Description
International studies scholars have warned before about the academy’s complicity in forms of militarism, from weapons enhancement research (Bourke 2014), to supporting the arms industry (Stavrianakis 2009), to more diffuse support for the gendered and militarised logics central to government and public life (Enloe 2010). Yet, the work and careers of ‘mainstream’ and ‘critical’ international studies scholars alike remain entangled in militarised relations of power. Such relations include the funders to whom we are beholden, demands for access to military, ex-military, and pseudo-military spaces to carry out research, and the pervasive and generative logic of ‘research impact’.
This roundtable brings together scholars familiar with the coercive tendencies of the militarised academy to jointly consider strategies of resistance and confrontation. We consider a spectrum of challenges and perspectives related to the militarisation of academia; from the tensions of negotiating critical research in militarised spaces, to scholar-activism and more direct modes of opposition to military power in universities. As the world’s survival hangs in the balance, the academy must present a stronger challenge to the gendered, racialised, and genocidal relationships underpinning global militarisms. We discuss research ethics, accountability, governance, funding, partnerships, the University, and academic citizenship in light of the world’s urgent challenges.
