority to detain noncitizens has become a key spatial strategy in domestic counter-terrorism, interior immigration enforcement and border securitisation. Thus, transboundary migration and state responses to it trouble analytic distinctions between domestic and foreign policy, immigration and national security, the border and the interior. This paper builds on recent work in immigration geopolitics to analyse how detention, in particular, works to contain individual migrants and deter future migrants. Focusing on noncitizen family detention, this article situates US noncitizen detention in a broader milieu of pre-9/11 US immigration enforcement law and post-9/11 security practices. I then analyse how detention congeals a number of spatial strategies – remoteness, isolation, spatial ordering, inter-centre transfers, and criminalisation – that work to destabilise migrants' support networks. Modulated with digitised border and identity surveillance technologies, detention foregrounds the persistence of disciplinary tactics in risk-dominated security regimes.

Securitization of the U.S.-Canada Border in American Discourse

by Mark Salter

Genevieve Piche

In this paper, the authors analyze the empirical process of securitization of the US–Canada border and then reflect on... more In this paper, the authors analyze the empirical process of securitization of the US–Canada border and then reflect on the model proposed by the Copenhagen School. We argue that securitization theory oversimplifies the political process of securitizing moves and audience acceptance. Rather than attributing securitization to a singular speaker addressing a
specific audience, we present overlapping and ongoing language security games performed by varying relevant actors during the key period between the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act ~IRTPA! in December 2004 and the signing of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America ~SPP! in June 2005, showing how multiple speakers participate in the continuing construction of a context in which this issue is increasingly treated as a matter of security. We also explore the language adopted by participants in the field, focusing on an expert panel convened by the Homeland Security Institute. We conclude that in the securitization of the US–Canada border there are inconsistencies between truth and discourse, as well as significant distinctions between official and bureaucratic discourses, further emphasizing the
importance of a comprehensive model of securitization.

Uberrima Fides, Foucault and the Security of Uncertainty

by Luis Lobo-Guerrero

Uberrima Fides is a legal doctrine that governs insurance contracts and expects all parties to the insurance agreement... more Uberrima Fides is a legal doctrine that governs insurance contracts and expects all parties to the insurance agreement to act in good faith by declaring all material facts relative to a policy. The doctrine originated in England in 1766 with the case Carter v Boehm ruled by Lord Mansfield. Ever since, it has become, with some differences in interpretation, a cornerstone of insurance relationships around the world. The role that trust plays within it, however, is not simple and should not be taken for granted. While it is expected that an idea of trust represents an order of truth, trust in itself is the outcome of a complex negotiation of moral orders. Semiotically, trust operates here not as a Kantian category for the understanding but as a signifier of an order of truth that upholds the possibility for insurance relationships. Trust, as sign, operates as a condition of possibility for the performance of insurance. In this article, a Foucaultian approach is employed to problematise the idea of trust and its role in insurance relationships. The case of mis-selling of insurance policies in the United Kingdom since the 1980s, which has given rise to numerous legal rulings, is used as the empirical site for the problematisation.

Cosmopolitanism vs Terrorism? Discourses of Ethical Possibility Before and After 7/7

by james brassett

The article provides a critical analysis of the relationship between cosmopolitanism and terrorism, via the question... more The article provides a critical analysis of the relationship between cosmopolitanism and terrorism, via the question of response. Using 9/11 and 7/7 as key moments in the evolution of this relationship, the article asks: how does cosmopolitanism respond to terrorism? What limits does this response contain? How might we go beyond such limits? It is argued that cosmopolitan responses to terrorism provide an important, but limited (and sometimes limiting), alternative to mainstream discourses on terror. After 9/11 the possibility for cosmopolitan thinking ‘beyond’ the mainstream view was articulated by a range of authors, including Archibugi, Habermas, Held and Linklater. A brief survey suggests that defending international law, constructing international institutions and alleviating global poverty were seen as good responses, in the context of divisive mainstream politics. However, by engaging a case study of the Make Poverty History campaign, the article argues that when cosmopolitan ideas were cemented in practice, the distinctiveness of a cosmopolitan response faded. This point was brought into sharp relief by a number of moralising responses to 7/7. Straightforward dichotomies between ‘barbaric terrorists’ and ‘civilised cosmopolitans’ served to construct cosmopolitanism as a coherent, and united, global community. Available tactics, for this ‘community’, were reduced to more-of-the same – more aid, more global democracy – and assertions of a moral equivalence between Bush and ‘Terror’, such that ‘you are either with cosmopolitans, or, you are with the War on Terror’. In light of
these ethical closures, and drawing from the arguments of Jacques Derrida and Judith Butler, the article identifies some cursory ways in which cosmopolitans might think beyond such limits, to articulate an imaginative and engaged approach to global ethics.

Eleştirel Güvenlik Okulu ve Tunus

by Burcu Ceren Göynü

Diplomats in Crisis

by Michele Acuto

Although “international crisis” is a widespread term, no common definition has yet been achieved: its features have... more Although “international crisis” is a widespread term, no common definition has yet been achieved: its features have neither been clarified in relation to contemporary events, nor has the role of diplomacy in relation to crises been outlined with precision. Diplomats have even become part of the problem, rather than the problem-solvers, as realist approaches have lost touch with today's poly-lateral world politics. To make up for these lacunae, this article enquires into the present-day nexus between international crisis and diplomacy by first illustrating what international crises mean beyond traditional state-centric definitions and then by considering what diplomacy can offer to tame such turbulent disruptions to the routine of world affairs. In doing so, it introduces a critical definition of international crisis and tests it in relation to a system-oriented description of diplomacy both in its routine and crisis dimensions. Outlining the role of “crisis diplomacy” beyond “diplomatic crises” the essay calls for both a novel understanding of the role of diplomats in these contexts and a greater awareness to the growing complexity of such engagements.

knowns and unknowns

by Oliver Kessler

2010 'Peace and Security’ as Counterterrorism? Old and New Liberal Interventions and their Social Effects in Kenya, in: African Affairs 109 (434) (with Jan Bachmann).

by Jana Hönke

This article analyses the merging of development and security in Western policies vis-à-vis ‘deficient’ states in the... more This article analyses the merging of development and security in Western policies vis-à-vis ‘deficient’ states in the Global South, looking at the social life of anti-terror policies in Kenya. The attacks on 11 September 2001 renewed the interest in strong and stable states, leading many donors to focus on capacity building and security sector reform. In Kenya, the repressive use of these new powers by the Kibaki government has created significant resistance and the main external actors have taken the local opposition into account and have adapted their anti-terror agendas. They have complemented hard security assistance with soft interventions aimed at addressing local issues such as conflict prevention and development in communities perceived as being ‘at risk’ of harbouring terrorists. Representing a more general shift in security interventions in Africa, countering terrorism is now presented as part of a broader ‘peace and security’ agenda, but despite using new methods to engage with so-called crucial parts of the population, this repositioning is not a paradigm shift. Despite the different approaches and objectives, the various projects have ambiguous effects and donors have not abandoned the traditional rationality, which privileges homeland protection over civil rights in the recipient country.

2012 Hönke, Jana. Multinationals and Security Governance in the Community. Participation, discipline and indirect rule, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 6 (1), 57-73

by Jana Hönke

This article traces multinational extraction companies' social and security policies in the ‘community belt’ next to... more This article traces multinational extraction companies' social and security policies in the ‘community belt’ next to their operations. A comparison between mining companies in the DRC in the early twentieth century and in the period post-2000 shows remarkable continuities in corporate community interventions. It demonstrates how contemporary participatory practices have partly replaced techniques of discipline and coercion seen in the colonial past. However, the discourse of ownership and participation runs alongside exclusionary forms of exercising power that have an old history. The liberal claim of self-determination is compromised by the recourse to indirect rule in order to secure stable working conditions.

The Biopolitical Imaginary of Species Being

by Luis Lobo-Guerrero

Dillon, Michael and Luis Lobo-Guerrero (2009) 'The Biopolitical Imaginary of Species Being', Theory, Culture and Society, 26:1, 1-23

This essay revises Foucault’s account of biopolitics in the light of the impact of the molecular and digital... more This essay revises Foucault’s account of biopolitics in the light of the impact of the molecular and digital revolutions on ‘the politics of life itself’. The confluence of the molecular and digital revolutions informationalises life, providing an account of what it is to be a living thing in terms of complex adaptive and continuously emergent, informationally constituted, systems. Also re-visiting Foucault’s The Order of Things, and its interrogation of the modern analytics of finitude, the paper argues that our contemporary politics of life is therefore distinguished by the quasi-transcendentals that now distinguish informationalised life – Circulation, Connectivity and Complexity. Here, too, the paper argues, the figure of Man, which once united the quasi-transcendentals of Life, Labour and Language, is replaced by the Contingency that now unites Circulation, Connectivity and Complexity. Observing that a life of continuous emergence is also one in which production is continuously allied with destruction; such a life is lived as the continuous emergency of its own emergence. This account of contemporary biopolitics, together with its emergency of emergence, contrasts, in particular, with that offered by Agamben in his appropriation of Schmitt.

Geographies of Geborgenheit: beyond feelings of safety and the fear of crime

by Jan Simon Hutta

published in 'Environment and Planning D: Society and Space', 2009

This paper critically engages with the concepts of `feelings of safety' and `fear of crime' as they have been deployed... more This paper critically engages with the concepts of `feelings of safety' and `fear of crime' as they have been deployed in recent politics of community safety. While the first part of the paper discusses the staging of what is referred to as a dispositif of safety, which discursively frames subjective ^ spatial relations in powerful ways, the second part moves towards an understanding of lived experiences of spaces and places that unfold within, but also beyond, the dispositif of safety. For this purpose, the German concept of Geborgenheit is introduced. For a theoretical elaboration of this concept,Walter Benjamin's work around experience and temporality is referred to and articulated with Deleuzian theory. An analysis of Geborgenheit, it is argued, displaces hegemonic notions of `safety' by addressing the dynamics that enable subjects to open up to and nest within a place. The paper concludes with a discussion of vignettes from a qualitative study in Berlin in order to exemplify the constitution of geographies of Geborgenheit in the context of recent safety politics.

The Role of the ‘Islamic’ and the ‘External’ Factor in the Security Discourse of Putin’s Russia: Facing the Future

by Sotirios Karampampas

published in Research Program on Foreign Policy, Defence & Security, Center of Russia, Eurasia & Southern Europe (CERE), Institute of International Relations (IIR), vol. 4, pp. 21-25.

"Politics of the Parliamentary Oversight of the Security Sector in Turkey" PILDAT Background Paper, 2009

by Volkan Aytar

"Politics of the Parliamentary Oversight of the Security Sector in Turkey" PILDAT Background Paper, 2009

Given Turkey's peculiar civil military relations and the country's continuous transition to democratic consolidation,... more Given Turkey's peculiar civil military relations and the country's continuous transition to democratic consolidation, it is important to see how Turkish democratic institutions, such as the Parliament and Parliamentary Committees engage in a democratic oversight of the defence sector. Does the Turkish Parliament have the powers, systems and processes in place to oversee the Defence sector? How effectively are the powers, sysmtems and processes uses? This paper had been especially commissioned by PILDAT and authored by Volkan Aytar answers  the above questions.

Security Administration in the classroom: More challenging when it’s not as sexy as policing.

by Carter Smith

private security, security, homeland security education, criminal justice courses, teaching security

Gabbidon examined perceptions of criminal justice students in a security administration class, asking reasons for... more Gabbidon examined perceptions of criminal justice students in a security administration class, asking reasons for taking the course, knowledge regarding the security field, their career objective, and whether they considered working in the security field. He later asked whether their interest in working in the security field had decreased, increased, or remained the same, whether their respect for the field decreased, increased, or remained the same, and how they would rate the course in comparison to other criminal justice courses they had taken. This research was replicated to determine differences in perceptions of security administration by current criminal justice students.

[2011] Asymmetric Labeling of Terrorist Violence as a Matter of Statecraft Propaganda: Or, Why the United States Does Not Feel the Need to Explain the Assassination of …

by Michael Loadenthal

published in "Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies," special topics issue, "Ten Years After 9/11: An Anarchist Evaluation"

“Terrorism” is fundamentally the same, whether it is carried out by States or non-State actors. Difference arises as... more “Terrorism” is fundamentally the same, whether it is carried out by States or non-State actors. Difference arises as one identifies the processes wherein labels are applied which identify select acts of political violence as "terrorism," while terming others "legitimate defense" within the national interest. The subjective labeling of “terrorism” which obscures the systemic violence of State terrorism has accelerated in the post-9/11 "Global War On Terror/Terrorism," as wars advanced by the US and its allies have further expanded into the Middle East, Asia and Africa with numerous proxy wars. This construction of terrorism can be seen as a rhetorical tool utilized by the State, as well as non-State actors that challenge State authority. Throughout these arenas of violence, authoritative language is used by the State within a process of “othering,” and intentional language is adopted to demonize anti-State opponents and legitimize State-crafted actions