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Welcome to the event management area for #BISA2022. Here you can view the programme and register for our face-to-face conference in Newcastle. We look forward to welcoming you at BISA 2022.
If you were instead looking for the virtual stream of #BISA2022 please visit the virtual conference event page. If you register for the face-to-face conference there is no need to also register for the virtual stream as you will automatically be sent the joining instructions for both.
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/ Virtual Conference stream - Please find the programme at https://indico.bisa.ac.uk/event/153/timetable/?view=standard
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Roundtable / The Politics of Austerity: Global and Local Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building, Newcastle University
The politics of austerity: global and local
Sponsor: BISAChair: Kyle Grayson (BISA)Participants: Kyle Grayson (BISA) , Amanda Bailey (North East Child Poverty Commission) , Matt Davies (Newcastle University) , Tracy Shildrick (Newcastle University) , Stephen Moore (Newcastle University)
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Conference event / The Limits of Safety – A Sound Installation: Find out more on our highlights page https://conference.bisa.ac.uk/highlights’ Outside Student UnionSpeaker: Michael Mulvihill (Newcastle)
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Panel / UK Defence Policy and Doctrine Stephenson, Civic CentreSponsor: War Studies Working GroupConveners: Mirko Palestrino (Queen Mary University of London) , Tony King (Warwick University) , Lucie Pebay (University of Bath) , Patrick Finnegan (University of St Andrews) , Sorina Toltica (University of Portsmouth) , Patrick Bury (Bath)Chair: Harriet Gray (University of York)Discussant: Harriet Gray (University of York)
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Throughout its history, the British military has been subject to right-wing infiltration by groups seeking to either directly influence its development or at least learn the military skills it offers. By examining three distinct case studies this paper will assess whether or not the British military has developed any particular practices in dealing with those who may eventually pose a threat to the state, or whether each response has been ad hoc and entirely context-dependent. Each case study will also focus on a distinct right-wing group and period and how it was managed by the authorities. These cases will be the British Union of Fascists before and during the Second World War, Northern Irish Loyalists during the Troubles, and National Action in recent years. The findings of this paper suggest that the British military at times treads a fine line between ensuring right-wing extremists are kept out of its ranks and offering themselves as a welcoming organization in order to try and control these individuals. This, in turn, suggests that the British military responds to each period in a tailored way that best aligns with its immediate operational rather than ethical needs.
Key Words: Military recruitment, Right-Wing Extremism, British Military, British Politics
Author: Patrick Finnegan (University of St Andrews) -
Since 2009, factions of the Boko Haram insurgency have attempted to oust the Nigerian government by force and establish in the North-East a strict Islamist system of governance. Its evolution from a group initially composed of “a few ragtag combatants” to an increasingly violent decade old insurgency has attracted the attention of the international community, various actors providing security force assistance.
Although the literature has noted foreign actors’ more modest means (compared to previous extensive deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan) to contribute to international security “elsewhere”, little research has explicitly investigated current British defence engagement in a former colonial territory.
This paper addresses this lacuna by firstly mapping British foreign policy and strategic rationale in a more crowded operating environment characterised by “persistent competition”. Secondly, it focuses on the challenges the UK faces in supporting Nigeria’s counterinsurgency campaign, namely on the impact a post-colonial setting has on power relations, perceptions, delivery and assimilation of training. It ultimately argues that a shared history both hinders and facilitates effective cooperation.
This qualitative research paper contributes with theoretical and empirical knowledge on post-colonial principal-agent dynamics in capacity building and military cooperation delivered to counter violent extremist organisations.
Author: Sorina Toltica (University of Portsmouth) -
It is widely recognised that medals are important not only to service-personnel and the armed forces but to civil society. Yet, there has limited sociological interest in this important topic. This article uses the literature on professional militaries in general and social interaction theory in particular to examine the system of military decoration in the United Kingdom. Using quantitative and qualitative data from the British Army, it makes three original arguments. First, that a new, professionalised awards system has emerged, based on standardised, transparent and fair bureaucratic regulations and with the standardised citation at its core. Consequently, this professionalised system favours units whose commanding officers are well-organised in assessing and editing their citations. Second, we argue that central to the assessment of each citation is the concept of ‘risk and rigour’ which is used objectively by awards committees. This professionalised system has created a new awarding regime, with some mild medal inflation. Moreover, in stark contrast to the nineteenth and twentieth century when officers were over-represented, this new regime is more democratic and egalitarian. Third, we provide evidence of the specific pathology associated with this professionalised awards system. Overall, therefore, we argue the contemporary British medallic system has evolved to reflect an increasingly professionalised military.
Authors: Patrick Bury (Uni of Bath) , Tony King (Warwick University) -
My investigation offers a comparative analysis of French and British military transformation by articulating two levels of analysis (1) high level i.e. strategy/national and (2) lower level i.e. operational/military. Starting with professionalization, Western militaries have since been undergoing a deep process of transformation to fit the realities of the 21st century environment. In this complex and threatening environment France and the United Kingdom find themselves in a similarly challenging position. Despite shrinking means, the two medium powers seek to preserve a great power status and ambitious strategic objectives. I use Ontological Security Theory (OST) and strategic culture as conceptual lenses to explain why these two nations chose not to reassess their strategic ambitions and favour military transformation to rebalance wavering strategic models. Beyond the standardization of western militaries there are notable differences in force design between the French and the British models. The second part of my investigation looks at how France and the UK operationalise their grand strategy. I compare the major recent and ongoing transformations implemented in the French and the British land armies.
Author: Lucie Pebay (University of Bath) -
As a distinctive corpus of knowledge, military doctrine has been grappling with the question of military victory for a long time. Nevertheless, war scholars across traditions have neglected doctrinal sources in their studies of victory. Rectifying this shortcoming, this paper re-grounds the inquiry into victory’s meaning within UK doctrinal texts and argues that victory is best understood as a (socially constructed) narrative, rather than an outcome. Indeed, for doctrinarians, ‘facts on the ground’ are only a part of the story and narratives have the capacity to radically alter them. Firstly, the paper embarks on a critical reading of cross-service strategic and operational military doctrine to reconstruct the ‘UK doctrinal imaginary’ and meta-theorise its key features. While victory is only rarely mentioned in this corpus, I argue that the notion still informs military doctrine to an exceptional degree – victory is, in other words, hidden in plain sight. Secondly, the paper zeroes in on the concepts of end-state(s), objective(s), aim(s) and success(es). Far from being proxies – or descriptions of conflict outcomes at different levels of war – I find these ideas to be constitutive of victory as a concept. Lastly, I focus on the politics of victory’s hidden presence, suggesting that victory operates as a temporal and affective device to manage different audiences.
Author: Mirko Palestrino (Queen Mary University of London)
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Roundtable / BISA's Publications and Diversity Council Chamber, Civic Centre
BISA's Publications and Diversity
Sponsor: BISAChair: David Mainwaring (Cambridge University Press)Participants: Jacqui True (Monash University) , Ruth Blakeley (University of Sheffield) , Nisha Shah (University of Ottawa) , John Haslam (Cambridge University Press) -
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Panel / Border, Bodies and Migration Martin Luther King, Student UnionSponsor: International Politics of Migration, Refugees and Diaspora Working GroupConvener: Anna Finiguerra (QMUL)Chair: Anna Finiguerra (QMUL)
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This history of eighties AIDS activism in the West is largely narrated through a nation-based framework. The most prominent radical activist network, ACT-UP, is treated as a social movement whose primary targets were domestic institutions that forestalled the development of effective HIV/AIDS treatment. This paper argues that this narrow, domestic framing has led to a misrecognition of the movement’s history, political ideology, and goals. It begins by situating AIDS activism within the context of the neoliberal reorganization of the world economy, the universalization of the nation state, and the attendant transformation of immigration controls in Western states. The HIV/AIDS epidemic was instrumentalized to facilitate many of these developments, for instance, by legitimating the privatization of sexual life through the gentrification of urban space and the criminalization of migration for those living with HIV. These developments hit racialized immigrant populations the hardest. It was within this context that many AIDS activists were radicalized. This paper turns to the anti-border politics of ACT-UP, exploring its actions on behalf of Haitians who were denied entry to the US on the basis of their HIV status. It seeks to recover the obscured historical relationship between radical sexual politics and the neoliberal border regime.
Author: Alexander Stoffel (Queen Mary University of London) -
The world seems poised to enter a new era of authoritarian populism with authoritarian figures and demagogues leading the countries which contain well over half of the worldwide population. This is coupled by a concomitant rise in the accentuation, and sometimes the creation of social borders based upon various criteria – ethnicity, religion, ideology, nationality, class consciousness, political affiliation, etc. – a process involving the ‘imagination’ and ‘demonisation’ of enemies, both at the territorial as well as the extra-territorial levels. Additionally, this process of inclusion and exclusion is increasingly being faced by the disadvantaged groups of the society. This paper examines such rise in the accentuation of borders within social spaces against the backdrop of contemporary authoritarian populism. By making use of qualitative content analysis, it argues that the creation and accentuation of social borders by ‘imagining’ and ‘demonising’ enemies is something which is proactively encouraged by contemporary authoritarian leaders in order to concentrate their political power. Lastly, by taking recourse to a historical analysis of similar events from the past, the paper ponders upon the potentially devastating outcomes if such processes of social bordering are allowed to flourish even further.
Author: Akash Bhagat (Jawaharlal Nehru University) -
Once we disaggregate bordering and mobility control infrastructure of today, we find that it is comprised of both state and private actors. There has been a recent increase in the entry and role of private actors in bordering and mobility control – they perform various functions like running detention centres, processing visa applications, etc. This is peculiar since the motives of the states on the one hand are purportedly state security while the motives of the private actors are increasing profits. In this paper, I focus on the understudied aspect of privatized visa application processing. These companies are new – the first of its kind VFS Global was founded as recently as 2001. I analyze the logics that states and these private actors give for justifying this type of outsourcing. I follow this by how this type of outsourcing affects the individual who wants to exercise their international mobility.
Author: Samah Rafiq (Jawaharlal Nehru University) -
This paper explores the unique case of borderzone solidarity between citizens and migrants to consider whether it is being incorporated into the state apparatus through its professionalization. As an empirical focus, I investigate European citizen solidarity with migrants since 2015, focusing on a case study of the Franco-Italian borderzone. There, the solidarity practices that are becoming more permanent and professionalized are those most resembling the state’s definition of humanitarianism. Understanding such humanitarianism as a form of governmentality reveals how the state is co-opting citizen-led solidarity to fit within an acceptable range of actions that maintain the status quo. In contexts of repression of solidarity, people may continue to resist, or they may adapt their activities to make them more legible to the state, while at the same time risking becoming part of that apparatus that they seek to change. Therefore, we can question whether there is a subversive element to this professionalization in the way in which it protects solidarity actors from criminalization while enabling them to continue claiming rights alongside marginalized migrants. Such developments may also contribute to fractures between different groups practicing solidarity in different ways. Certain actors deliberately professionalize to facilitate their work, while others deliberately refuse further organization and structure. Borderzone activism is not only confined to the migration sphere, and this research contributes to new understandings of solidarity activism across borders and how those actors relate to each other and the state.
Author: Janina Pescinski (Queen Mary University of London) -
Through the story of two Jordanian brothers, this chapter explores how feelings of belonging and legitimacy are impacting of, and impacted by, experiences of displacement. Based on ongoing ethnography in a rural host community in northern Jordan, I investigate how (un)ease is created, maintained or expunged through a multiplicity of perceptions about people, history and space.
In tracing the history of movement and migration to the village before the arrival of displaced Syrians in 2012, the narrative shifts to conceptualise a host space as one not inherently defined by strategies of governance aimed to control current refugee populations. Rather, this historical perspective identifies new ways to conceptualise space based on kinship history and movement, which have implications for present day migration patterns. This approach fractures the commonly held humanitarian understanding of a host community to depict how space reflects the histories, relationships and patterns of movement which penetrate the landscape.
Engaging in Doreen Massey’s call to ‘conceive of a meeting-up of histories’, this paper seeks to understand how a settlement exists and changes in the memories of those who have intimate lived histories with the space. The stories weaved throughout depict how space becomes fixed in memory over time, and in doing so censors different understandings of authenticity.
This paper thinks through the relationship between space and history, and how this effects the present-day articulation of a space largely defined by migration and mechanisms of migration. Consequently, I question the understanding of authentic bodies, intervening in the local/migrant paradigm.
Author: Hannah Owens (Queen Mary, University of London )
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Panel / Future Challenges for International Law Daniel Wood, Student UnionSponsor: International Law and Politics Working GroupConvener: Andrea Birdsall (University of Edinburgh)Chair: Rachel Kerr (King's College London)
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This article will consider two ways states have exercised imperialism over Antarctica: the use of administrative acts and control over scientific research and resources. The article will then compare the Outer Space Treaty and the Antarctic Treaty System around these two themes, as well as the use of military force as a tool of imperial control, to question whether space law prohibits imperialism. The Outer Space Treaty seeks to prevent the militarisation of space, the unequal use of resources and claims of sovereignty. However, given the methods of imperialism on Antarctica and the underdevelopment of space law, this kind of imperialism may also be exercised on Mars. While formal sovereignty claims are prevented, de facto exclusive claims, such as by the establishment of permanent bases under jurisdiction of the sender state are not. The establishment of such bases and the commercial opportunities presented by scientific research and the exploitation of resources create incentives for the use of the military to protect these interests which is also not satisfactorily regulated by space law. The article will conclude that international legislation must develop with international cooperation to prevent these specific forms of imperialism in outer space.
Author: Henry Padden (Durham University) -
Cyberspace and International Relations: Reviewing Territorial Sovereignty and Cyberattack in Tandem with International Law
Author: Namita Barthwal (MMAJ Academy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi) -
One of the main grievances levelled against the International Criminal Court (ICC) by Kenya during the ICC's investigations into its 2007/8 post-election violence was that the Court denied its request for the accused President Uhuru Kenyatta to virtually appear at his proceedings. The ICC insisted that Kenyatta had to be physically present. One consequence of COVID-19 has been that the ICC has had to adopt a more flexible policy to virtual hearings.
This paper explores the impact of virtual proceedings for the ICC in two ways. First, the normative implications for the delivery of justice is examined. Despite the procedural challenges this presents, it might also have positive impacts considering that past criticisms of the ICC included concern that its proceedings took place in at The Hague and thus at a distance from the location of the crimes. Second, the pragmatic implications for this move to the digitalisation of hearings is discussed based on key informant interviews conducted with representatives from the ICC's different branches.
Author: Maxine Rubin (University of Cape Town) -
The outer space governance regime, grounded in the Outer Space Treaty, has a baseline assumption of cooperation between actors operating in the space environment. It relies on parties taking ‘due regard’ for corresponding interests and avoiding harmful interference with the activities of other states. However, much of this regime remains undefined. As both the United States and China are preparing to establish human outposts on the lunar surface, they are advancing regimes for lunar governance. While this is not without precedence as both the US and the Soviet Union submitted separate proposals for what would become the Outer Space Treaty, they did so in the context of COPUOS and the circumstances and context were significantly different. This paper will explore the competition - state based and private sector- for the Moon and its resources, within the context of the Outer Space Treaty, and similar regimes such as the Antarctic Treaty. It will then consider whether the differences between the so-called ‘new space race’ and the ‘old’ ‘space race’ spells doom for the space governance regime. Ultimately the United States and the Soviet Union sought to limit the spread of the Cold War competition into areas like outer space and Antarctica, however the tone of the ‘new’ ‘space race’ suggests an interests in mineral and ‘strategic’ resources which may see a return to old imperial models of territorial competition. To say this would have significant impact on space governance is an understatement.
Author: Thomas Cheney (The Open University) -
This paper explores the hydropolitics of shared water resources between India and Nepal using the case study of the long-pending Pancheshwar and SaptaKoshi-SunKoshi Multipurpose Projects. Despite an open border, shared culture, and strong people-to-people connectivity, governance of shared rivers creates tensions in the bilateral relations between India and Nepal. It is not unusual for hydro-development projects between the two to be delayed for decades despite great domestic need for water and electricity in both countries. Based on extensive fieldwork in New Delhi and Kathmandu, this paper examines the factors that impede cooperation between India and Nepal on shared waters and how the inadequacies of international water laws manifest themselves in bilateral negotiations on water governance. More specifically, the paper illustrates how the two sides have varying interpretations of international water law and the implications of these laws in governing the projects on shared rivers. These interpretations are often self-serving and at odds with the principles that have guided the governance of transboundary rivers elsewhere
Author: Harsh Vasani (University of East Anglia)
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Roundtable / International Political Economy and the Middle East Parson, Civic Centre
Given the role of oil as the quintessential strategic commodity and the wars in Syria, Yemen, and Libya, IR tends to analyse the Middle East from a security perspective. An unfortunate consequence is the relative dearth of literature approaching the region from an International Political Economy (IPE) angle. Rentier state theory remains the main conceptual contribution Middle East politics scholars have made to IPE, although this is beginning to change. Insofar as it suggests that oil wealth reduces economic, political and social pressures for democracy, the rentier state concept has contributed to the image of the Middle East as an ‘exceptional’ region.
This roundtable encourages discussion among IPE scholars working on the Middle East. It is organised around a special issue in “Globalizations”, which approaches the Middle Eastern state from international political economy perspective. Rather than focusing on the states’ ‘homemade’ deficiencies, contributors seek to remove the exceptionalist mantle that often veils analyses of Middle Eastern states.
The panellists will reflect on how their teaching and research on the Middle East contributes to key themes in broader IPE: racialised and gendered logics of global capitalism (Tilley & Shilliam 2018), understanding capitalist development beyond the dominant model characterised by ‘Eurocentric diffusionism’ (Anievas & Nişancıoğlu 2015; Tansel 2017), and the role of the periphery in global knowledge production (Helleiner & Rosales 2017). Finally, this roundtable also provides the opportunity of reassessing and possibly contesting conceptual binaries that have often shaped IPE analysis, including between rent and profit, between security and accumulation, between formal and informal, between legal and illegal, and ultimately the foundational one between inside and outside of a state.
Sponsor: International Political Economy Working GroupChair: Hannes Baumann (University of Liverpool)Participants: Roberto Roccu (King's College London) , Cemal Burak Tansel (Newcastle University) , Crystal Ennis (Leiden University) , Katharina Lenner (University of Bath) -
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Panel / Narratives, Discourses and Developments in Contemporary Russian Security Collingwood, Civic CentreSponsor: Russian and Eurasian Security Working GroupConvener: Natasha Kuhrt (King's College London)Chair: Jenny Mathers (Aberystwyth University)
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Anxiety and identity: the issue of Russian democracy and human rights in the 21st century Russia-US relationship ‘
Author: Ruth Deyermond (King's College London) -
As permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia and China have engaged with international security in its regional and global dimensions. Their annual joint declarations adopted at bilateral summits usually contained numerous provisions related to ongoing security crises and regional conflicts. This engagement tended to be superficial, though, and a joint position on an issue was not usually followed by any meaningful action. The patterns of Russia and China’s engagement have begun to evolve in the 2010s. During that decade, Russia and China increasingly positioned themselves as global rather than regional security actors, going beyond casting a vote at the UNSC and ritual summit communications. In the case of Russia, the military intervention in Syria turned out to be a turning point, which paved the way for Moscow’s increasing military footprint in the African continent. For China, the ubiquitous presence of the Belt and Road Initiative played a similar role, forcing Beijing to consider security implications of expanding economic influence. Exploring the parallel rise of Russia and China as global security actors, the proposed paper delves into the domestic-international dynamics that has been driving these processes.
Authors: Natasha Kuhrt (King's College London) , Marcin Kaczmarski (University of Glasgow)* -
The paper draws on previous studies regarding the politics of ‘regional’ v ‘international’ solutions in relations to the security situation in and around Afghanistan. It begins by setting out the current constructions and parameters of such frameworks being proposed and put in place after the US’ withdrawal in August 2021. It then investigates the extent to which Russia has sought to step into the so-called void left by the West and considers the package of bilateral, regional and international initiatives being put forward by Moscow. In so doing, and drawing on insights from IR and Critical Geography, it critically assesses the spatial and scale politics of the domestic, regional and international within the articulation of the security crisis currently unfolding in Afghanistan. It argues that rather than presenting the security crisis in Afghanistan as operating on a single plane, Moscow is in fact articulating this issue through a multi-scalar perspective – whereby multiple overlapping constructions of both the problem and solution function simultaneously.
Author: Aglaya Snetkov (University College London) -
Narratives of war heroes, military campaigns and victories are commonplace in contemporary Russian history. Aiding the Russian state’s program to instill students with a positive image of their nation’s history, textbooks favor victory discourses over losses with the view that these positive representations will promote youth patriotism. In the 1990s, the situation was quite different – Russian textbooks wrote about victory and defeat. These vulnerabilities served to underscore the militarisation of Russia’s youth during this period because it drew upon notions of paranoia and anxiety, which formed the foundations of Russian identity. This paper examined 16 Russian historical textbooks published in the 1990s. Adopting Robert Sutherland’s schema for identifying ‘ways in which inherent ideologies are expressed’ in children’s literature, including; ‘Politics of advocacy’ and ‘Politics of attack,’ this paper argues that Russia’s vulnerabilities were used to instill its youth with militarised worldviews. Historical victories were often framed as ‘victory despite weakness’ because of the patriotic, united efforts of the Russian peoples. On the other hand, loss at war was often characterised by ‘unequal and heroic battle[s]’ followed by military reform, with emphasis on need to improve weapon procurement, combat readiness and strategy. Together, they maintained the militarisation of society by confirming that Russia constantly needed to defend itself, with a historical trail of invasion from belligerent nations, where Russia has not always been able to defend itself.
Author: Allyson Edwards (University of Warwick)
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Roundtable / New Directions in Researching South East Europe Bewick, Civic Centre
With the efforts to globalise, provincialise, and decolonise International Relations (IR), scholars working on South East Europe (SEE) have both problematised the existing uses of SEE within IR (Mälksoo 2021), and pointed to SEE experiences as capable of illuminating diverse global developments (Hozić, Subotić, Vučetić 2020). As the world turns to emergency politics and questions of survival, it becomes crucial to further stay with this project of thinking from SEE as a space that has been, and still is, often understood through discourses of crisis.
In this roundtable, we thus survey the new directions in researching South East Europe within IR. These new directions reflect on the hierarchies of knowledge production involved in identifying ‘area studies,’ critically engage with international political economies of post-socialist transitions, connect arts and arts-based methods within IR to shed light on the creation and transformation of political communities, and inquire into lived experiences of militarism. The roundtable thus imagines a global study of SEE — instead of isolationism, we use SEE as an epistemic space that allows researchers to remain attuned to the pressing questions of global politics. In opening space for the discussion of innovative conceptual and methodological approaches, we think through the politics of how international politics are made in and remake South East Europe.Sponsor: South East Europe Working GroupChair: Lydia C. Cole (University of York)Participants: Maria Adriana Deiana (Queen’s University Belfast) , Catherine Baker (University of Hull) , Sorana Jude , Daniela Lai (Royal Holloway ) , Katarina Kusic (University of Bremen) -
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Panel / Questioning Key Concepts in AI and Cyber Security Studies Swan, Civic CentreSponsor: International Studies and Emerging Technologies Working GroupConveners: joe burton , Andrew Dwyer (University of Durham) , Tobias Liebetrau (CERI, Sciences Po, Paris and Danish Institute for International Studies) , Anna Nadibaidze (Centre for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark)Chair: Anna Nadibaidze (Centre for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark)
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This paper focuses on the use of non-lethal weapons as a mode of regulating public assemblies that protest and express dissent in democracies, arguing that the sensory targeting and repression, which is a key feature of such non-lethal weapons, poses specific questions about the individual citizen's body as well as the body politic. With a growing array of non-lethal weapons for crowd control at democratic governments’ disposal, longstanding debates concerning the legitimacy of their deployment against civilian bodies continue. From tear gas to sound cannons to rubber bullets and stink bombs, repression of human senses across the spectrum -- olfactory, auditory, haptic, visual, proprioceptive -- is legitimised in democracies to govern dissent in a variety of non-war situations ranging from domestic policing to border control. The increasing reliance on these sensory weapons of governance and control, which directly target the senses in order to impose debility but not necessarily death, by democracies is of special interest for multiple reasons: the different standards of state-sanctioned repression of dissent associated with this type of regime (as opposed to authoritarian systems); the ways in which acceptability/transfer/circulation of such technologies is legitimised by democracies' using them; and the implications of such use for citizens' rights such as freedom of expression and assembly that are typically constitutionally guaranteed and thus meant to be protected. Emphasising that democracies renew themselves through challenges involving mass mobilization, we theorise the ways in which the use of such sensory weapons is transforming the nature of the political subject and jeopardizing the capacity for active political action that registers disaffection via collective mobilisation to propose alternative logics for economic, nationalist, or racial orders.
Authors: Nitasha Kaul (University of Westminster) , Shala Cachelin (University of Westminster) -
On October 9, 2019, a gunman attempted to kill worshipers at a synagogue in Halle, Germany, and crossed a new threshold: it was the first time a terrorist perpetrated a deadly attack with homemade firearm including a 3D printed handgun. This presentation investigates the intersection between additive manufacturing technology, online forums, and Extreme Right political thought, in order to better understand (1) the aspirations of online extremist groups around their approach to 3D printing, (2) how might these groups consider incorporating 3D printing into their long-term political aspirations, and lastly (3), whether their understanding of additive manufacturing lines up with what is currently feasible with existing commercial
This research project employs a mixed-method approach, combining a digital ethnographical survey of extreme right forums, including Stormfront and Iron March; interviews with First and Second Amendment activists; and industry experts. This research demonstrates the existence of a prominent discourse within extreme right forums, which frames 3D printing as a catalyst for political change by enabling the manufacturing weapons at home while avoiding public regulation. However, despite this apparent appetite for such technological revolution, the attributes and imagined capabilities of this technology exceed what is currently feasible with hobbyist 3D printers.
Author: Yannick Veilleux-Lepage (Leiden University) -
Stephen Hawking described Artificial Intelligence as the greatest threat to human civilisation. But how close to reality is this observation? Could an out-of-control AI destroy our way of life? Could a ‘general’ AI emerge that poses a singular threat to human civilisation? In what ways could AI be used to cause harm equivalent to a climate, nuclear or global health catastrophe? This paper draws on critical security studies theory to explore these questions. The paper begins with an outline of the fears that have become associated with AI, from the inception of modern forms of the technology through to recent scholarly work on planetary risk. It then moves on to an analysis of how, when and under what circumstances AI could cause catastrophic damage. This section focuses on the intersection of AI with nuclear, environmental and cyberspace related risks. The article concludes with an assessment of the role of uncertainty in managing AI risk, and how policymakers might guard against a hostile, self-aware AI that seeks to attack its human controllers. The overarching argument of the paper is that AI risks are most likely to occur in combination with other deadly global threats and by cascading into other security sectors.
Author: Joe Burton (University of St Andrews) -
To understand how cyberspace and cybersecurity are constituted and enacted is crucial to IR as well as being intimately related to political claims about who is held responsible and accountable for what, and to and by whom. In this article, we theorize this relationship in a novel way through ‘malware materialities’. By exploring materiality, we propose a framework to rethink the deep-rooted distinction between the physical and virtual in malware. This offers a more grounded approach to understanding the impact of malware and the changing dynamics of conflict in three steps. First, we show how computation is material by exploring the relationship between human and non-human actors and impacts that criss-cross the physical-virtual divide. Second, we mobilize these insights to examine the cyber cases of WannaCry/NotPetya. Third, we outline the political implications of our findings by relating them to questions of responsibility and accountability in conflict and beyond.
Authors: Andrew Dwyer (University of Durham) , Tobias Liebetrau (Sciences Po and Danish Institute for International Studies) -
States that perceive themselves as great powers in the international system believe that demonstrating technological innovation underpins this status. The relationship between technology and status-seeking has only been superficially investigated in International Relations (IR) literature. This study contributes to this gap by examining how the pursuit of artificial intelligence (AI) can act as a material ground for a state’s quest for great power status and recognition. The article argues that, rather than simply being a tool in the pursuit of state interests or grand strategies, the use of technologies can help anchor an aspirant status. The study explores the Russian government’s visible interest in developing AI – a key emerging general-purpose technology with the potential to multiply changing trends in world politics – as part of its quest to be recognised as a member of the great power club. Based on interviews with experts conducted in Moscow as part of my ongoing doctoral research, I argue that practices in perceptions and applications of AI, robotics and unmanned vehicles act as a way of grounding Russia’s pursuit of great power status recognition. In an environment of social uncertainty in which the Russian leadership does not feel treated as an equal partner, integrating AI applications has become emblematic of great power status.
Key words: artificial intelligence, technology in IR, status, great power, practices, Russian foreign policy
Author: Anna Nadibaidze (Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark)
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Roundtable / Popular Culture Matters in World Politics Armstrong, Civic Centre
Popular culture and world politics continues to grow as a subfield in international relations. While initial concerns focused on pedagogy, representation and inter-textuality for the purposes of determining how popular culture might help us to understand power and the sites through which it circulates, more recent work has begun to explore the materiality of popular culture and how its embodiment may also contribute to global political dynamics. Yet inspite of the growth of research into this field, there still remain a number of scholars who challenge the validity of research on popular culture and world politics, caricaturing it as ‘frivolous’ and ‘not the stuff of real politics.’ This roundtable explicitly offers a rejoinder to such thinking to explicitly unpack how popular culture might matter, when it might matter, where it might matter, to whom it might matter, and how its myriad influences might be assessed and/or perceived. Considering the broader aesthetic turn within international relations, contributors will also examine how aesthetic approaches provide additional insights into popular culture and world politics. Also questions of method and methodologies, as well as engagement with core concepts shaping how we might understand the popular culture-world politics nexus, will be areas of debate.
Sponsor: International Studies and Emerging Technologies Working GroupChair: Annika Bergman Rosamond (Lund University)Participants: Marianne Franklin (Goldsmiths, University of London) , Rhys Crilley (University of Glasgow) , Simon Philpott (Newcastle University) , Laura Shepherd (University of Sydney) , Nick Robinson (University of Leeds) -
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Panel / Strengthening Global Governance: How to Implement the Responsibility to Protect History Room, Student UnionSponsor: Intervention and Responsibility to Protect Working GroupConvener: IR2P Working groupChair: Bola Adediran (Liverpool Hope University)
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The role of state institutions and international organisations in implementing R2P is widely researched and debated. However, in spite of the growing economic and political influence of multinational corporations, their potential in advancing the responsibility to protect has not been seriously considered. This paper explores the ethical and pragmatic case for centering multinational corporations as key actors in the protection of civilians during humanitarian crises. It argues that beyond their negative duties to do no harm, their increased capabilities places unique moral responsibilities on them to act in advancing human rights and by extension R2P.
Author: Bola Adediran (Liverpool Hope University ) -
Currently, measuring ‘success’ of the responsibility to protect (R2P) rests mainly on an interpretation of the principle only in terms of its third pillar: that the international community should respond when a state is manifestly failing to uphold its primary responsibility to prevent genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. In this way, an effective intervention might be to stop further escalation of these crimes once they have already started - as was the case in 2008 post-election Kenya. But given the presence of international donors in the country prior to the December 2007 vote, it is surprising that the literature has yet to evaluate the possibility of an earlier intervention to prevent the death, disfigurement, and displacement of thousands in the weeks that followed. Indeed, the second pillar of R2P commands an earlier response from the international community: to assist and encourage states in upholding their primary responsibility to protect. Taking as a case study the United Kingdom’s presence in Kenya, this paper posits that donors tend to prioritise democratisation at the expense of mass atrocity prevention. Noting reports that the 2022 elections could prompt violence worse than in the 2007/08 period, it draws on project documents, parliamentary publications, and interviews with policymakers and practitioners to learn lessons for more effective atrocity prevention going forward. More broadly, the study comes at a time when the incidence of mass atrocities is increasing globally and when a better understanding of what ‘successful’ R2P looks like in practice is needed.
Author: Gillian McKay (University of Leeds) -
East Asia has been dominated in theory and practice by state-centric policy considerations heavily influenced by the geopolitical contestation of great powers. This perspective is, however, threatened by the rise of non-traditional security (NTS) challenges, including COVID-19, climate change, and the humanitarian crisis of refugee and forced migration flows. All three are exacerbated by the pursuit of narrow self-interest (unilateralism) and an emphasis on state security among national policymakers. Yet these challenges can also represent avenues of opportunity for other actors such as middle powers and civil society organisations. The central research question addressed by this paper, therefore, is what role can and should be played by newly empowered or recognized actors in addressing NTS challenges? The focus is on a responsibility to disrupt established governance practices with innovative approaches.
Keywords: Non-traditional security, middle powers, disruptive innovation, international commissions, East Asia
Author: Brendan Howe (Ewha Womans University)
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Panel / The Political Economy of the Pandemic: National and Global Responses Kate Adie, Student UnionSponsor: Global Health Working GroupConvener: Alan Cafruny (Hamilton College)Chair: Alan Cafruny (Hamilton College)
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The ‘Masking’ Performative in the Post-Pandemic World: Meanings, Evolution, and Knowledge Production
The ‘Masking’ Performative in the Post-Pandemic World: Meanings, Evolution, and Knowledge Production
Author: Debangana Chatterjee (Jain (Deemed-to-be University)) -
Political responses to Covid in many Western states have had the consequences of normalising a hitherto unprecedented level of control over peoples’ lives. It may seem counter-intuitive to argue that this also represents the state leaving us alone, however in this paper I want to make an argument that the response of the British state to Covid represents the state removing itself from a democratic relationship with citizens. In its place, the British state is establishing a mode of governance that is closer to that experienced by citizens in weaker states when faced with external powerful states. Drawing on Mark Duffield’s work on security, development and intervention, I argue that the British Government’s response suggests it sees citizens as technical problems to be managed in a way that best maintains the status quo.
Author: Tara McCormack (University of Leicester) -
As politics continue to seep further into the engagement with the current pandemic, the chapter is drawing on our experience with social tensions during this time to weave a narrative to describe from cultural analysis how we react to precarity in order to better understand the transformations affecting our societies because of it: precarity and inequity. COVID-19 has definitely put the spotlight on social inequalities that are underpinning our society and it has highlighted new forms of oppression too. Inequity ingrained in our societies well before Coronavirus, it is now casting a different shade highlighting the pandemic as a political issue. Covid-10 is a global issue but it is also important to see how it is locally specific too. This chapter is addressing a range of political perspectives of the lived experiences in and through social space with examples of narratives in language which capture the everyday political experiences of the pandemic within Europe. Looking in specific at the cultural attitudes of the post vaccine era (i.e. the vaccine denialism, alarmism, the policy proposals to pay people to get the vaccine), as well as the kind of language used and its profound effect on the growing discourse regarding social health is the main focus here. I explore the intertwine of language and politics during the pandemic and bring out the countervailing narratives that seem to be in constant tension. I then ask where does this take us, not only in terms of scholarship and expansion of knowledge, but also with a pragmatic edge to it, trying to figure out how it may be possible for us to achieve a sort of cognitive shift in our approach in order to ponder on the question what do we learn from this challenge with regards demands for rights and equity.
Author: Mariangela Veikou (University of Tilburg Law School) -
What explains the Chinese government’s response, through an elimination approach, to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic? Initial reactions were dispersed and incremental as local officials wrestled with how loudly to sound the alarms on the emergence of a new respiratory virus that seemed to be spreading. But eventually it became a centralized and coordinated effort that Beijing backed. The ramped up response was effective, if authoritarian and heavy-handed at times. Since then, the scale and speed of the state’s ability to assemble testing, tracing, quarantining, and isolating capacity and other measures have enabled China to quickly enclose inevitable flare-ups so far. This chapter examines how experience with past infectious disease outbreaks and political priorities in a predominantly top-down system shape the public health response to COVID-19 and argues that the same sources drive the evolving course of action over time. It considers obstacles to pursuing a costly “zero-COVID” strategy as variants of the virus spread, the vaccination drive progresses, and the possibility exists that the coronavirus becomes endemic. Containment of the virus, however, remains contingent and fragile, as it does elsewhere.
Author: Alexsia Chan (Hamilton College) -
pandemic, including its overall wealth, leadership in absolute and per capita health care spending, and unrivalled scientific and epidemiological expertise. Yet, the United States’ record of management of the pandemic throughout the first 18 months was among the worst in the world. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to assert that the United States has been—and in important aspects remains—the epicenter of the pandemic. On October 1, 2021, 9 months after vaccines became widely available, deaths from Covid were only 40% below the country’s January 2021 peak. When figures are adjusted for population the U.S death rate is approximately 8 times higher than in the rest of the OECD countries put together.
The U.S. experience accords with studies that have shown that right wing populism led to a distinctive and counterproductive response to the pandemic. However, the problems and contradictions in the U.S. effort to contain the pandemic are not simply reducible to “culture wars” or ideology, but rather reflect a broader crisis of neoliberal capitalist regulation. This chapter employs a political economy approach in order to develop a holistic understanding of both the causes and consequences of the U.S. response to the pandemic: Efforts to contain the virus were constrained by the impact of decades of neoliberalism on the U.S. economy and health care system and the increasingly polarized ideological environment to which it gave rise. At the same time, the pandemic served to consolidate and deepen the neoliberal crisis. Fiscal and monetary policies designed ostensibly to cushion society from sickness and massive recession served to deepen inequality, impose a disproportionate share of the burden of adjustment on the poorest Americans, and thereby impede efforts to contain the virus.
Author: Alan Cafruny (Hamilton College)
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Panel / The War on Drugs in Theory and Practice Carloil, Civic CentreSponsor: Political Violence, Conflict and Transnational ActivismConvener: Euan Raffle (University of Leeds)Chair: Kyle Grayson (BISA)
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Why does a decaying global narcotics prohibition regime that has palpably failed to achieve its central objective of ‘a drug-free world’ while generating enormous social dislocation continue to endure, despite ever-louder calls for its reform or even complete abandonment? There exists widespread dissatisfaction as the myriad failures of the War on Drugs and its desperate consequences become increasingly evident. The treaties underpinning prohibition never truly enjoyed an international consensus, yet the current moment is marked especially by dissensus: some countries – including, ironically, the US itself – are soft-defecting from some parts of the regime by pursuing experiments in legalisation, especially of cannabis and psychedelics, whereas others favour ever-more hard-line, punitive responses. However, despite being assailed on all sides, the regime itself appears essentially unassailable, with radical critique often accompanied by distinctly unambitious reform proposals. This paper argues that waning US hegemony is a crucial and largely unacknowledged explanation for this stasis in a regime that has rarely been examined by IR or IPE scholars: on the one hand, because prohibition was a peculiar expression of American moral suasion and political coercion that rose alongside its wider post-1945 hegemonic project, it necessarily follows that its present travails reflect the contradictions and complexities of the partial unravelling of that order; on the other, though, because the discursive norms and surveillance programmes that characterised prohibition were so tightly formulated and lavishly financed, they produced enduring geopolitical structures and vested interests that have remained remarkably impervious to reform. This makes the job of recasting the regime—which the modern US has neither the will nor capacity to decisively pursue—even more difficult than it might otherwise be.
Author: Matthew Bishop (University of Sheffield ) -
The War on Drugs (WoD) in Colombia and Mexico is more than a failure that needs to be reformed, it is also unjust. Decades of enforcing international drug policies have exacerbated and perpetuated these countries’ pre-existing structural violence and poverty. To end the WoD, we must reconsider the normative rationales underlying drug policies and offer structural reforms capable of properly addressing the problems of concern. Thus, to develop more structurally fair drug control policy, we need an analytical framework based on justice. I propose using a global distributive justice framework, which is relational and structural, to support that: 1) we stand in relevant relationships with individuals around the globe via the illicit drug market, and 2) the global institutional order on drug control is coercive. If the WoD is proved to create relational conditions of injustice, influential states and their citizens have a moral responsibility to reform existing policies and rectify these injustices. Distributive justice can also assist in developing more appropriate policies that strengthen the presence of the civilian state, rather than the current militarised state. Especially, in historically abandoned places which criminal organisations rely on to thrive in the drug business.
Author: Estefania Dominguez (University of Leeds ) -
In September 2021, Chief Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan of the International Criminal Court authorised a full investigation into extrajudicial killings undertaken as part of the war on drugs in the Philippines. Civil society organisations in the Philippines played a critical role in bringing the case to the court, in order to seek justice for as many as 30,000 victims of President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign. Whilst victims who made representations to the court emphasized that they were driven by a desire to bring perpetrators to justice, end impunity, and prevent future crimes in the Philippines, this paper sets this against civil society groups' broader challenge to the war on drugs and the global drugs prohibition regime. Other work on the role of civil society groups in the Philippines has proposed a boomerang model, whereby such groups seek to amplify the issue outside of the country and invite pressure from other states and international organisations. However, pressure from such avenues has often upheld the legitimacy of the drug war, whilst questioning policies that led to human rights abuses. Consequently, this paper will show that the responses of international organisations and states to human rights abuses within the drug war are restricted by commitments to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961. This in turn renders the issue of extrajudicial killings and violence an unfortunate consequence of the global drugs prohibition regime, rather than a common feature of it.
Author: Euan Raffle (University of Leeds)
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Roundtable / ‘Un-Siloing’ Nuclear Weapons in an Age of Pandemic, Climate Crisis and Global Injustice: On the Need to Connect Existential Threats Dobson, Civic Centre
This roundtable will bring together participants working on the connections between the challenges of 'surviving' a nuclear armed world and other challenges of survival, including climate and global health. How can we research, teach and practice ways of addressing the complex intersections of challenges to our survival? In what ways does this survivalist thinking enable and/or limit political possibilities? This roundtable will bring discussions on gendered militarism, inequality, covid, climate and geoenginineering to bear on the potential for reimagining our (nuclear) future.
Sponsor: Global Nuclear Order Working GroupChair: Andrew Futter (University of Leicester)Participants: Olaf Corry (University of Leeds) , Laura Considine (University of Leeds) , Tom Vaughan (University of Exeter) , Luba Zatsepina-McCreadie (University of Edinburgh) , Olamide Samuel (University of Leicester) -
10:30
Break with tea and coffee
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Roundtable / Can IR Survive? Should it? Bewick, Civic Centre
Can IR Survive? Should it?
Sponsor: BISAChair: Kyle Grayson (BISA)Participants: Xander Kirke (Glasgow Caledonian University) , Felix Roesch (Coventry University) , Sarah Lieberman (Canterbury Christ Church University) , Louise Amoore (Durham University) , Martin Coward (Review of International Studies) , Jocelyn Mawdsley (Newcastle University) -
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Roundtable / Can the 'Arctic' Survive? Stephenson, Civic Centre
Since the end of the Cold War, the Arctic has been defined largely in ‘circumpolar’ terms: as an imagined region constructed around the territorial claims and common interests of the eight so-called Arctic states (A8) and their indigenous inhabitants. The circumpolarisation of the Arctic and pan-A8 cooperation was subsequently institutionalised in a variety of international bodies, most famously the Arctic Council in 1996. These events became the wellspring of ‘Arctic exceptionalism’ : the idea that circumpolar cooperation has brought an exceptional degree of peace to the region, insulating it from geopolitical turbulence in other parts of the world.
This roundtable asks whether the status quo can hold in the face of rampant environmental and geopolitical change regionally and globally? Are terms like ‘Arctic’ and ‘Arctic exceptionalism’ still useful in a multipolar and contested world or are they relics of the heady days of post-Cold war liberal triumphalism? To what extent is it even still useful to think of the Arctic in circumpolar terms, given the many sub-regional differences – over indigenous rights, environmental issues, commercial opportunities, diplomatic relationships and military activities – that exist? Is it time to develop new terminology to disentangle these differences and plot a path for more nuanced decision-making? If so, how can that be done in an inclusive way, that respects first and foremost the people that call the Arctic ‘home’.
To address these questions, this roundtable brings together a diverse group of scholars from International Relations and Political Geography to consider whether the ‘Arctic’ that emerged at the end of the Cold War can survive.
Sponsor: War Studies Working GroupChair: James Rogers (University of Southern Denmark)Participants: Duncan Depledge (Loughborough University) , Caroline Kennedy-Pipe (Loughborough University) , Liling Xu (Royal Holloway, University of London) , Hannes Hansen-Magnusson (Cardiff University) , Klaus Dodds (Royal Holloway, University of London) , Ingrid A. Medby (Newcastle University) , Dorothea Wehrmann (DIE) -
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Panel / China and Data Security Challenges: Domestic Surveillance and Transnational Governance Model Room 2, Civic CentreSponsor: International Studies and Emerging Technologies Working GroupConvener: Ruoxi Wang (University of St Andrews)Chair: Tim Stevens (King's College London)Discussant: Andre Barrinha (University of Bath)
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This paper aims to analyze how China promotes its own normative preference in global data security governance. The escalated power rivalries between China and the U.S. since the Trump administration have given rise to the question of how to govern digital data security globally, in the broader context of the widespread use of information and communications technology. We draw on the constructivist norm scholarship and analyze China’s norm construction strategies in relation to how to govern data security. The paper will firstly propose a theoretical framework to study China’s role as a norm entrepreneur. Secondly, it will analyze the degree of norm emergence in relation to data security in global governance, by assessing the normative competition between China, the EU and U.S. Thirdly, we will look at the discursive and behavioral strategies that China has adopted to legitimate its normative preference. This is based on the case studies of China’s discursive appeal to “Global Initiative on Data Security” (2020) and behavioral implementation of “Digital Silk Road” (2017-). This paper contributes to the broader interdisciplinary debate of norm contestation and cyber security.
Authors: Ruoxi Wang , Chi Zhang (University of St Andrews )* -
Over the past decade, both China and the European Union (EU) have emerged as increasingly significant actors in transnational data governance. The existing debate tends to view the EU as a nascent regulatory power data governance by leveraging the “Brussels Effect” which refers to the global influence of the EU’s regulatory policies resulting from the union’s externalisation of its laws and regulations through market mechanisms. To the contrary, the discussions on China’s increasing capability of shaping transnational data governance have been revolved around the concept of “Beijing Effect”. It is argued that contrary to the EU’s regulatory approach, China has expanded its sphere of influence through the provision of digital infrastructural ordering in developing countries. Building on the existing debate, this proposed research argues that these scholarly views have overplayed the differences between the “Beijing Effect” and the “Brussels Effect” and downplayed their similarities. Whilst there is an important difference in the regulatory approaches that the EU and China have adopted, both actors have utilised similar instruments to expand their influence in data governance beyond their borders. These instruments include proactive engagement with the key standard-setting organisations as well as efforts to create a sophisticated and complex legal domestic data governance framework which creates spill-over effects for other actors.
Author: Xuechen Chen (New College of the Humanities at Northeastern) -
Chinese social media platforms have provided not only new ways for communication but also new tools to implement surveillance and monitor the digital activities of Chinese citizens, from social media participation, interactive entertainment services, municipal e-services and mobile payments to online video portals. The integration of WeChat into the daily lives of Chinese citizens has empowered Tencent to accumulate an extremely profitable trove of user data on a level that even Facebook or Google could in no way achieve (Wildau, 2017). Despite the pervasiveness of surveillance, few have been done to examine the implications of dual forces of platform capitalism and state surveillance on the ways that Chinese internet enterprises operates in mainland China. This article seeks to examine the correlations between behavioural data surplus and state surveillance and further address whether China is developing a model different to the kind of Surveillance Capitalism identified by Zuboff. In so doing, this article combines two levels of studies: meso-level study on the institutional strategies and the hybrid model Tencent has developed, and macro-level policy study on the recent government policy reports and regulatory framework. This study seeks to offer a comparative examination of the Chinese variant of surveillance capitalism and how Chinese digital platforms have implemented the affordances of the internet differently from their western counterparts. It uses the case of Tencent to exemplify how Chinese digital platform operators have attempted to balance out the tensions between ideological surveillance and commercial exploitation of data surplus. This article argues that the hybrid model that Tencent Group operates has been cannibalising a wide range of marketplaces and engaging in aggressively capitalist-style mergers and takeovers.
Author: Lisa Lin (Anglia Ruskin University) -
Accounting for Pacific and Assertive Postures in China’s Foreign Policy during 1958-2021: Assessing the Realist, Liberal, and Domestic Political Explanations
Author: Hongyi Lai (University of Nottingham)
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Panel / Democracy, Decline and Decent Work History Room, Student UnionSponsor: International Political Economy Working GroupConvener: IPEG Working groupChair: Muireann O'Dwyer (University of St Andrews)
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This paper considers the relationship between trade unions and British imperialism using the case study of the National Agricultural Labourers' Union (NALU). In the late nineteenth century NALU emerged as a key union defending the interest of immiserated land-workers and did so by confronting the power of landowners, promoting emigration and campaigning for the vote. However, little has been said about the racial politics which underpinned this praxis. Situated in the literature on racial capitalism, it is argued that the NALU leadership used political subjectivities of 'white slavery' and imagined geographies of 'Greater Britain' to help integrate rural working classes into the prevailing imperial order, showing how trade unions also contributed to the evolving social differentiation at the heart of empire.
Author: Ben Richardson (University of Warwick) -
In recent times, the world has witnessed a retreat from the liberal global order and is headed towards a rather pseudo-democratic brand of politics, spearheaded by a rise in right-wing populism in various nations across the world. Global freedom has declined significantly along with discernible erosion of political institutions in many countries. This paper examines the backsliding of democracy in contemporary global politics against the backdrop of the persistence of neoliberalism as a socio-economic policy option in many nation-states. Employing mixed research methods with a special emphasis on hermeneutic content analysis, the paper argues that there is a cyclical inter-relationship between the escalating socio-economic insecurities in societies, the contemporary recourse towards the ‘anti-global’ atavistic brand of nationalism, and a decline in democracy across the world. It further uses statistical analysis to examine the impact of neoliberal public policies on societies, and argues that the rising socio-economic insecurities in the contemporary world are a direct resultant of the promotion of such policies. Finally, the paper postulates that the rising 'atavistic' nationalism, if left unchecked, might transition into a global authoritarian super-cycle.
Author: Akash Bhagat (Jawaharlal Nehru University) -
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are the closest example of ‘twin organisations’ that the international system has to offer. Although research on their interactions is still surprisingly scarce when compared to the vast literature on each organisation, most observers and scholars assumes that the IMF and the World Bank cooperate smoothly most of the time. In this paper, I argue that this view overlooks the role of critical institutional scripts that enable and constrain interactions between international organisations (IOs), potentially leading to less intense, less close or less straightforward cooperation than expected. The example of the Bretton Woods institutions is instructive because their widely recognised status as ‘twin organisations’ raises excessive expectations about cooperation when in fact differentiation dynamics on both sides moderate cooperative efforts. I discuss this phenomenon under the novel label of the ‘Bretton Woods script’. The paper thus highlights that scholars should seek to identify and analyse the often invisible rules that govern interactions between global governors.
Author: Matthias Kranke (University of Kassel) -
The growing youth unemployment and precarious work have been recognised as key features of the global economy and concern for policy makers and experts interested in poverty reduction, job creation and sustainable development. Concerning developing countries, scholarly debate often highlights external influence over domestic policy-making processes which are in turn assumed to (re)shape practices and discourses related to formal/informal or decent/precarious work in local contexts. And in many cases the state is seen as acting as a wilful facilitator of the global capitalist system or being vulnerable to neoliberal reforms due to their reliance on global markets and foreign investments. While acknowledging their contributions, I argue that they risk simplifying the complexities of the ‘actually operating’ political economy of work due to their overemphasis on the role of international actors, states and markets. The questions of how employment policies are designed, calculated, implemented (by whom, with whom and for whom) on the ground as well as where and how the gaps and mismatches between rhetoric and practices of decent jobs take place are still largely missing in the debate. This paper aims to fills these gaps by exploring the day-to-day interactions in the field of Decent Job Creation (DJC) in Tunisia. Drawing on everyday political economy approach and intensive field interviews in Tunisia, the paper examines how international and domestic staffs as well as civil society actors involved in the DJC interact and to what extent their everyday interactions on the ground are shaped by, respond to or contest neoliberal interpretations of work and job creation.
Author: Saerom Han (Durham University) -
Building on recent developments in the study of politics and popular culture, this paper focuses on the relationship between US comedy and the politics of declinism. The paper engages with IR and IPE literature on US decline to argue that everyday understandings of decline have been neglected by mainstream accounts. Contemporary comedy in the United States has not followed the trajectory of British satire in the 1960s. British decline was understood, mediated and satirised by the comedians of the so-called 'satire boom'. Narratives of decline have not been a feature of American satire as decline has been a central premise of the panic-inducing content of the right-wing media. American television satire developed as a response to right-wing news media and, as such, does not directly engage with questions of US decline. Political satire instead has focused on the failures of the corporate and political systems, identifying corruption and vested interests without invoking the spectre of decline due to its capture by the Right. The paper argues that a focus on declinism, rather than decline, allows us to understand the political purpose of such narratives.
Author: Alex Sutton (Oxford Brookes)
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Panel / Diasporas Around the World Swan, Civic CentreSponsor: International Politics of Migration, Refugees and Diaspora Working GroupConvener: Maria Koinova (University of Warwick)Chair: Catherine Craven (University of Birmingham)
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In the growing literature on the governance of diaspora populations, most studies conceptualize it as something new, driven by recent globalization processes or emerging forms of governmental power. With the exception of a few critical studies (e.g. Varadarajan 2010), this obscures the historical embeddedness of contemporary diaspora governance. This paper addresses this gap by interrogating historical linkages and colonial continuities in contemporary diaspora governance. It will use a practice-theoretical approach to disentangle the agents, narratives, and spaces that assemble to make each governance practice possible, tracing the historical roots of these assemblages. Drawing on multi-method fieldwork conducted amongst the Tamil diaspora in London between 2016 and 2019, the paper will reveal the historical relations of diaspora governance in several ways: First, it will show how governance (i.e. policing and surveillance) practices conceived by British colonialists in South Asia continue to inform how diaspora Tamils are governed today. It will also demonstrate how contemporary governance practices a"ecting the Tamil diaspora often rely on linkages and discourses dating back to the British colonial period, for example cooperation around proscription between diaspora sending and receiving states.
Author: Catherine Craven (University of Birmingham) -
Most studies on second-generation Muslims explore local or national factors that lead to the prominence of religious identity over national identity, while others use a transnational lens to capture how identity formation is influenced from within a transnational space. This paper instead takes the global system as the unit of analysis and explores how processes of globalisation are shaping second-generation Iraqi Shia identity in the UK diaspora. While Muslims in the West have been positioned within an external clash of civilisations narrative in the Western public imagination, problematising their place in Western society, they are also said to experience an internal clash of identity and belonging in diaspora. The assumption is that Muslims have to choose either Islam or the West, or the identities of either their former homelands or countries of settlement to fit in. This paper argues that these tensions do not reflect the realities of lived religion in globality. Instead, I argue that globalisation creates the means by which social identities are chosen from a diverse array of worldly inputs allowing individuals to invent their own places and spaces of belonging both materially and imaginatively. 1.5 and second-generation Iraqi Shia negotiate being a Muslim in the West and an Iraqi living in diaspora through their glocalised Shiism which allows them to belong in multiple places and spaces. Their chosen religious identity is however is not fixed but selective, fluid and changeable, and always in process as it interacts with global media, events, transnational networks and local contexts. delineating individual and alternative cartographies of belonging (Levitt, 2003, p.861).
Author: Oula OULA KADHUM (University of Birmingham) -
This paper will be focused on the women diaspora of South Asia in the USA and the United Kingdom, what challenges they faced and the prospects. The diaspora that originates from the seven South Asian nations—Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka—is mostly spread across UK and USA. The twenty-million-strong, South Asian community presents a challenging yet rewarding opportunity for cross-cultural missions in nations which are now their home. The foremost challenge of the diaspora is integrating with the native community. To preserve cultural and social identity, South Asians keep their social and religious traditions and faithfully practice them in the host environment. Parents in the South Asian diaspora, for example, not only arrange their children’s marriages, but also arrange them within their own caste. Often they look for a spouse for their son or daughter in the place of their origin. Clinging to their traditions at the expense of openness to the host culture can hinder their integration with the host community. This paper will also discuss the identity crisis of 2nd and 3rd generation diaspora. Identity is a challenge specific to the second and third-generation diaspora, born and raised in a host culture. The question each second and third-generation diaspora person faces is whether he or she is Asian, British or American. Within the diaspora community, the cultural gap between older and new generations raised in the host culture leads to conflict in matters of preserving tradition and cultural practices. I will give two short profiles from South Asian diasporas communities with a particular focus on the efforts made by the different ethnic groups to preserve languages and customs. The South Asian presence in the UK originates from the 18th century when they were simply called "Overseas Indians". The 1991 census was the first effort to identify the different groups in South Asia living in the United Kingdom, with data showing that 3 million or around 5.5 percent of the population are South Asian society. Lastly this paper will discuss the education and employment issues that the women diaspora of South Asia faces. In spite of mission challenges that the diaspora presents, opportunities overflow to reach out to the women diasporas. It plays a vital role in development and progress of their countries of origin. So overall in this paper I will try to explore all of the challenges and prospects that women face. I will use quantitative method of research.
Author: Farzeen Shahzadi (Department of Political Science, Forman Christian College ,54600 Lahore, Pakistan ) -
How do diasporas fight online information wars during armed conflict in their homeland? I explore this question through interviews with 30 young diaspora Armenians in seven nations about their practical experiences of online activism during the 2020 Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. I examine their motivations for engaging in social media activism; strategies and methods of promoting the Armenian narrative; vision of the online opponent; and perceived outcomes of their efforts. Besides investigating this recent case of diaspora mobilization during armed conflict, the study offers broader conclusions about social media and participatory warfare, and about the changing roles of diasporas in international relations. I demonstrate how social media enables participatory war that is transnational, monologic, empowering and retaliatory, involving individual and networked tactics, and culturally and politically transformative. Diasporas, traditionally seen as international agents of lobbying, public diplomacy, and material assistance, become important contributors to global conflict infopolitics.
Author: Dmitry Chernobrov (University of Sheffield) -
The COVID-19 pandemic has legitimized diaspora as a transnational actor in its own right. More importantly, diasporas have emerged as disruptors in public diplomacy (Dolea, 2021), challenging their more traditional roles of agents, instruments, and partners in public diplomacy (Brinkerhoff, 2019). This conceptual paper explores the neglected role of emotions in the study of diaspora diplomacy (Ho & McConnell, 2017), linking strands of literature in public diplomacy, migration and diaspora studies and international relations with a focus on emotions. Public diplomacy studies tend to focus on the institutional, social, political, and economic ties of diaspora with home and host state; the dynamics of emotion at play in diaspora communities and how external forces may intensify and instrumentalize emotions have been so far marginally discussed. Emotions are experienced at both an individual and collective level, and they relate to a wide range of social and political contexts. Theoretical understandings of emotions as social processes and constructions have increased in migration studies (Almenara-Niebla, 2020; Alinejad & Olivieri, 2019; Boccagni & Baldassar, 2015), signalling the affective turn in social sciences (Clough & Halley, 2007). Emotion is attached to salient features of experience, it has distinct effects on the ways that we process information, form judgements, and react to situations, people, and circumstances (Marcus, 2003; Brader & Marcus 2013), especially when classified into positive and negative emotional categories (Marcus 2000). Therefore, we aim to propose an agenda for researching emotions in diaspora diplomacy, ultimately advancing the study and policy making in diaspora diplomacy.
Authors: Alina Dolea (Bournemouth University) , Tabitha Baker (Bournemouth University)
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Roundtable / Diplomatic Networking: New Approaches and Methodologies Collingwood, Civic Centre
This roundtable features participants in an emerging collaborative research project which aims to facilitate new understanding of the development of the British Diplomatic Service c.1867-1967. The project draws on innovative methodologies, including digital humanities and prosopography, and is based on collaborations between academics from a number of different universities, as well as external partners, including the UK National Archives and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The starting point for the project is the digitisation of the Foreign Office published personnel records – the Foreign Office List and its successors. Based on analysis of this data, the project seeks to shed new light on:
i) the changing social composition of the British diplomatic service;
ii) changing attitudes towards developing staff ‘expertise’, whether regional (e.g. Eastern Europe, Latin America) or thematic (e.g. commercial, security, cultural);
iii) examining how peripatetic career patterns could still allow a high degree of organisational integration based on iterated interactions between diplomatic staff both in London and in post abroad.
The ultimate objective of the project is to produce a publicly-available a dataset that will present the career trajectories of British foreign service personnel in innovative ways (including interactive maps, links to primary sources etc.) This will constitute a valuable public source of engagement for those interested in British foreign policy, diplomacy, social history and network analysis.Sponsor: British International History Working GroupChair: Richard Smith (FCDO (Principal historian))Participants: Thomas Mills (Lancaster University) , Ian Gregory (Lancaster University) , Michael Hughes (Lancaster University) , Gaynor Johnson (University of Kent) -
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Panel / IPE of Financialisation 1 Martin Luther King, Civic CentreSponsor: International Political Economy Working GroupConvener: Engelbert Stockhammer (King's College London)Chair: Joseph Baines (KCL)Discussant: Joseph Baines (KCL)
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According to Ricardo, comparative advantage implies that countries will engage in trade with one another, exporting the goods that they have a relative advantage in and thereby benefiting all trade partners. Yet, the national security can remain and prevail over comparative advantage. Singapore’s food security policy demonstrates that the country promotes local agriculture although the cost of local-produced food is higher than the price of imported food.
The research objective is to study one of the Singapore’s strategies that enhance their food security. Singapore promotes food security through urban agriculture which the country does not have specialization in agriculture production. Using documentary research, a comprehensive bibliography is compiled from major scholarly databases. The preliminary results have shown that despite only 1 per cent of the land used for agriculture, Singapore ranks 1st in the food availability category of Global Food Security Index in 2021. The key success factor in promoting urban agriculture comes from the government’s strong roles. Government agencies generate a variety of capital for local food production. Those include in-kind and in-cash capital, namely, funding sources, R&D, training and technology transfer. The Singapore’s success story sets an example for other countries of limited agriculture resources and fragile food security.
Author: Rungroge Kamondetdacha (School of Agricultural Resources, Chulalongkorn University) -
The concentration of intangible assets within the digital economy has been mostly studied by focusing on platforms, in particular, tech giants. These companies harvest big data and process them with secretly kept algorithms. The resulting digital intelligence informs their ongoing businesses and opens new avenues of innovation. Given the potentially never-ending innovations that this process triggers, big tech companies have been conceptualized as data-driven intellectual monopolies. In this presentation, I will argue that BlackRock is also concentrating data and algorithms, therefore digital intelligence, thus eventually becoming a data-driven intellectual monopoly. BlackRock’s Aladdin platform has become indispensable for asset management. It bases its recommendations and analysis on processing data compiled over the last 50 years ranging from financial data to any type of event that may affect capital markets anywhere in the world. From the millions and millions of correlations, it detects possible future scenarios and suggests investments to avoid adverse scenarios. To provide evidence of the relevance of Aladdin and more broadly of intangible assets for BlackRock’s business, I perform a text mining analysis of the company’s annual reports for the last 10 years, analysing the context of appearance and the increasing relevance of terms like ‘Aladdin’, ‘innovation’ and data (‘data analytics’, ‘data processing’, etc.). This is complemented with an overview of BlackRock’s intangible assets over time as well as by looking at BlackRock’s “Technology services” business results in relation to its overall business.
Author: Cecilia Rikap (City University London) -
Since the 2010-12 crisis, Comparative Political Economists attribute an important role to capital flows for the north-south divide in the Eurozone. The present paper offers a critical analysis of this `finance-centric' narrative. It argues that while the narrative rightly emphasises destabilising financial factors, it provides a partly flawed account of capital flows due to its reliance on neoclassical loanable funds theory and an overemphasis of interbank flows. The paper draws on post-Keynesian monetary theory combined with an analysis of accounting relationships and empirical data to make the following points. First, the focus on the financial account as a driver of current accounts should be abandoned in favour of an analysis of gross capital flows. Second, different types of gross flows have different effects: speculative portfolio and FDI flows into asset markets are causally more relevant than interbank flows. Third, the notion of a recycling of northern surpluses in the southern periphery conceals the geography of multilateral gross financial flows. Fourth, rising spreads in the periphery during the Eurozone crisis and the outbreak of the pandemic were not triggered by balance-of-payments problems but by a reversal of gross flows into government bond markets. Taken together, speculative asset flows do contribute to the north-south divide, but a broader framework is needed that considers factors such as domestic financial cycles, austerity, and the separation of monetary and fiscal policy.
Author: Karsten Kohler (Leeds) -
The paper adopts a Minskyan perspectives, which highlights endogenous financial boom-bust cycles, and explores their implication for financialisation and financial globalisation and the role of the state therein. First one can distinguish, with respect to macroeconomic performance three phases of financialisation. A first phase (late 1970s/1980s) with high interest rates and relative low growth; a second phase (mid 1990 up to 2008) with mostly low growth and high asset price growth and relatively low interest rates. Then a third phase (since the GFC) with low interest and depressed house prices. Second, while in most formal economic models of the financial cycle there is a symmetry of mechanisms between upswing and downswing; in practice one would expect an asymmetry due to political economy factors: in a crisis pressures on the state will rise. This has two implications for the theory of currency hierarchies. First, a key difference arises between countries with core and peripheral currencies. While the former experiences capital inflows, which enable gov’t deficit spending, the latter experience outflows, which makes gov’t spending more difficult. Thus the position in the currency hierarchy impacts state capacity. Second, the management of a crisis by the central bank (and the respective government) matters. Letting the crisis spin out of undermines the hegemonic position of the currency. This enters the traditional field of the IPE of international currencies. The Minskyan perspective favours an emphasis on financial factors, but also highlights the importance of state policies in determining the position in the currency hierarchy.
Author: Engelbert Stockhammer (King's College London) -
What accounts for the spread of the primary dealer model in sovereign debt management? Despite the pivotal role of public debt not only for the workings of government, but also for global finance at large, we lack systematic insight into the evolution of sovereign debt management. The primary dealer model which swept the board in the late 1980s, is a key reform with far reaching implications for not only debt sustainability and interest rates, but also for the relationship between governments and their agencies with financial and non-financial institutions. In this article, I examine the diffusion of the primary dealer model across 39 rich and emerging economies from 1970 to 2018. In so doing, I provide, with the use of a new data set, the first cross-national political-economy analysis of primary dealership creation. The results suggest that the costs of public debt have been a central driver of reform. The article provides further evidence that Economic and Monetary Union has shaped debt management practice.
Author: Charlotte Rommerskirchen (University of Edinburgh)
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Panel / IR as a Discipline Council Chamber, Civic CentreSponsor: Contemporary Research on International Political Theory Working GroupConvener: CRIPT Working groupChair: CRIPT Working groupDiscussant: Katharina Hunfeld (University of St Andrews)
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Critical international theory is confronted with a fundamental ‘problem of orientation’, whose answer defines its capacity to critically analyse world politics and deal with global challenges. This problem derives from how the capacity for critique is inherently connected with the need to, at least partially, escape time- and space-bound points of view and attain a more cosmopolitan perspective that permits an assessment of the regressive/progressive tendencies of the human past, present and possible futures. The search for this cosmopolitan standpoint of orientation is even more relevant in face of challenges that now assume a global character, ranging from climate change, global pandemics and the need for increasing cross-border cooperation. The search for such a standpoint has, throughout the history of critical international theory, led to a reliance on grand narratives of human development from the perspective of which critical orientation can be disclosed. However, grand narratives themselves have frequently relied on metaphysical categories and stadial conceptions of history that reproduce forms of Eurocentrism that ultimately undermine their adequacy as means of orientation. A fundamental suspicion of grand narratives and need for ‘reflexivity’ that discloses forms of exclusion embedded in theoretical perspectives have thus become common topics in the field. However, this growing concern with reflexivity is also associated with a tendency for greater philosophical abstraction and a growing gap between theory and practice which, ultimately, has compromised the capacity of critical international theory to remain relevant in contemporary world politics. This article considers the role of grand narratives in critical international theory and explores the possibility of post-Eurocentric and post-philosophical grand narratives that provide an alternative answer to the problem of orientation and recover the link between theory and practice. With reference to recent developments in the field, namely the work of Richard Devetak and Andrew Linklater, the article considers the possibility of a historical-sociological approach to grand narratives which, it is argued, is capable of recovering the role of critical international theory as a means of orientation in face of global challenges to human and non-human survival.
Author: Andre Saramago (University of Coimbra) -
The years since the end of the Cold War have witnessed a substantial growth of interest not only in the historical evolution of academic International Relations (IR), but also the methods most appropriate to its study. Methodological debate has focused predominantly on the supposedly naive "internalist" approach favoured by many disciplinary historians, despite their protestations that they do not ignore “external” contexts. The following paper intervenes in this methodological debate by complementing and complicating existing critiques of internalism in the disciplinary history of IR. It argues that such critiques are to a large extent valid, but do not hold universally. More importantly, they leave unquestioned a further, and perhaps deeper, methodological assumption contained in the literature: namely, that the early formative history of IR holds the keys to understanding, and intervening in, the discipline today. This assumption I term “originalism”, and I argue it has unintentionally downplayed the significance of much of IR’s later development, particularly since the 1970s. Future histories of IR, I conclude, should aim to transcend the internalist/externalist binary while avoiding originalism. In this way, the paper offers a novel methodological perspective on IR’s disciplinary history, one that promises a more comprehensive understanding of the discipline’s past and present.
Author: Samuel Dixon (London School of Economics) -
Earth Systems Scientists are exploring new conceptions of planetary boundaries linked to ecological conditions that provide a ‘safe operating space’ for humanity. These scientists propose to refigure the relationship between human beings and the earth in ways that can preserve and maintain a biosphere conducive to human and much other life on earth. This framework is organized around the view that anthropogenic climate change produced by political and economic globalization has transformed the human species into a ‘natural’ force, thereby disturbing the distinction between ‘man’ and ‘nature’ central to so many modern claims to political authority. Planetary boundaries are politically significant in that they determine the boundaries of political order and the character of political authority on a world scale. This raises the question of the relationship between science and politics at the ‘geo-’ scale. The paper will consider the title question in the context of mid-century debates on systems that involve the relationship between science and politics and between the natural versus the social sciences in political theory (Sheldon Wolin, David Easton) and international relations (Hans Morgenthau, Hedley Bull, Kenneth Waltz, Morton Kaplan, Karl Deutsch). It will link these debates to prior attempts to theorize international politics as one subset of systemic connections subordinate to a broader economic (Wallerstein, Hardt and Negri), social (Morton Kaplan, Karl Deutsch, Mattias Albert), or ecological (Kenneth Boulding, Margaret Sprout) world system.
Author: Regan Burles (Queen Mary University of London)
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Panel / Interrogating the (Neo)Liberal State: Violence, Migration and Resistance Armstrong, Civic CentreSponsor: International Politics of Migration, Refugees and Diaspora Working GroupConveners: Cetta Mainwaring , Maurice Stierl (University of Sheffield)Chair: Joe Turner (University of York)
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This paper explores two forms of overt violence suffered by the racialised and dispossessed in north west Africa, detailing the relationship the EU has to each of them. These two forms are the ongoing “biopolitical and necropolitical modalities of control” (Stierl and Dadusc, 2021) that characterise EU external border policies in the Mediterranean, and the civilian fatalities and human displacement that mark many regions of the Sahel in which France and the EU are engaged in counterinsurgency operations. While varying in degree of European causal responsibility, each of these forms of direct violence are marked by an asymmetry familiar from the colonial era; namely, an extreme level of violence in colonial territories occurring at the same time as a process of pacification and liberalisation in the European colonial metropole. In the contemporary era, this process of pacification and liberalisation is embodied in the process of European integration, and the creation of an internally borderless space and a common foreign and security policy that it has entailed. Thus, insofar as European integration “inside” is complemented by violence and death “outside” – in the Mediterranean and the Sahel – this violent colonial asymmetry also remains. Drawing on interviews with EU officials stationed in the Sahel (Mauritania), ethnographic accounts of migrants’ experiences of violence in the region, and analysis of EU policy documents, this paper details the relationship between experiences of violence and displacement in the Mediterranean and the Sahel, on the one hand, and the policies that govern these experiences on the other. From this vantage point, the colonial asymmetry of violence is suggested to be foundational to the European project.
Author: Hassan Ould Moctar (SOAS) -
Reflecting on biopolitical technologies used in Palestine Jasbir Puar has contended that states do not only capitalise on life and death but they also “weaponize the determination and capacity not to die” (Puar, 2021: 396) impinging on spatial freedom and on people’s life-time. Individuals are targeted by “infrastructural and corporeal debilitation” (397) and their time is “held hostage” (404), their lives are slowed down and chocked. This presentation draws on this analytical framework for rethinking carcerality and harm in refugee governmentality, investigating modes of violence that tend to remain invisible or that do not trigger mobilizations as they do not lead to migrants’ death. The first part of the presentation engages with scholarly debates on border violence and draws attention to modes of governing through chocking and harming migrants. The second part investigates how carceral mechanisms are enforced through the implementation of technologies that are less used for surveilling migrants than for obstructing their access to rights and asylum. The final part interrogates how to re-craft a critique of the border regime in light of modes of violence that act through spatial harassment and temporal disruptions.
Author: Martina Tazzioli (Goldsmiths, University of London) -
Progressive calls and activities to ‘decolonise’ the academy and particular migration studies have been rising in the recent past. At the same time we have seen concerns about the undermining academic freedom by silencing scholars that do not correspond to such a progressive vision. These academic conflicts mirror socio-political conflicts in society at large, and the backlash to emancipatory identity politics. How to teach migration in such a polarized environment and enable students to critically reflect upon these developments in higher education and society at large, and to question and interrogate the violence inherent in contemporary migration regimes? This contribution offers reflections based on an understanding of academia as a common space of learning, and scholarship on communication about migration, identity politics and polarization.
Author: Leila Hadj Abdou (University of Vienna) -
Bad Data or Bad Practice? The Wicked Problem of Knowledge Production and Migrants in Insecure Status
The state as an entity is, and European coloniser states are, historically racist. This ongoing racist legacy translates into a simultaneous over- and under-surveillance of migrants. The state uses historical data and legacy racist practices to gather and analyse data, which work as a means of policing migrants and defending deterrent immigration policy. Coercive policies such as arbitrary detention, deportation, removal to unsafe locations, pushbacks, and abandonment in hostile locations are habitually used in European immigration practices. They result in violence experienced by migrants in insecure status, including maltreatment, abuse, sexual violence and rape in state custody, the use of restraint, assault, and brutality to achieve submission, and increased vulnerability to violence in society. The state weaponizes data against migrants; consequently, people with insecure status are forced to evade the state. Unrepresentative data aggravates the problems of minoritization and related vulnerability. A lack of information leads to a lack of knowledge of experiences and outcomes along intersectional minoritized identity lines. I argue that turning critical attention to state data-gathering practices, coupled with data on violence and deaths along migration routes, highlights the logic behind coercive immigration policies that are a result of the (data-driven) rationale of lowering net migration.
Author: Alexandria Innes (City, University of London) -
Since 2015, the European Union has accelerated its efforts to ‘control migration’ through a rapid process of militarization and ever-more violent spectacles at its external borders. In response, people have engaged in new and old forms of solidarity activism in order to resist this violence and imagine a different Europe. In our paper, we explore the violent governing of racialised bodies in the EU and the possibilities of acts of resistance. We focus on the Mediterranean and the island-state of Malta to explore resistance to violent bordering practices in a post-colonial state and how it intersects with resistance to bordering at sea. We wonder: Does operating on the high sea, outside state borders, lend itself to more radical action than on land? Does activist and humanitarian work in the Mediterranean transgress state borders and categories, possibly gesturing toward another politics beyond division? Certainly, resistance at sea doesn’t occur in isolation: people need to be disembarked, legal battles must be fought, and activists at sea return to the land and often face legal and other consequences of their actions at sea. In order to examine these intersections, we analyse activist and humanitarian interventions at sea over rescue and disembarkation and the ways in which they relate to forms of political organising on land.
Authors: Cetta Mainwaring , Maurice Stierl (University of Sheffield)
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Panel / Managing Conflicts in the Age of Global Governance: Insights from Twentieth-Century History Parson, Civic CentreSponsor: Intervention and Responsibility to Protect Working GroupConvener: Volker Prott (Aston University, Birmingham, UK)Chair: Volker Prott (Aston University, Birmingham, UK)
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This paper examines the attempts of the UN to become an active ‘third force’ in Cold War international politics in three case studies: the Kashmir conflict (1948–1950), the Congo Crisis (1960–1965), and the East Pakistan conflict (1971). It demonstrates that in all three crises, the UN sought to expand its political influence but was soon confronted with its own limitations and varying challenges arising from local and wider historical circumstances. The paper argues that by the 1970s, the initially ambitious approach to conflict settlement had given way to a pragmatic focus on the ‘humanitarian’ aspect of crisis management that shied away from the pursuit of political solutions, with lasting consequences for the UN’s role in the international system.
Author: Volker Prott (Aston University, Birmingham, UK) -
The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) managed to mobilize a global network of humanitarian agencies to forge its first flagship project - Fundamental Education to deal with the post-conflict i.e. post-WWII reconstruction. Drawing upon the experience of the education-driven development project that sought to transform China, UNESCO Fundamental Education aimed at not only educational reconstruction but also comprehensive societal engineering in the backward areas. This paper will bring in a historical constitutive perspective and will locate the initiative of UNESCO Fundamental Education in the history of international intervention in modern China. This paper will analyze how UNESCO Fundamental Education intercepted and intertwined with nationalism, politics, and group dynamics of activism, etc. in the context of post-war reconstruction, peace negotiation, state-building, fully-fledged civil war, and burgeoning Cold War tensions etc.. This paper will reflect upon the complexity and dilemmas of international intervention in conflicted affected states.
Key Words: UNESCO, Fundamental Education, Global Governance, China, Rural Reconstruction
Author: Yarong Chen (Beijing Foreign Studies University, China) -
This paper will explore the multifarious and complex impacts on Austria of the League of Nations’ programme for financial reconstruction of the country. The League’s programme was designed to reshape Austria’s financial, fiscal and bureaucratic structures with a view to stabilising its post-First World War currency and enabling the country to obtain international loans. The scheme saw the installation in Vienna in late 1922 of a League-appointed Commissioner-General who had substantial powers over Austria’s budget and thus government spending.
The League’s programme has often been regarded as a great success for international financial diplomacy, both at the time and since, and, in the short term, the League’s work saw the establishment of confidence in the Austrian currency, the provision of international loans, the end of hyperinflation and the attainment of a balanced budget. This paper will explore the ways in which the programme also worked in some respects to undermine and destabilise Austria, through the creation of depressive economic conditions and resultant high levels of bankruptcies and unemployment, and through the exacerbation of political conflicts within the new Republic –conflicts between political groups and between the central government and regional governments.
Author: Barbara Warnock (The Wiener Holocaust Library, London, UK) -
Insecurity, Precarity and Local Labour in United Nations Peacekeeping: Towards a Research Agenda
Author: Martin Ottovay Jørgensen (Aalborg University, Denmark) -
Based on sources from UNHCR, the Vietnamese communist government in the South (the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam, PRG), and the American government, this paper unravels the entangled histories of humanitarianism, Cold War rivalry, and international refugee policy. It shows how after the Paris Accords of 1973, UNHCR sought a strategy to gain credibility in the ‘Third World’, become more independent from its largest donor, the United States, and define itself as a ‘neutral and apolitical’ humanitarian player by providing humanitarian assistance to all parties – capitalist and communist alike – in Vietnam. This strategy continued when the Republic of Vietnam in the south was defeated, which led to a stronger collaboration with the Vietnamese communist regimes in both the north and the south until the country was reunified in July 1976. However, the emphasis on humanitarian assistance inside Vietnam had detrimental effects for refugees outside of the country, who failed to attain legal protection from UNHCR in that first crucial period of flight.
Author: Sara Cosemans (University Leuven, Belgium)
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Panel / Meaning Making and Decision Making in UN Peacekeeping Daniel Wood, Student UnionSponsor: Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Working GroupConvener: Tom Buitelaar (University of Leiden)Chair: Tom Buitelaar (University of Leiden)Discussant: Maria Martin de Almagro (University of Ghent)
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How do peacekeepers persuade national militaries at war with each other to negotiate? The Tripartite Meetings are an invention of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). They are managed by UNIFIL and take place on the Blue Line, the line of withdrawal that separates Lebanon and Israel, two states that remain technically at war. Established at the end of the Israel-Hizballah War of 2006, the Tripartite Meetings have occurred between representatives from the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) on a bi-monthly basis ever since. The meetings discuss security incidents on the Blue Line with the aim of preventing escalation and extended military confrontations. Despite increased security challenges, the meetings have continued with no walk-outs or suspensions, and they have been recognized by successive UN Secretary Generals as comprising an innovative and critical contribution to local peace. Using abductive reasoning this paper interrogates the meaning-making process of UNIFIL staff hosting and managing the Tripartite Meetings. Drawing on repeated interviews with UNIFIL staff past and present, this paper examines the strategies employed by the mission to maintain the functioning of the meetings and explores peacekeeper interpretations of success and failure within the context of the meetings. This article contributes to the literature on how peacekeepers make sense of their actions which is a critical element in understanding how peacekeeping works.
Author: Vanessa F. Newby (Leiden University) -
Many international organizations (IOs) provide assistance to governments through country offices or peacekeeping operations. Sometimes, despite paying lip service to the principles that IOs seek to promote, national counterparts violate international norms. IO officials must then choose between confrontational and conciliatory responses. These responses are located on a spectrum from robust norm enforcement to silence and downplaying. How do IO officials make those decisions? Based on 200 interviews with UN peacekeeping officials, we argue that the factors that shape IO officials’ decision-making are found across three categories: individual, unit-level, and positional. In terms of individual characteristics, previous experience, career security, and the length of service at the duty station matter. Regarding unit-level factors, the politicization of the IO section’s work, its professional composition, and the type of national interlocutors predispose units to be host government’s supporters or critics. In terms of positional considerations, the place of a post or unit in the IO hierarchy, the relations with other IO entities, and the distance from the field play a role. Understanding IO officials’ predispositions can help IO senior leaders and member states shape the composition of the international bureaucracy in a way that increases the likelihood of outcomes they deem desirable.
Authors: Kseniya Oksamytna (City, University of London / King's College London) , Oisín Tansey (King’s College London)* , Birte Gippert (University of Liverpool)* -
While we know that peacekeeping is key to keep the peace and protect civilians, we know less about how it works to achieve those aims. Notwithstanding a growing recognition that mandates alone do not directly determine what actually happens in the field, we still know little about how- once deployed- units translate an ambiguous mandate into action, even though the broader literature on military sociology and security studies points out the importance of translating ambiguous mandates into action even beyond the context of peacekeeping. We focus on one dimension of peacekeepers' behaviour that has become increasingly important, namely how peacekeepers relate to other military units with whom they are supposed to implement their mandate. In this paper, we systematically document how mandate interpretations emerge and how they influence peacekeepers’ understanding of other troops they work with. We borrow the concept of meaning making from the military sociological literature, which refers to the human and common process through which individuals give meaning to their surrounding context. Drawing on unique ethnographic data and nearly 120 interviews with peacekeepers deployed to the UN mission in Mali (2014-2018), we inductively identify three different ways by which peacekeepers interpret their mandate and interact with other contingents: “Voltaire’s garden”; “building bridges” and “othering”. Acknowledging peacekeepers’ agency and the social dimension of peacekeeping has important implications for both scholarly and policy debates.
Authors: Chiara Ruffa (Swedish Defence University ) , Bas Rietjens (Netherlands Defence Academy)* -
UN peace operations continue to encounter serious challenges in implementing their mandates to protect civilians. Scholars have analyzed numerous potential determinants of this effectiveness, but there is a growing interest among peacekeeping scholars in studying the role of agent-level factors. They have investigated such matters as the mechanisms through which individuals within peace operations can have influence, but also the importance of Special Representatives of the Secretary-General (SRSGs) in mediating norm conflicts. I build on this literature, but expand the investigation by proposing a systematic framework for analyzing the agency of the leadership of peace operations who operate within structural constraints and against the background of a specific risk context. In particular, I highlight their risk tolerance, their normative convictions, and the extent to which they are more or less diplomatic in their relations with domestic and international partners. Apart from looking at SRSGs, I also investigate how other key mission leaders (such as the Force Commander and the Director of the Human Rights Division) have an impact on effectiveness and how their agency differs from that of the SRSG. I link this conceptual discussion with an analysis of the mechanisms through which individual differences between mission leaders may have an impact on the effectiveness of peace operations. I test the proposed framework with two case studies of leadership change within peace operations.
Author: Tom Buitelaar (University of Leiden)
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Panel / Narratives of Violence and Trauma: Modes of Storytelling and the Politics of Victim and Perpetrator Representation Kate Adie, Student UnionSponsor: International Law and Politics Working GroupConvener: Rachel Kerr (King's College London)Chair: Rachel Kerr (King's College London)
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Whether as targets of violence, or as violent protagonists, the agency and experiences of youth in transitional contexts is an important, yet often neglected, aspect of transitional justice. Yet, what are the best ways that the experiences of youth, and in particular their encounters with trauma, can be represented to capture their multiple roles in both violence and peace? This paper turns to four graphic novels to interrogate the extent to which they open up new ways of recording the complex experiences of youth in conflict and transition. Graphic novels are focused on specifically as a medium that transitional justice mechanisms (such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission) have turned to as part of youth outreach initiatives, and, as acclaimed novels such as Maus suggest, a site which can critically engage with the theme of trauma in ways that opens up disruptive possibilities for political engagement and the emergence of narratives of transition.
Author: Henry Redwood (London South Bank University) -
South Africa’s 1995 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) stands as the first ground-breaking institution of transitional justice to centre victimhood and victim-centred reconciliation. In a bid to achieve reparative healing for victims, the TRC adopted dialogical and expressive modes to explore pluralised narratives of victimhood through testimony. Drawing on the concept of racial injury and trauma, this paper advances that the TRC’s approach of centring truth in testimony, carried performative expectations for victims, whilst reinforcing a static understanding of apartheid’s racial violence. Through addressing the extractive undertones present within the TRC’s Human Rights Violation Committee, this paper postulates that the TRC deployed racialised tropes which engaged victims in a dialogue of collective and individual legitimacy. The paper further argues that through centring the success of reconciliation on individual victims’ testimonies, the TRC rendered actors and agents of apartheid inanimate. In so doing, the TRC effectively detached racial violence from a social, political and economic network of perpetratorship.
Author: Ninette Amarachi Iheke (King's College London) -
With this paper, I explore combatants’ narratives of war and of reintegration in Central Africa. More specifically, the discussion offers insights into lived experiences of war among ex-combatants using body maps as anchoring narrative creation. Outlining a gap in scholarship in the examination of trauma experiences, it postulates a need for greater representation of ex-combatants’ views in the field. As such, this paper central argument proposes individual narratives as an essential source of exploration for examining individual trauma and the complexity of the war experience. In addition to body-mapping, it utilises narrative interviews conducted with 20 youth formerly associated with armed groups in CAR to provide thematic insights into experiences of trauma, moral injury, and violence. In doing so, this work refocuses scholarly attention to ex-combatants and their experiences and sheds light on individual trauma narratives as building new knowledge and situates the study of trauma as central to the study of war.
Author: Pauline Zerla (King's College London) -
The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda saw more than a million Tutsi as well as Hutu and Twa who opposed the genocide killed by Hutu extremists. A quarter century since the event, testimonial literature and much of recent scholarship highlight successful emotional and physical healing and reconciliation. However, the transcripts of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and some fiction narratives draw attention to individuals’ enduring experiences of pain. In this paper, qualitative discourse analysis of selected legal and creative narratives will be used to unpack these experiences and question approaches to and assumptions about healing of trauma. Material scarcity, unhealed physical injuries and the absence of a community emerge to shape the aftermath of genocide. Some individuals rely on momentary relief to bear living with pain. This paper examines the extent to which the current conceptual understandings of trauma and healing help understand the absence of healing and living with pain, arguing for the potential of legal and creative narratives to facilitate identification of conceptual challenges.
Author: Anna Katila (King's College London) -
On 29th October 2021, eight out of nine jury panel members of the Guantanamo Bay Military Commission against Majid Khan issued a letter recommending clemency. The damning two-page document authored by senior serving military personnel described the CIA’s torture of Khan as ‘a stain on the moral fibre of America’ and likened his torture to the practices of ‘the most abusive regimes in modern history’. The commissions, established by George W Bush on 13 November 2001 fall far short of any normal legal standards that liberal democratic states claim to uphold, with state authorities seeking to suppress all evidence of the extent of the torture of terror suspects, while at the same time depending on ‘evidence’ supposedly secured through torture to secure convictions. This paper is aimed at exploring how the very protracted and tainted ‘justice’ processes have compounded the traumatic impacts of months and years of torture on victims, while at the same time inflicting severe blows to due process, the rule of law, and the legitimacy of the international human rights regime.
Author: Ruth Blakeley (University of Sheffield)
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Panel / Perspectives on Peacebuilding Dobson, Civic CentreSponsor: Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Working GroupConvener: PKPBG Working groupChair: PKPBG Working group
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Key words: positive peace, political violence, social identity, horizontal inequalities, peacebuilding, conflict transformation, social constructivism
How can positive intra-state peace – peace that is sustainable or embedded in deep socio-cultural structures – be conceptualized? This article provides a social constructivist analysis of the root causes of political violence, that is, horizontal inequalities and fundamental hegemonic struggles across identity groups, as a basis to conceptualize a deep, lasting positive peace beyond the mere absence of manifest violence. Drawing on social identity theory and realist social theory, it focuses on the mostly overlooked influences of social identity on agents’ social practices to analyse the deeply-rooted dynamics of intra-state violent conflicts and theorise a deep root-cause approach to peace and peacebuilding. It therefore conceptualizes deep positive peace as the absence of fundamental conflicts that encompass social identity dynamics leading to out-group discrimination and horizontal inequalities. Grounded in social constructivism, this article proposes a deep positive peace that entails an agential approach. It focuses on the mostly under-examined agential dimension of the agents–structure problem, and social identity dynamics. As such, it offers an alternative and supplement to the prevailing liberal institutionalist and interactionist/relational approaches in the existing research. This article argues that the proposed analytical framework for positive peace can provide a conceptual basis for efforts for ‘sustaining peace’ and fostering a culture of peace.
Author: Tuba Turan (University of Essex) -
Recent scholarship has identified a global presence of agonistic transitional justice, which represents an alternative to traditional liberal approaches to the field (Murphy and Walsh, forthcoming). While agonism is supported by a well-developed body of literature and this macro-level analysis, an understanding of how agonism is realised in practice, particularly from a comparative standpoint, remains underdeveloped. This study aims to bridge the gap between theory and empirics by examining agonistic transitional justice in Northern Ireland and Colombia. Based on archival analysis and interviews with both governmental and non-governmental officials in Northern Ireland as well as archival analysis of the Colombian case, the study finds that elements of agonistic transitional justice are present at the institutional level in both cases. By examining examples such as the Parades Commission, the creation of shared spaces, and the potential advent of new transitional justice mechanisms, the study explores how agonistic transitional justice can emerge alongside traditional approaches and what different contextual examples of agonistic transitional justice look like in practice. The study also reflects on the implications of the differences between agonistic transitional justice in Northern Ireland and Colombia.
Author: Emma Murphy (University College Dublin) -
The local turn in critical peacebuilding has drawn on a wide variety of postcolonial theories, concepts, and thinkers, such as Foucault’s resistance, Bhabha’s hybridity, de Certeau’s the everyday, and Scott’s hidden transcript. Yet, there has not been a substantive engagement with the writings of the postcolonial author and activist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. In ‘Can the subaltern speak?’, Spivak criticized the way that the concept of the subaltern is employed to mean any marginalized group whilst stating unequivocally that the subaltern cannot speak. What else can be learnt from an engagement with Spivak? I engaged with some of Spivak’s most influential works and argue that three theoretical insights are relevant for critical peacebuilding. First, Spivak’s discussion of Foucault’s nexus of power/knowledge (pouvoir/savoir) places an epistemological limit on resistance as a viable respond to liberal peacebuilding so that ‘resistance is never in a position of exteriority in relations to power’. Second, Spivak’s notion of strategic essentialism, being congruent with the practice of reflexivity, helps to overcome the local-international binary deadlock. Finally, following from Spivak’s discussion of subalternity and the politics of representation, the paper problematizes the methodology of studying the local. Recognizing that the subaltern cannot speak, critical peacebuilding scholars need to be mindful of inadvertent instrumental representation of the local in theorizing and policy-recommendations.
Keywords: Peacebuilding, postcolonialism, subalternity, resistance, reflexivity, politics of representation.Author: Q. Dung Pham (London School of Economics and Political Science) -
Social media is a relatively new variable in the equation of conflict development and resolution. Existing research identified opposing influences: a polarizing effect that further divides the opponents, but also positive effects, abridging effect that creates common ground, and can even be used as a potential peace-building tool.
The research aims to improve understanding about the role of social media during conflicts, by examining narratives in this platform. Societies involved in conflicts, develop a narrative which provide justification and explanation to the conflict, causes for its eruption, its dynamic, their own society and that of the rival society, and the desired solution. Previous research found that this narrative should be the main target for change when promoting inter-group reconciliation.
The overarching research question is whether social media can be an alternative platform that undermines the mainstream narrative about a conflict, a narrative which supports its continuation. Focusing on Israel and the Palestinians, the research uses mixed methods, including analysing social media data, and interview with social media influencers and users.
The findings will contribute to the knowledge about the role of narratives on social media during conflicts. They will also add a relatively new aspect to the knowledge on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Social media is seen nowadays as an important player during conflicts, and the study can be also part of future discussion on regulations and policy.
Author: Dana Guy (University College Dublin)
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Panel / Security and Sexuality Carloil, Civic CentreSponsor: Gendering International Relations Working GroupConvener: Lindsay Clark (University of Southampton)Chair: Lindsay Clark (University of Southampton)
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This paper is interested in the treatment of abstractions, understood as social categories that appear to us as empirically given, within critical IR scholarship. Focusing on three abstractions in particular — queer, trans, and subaltern — it identifies a propensity within ostensibly critical approaches to use these subordinated subject positions as allegories that can explicate the traditional concerns of IR: war, statecraft, migration, and so on. The allegorization of these subject positions treats oppressed people as mere rhetorical figures or methodological stepping-stones for academic theorizing. This move serves a mystifying function: It disables scholars from examining the complex social relations that give rise to these abstracted subject positions. In each of our three case studies (queer theory, trans studies, and subaltern studies) we find that the abstraction operates as a form of mystification within its relative literature, foreclosing scholars’ ability to address the specific and substantive issues of subaltern, queer, and trans people’s lives. In addition to elaborating a critique of this tendency, the paper outlines alternative approaches that demystify the terms queer, trans, and subaltern by attending to their concrete historical and social determinations. These methods of demystification, we argue, carry forward a founding commitment of critical theory that is all too often abandoned.
Author: Alexander Stoffel (Queen Mary University of London) -
The foundations of the SAS function as an origin myth, where ideologies of masculinity, violence, and elite soldiering come into being. These foundational myths matter because they frame the possibilities and thus practices of elite soldiering. First this article identifies the key foundational myths; the ‘band of brothers’ made up of misfits brought together and formed under intense physical and mental process under the desert sun to create the hardened and singularly resilient masculine super soldier. A myth that has continued to inform the selection and training regimes of Special forces units internationally. I then re-tell the story and in particular focus on the origins of the SAS as a place of love, of cross-dressing, a dessert camp of homosexual, not simply homo-social becomings. I do this not to ‘out’ any of the men involved, or indeed to suggest this is a more ‘accurate’ version of the story, but rather to consider what it might mean to draw out this latent theme in this origin story, and to think how this can be a route to (re)encounter military masculinities and queer military studies.
Author: Louise Pears (University of Leeds) -
This paper is part of a broader project investigating how Islamophobic productions of Muslim subjectivity are both constituted and sustained in UK counterterror discourses and state security practices through entanglements of race and sexuality. More specifically, this paper investigates the ways in which heteronormativity functions and upholds UK counterterror discourses. It will interrogate how depictions of radicalisation of British Muslims – or transitions into terrorism – are often centred on heteronormative ideas of romantic relationships, through exploring “Jihadi Bride” narratives and portrayals of British Jihadists as those who “can’t make it with girls” (Johnson 2015). In turn, it will also draw attention to the very racialised and contradictory ways heteronormativity functions in UK counterterror discourses through an examination of media coverage and reactions to the 2021 Plymouth Shooting. It will show the disparity in the framing of the actions of Jake Davison, a young white male who indiscriminately slaughtered 5 people. It will be argued that the widespread reluctance of the UK media and senior counterterror officials to call Davison a terrorist and his actions terrorism despite his frustrations of “failing to get a girlfriend” and expressions of sympathy with “Incels”, reveals the racialised and obscure ways heteronormativity often surfaces in UK counterterrorism.
Author: Rahima Siddique (University of Manchester)
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/ British Truth Telling Commission on Colonialism pre-roundtable meetup Bewick, Civic Centre
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Conference event / Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working Group AGM Stephenson, Civic Centre
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/ International Law and Politics Working Group Meeting Swan, Civic Centre
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Lunch Banqueting Hall, Civic Centre
Banqueting Hall, Civic Centre
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/ Research Directors' coffee The Northern Stage, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RH
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Conference event / South East Europe Working Group AGM Armstrong, Civic Centre
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Conference event / BISA and PSA Workshop: Gender, Race and the Intersections of Precarity - An Interactive Workshop - Although this is open to all conference delegates you need to register in advance to attend at https://www.bisa.ac.uk/events/bisa-and-psa-workshop-gender-race-and-intersections-precarity-interactive-workshop-best Henry Daysh Building - Lecture Hall 1.02
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/ Extraordinary General Meeting (Full BISA members only) Council Chamber, Civic Centre
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Roundtable / Beyond Willful Ignorance: A British Truth-Telling Commission on Colonialism? History Room, Student Union
Post-, anti- and decolonial scholarship and activism have long highlighted the Western imperial origins, inequalities, and violence of today’s global political, economic, and cultural structures. Yet, in Britain, more than half of all people surveyed in 2014 were either proud (44%) or apathetic (23%) about colonialism and its harms, while 21% of Brits surveyed regret colonialism (Dahlgreen, 2014). The English history curriculum does not prioritise colonialism: the teaching of colonialism is a suggestion rather than a statutory requirement (Department for Education, 2013; Izzidien, 2018). The pre- and post-Brexit impetus to ‘take back our borders’, and return to Global Britain and a strengthened relationship with the Commonwealth is articulated by British politicians with little sense of irony or self-reflection on the past and ongoing impacts of British imperialism. The need to acknowledge and redress colonial harms is not a constitutive part of government or opposition policy. This roundtable asks what can be done in Britain to counter the wilful ignorance of British politicians and much of the British public and to facilitate a reckoning with Britain’s imperial past? To orient discussions, the roundtable will begin with an initial proposition taken from the scholarship and practice of transitional justice: a British Truth-Telling Commission on Colonialism as a means of decentring the Eurocentric narrative of imperialism. From there, we will consider the following questions et al.: is a truth-telling commission the right option, or are there better alternatives? What should the objectives be? What should the process be? What are the potential limitations and harms? What are the potential benefits?
Sponsor: Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working GroupChair: Kojo Koram (Birbeck University)Participants: Gurminder Bhambra (University of Sussex) , Lisa Tilley (Birkbeck, University of London) , Bill Rolston (Ulster University) , Gary Younge (University of Manchester) , Kojo Koram (Birbeck University) -
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Panel / Contemporary Approaches to Biopolitics & Governmentality Dobson, Civic CentreSponsor: Post-Structural Politics Working GroupConveners: Henrique Tavares Furtado (University of the West of England) , Jeffrey Whyte (University of Manchester) , Uygar Baspehlivan (University of Bristol)Chair: Christina Oelgemoller (Loughborough University)
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This paper re-examines the concept of biopolitics in the work of Giorgio Agamben and Roberto Esposito in the wake of Covid-19. In a sense, the authors represent two poles in biopolitical literatures. At one extreme stands Agamben's thanato-politics, and at the other, Esposito's 'affirmative bipolitics.' By comparing and contrasting the authors, this paper will explore the shortcomings, as well as insights, of biopolitical frameworks in grasping the pressing political questions posed by the pandemic -- particularly the controversial positions taken by Agamben. Was there an essential tendency within Agamben's homo sacer series that led him to his critical stance on Covid governance? Or was his Covid position an uncritical aberration from his earlier work? The paper turns to Esposito's work on affirmative biopolitics as a way out of the impasse found in Agamben's pre- and post-Covid analyses.
Author: Oliver Belcher (School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University) -
Though less omni-present than Latour’s ANT, Barad’s theoretical work has proven a useful critical resource for theorising beyond the ‘Cartesian dualism’—the distinction between the human and the nonhuman that underpins Modern knowledge practices—in the social sciences, including International Politics. Approaches that move us beyond this binary have become especially important in the Anthropocene, a time in which the biosphere itself has become an agent of history (Chakrabarty 2009; Latour 2014). What distinguishes Barad’s approach from others in this mould—including Latour’s—is the premise that at the level of ontology, of what is, “it could be otherwise” (Woolgar & Lezaun, 2013, p. 322). As such, I argue that Barad’s work is an enormously helpful contribution to thinking political possibility and, as such, the basis for thinking about an emancipatory politics beyond the human/nonhuman binary.
However, this paper lays out and responds to the various criticisms of Barad’s approach that expose its political limits: their under-theorisation of how the potential for things to be otherwise might be realised; their preference for affirmation and aversion to critical negativity; and their preference for constructing an ethics rather than a politics. In order to rectify this and to develop Barad’s approach into one that can locate and analyse an emancipatory politics fit for the post-Cartesian context of the Anthropocene, the paper will bring their work into a constructive and novel dialogue with the political theory of Rancière. On the one hand, I argue that Rancière’s distinction between practices of policing and politics, as well as his focus on ‘wrong’ as the founding condition for politics, gives Barad’s work the necessary fangs to locate and analyse emancipatory politics. On the other hand, I argue that Barad allows us to de-anthropocentre Rancière’s work such that we can think emancipatory politics in more-than-human terms. In sum, the paper builds a tentative—but nonetheless novel—framework for analysing emancipatory politics in the Anthropocene era.
Author: Benjamin Bowsher (Newcastle University) -
This paper investigates the social impact of the multiplicity of narratives drawn from the work of truth commissions in Brazil (2014) and Colombia (2016). The paper seeks to understand how the evaluation of truth-seeking – the definition of whether a truth commission successfully implemented its mandate or not – affect, and is affected by, societal understandings of violence, conflict, and insecurity. The analysis is guided by four central questions: (i) What are the historical conditions that allowed for the convergence of the fields of mediation, development and transitional justice in the two case studies? (ii) What are the main implications of such convergence to the terms with which violence came to be understood as a problem by the field of transitional justice? (iii) How has the regime of justification of what transitional justice is expected to accomplish been rearticulated throughout the trajectory of this field? (iv) How does the convergence of the fields of mediation, development, and transitional justice affect the technical repertoire anchoring the practices of truth-seeking and truth-telling?
Author: Henrique Tavares Furtado (University of the West of England) -
The biopolitical management of populations during the COVID19 pandemic has been observed all around the world, and it is even more pronounced in authoritarian regimes. This paper substantiates the socio-political implications of the new practices of governance that emerged during the pandemic in China. Our research question reads as follows: Has the Chinese leadership used the response to COVID19 as a strategic tool to reinforce the control of the Chinese population? We argue firstly that China’s Party-State has used the pandemic to biopolitically engineer the Chinese nation. On the one hand, China’s political leadership has further downsized national minority groups, eventually nullifying their right to political subjectivity and identity. On the other hand, the Chinese government has implemented mobility policies to discourage holders of foreign passports from coming or returning to China, from operating professionally or planning to settle down in the country, implicating that foreign nationals are now redundant in China. All these occur by means of governmental practices of security and fear. The article commences with the existing biopolitical readings of the pandemic’s management. It then genealogically investigates governmental practices of security and fear embedded in China’s response to the pandemic, with a focus on the Other (minority groups and foreigners). The ensuing section elaborates on the socio-political implications of these governmental practices, fleshing out the biopolitical engineering of the Chinese nation. The concluding remarks pave the way for future research.
Author: Evangelos Fanoulis (Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) -
In recent years, various literatures within International Relations and Critical Security Studies have foregrounded the connections between popular culture and world politics. Far from merely mirroring contemporary and historical events, popular culture shapes and (co-) important political discourses that produce the world we live in. Especially in times that are broadly virtual, fast-paced, crisis-heavy the line between reality and fiction becomes more and more blurred.
This paper looks at the highly successful Netflix show Squid Game, released in September 2021. I argue that while the commercial and global dimension of the show demonstrates its economic success, Squid Game reveals itself to be an important political artefact to understand contemporary and overlapping financial, pandemic, and political crises. The show creates a world touching on themes such as existential crises, endemic insecurity and the violent nature of contemporary society. In doing so it offers a variety of discursive elements of neo-liberalism and crisis global audiences are familiar with. Understanding these themes and why and how they can resonate with audiences can help us understand the way violent crises unfold and how popular culture helps (co-)constituting them.
Author: Julian Schmid (Institute of International Relations Prague)
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Panel / Environmental Activism and Youth Engagement: Imagining a Sustainable Future in Algeria and its Neighbourhood Daniel Wood, Student UnionSponsor: International Studies of the Mediterranean, Middle East & Asia Working GroupConvener: Jessica Northey (Coventry University)Chair: Gordon Crawford (Coventry University)
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Since 2019 young Algerians have been engaged in a massive peaceful mobilisation on an unprecedented scale for democracy, dignity and justice. Within this movement, there have also been deep reflections around the importance of protecting the environment. This has included questions of sovereignty over Algeria’s natural resources, and a rejection of polluting industries, such as fracking by international oil companies. This comes at a time of increasing awareness of the global environmental crises of climate change and biodiversity, as well as of the need to diversify the Algerian economy and benefit from the significant potential of solar and other forms of renewable energy. This paper will draw on different political ecology theories of natural resource governance such as those of Elinor Ostrom, and theories around civic engagement. It will explore this raising awareness of climate and ecological crises in Algeria and examine how youth are responding on the ground through transformative projects of ownership and resource management. How do they imagine their futures and how are they supported in working towards achieving that vision?
Authors: Jessica Northey (Coventry University) , Adel Chiheb (Jijel University, Algeria) , Latefa Guemar (University of East London) -
Recently there has been a wave of interest in business start-ups among young Algerians, and that has been accompanied with a range of new policies from the government. At the same time, there has been a movement around the world led by young people to bring about change on climate, biodiversity loss, and to embrace sustainability and circular economy. This paper offers insight into why the Algerian government is seeking to provide more support to SMEs, and whether this focuses on sustainability. The paper explores policy statements, recent legislation, and civil society and media reporting of this development. It will explore the motives and methods from policy makers to respond to the demand from Algerian youth across the country. Drawing on interviews with youth led SMEs, it enquires whether sustainable eco-friendly SMEs have received meaningful incentives and what are their experiences of support. Are sustainable SMEs a crucial means for achieving a rapid diversification in the economic development agenda of Algeria and are they contributing to new livelihoods and more circular economy as demanded by Algerian youth?
Author: Seif Ziad (Southampton University) -
This paper will explore how the arts can help young people to reflect on their environment and to think about the future. Drawing on data from a two-year research initiative working with a network of Algerian youth researchers from across Algerian and UK universities as well as environmental associations in Algeria, this paper will investigate the youth’s creative responses to the different environmental challenges facing Algeria and their understandings of imagined future Algeria. The paper discusses some artistic engagements through which young Algerian men and women approach different environmental issues and raise awareness about them. This paper also sheds light on how creative young Algerians use the arts to mobilise the youth and the difficulties which they encounter in their environmental activism.
Author: Ikram Berkani (Coventry University) -
This paper is situated in a wider discussion around the role of women in political and social change and environmental awareness and activism. Since 2018, several social mobilisation movements have taken places in MENA countries such as Lebanon, Iraq, Sudan and Algeria. In the Algerian context, this movement became known as the Hirak. Women were strongly present in these movements as they participated effectively in organising and communicating the demands of protesters. Women’s participation in these widely popular movements is a great testimony challenging the stereotypical ‘victim, oppressed, having little agency’ representation of women in the Muslim and Arab world. Women participated in the Hirak by taking part in the protests and volunteering to organise them. They also did so by taking back the public space, from providing meals outdoors and cleaning up the local environments after demonstrations, to reclaiming spaces through artistic creation and expression. Algerian women in the south have played an equally important role in demonstrations against fracking in recent years, with concerns for the fragile water systems of an already water scarce region. This paper discusses the political agency of Algerian women, with a focus on how they are protecting their environments, drawing on feminist and postcolonial theories and literature to also understand their place in the political discourses and public sphere.
Author: Meryem Abdelhafid (Coventry university ) -
- Protection of the environment is a significant challenge in Algeria. Various environmental associations, activists and national directorates have recently increased their efforts to focus on and achieve sustainability. Leading associations are often youth led and involve children of different ages in voluntary activities, including cleaning-up public spaces, planting trees and collecting waste around their villages. Looking at the role of children in sustaining the environment, it is worth considering how they understand the concept of “sustainability”, and how they comprehend their role as young defenders of the environment. It is also worth exploring how these children and youth imagine themselves and their environment in the future, and their understanding of the challenges facing the country around climate and biodiversity loss that will disproportionately affect Algeria and the Mediterranean. I believe this is under-researched in Algeria and the wider region. To explore this and achieve the aim of the current paper, a qualitative research study will be conducted with a group of children and youth who are taking part in two associations located in Bejaia and Boumerdas. To collect the data, I will conduct semi-structured interviews with the participants. An inductive thematic analysis will be used to analyse the data. The findings of this study will be presented and discussed further in this paper.
Author: Souad Smaili (Northampton University)
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Panel / Epidemiological Imperialism: The Medicalization of (In)Security in International Relations Armstrong, Civic CentreSponsor: Global Health Working GroupConveners: Jana-Maria Fey (Queen Mary University London) , Malte Riemann (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst)Chair: Malte Riemann (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst)
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Violence is increasingly framed as a public health problem and medical approaches to violence prevention are progressively occupying center-stage in global responses to violence. (Mitton 2019; Riemann 2019) This paper investigates the consequences of adopting such an approach in conflict and post-conflict environments. We do so by analysing the application of the Cure Violence Global (CVG) model in Israel and Palestine. CVG is unique in its approach as it sees violence as an actual disease that can be controlled and contained via epidemiological methods and strategies that are applied in disease control. Despite its short-term successes in reducing levels of violence, we argue that such an approach is at risk of de-politicizing conflict-resolution. Rooted in methodological individualism and evidence-based epistemology, this approach has the tendency to overlook structural causes and drivers of conflict, while concentrating its efforts on the individual alone. Conflict resolution, henceforth, becomes an individualized task, with the responsibility for success (or failure) entirely transferred onto the individual. As such, public-health-based approaches to conflict resolution overlook the centrality of complex structural conditions as well as the role of collective agency in conflict resolution.
Authors: Malte Riemann (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst) , Norma Rossi (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst) -
This paper explores mental health awareness campaigning and interventions in the United Kingdom as a tool of neoliberal governance. Through a critical analysis of mental health discourses in these programmes, this paper shows that government sponsored mental health awareness interventions constitute an important aspect of the contemporary neoliberal governance which seeks to naturalise the experience of mental distress under austere conditions. My focus on awareness-raising as a public health measure in the everyday challenges the disciplinary bias of IR to study mental illness within the usual realms of war, post-/conflict, and trauma. In particular, the discourse of awareness points to the legitimisation of hegemonic structures through the pathologisation of behaviours which can be interpreted as refusing or resisting the standards of expected labour productivity. In this manner, the insecurity that is caused by a decline in welfare funding and the detrimental economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is re-framed as a burden for the population to bear through self-care and resilience. This paper interrogates the intersection of psychiatry and neoliberalism in the production of in/security in populations by revealing how attempts to 'secure' population mental health during crises legitimise the economic insecurity caused and perpetuated by neoliberal capitalism.
Author: Jana-Maria Fey (Queen Mary University London) -
Since its formation in the 1970s, transcultural psychiatry has positioned itself as a discipline that delivers culturally sensitive psychiatric services to migrant and refugee populations. Yet its broader function only becomes apparent when we locate its roots in early 20th century so-called racial psychiatry. This discipline rationalized what was considered an epidemic of “nervousness” in the industrializing West by constructing colonized and Jewish populations as either more or less prone to “madness” as a result of their exposure to the stresses of modern, industrialized life. This paper will argue that transcultural psychiatry, like its predecessor, racial psychiatry, serves to render racialized populations as inherently more susceptible to mental disorder and trauma, and thus requiring specialized forms of intervention and care. Tracing the genealogy of transcultural psychiatry and exploring its current mobilization in the United States and Germany, the paper will scrutinize how its expert opinion can play a pivotal role in asylum and entitlement claims. As these entitlements are contingent on the successful embodiment of a mental disorder recognized by transcultural psychiatry, the discipline serves as a crucial component in a wider political economy of selective entitlement by making racialized subjects apprehensible as other and subjecting them to medico-psychiatric scrutiny and management.
Author: Laura Jung (University of Sussex)
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Panel / Finance, State and Capitalism Kate Adie, Student UnionSponsor: International Political Economy Working GroupConvener: IPEG Working groupChair: Lena Rethel
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Scholars in critical political economy have advanced numerous explanations of the rapid adoption of fiscal austerity measures in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, including the ideological salience of the ‘dangerous idea’ of austerity (Blyth, 2013), the politics of blame shifting and electoral governance (Gamble, 2015; Stanley, 2016), and the structural power of lenders (Streeck, 2014). This paper argues that post-crisis austerity in the US and UK cannot be explained solely as the outcome of electoral political strategies, nor by the abstract structural power of capital. Rather, I suggest that it should be understood as an extension and deepening of institutionally embedded state policies and practices of ‘new constitutionalism’ (Gill, 1998; Gill & Cutler, 2014). Throughout the 1990s, the US and UK adopted budgetary measures intended to establish credible commitments to ‘price stability’ and fiscal discipline by subjecting public borrowing and spending to mechanisms of automatic restraint and technocratic governance. I argue that these practices became deeply embedded within US and UK state institutions. In the aftermath of 2008, I contend that politicians and policymakers in both countries drew on and extended salient new constitutionalist fiscal and budgetary measures, establishing a range of executive oversight bodies and attempting to institutionalize budget balancing and deficit consolidation through rules-based restrictions. While the trajectories of austerity differed in each country, I argue that these policies and practices provided the institutional impetus to externalize responsibility for the imposition of austerity measures. This paper is comprised of four sections. The first section reviews literature in critical political economy on post-2008 austerity measures. The second section provides an historical analysis of ‘new constitutionalism’ within the US and UK throughout the 1990s. The third section then examines the fiscal responses of each country in the aftermath of 2008. The fourth and concluding section briefly examines the post-2016 period, assessing possible ruptures with the policies and practices of austerity.
Author: Dillon Wamsley (York University, Department of Politics) -
Britain is rarely considered an example of ‘state capitalism’, but this paper argues that this conceptual lens of state capitalism illuminates aspects of historical capitalist development in Britain which have hitherto been neglected, not least by encouraging consideration of the diversity of regimes of state capitalism, especially in terms of their spatial dimension. The paper moves beyond the typical geographical imaginary of state capitalism, advocating a new spatial awareness with deeper sensitivity to multi-scalar relations. State capitalism in Britain has rarely been bound to the geographical limitations of the nation-state; it has been a transnational project, centred variably on empire, Europe, and the global market – with industrial policy tailored to enabling the British economy to exploit and/or service these various spaces by ‘making markets’ (meaning creating, structuring, or sustaining markets) that have simultaneously changed the regions, local communities and lives of individual British citizens and produced impulses of uneven economic development through the global economy. The paper emphasises the ‘hidden’ nature of industrial policy in some domestic contexts, and shows how more visible interventions, such as monetary policy, are constitutive of a ‘financial state capitalism’ regime rather than simply neutral instruments of macroeconomic stabilization.
Authors: Craig Berry (Manchester Metropolitan University) , Silverwood James (Bishop Grosseteste)* -
Why do certain corporations get political pushback by host states upon market penetration, and how can Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) be utilized to circumvent this issue? Scholars in International Political Economy (IPE) have focused on the potential security risks and concerns for states that accept massive investments into their domestic corporations from these SWFs. These concerns are rooted in the outward investments from foreign SWFs to recipient states. Instead, this paper analyzes inward investments from domestic SWFs into domestic corporations. Specifically, why do states also invest their own SWFs into domestic corporations? I argue that states are investing in domestic corporations through the utilization of SWFs to bypass “security” concerns by host states, much like early-modern privateers, since these investment vehicles provide states with plausible deniability. This mechanism allows corporations to bypass those concerns by “disconnecting” their investments from political agendas, thus making them appear that they are for economic reasons. To better explain this phenomenon, I provide case studies that explore the relationship between Chinese companies Huawei and Alibaba, where the latter received a massive investment from the Chinese Investment Corporation (CIC) SWF, while the former received funding from Chinese government grants and the Chinese State Bank.
Utilizing Computational Text Analysis, I collected original data from international news sources where both Chinese corporations penetrated those markets and categorized the text as positive or negative. The results indicate that Alibaba did not receive political pushback upon market penetration in those, mostly OECD countries. On the other hand, Huawei has been heavily scrutinized and criticized by the direct investments from the Chinese government; thus, illustrating that SWFs, in this case, provides plausible deniability of government involvement in Alibaba’s growth as it gives the appearance to be for economic instead of political reasons.Author: A. Felix Beltran (Purdue University)
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Panel / Gendering the Politics of Public Memory Bewick, Civic CentreSponsor: Gendering International Relations Working GroupConvener: Harriet Gray (University of York)Chair: Rhiannon Griffiths (University of York)Discussant: Rhiannon Griffiths (University of York)
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During and after the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-1995), survivors of wartime sexual violence became highly visible. At this time, survivor testimony was highly coveted by internationals actors who sought to demonstrate that rape was being used systematically as a weapon of war. Testimony has also been key to the recognition of sexual violence as a weapon of war and, it was hoped, also a process of restoring dignity to survivors. Since the end of the war, the issue of wartime sexual violence has oscillated between moments of societal silence and hyper-visibility. In this context, survivors face significant and evolving social, political, and material challenges. However, in dominant discourse, there is a marked timelessness, “the absence of change or passing” (Hom 2018, 309), to forms of witnessing wartime sexual violence. Building on the aesthetic turn in international relations, this paper examines three artistic interventions into the subject of wartime sexual violence in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Lana Cmajcanin’s Trauma of the Crime (2005-2011), Jasmila Zbanić’s Grbavica, and Edina Husanović’s Holy Jolie. Through a critical engagement with each artwork, the paper demonstrates how each disrupts dominant temporalities of witnessing. In doing so, the artists reveal that our response to wartime sexual violence must, by necessity, evolve through time. In this sense, witnessing is positioned both as a process of asserting the “veracity of the past”, as well as “building anew its linkages to […] the present-day life of subjects” (Laub 1992, 76). Witnessing is an ongoing process of negotiation between memory, politics, and the significations of wartime sexual violence over time.
Author: Lydia C. Cole (University of York) -
This paper focuses on the complex, often conflicting gendered dynamics associated with the phenomenon of constructing memorials to conscientious objectors across Britain. Although there are many types and forms of war memorialisation, including a traditional Cenotaph/obelisk-like memorial, commemorative windows/benches, memorials featuring a figure of the lone male soldier, recent memorials to women-soldiers and soldiers from diverse ethnic backgrounds, the design of memorials to conscientious objectors has proved to be a challenge to the artists as well as researchers. In most cases, artists and commemorative commissions favoured the abstract and vegetal designs, with ‘peace’ trees as a primary example of a ‘conscientious objection’ to war. In my intervention, I utilise Charlotte Heath-Kelly’s concept of the multivocality and liminality of the ‘survivor memorial trees’ (2018) in addition to Sylvester’s work on memorials to defeats and loss (2021; see also Gough 2001;2006) and Welch’s analysis of German deserter memorials (2017). I argue that the analysis of aesthetics, the making and everyday interaction with memorial spaces allows us to unpack the complex, multivocal and often inherently conflicting gendered logics of memorialising peace. Whereas memorials to conscientious objectors attempt to simultaneously challenge the masculine associations with war/soldiering as well as dissociate themselves from the feminine, passive interpretations of peace, their very existence is built around the negotiation of conflicting gendered meaning-making practices of peace. My analysis is inspired by the story of the Scottish memorial to conscientious objectors (Kenefick 2019), designed by the Glaswegian artist Kate Ive, and known as ‘The handkerchief tree’ (to be unveiled in Edinburgh, at the Princes Gardens in 2021).
Author: Natasha Danilova (University of Aberdeen) -
Sexual violence, despite its devastating prevalence, has not often been represented in the built memorials that populate public spaces across the world. At the current moment in time, however, when multiple sites across the globe are witnessing renewed struggles over the interpretation of sexual violence, as well as hard-fought debate around the values that should be represented in public memorials, an increasing number of activist groups are choosing memorialisation as one way of claiming space and authority for their narratives around this form of harm. This paper draws on the preliminary findings of research that focuses on six memorials that have appeared in the last decade across the USA: three remembering the so-called ‘Comfort Women’ of the Asia-Pacific War, and three dedicated to the problem of ‘peacetime’ sexual violence within the contemporary US itself. Through paying attention to the stories that the memorials tell, how they are shaped by their political contexts, and the interventions they make into political debates, the study asks questions about how the mutually imbricated politics of gender, violence, and (national) identity inform contemporary struggles over the meaning of multiple forms of sexual violence. This paper explores the political collectives that the memorial projects seek to create by analysing how they interpellate those who view them as particular kinds of political subjects.
Author: Harriet Gray (University of York) -
Since roughly the 1970s, calls from second-wave feminists to ‘write women back into history’ have been answered with a considerable, interdisciplinary body of literature addressing the inextricable relationship between gender and memory. Whilst this body of work is wide-ranging in its geographical and temporal scope, it remains largely preoccupied with the erasure or co-opting of women’s histories for nation-building memory practices. Whilst not dismissing the salience of this perspective, this paper seeks to extend the understanding of gendered memory practice beyond national borders. Through analysis of museum and memorial sites that represent conflict-related sexual violence, the paper will draw attention to the transnationalising processes of memorialisation and museumification in this case. It will highlight how these practices may reflect essentialising and racialised trends in the project of making visible conflict-related sexual violence—what might be termed as cosmopolitan memory—and posits that we should afford as much critical and feminist attention to this phenomenon as we do to the well-trodden realm of national memory politics.
Author: Megan O’Mahony (London School of Economics and Political Science and Imperial War Museums ) -
The paper analyses the making of memory in the wake of terror attacks, and reveals how the production of and response to disaster is situated through gendered and racialized norms. The paper analyses the emergency planning industry in the UK, highlighting how what is considered disaster is constituted through particular privileges and exclusions within this industry. White and male interests dominate the production of knowledge, and inhibit alternative ways of seeing, feeling, and perceiving tragedy – with significant implications for what is (un)sayable and (un)thinkable in the memorialization of tragedy in contemporary Britain. Using interviews with emergency planners responsible for preparing for and responding to disaster, the paper highlights how 'learning' in the wake of tragedies like the 2017 Manchester Arena attack embeds the continuity of highly gendered discourses and praxis. Rather than existing knowledge of disaster being able to be critiqued and restructured, practitioners describe an inability to ask questions or speak in ways that might disrupt established norms and practices. Instead they articulate how White and male interests, and subsequently the very particular tragedies memorialized through these interests, are produced through laughter, professional courtesy, and banal bureaucratic processes. The structuring of memory through performance of Whiteness and masculinity within emergency planning enables certain moments of violence and disruption to count as disaster, and other violence and disruption to be maintained as the norm. The tragedies made (un)seen and (un)heard tells us about what counts as valuable life, and what doesn't, in what is often considered a ‘liberal democracy’.
Author: Tom Pettinger
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Panel / Historical International Relations and Latin America Martin Luther King, Student UnionSponsor: Historical Sociology and International Relations Working GroupConveners: Luis Schenoni (University College London) , Carsten-Andreas Schulz (University of Cambridge)Chair: Carsten-Andreas Schulz (University of Cambridge)Discussant: Luis Schenoni (University College London)
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Historical IR scholarship increasingly treats the second half of the nineteenth century as a time of transformation. Growing “interaction capacity” spurred new patterns of international organization and international law amidst inter-imperial cooperation and competition. Though it has received little attention in Historical IR, Mexico was at the centre of these occurrences – not only as a victim of imperial aggression but an active proponent of alternative visions of liberal and republican international order. From 1859 to 1867, the country saw a major debt crisis and a related intervention. It defeated an attempt by a leading power, France, to reinstate monarchical governance in the Americas. It then expanded liberal commercial ties with the world economy. Mexican responses – armed, diplomatic, and legal – were profoundly shaped by the leading political figure, President Benito Juárez. Juárez came from a rural and indigenous background before scaling to the heights of power. Though recognized as a committed republican, Juárez’s internationalism has been overlooked. He adapted many liberal ideas that shaped later British and U.S.-led orders, but he did so in opposition to imperial expansion. This paper explores Juárez’s internationalist thought and the implications of his leadership on the development on nineteenth international order.
Author: Tom Long (University of Warwick) -
Historical comparative research applied to the study of violence in nineteenth-century Latin America usually depicts the region through twentieth-century lenses, reproducing biases that stymie research on important historical trends. On the one hand, given the peaceful nature of international politics during the last century, the frequency and extent of international violence in the hundred years after independence is often understated. On the other hand, given the regularity of civil war in the twentieth century, the extent of nineteenth-century internal violence is also usually misjudged as a simple extension in time of dynamics characteristic of an ever-violent region. This paper addresses these nunc pro tunc fallacies, using new data on rebellion and international militarization for the nineteenth century. Such data shows that the extent of both international and domestic conflict was far greater in the nineteenth century and Latin America experienced an abrupt decline in all forms of violence by the turn of the century, a decline that remains understudied as such.
Author: Luis Schenoni (University College London) -
This work explores the South American regional order in the long term, particularly enquiring about the key norms, practices and institutions that have shaped regional relations since the Nineteenth Century. The bulk of the literature on South American regionalism is centred around the regional ‘failure’ to promote intraregional trade and economic interdependence. In this vein of thought, in spite of the existence of dense institutional frameworks -encompassing a variety of regional and subregional organisations-, the region does not appear to have substantively advanced regional integration. This argument then translates into claiming the lack of a South American regional construct beyond mere geographical proximity. Instead, this article seeks to delve into the longue durée of the regional order in South America. In doing this, this work attempts to offer a different understanding of South American regional dynamics, from a long-term socio-historical perspective. To do so, it looks at the origins and evolution of its core principles, norms, and recurrent practices, as well as their level of internalisation and contestation, and the various tensions they embody. By adopting a ‘regional international society’ approach, from an English School tradition, this paper looks at the historical evolution of this regional order, and its core premises and normative trade-offs, so as to make sense of the persistence of regionalism in the absence of integration.
Author: Carolina Zaccato (St Andrews University)
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Roundtable / Race & State Securitisation: Counterterrorism, Counter-insurgency and Borders - International Affairs 100th Anniversary Council Chamber, Civic Centre
This roundtable explores some of the key themes addressed in the International Affairs journal 100th Anniversary Special Issue. In particular, it interrogates the way IR theory, academic knowledge production, and policy uphold the naturalisation of the State in IR, while racialising and delegitimising political agency and actors outside of it. Counterterrorism strategies in the UK and Canada, Counterinsurgency supported by EU definitions and strategies, and the insidious role of borders and corridors in Israel, all disenfranchise and outlaw racialised communities. Moreover, scholarship and practice that protests this racial securitisation also is marginalised in theory and practice. What should academics and practitioners do to challenge these structures, and what would a more just and constructive nexus between academia and policy look like?
Sponsor: Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working GroupChair: Jasmine Gani (University of St Andrews)Participants: Jenna Marshall (Kings College London) , Somdeep Sen (Roskilde University) , Amal Abu-Bakare (University of Liverpool) , Sharri Plonski (Queen Mary University of London) , Nivi Manchanda (Queen Mary University of London) -
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Panel / Perceptions of Nuclear Weapons - Risk, Predictability, and Trust in Nuclear Politics Carloil, Civic CentreSponsor: Global Nuclear Order Working GroupConvener: Laura Considine (University of Leeds)Chair: Rhys Crilley (University of Glasgow)
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Like asteroids, hundred-year floods and pandemic disease, thermonuclear war is a low-frequency, high-impact threat. If nothing is done, catastrophe is all but inevitable in the long run—yet each successive government and generation may fail to address it. Drawing on risk perception research, this paper argues that the nature of the threat of nuclear war causes it to receive less attention than it deserves. Nuclear deterrence is, moreover, what Stephen Gardiner calls a ‘front-loaded good’: its benefits accrue disproportionately to proximate generations, whereas much of the expected cost will be borne in the distant future. Recent surveys indicate that the US and Russian publics assign a surprisingly high likelihood to nuclear war. Nevertheless, earlier US and British research suggests that it is probably not believed to be just around the corner. This, together with the absence of easy solutions, encourages governments and publics to give priority to more pressing concerns. The danger is that the pattern will continue clear up to the point that nuclear war arrives.
Author: Matthew Rendall (University of Nottingham) -
The question that frames this paper is whether how mistrust between Iran and the US is still dynamic in the context of the failure of JCPOA? To answer, this paper seeks to show that mistrust between the US and Iran is built on a cascading failure over many years. For this purpose, this study consists of two parts. First, the paper examines some historical events that brought these two states against each other as the historical traumatic triggers of the failed JCPOA. In fact, the significance of mistrust between these two nations is not whether there is any given beginning to it, but it is a cascading failure is that a process in which failure of one triggers the failure of another and so on. Secondly, physical and relational signs of aggression will be analysed to show that this is an ongoing trauma and therefore mistrust remains dynamic. However, this paper will conclude with a suggestion for the possibility of the future nuclear deal as an accomplished or to able to overcome the ongoing trauma by the new narratives made immediately before the JCPOA but more comprehensive. Thus, this study will also provide a better understanding of the obstacles of any rapprochement between Iran and the US that might be possible in the future.
Author: Selma Imamoglu -
Pop culture is increasingly recognized as an important site of political power. Building on this research, I apply interpretive content analysis to popular western films with nuclear weapons, problematizing presentations of launch decisions in entertainment-fiction. Many films about or including nuclear weapons rely on the narrative device of ‘system failures’ in order to prompt the action of the plot. Whether via computer malfunctions, human error, disrupted communications, direct manipulation, or mechanical failures – films incorporating nuclear ‘system failures’ allow audiences to engage with questions of what nuclear security should look like, even if the science or policy in the film does not match the ‘real world’. But what does this trope imply about the positionality of the ‘decision maker’ in these stories? While ‘simply’ entertainment, these stories allow a form of access to the structure versus agency debates in international politics, particularly when a ‘system failure’ forces a decision-maker-as-protagonist to reconsider their original reliance on that system to manage the power of nuclear weapons. The majority of the most popular or influential films agree on the exceptional destructive threat nuclear weapons present, so the relatively frequent incorporation of ‘system failures’ allows viewers to consider the possibility that the systems put in place to keep us safe may, in fact, be designed to fail. As the memories of nuclear destruction fade, and the policies of nuclear security are shrouded in secrecy and jargon, popular films about nukes become useful and perhaps even necessary spaces for building our shared nuclear imaginary.
Author: Rebekah Pullen (McMaster University)
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Roundtable / Producing Knowledge: Migration, Activism & History Parson, Civic Centre
Precarious migration, border enforcement, and violence have become inextricably linked in our contemporary world. People on the move and those displaced are increasingly subjected to diverse forms of violence that are the consequence of ever more draconian “non-entrée policies” (Chimni, 2009: 12), especially in countries of the 'Global North'. What role does knowledge production play in current forms of migration governance? In this panel, we reflect on critical knowledge production on migration and borders. Where and how is knowledge about migration produced and how does this knowledge circulate and have 'impact'? How can researchers do migration research ethically and in ways that cause no harm? We will explore the methodological and ethical challenges around researching migration, a highly politicized issue that often involves the reproduction of a white, Western, and patriarchal state. Contributors will speak from different perspectives, for example highlighting the benefits and challenges of being an activist scholar, taking a postcolonial perspective, and employing ethnographic methods.
Sponsor: International Politics of Migration, Refugees and Diaspora Working GroupChair: Alexandria Innes (City, University of London)Participants: Leila Hadj Abdou (University of Vienna) , Martina Tazzioli (Goldsmiths, University of London) , Hassan Ould Moctar (SOAS) , Maurice Stierl (University of Sheffield) , Cetta Mainwaring , Joe Turner (University of York) -
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Panel / Stories in US Foreign Policy Collingwood, Civic CentreSponsor: US Foreign Policy Working GroupConvener: Alexandra Homolar (University of Warwick)Chair: Alexandra Homolar (University of Warwick)Discussant: Oliver Turner (University of Edinburgh)
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Scholars increasingly speak of a ‘new Cold War’ to characterize the state of international relations. With rising tensions between the United States and potential great power rivals China and Russia, fissures are said to have appeared in the ‘rules-based international order’ (RBIO), which has long served as a reference point for claiming legitimate international behaviour. While both Russia and China are accused of seeking to re-imagine international affairs beyond the Western-centrist conceptions of order and ‘civilized’ conduct, states in Europe, North America, and Australasia rally together to reassert, defend, and strengthen the RBIO. In this paper, we introduce the concept of narrative alliances to challenge and enhance traditional understandings of international order as grounded primarily in norms, rules, regulations, and institutions. Situated within a body of research on the power of narratives in International Relations, the paper argues that the RBIO is a geopolitical imaginary formed and performed as stories that multiple and heterogenous actors collectively invest in and uphold. Telling the story of a world divided between those who act in defence of an ‘ordered’ system and those who question and threaten it, the paper demonstrates that the RBIO cannot be removed from processes of narrative legitimation and contestation.
Authors: Oliver Turner (University of Edinburgh) , Alexandra Homolar (University of Warwick) -
The emphasis on China as a norm transgressor and an untrustworthy stakeholder of the global order has been a prominent feature of the Trump Administration’s foreign policy culture. This position ran counter to the mainstream understanding and recommendations of China experts in the US. This paper introduces the analytical concept of “discourse hardening” to understand the changing landscape of US-China relations. Situated within the role theory scholarship, this analysis takes that discourse hardening is a social process through which role Self-assumption and Other-ascription become increasingly binary and hard to reverse. The paper aims to analyze how understandings of China are re-created, re-imagined and solidified within the United States National Security Council. We achieve this by unfolding the process of discourse hardening and analyzing its influence on policy making. The analysis concentrates on the motivations and strategies employed by principal intellectual instigators of discourse hardening while uncovering how dissenting and other scholarly counter-positions were sidelined. In a nutshell, the paper aims to understand how discourse hardening was intellectually legitimated, how such process affected shifts in perceptions, thereby contributing to the change in foreign policy making practice.
Author: Yang Han (Oxford University) -
The concept of strategic narratives has enjoyed increasing popularity in the study of International Security, emphasizing that political leaders speak purposefully to justify, legitimate, and enact (contestable) security agendas. Strategic narratives are here understood as deliberate means to achieve specific ends. This paper, while drawing upon insights from recent scholarship, demonstrates that such an understanding of narrative agency excludes sensegiving processes that take place below the elite level and which nevertheless matter for how security narratives are told and disseminated. As the paper argues, the relegation of everyday political actors to the status of passive audiences becomes particularly problematic when considered in light of a media environment that has shifted beyond traditional one-directional communication platforms. Within the context of a modern hybrid media system, security narratives are increasingly co-authored and decentralized products, even when they are originally employed strategically by political agents. This transformation challenges the widespread presumption in the study of international politics generally, and securitization theory specifically, that narrative agency resides with speakers in positions of authority.
Keywords: strategic narratives; securitization; media hybridization.
Author: Stephen Dunne (The University of Warwick) -
How do we make sense of the world? How does storytelling help shape, order, and give direction to our lives? These questions have a significance for all actors – whether the individual, the nation-state, a regional or transnational body – and how one understands what one’s role is in the world and what one’s objectives are in shaping the social structure that one is a part of. This paper explores the use of storytelling and how it has important implications for world politics. As per this point the paper focuses on US foreign policy and its ‘war’ against transnational terrorism in the post-9/11 context and the more recent construct of the ‘Chinese threat’ to global order. The choice of the United States is due to its significant role in shaping an evolving world order. In conjunction, how does storytelling facilitate an understanding of Washington’s role in the world? How does Washington rhetorically construct what the country stands for and what its interests are? And what are the (evolving) implications of this construction for its foreign interactions and practices?
Author: Anthony Teitler (Karlshochschule International University)
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Panel / Teaching and Learning European Integration in 'The Periphery' Swan, Civic CentreSponsor: South East Europe Working GroupConveners: Thomas Diez (University of Tuebingen) , Basak Alpan (Middle East Technical University)Chair: Thomas Diez (University of Tuebingen)
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This paper focuses on how we might incorporate ‘peripheral thinking’ on the EU, with a particular focus on teaching the EU at a ‘new periphery’: Brexit Britain. First, it considers the challenges of teaching the EU in the context of what now feels like an almost permanent crisis in the EU. It argues in favour of a ‘critical-pluralist’ approach: that is, an approach that fully engages with a ‘peripheral’ (including ‘critical’, ‘normative’ and ‘dissident’) set of ideas as part of a commitment to scholarly pluralism. Second, it suggests--with reference to the recent experience of updating an EU politics textbook--that a ‘question driven approach’ might be one pedagogically practical way of presenting such a plurality to our students. Finally, it turns to consider how such an approach might be realised in the classroom, in the particular context of teaching the EU at the EU’s ‘new periphery’, the United Kingdom. While that context has presented various teaching related challenges, Brexit as a case study can be usefully deployed in a variety of ways in order to pursue the critical-pluralist approach that is advocated.
Author: Owen Parker (University of Sheffield) -
Our aim is to problematize Europeanization in EaP countries by studying the promotion of EU studies in higher education institutions. We specifically focus on a series of specific international projects developed by the University of Tartu (Estonia) in partnership with other EU-based and non-EU universities from the EaP. The paper discusses the educational dimension of Europeanization in EaP countries from three interrelated perspectives - socio-constructivism, the foucauldian concept of ‘governmentality’ and a post-structuralist reading of ‘centrality and marginality’. We use qualitative data from reports of 4 EU-funded cooperation projects and also student’s views obtained in 2 focus groups that explore their perceptions of how the EU is taught and discussed. In the end, the added value of the article is that it offers a critical view on teaching about the EU in the Eastern neighborhood, focusing on local perspectives on EU funded projects in higher education.
Authors: Andrey Makarychev (University of Tartu)* , Miruna Troncota (SNSPA, Bucharest) -
This article argues that there is need to introduce a renewed approach to the field of European Studies which takes into account various perspectives from the ‘periphery’ to unfold complexities and challenges of teaching and learning ‘Europe’ away from the immediate geographical and conceptual focus of the European studies. By elaborating on the notion of ‘periphery’ and by tackling with the conceptual categories of ‘periphery’ in Europe, we will aim to explore the complexities and challenges of the European studies in its relationality of the broader processes such as EU accession and globalisation. This endeavour will contribute to the ongoing disciplinary debate on the future of European studies as well as the current ‘future of Europe’ debates by presenting alternative narratives on the challenges of the European integration and Europeanisation in the ‘periphery’.
Authors: Basak Alpan (Middle East Technical University) , Thomas Diez (University of Tuebingen) -
Turkey’s EU accession negotiations remain in a state of coma and their full-fledged revival appear to be considerably unlikely in view of continuing backsliding in Turkey’s alignment with the EU’s constitutive norms, on the one hand, and the upsurge of Euroskeptic and populist dynamics in EU member states, on the other. Lately, severe divergences between both parties regarding foreign and security policy orientations, as reflected in the rise of ‘Europe’s next crisis’ in the Eastern Mediterranean even prompted the spillover of hostile relations to other issue areas driven by mutual strategic interdependencies. Growing ambivalences and severe changes in the macro-political features of EU-Turkey relations call into question the evolution of the studies on EU-Turkey relations over time. This paper aims to reveal the way EU-Turkey relations have been studied in different periods featuring distinct milestones and map the shifts and continuities in EU-Turkey studies. The paper offers a qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the publications on EU-Turkey relations from 1996 to 2020 in a priori selected 21 national and international SSCI journals based on their theoretical and conceptual perspectives, methodological approaches and thematic /policy-specific focuses.
Author: Ebru Turhan (Turkish-German University)
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14:45
Break with tea and coffee
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Panel / Bottom Up Perspectives of Peace and Conflict Swan, Civic CentreSponsor: Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Working GroupConvener: PKPBG Working groupChair: David Curran (Coventry University)
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African regional organizations like the African Union (AU) and ECOWAS are regularly intervening in their member states in order to build peace and enforce political norms. Although these interventions have tangible effects on politics and order in African states, we know little about how people living in the countries concerned experience and evaluate these interventions. The widespread assumption in the literature is that African interventions are per se perceived as legitimate and locally adapted due to the interveners’ proximity to the contexts of intervention. Based on interview and focus group research, this paper presents first-hand and systematically generated empirical data on local perceptions of AU and ECOWAS interventions in two African states: Burkina Faso (2014/15) and The Gambia (2016/17). Against the assumption in the literature, we demonstrate that (1) African interventions are locally more contested than often assumed, that (2) local perceptions of AU and ECOWAS interventions are complex and multiple, and that (3) everyday experiences as well as socio-economic and political positionality crucially shape how different people perceive African interventions. These findings extend existing research on local perceptions of interventions by a perspective on non-Western interveners; and they have important implications for understanding both the legitimacy and effectiveness of African regional interventions.
Authors: Antonia Witt (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt) , Simone Schnabel (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt)* , Sophia Birchinger (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt)* -
Few issues are more important to armies than their capacity to adapt when required. For this purpose, scholars of Security Studies have extensively investigated a multitude of dimensions of military change, including doctrines, technologies, and strategies. Yet, all-female military units (AFMUs) represent a key, underexplored form of military adaptation. Looking into them is now even more important, given that since the mid-2000s, across different continents and military operations, an ever-growing number of countries have developed this asset, especially within peacekeeping operations (PKOs). What explains the diffusion of AFMUs in military interventions? To answer this question, the article first critically reviews offered explanations in the literature and reveals their limitations. In the light of these shortcomings, the paper proposes a new framework — the ‘‘Adaptation Cascade’’ Model — that can make sense of the variations in timing of spreading of AFMUs. To preview the conclusions, the diffusion of such practice occurs through emulation and varies according to the compatibility level with the military change introduced and geographical distance from the epicentre of change. This article makes three contributions. First, by presenting AFMUs as a neglected dimension of military change, it expands our understanding of how armies adapt in military interventions both in peacetime and wartime. Second, it proposes a new framework that defines the distinctive phases of military change, its timing, and the interplay between different stages in the process of military adaptation. Third, by probing this model on an in-depth case study of the American, Italian and Lebanese cases, it provides the first, fine-grained, empirical, comparative analysis of a major instance of AFMUs in PKOs, the Female Engagement Team.
Author: Cristina Fontanelli (University of Genoa) -
Sierra Leone has been regarded as one of the successful countries of peacebuilding mandates, having escaped from the reoccurrence of the civil war and having held four cycles of peaceful elections. Peace education as an essential component of peacebuilding focuses on the importance of self-development and building interpersonal relationships, installing positive peace-related ideas to the recipients. With the purpose to identify the role of peace education in building peace since the immediate aftermath of civil war, the research question of this study focused on:
The role of peace education in post-conflict Sierra Leone since the 2000s
Within this research question, particular attention was given to understand and evaluate the contribution of peace education in promoting and sustaining peace during the past two decades. Meanwhile, it is important to note that there was an absence of a perfect mandate around the world. To this point, this study also focused on the drawbacks, limitations, or pitfalls within peace education practices. Other research questions, such as the explanations across education, conflict, and international relation studies for the cause of the outbreak of the civil war has been discussed as the background information of the study.
Methodologically, with a purpose to explore the nature of peace education and the role of peace education from the perspectives of literature and informants through their experiences, a constructionist approach was adopted as the main approach to analyse and interpret findings generated from literature and interviews. In particular, the adoption of documentary analysis constructs the thesis through critical literature and documents ranging from academic textbooks and journal articles, reviews and documents provided by International Organisations, Non-Governmental Organisations, independent practitioners, and governmental documents. Meanwhile, semi-structured virtual interviews were conducted with three groups of informants with different responsibilities when peace education practices have been implemented in Sierra Leone. Four curriculum experts of peace education, four practitioners and four local officials were interviewed.
The findings revealed that peace education has responded to parts of the inequalities that could lead to grievances. The elitist nature of education was eliminated by introducing free access educational opportunities through formal and non-formal ways. However, this study also pointed out that the inequalities led by social structures such as underdevelopment in general infrastructure cannot be fully addressed by peace education.
Author: Yi Yu (University of Warwick) -
In October 2017, Cameroon descended into violent conflict between the dominant francophone government and armed separatists in its two anglophone regions. Since then, the conflict which is ongoing has resulted in the death of over 3,000 people, with over 750,000 displaced and 1.3 million in need of humanitarian relief. Despite its devastating outcomes, the anglophone conflict remains one of the highly neglected conflicts both on international media, academia and policy platforms. Moreover, the role and contributions of civil society groups towards resolving the conflict is hardly discussed and nuanced especially within academia. Thus, to contribute to the discourse on peacebuilding from below, this paper provides a nuanced discussion on the local peace efforts of civil society groups in the resolution of the anglophone conflict in Cameroon. The paper draws on a research we conducted in Cameroon in January 2020. Ultimately, the paper first highlights factors that led to the conflict, followed by a discussion on the impact of the conflict since it began in 2017. Subsequently it discusses some of the contributions of civil society groups towards the mitigation of the conflict as well as challenges impeding their peace efforts.
Author: Nancy Annan (Coventry University)
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Panel / Challenges in South East European Politics: From Local to Global Stephenson, Civic CentreSponsor: South East Europe Working GroupConvener: Katarina Kusic (University of Bremen)Chair: Katarina Kusic (University of Bremen)Discussant: Lydia C. Cole (University of York)
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The strategic geographic location of the Western Balkans at the intersection of Europe and Asia has been turning the region into one of the focal points of the emerging great power competition. As the post-war conflict processes have not culminated into a stable peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia-Kosovo, these two frozen conflicts are potentially the most affected by the calibrations in the foreign policies of the major actors towards the region: be it the European Union’s enlargement fatigue or Russia’s assertiveness to divert Euro-Atlantic integration. This study will focus on Moscow’s growing influence in Serbia and Bosnia’s Republika Srpska and how Kremlin’s assertive policies reflect on these actors’ attitudes towards the Western-led normalisation processes. Moscow’s subversive tools such as the utilisation of the Orthodox Church, media, electoral interventions will also be discussed as to how they are pragmatically used and emulated by the local actors.
Author: Abdullah Kesvelioglu (University of Edinburgh (PhD student)) -
Over the last few years, there has been a growing interest in illiberal governance systems, primarily Hungary and Turkey. Beyond the superficial comparisons among the illiberal states, however, the similarities and differences between the lengthy political career of Viktor Orbán and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the two systems they represent have not gained much academic attention. Recently, both Orbán and Erdoğan have utilized the same power techniques to maintain their unchallenged leading position in their respective countries: their policy can be characterized by changes in the electoral system, excessive media control, defamatory campaigns against party competitors (Jobbik and HDP parties, respectively), aggrandizement of internal-external enemies (Soros, Brussels and Gülen, Washington, respectively), and emphasis on identity politics (nationalism and religious mobilization).
While attempts have been made in the literature to define the religious foundations of the two systems (institutions, movements, parties, belief systems), the religious discourse of Orbán and Erdoğan has not been addressed in depth. For a deeper understanding of the situation, I analyze the governmental (“mainstream”) religious discourse to answer how the governments thematize the issue of Christianity and Islam in their political agenda (identity, national goals, moral values, humanitarianism)? The findings may help better understand and theorize how illiberal governments design their religious discourses and build policies around certain religious ideals.Author: Tamas Dudlak (Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest) -
The scientific aim of this proposed paper is to analyze and evaluate actions taken by Turkey’s leading politicians with regard to the Western Balkan states (i.e. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, Turkey has attempted to increase its international influence through diplomatic, economic and cultural measures. Western Balkans region, with which Turks have historical and ethnic ties, is one of the key areas in the AKP's doctrine. Adopting image theory in international relations as the theoretical foundation, this research examines implementation of Turkish foreign policy in the Western Balkans in times of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic.
By employing available original Turkish sources (academic publications, public reports, press releases), the main objectives of Turkey's political strategy towards the region have been determined. Detailed analysis of official statements and speeches of Turkish policy-makers was also fundamental in this study. In this context, the values and symbols to which the AKP government refers in its activities in the Western Balkans are identified. Based on content analysis, comparative analysis, political discourse analysis and process-tracing method, this research seeks to explain the rationale of Turkish actions in recent months. As a conclusion, future prospects for Turkey’s involvement in the Western Balkans are presented and discussed.Keywords: Turkish foreign policy, Western Balkans, regional cooperation, COVID-19 pandemic
Author: Jan Niemiec (Jagiellonian University in Kraków)
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Roundtable / Confronting the Militarised Academy Armstrong, Civic Centre
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.Sponsor: War Studies Working GroupChair: Nivi Manchanda (Queen Mary University of London)Participants: Alice Cree (Newcastle University) , Chris Rossdale (University of Bristol) , Nick Caddick (ARU) , Harriet Gray (University of York) , Paul Higate (University of Bath) -
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Panel / Global Politics of Health Knowledge – The Intersection between Expertise and Security Kate Adie, Student UnionSponsor: Global Health Working GroupConvener: Eva HilbergChair: Eva Hilberg
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In the face of mounting interest in global health approaches, the agenda of health researchers in international studies often remains policy oriented, investigating how health governance either succeeds or fails to provide ‘health’ to designated populations. Drawing from critical disability studies, this paper argues in favour of a critical global health agenda which sees health in relational terms. This conception challenges unspoken assumptions about ‘health’ as a universal good that can be shared amongst populations, instead seeking to understand how the health of some populations is achieved through the ‘sickening’ of others. To do so, this paper draws upon critical disability studies, particularly Jasbir Puar’s work on capacity/debility (2017), to argue that the capacitation of some bodies with ‘good health’ is achieved through the concurrent debilitation of social ‘others’. The paper draws upon UK lockdown regulations in regards to COVID-19, exploring how minoritised groups are debilitated through COVID-19 governance, reducing their capacity to avoid and survive COVID-19 infection. The paper therefore argues that the health governance therefore often serves to produce violent outcomes in the shape of (re)producing narratives around race and disability. This demonstrates that the concept of ‘health’ itself is enriched through an engagement with critical disability studies.
Author: Jennifer Hobbs (University of Manchester) -
The world is focused on the Sustainable Development Goals – 17 goals, 169 targets, developed to ensure that the distribution of resources for life around the world happens equitably such that, by 2030, there is health and life for all (www.sustainabledevelopment.un.org). In this context. a large proportion of the world’s population remains without equitable access to safe water and adequate sanitation, resulting in over 10% of the world’s burden of illness. Furthermore, this distribution is inequitably skewed, with the primary burden falling to those in low and middle income countries (LMICs), primarily in sub Saharan Africa (SSA). We know too that the greatest burdens related to water and sanitation fall on women and girls – time fetching water, lost time from school due to water-related shortages/activities as well as menstruation, the burden of taking care of sick children and family members when safe water and adequate sanitation are not available, the list goes on. Where there is a major gap in both knowledge and policy, however, is the role that gender based violence plays in the water security issue. We know that women are at risk of both physical and sexual violence when searching for water in remote areas at unsafe times of the day and night; we know that women are at risk of both sexual and physical violence when searching for a safe place to relieve themselves when sanitation facilities are not available and cultural norms invoke tropes of modesty; we know that women are subject to violence at the hands of their male partners when they do not successfully deliver on their domestic responsibilities, including provision of water. We know these things because of reports in the media and because of the stories women tell other women. We do not, however, know these things systematically and rigorously in a way that would allow us to add to the body of knowledge around water security and health or provide evidence that could be used in influencing policy toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to embarking upon such a complex, culturally sensitive research program, we have explored alternative ontological and epistemological mechanisms for doing this well, and doing it right. In so doing we have explored a range of epistemologies from allyship, integrated knowledge translation, community based participatory research, among others. We light on what we think is the most comprehensive north star for this type of research: this involves a set of 6 principles established by the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research (https://www.ccghr.ca/resources/principles-global-health-research/). These principles have recently been mandated by the national health research council in Canada (Canadian Institutes for Health Research) across all areas of medical and health research funding. In this paper, we explore their meaning and application to the question of water security and gender based violence for without water (SDG6), there is no life; without life, no health (SDG3); without the empowerment of women (SDG5), there is neither.
Author: Susan J Elliott (University of Waterloo) -
In the context of the ongoing global pandemic and recurring imposed restrictions, the UK is an extreme case study: it ‘closed’ last and ‘reopened’ first. July 19 2021 – dubbed ‘Freedom Day’ in a 5-month-long roadmap to phased ‘reopening’ – marked the lifting of the last mandated health measures in England. However, despite declining numbers of COVID-19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths, an admittedly successful vaccine rollout national programme, and signs of increasing ‘compliance fatigue’, the British public was, in the first instance, not persuaded by the government’s decision to ‘reopen’ the country. This paper employs mixed methods to explain the public’s resistance to the UK government’s desecuritisation of the pandemic. We use thematic analysis of public discourse to map the main frames that guided the government’s strategy to, initially, securitise and, finally, desecuritise the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 respectively. We then assess the extent to which these key frames had an impact on public attitudes and explore the different ‘audiences’ they appealed to through an analysis of original and pertinent two-wave survey panel data of the UK population, administered online in April 2020 and 2021.
Authors: Dimitris Skleparis (Newcastle University) , Andrew Judge (University of Glasgow)* , Georgios Karyotis (University of Glasgow)* -
Following its exceptional response to the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) gained new powers to securitize infectious disease outbreaks via the revised 2005 International Health Regulations (IHRs) and the ability to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). This article investigates the declaration of a PHEIC in relation to the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic and the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak. It argues that the securitization of these outbreaks was dependent upon global surveillance networks that utilised genetic technologies to reveal the molecular characteristics and spread of the pathogen in question. In 2009, genome sequence data was used to reveal the unique and “untypable” nature of this swine flu virus. In 2014, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction tests (RT-PCR) were used to make intelligible the widespread prevalence of Ebola across the population of West Africa. This investigation sheds new light on the role of evidence in the continuum through which infectious diseases are securitized. In this case the information on the nature and spread of these pathogens provided by genetic technologies and gathered by surveillance networks played a pivotal, vital and direct role in triggering the securitization of infectious disease outbreaks.
Author: Christopher Long
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Roundtable / What of the Future of War Debate? - International Affairs at 100 Collingwood, Civic Centre
Think tanks like the Council of Foreign Relations and Chatham House were created in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. For these and other think-tanks the study of war, whether it be in terms of disarmament and arms control, wars prevention, its conduct and the effects that it has on individuals, groups and the wider world, has been a consistent area of study. Reflecting on a century of debate in the journal International Affairs this roundtable proposes to discuss the 'Future of War' debate from a variety of different perspectives to debate whether what can be learned from past debates and discussions about wat the future will bring.
Sponsor: War Studies Working GroupChair: Andrew Dorman (International Affairs)Participants: Patrick Bury (Bath) , Tony King (Warwick University) , Tracey German (King's College London) , Matthew Uttley (King's College London) -
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Panel / Internationalising Protection: Actors, Themes, and Practices of Protection Model Room 2, Civic CentreSponsor: Contemporary Research on International Political Theory Working GroupConveners: Jutta Bakonyi (Durham University) , Anne Flaspöler (Durham University)Chair: Jutta Bakonyi (Durham University)
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The paper will trace the historical evolution of the concept of protection in the international arena. Closely interwoven with the rise of the victim from the 19th century onwards, and initially focussed on (military) victims of wars, the paper shows how the concept of protection expanded in tandem with the broadening and deepening of security and the diffusion of threats, risks, and vulnerabilities. We show that the concept draws on and aims at mobilizing emotions in a way that allow for interventions. Protection became in this way an important technology of (neoliberal) government within and across states, executed by a conglomerate of governmental and nongovernmental actors. We argue that protection mainly serves as ‘empty signifier’ used to justify a broad range of interventions.
Authors: Anne Flaspoeler (Durham University) , Jutta Bakonyi (Durham University)* -
The paper focuses on efforts to influence the behaviour of armed actors aimed at reducing the harm done to civilians. It distinguishes between four different approaches, protection actors typically use: (1) Public criticism – “naming and shaming” armed actors; (2) Mobilizing influencers to impact armed actor behaviour; (3) Supporting communities in influencing armed actor behaviour; and (4) Enhancing armed actor capacity.
The paper explains how each approach is meant to work and identifies clues at each step in the logic model that signal whether the approach is working. By making the underlying logics of these protection approaches explicit, the paper seeks to contribute to efforts to coordinate different protection approaches and to better plan and evaluate protection activities.Author: Julia Steets (Global Public Policy Institute) -
This paper explores international relations through the prism of care. It asks how international relations might look if we began from the proposition that the interconnections and entanglements which define the world are, in fact, forms of care? That is, how might our study of the world shift if we focus on care along with, or in spite of, other core concepts in the discipline? This paper narrows these questions via an extended examination of the connections between care and security. Both traditional and critical security scholars emphasize the exceptional qualities of security, invoking it as a last resort of violence, rather than a first image of care. From this perspective it is only when our security is obtained should we turn our attention to the provision of care for seemingly distant actors (human or otherwise). This belies an increasing realization that relational perspectives such as care can offer important insight into identifying and responding to complex and distributed forms of risk and harm. Care can compel us to see the world of security not as one built upon a violent estrangement between competing units, but of radical entanglement, requiring diverse forms of recognition and re-relating.
Author: Cameron Harrington (Speaker) (Durham University) -
Despite major attempts of international organizations, humanitarian actors and national agencies to end hunger in the world, food insecurity and malnutrition are widespread and had increased even before the Corona pandemic. It appears that the manifold new social protection programs in African countries have so far not been able to disrupt that trajectory, nor has the reliance on global value chains for equitable food distribution proven justified. In this paper, we want to address the place of food policies in the world. We do that by sketching the genealogy of “food security”, a concept that has gained importance in global developmental discourses of the past decades. We will connect the evolution of food security ideas and models to the historically grown practices of tackling the food question in colonial empires and independent African states.
Based on our research project on the history of social policies in six African countries, we discuss historical processes like the transformations of African agriculture, the scientization of the social, and divergent state formations. We conclude by debating what our findings tell us about legitimate moral orders in contemporary international politics and about the place of the global in predominant IR discourses.Authors: Klaus Schlichte (Univeristy of Bremen) , Roy Karadag (University of Bremen)* , Anna Wolkenhauer (Univerity of Bremen)*
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Panel / Making and Unmaking International Law and Politics History Room, Student UnionSponsor: International Law and Politics Working GroupConvener: Henry Lovat (University of Glasgow)Chair: Henry Lovat (University of Glasgow)
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n March 2021 the UN’s Working Group on the Right to Development (WGRtD) began deliberations on its “zero draft” of a legally-binding Convention on the Right to Development, some thirty-five years after the U.N. General Assembly’s adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development in 1986. While the draft Convention resolves many of the ambiguities that some argue have plagued the Declaration, especially with respect to definitional clarity about the right itself and its attendant duties and obligations, key tensions exists between two legal/institutional strands of the Right to Development: the human rights obligations of states with respect to their own development policies and practices; and the obligations of states from the Global North toward the Global South with respect to access to development resources as a matter of right. This paper will explore the draft Convention and the Working Group’s deliberations (in March and November 2021) about the draft along three dimensions – normative, legal, and political – in order to ascertain the extent to which the Convention attempts to ameliorate these key tensions.
Author: Daniel Whelan (Hendrix College) -
Hans J. Morgenthau’s approach to international relations has been the subject of a number of studies since the initial publication of his works. Deeply insightful, this literature has offered valuable commentaries on the wider implications of this theorist’s works, which focus on a deeply varied number of topics and debates. Through an examination of Hans J. Morgenthau’s wider works, this paper contributes to this literature, offering an analysis of his theory of international law. It explores the elements of his theory of international law, arguing that this aspect of his theory of international relations, though explored less frequently in the wider literature, remains of great relevance today. Finally, it argues that, though often misunderstood, Morgenthau’s classical realist approach provides a powerful commentary on the fundamental problems faced by international law; something which remains particularly relevant in relation to the problems faced by international law, and international disarmament and arms control treaties today.
Author: Carmen Chas (University of Kent) -
The term ‘deep uncertainty’ is permeating public discourse in particular with respect to the occurrence of tipping points as a consequence of anthropogenic climate change. Pointing at the scientific uncertainty in Earth System Models, states around the world claim wide political discretion in devising their mitigation policy. This claim is further buttressed by the argument that choosing a specific level of greenhouse gas emissions reduction is a deeply normative decision and therefore ‘belongs to the political domain’ for reasons of democratic legitimization. The present article engages in a detailed analysis of this claim and its underlying premises from a political and legal theory perspective. The main argument put forward is that the law does not automatically grant wide political discretion for normative decisions, even in the context of ‘deep uncertainty’. Rather, in the case at hand, the scope for political leeway is tightly circumscribed, inter alia, by the equity principle and the obligation to protect inviolable fundamental rights. Indeed, a strong legal argument is to be advanced that state conduct not aligned with keeping the temperature rise below 1.5°C at an 83% likelihood not only classifies as an internationally wrongful act but, ultimately, is also deeply undemocratic.
Author: Violetta Ritz (University of Kent) -
The meaning of “human rights” and the political agenda around them remain a fertile soil for norm contestation, in particular in relation to the prevailing Western individualistic, liberal, and democratic values that shape them. The paper explores diplomatic exchanges between UN member states in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and the Human Rights Council (HRC). Building on text analysis, official documents and interviews, it analyses contestation on issues like SOGI, development, women’s rights, and the old Cold War divide between civil and political rights/economic, social, and cultural rights and argues that contestation is related to the issue focus and that, contrary to the prejudices of many, the behaviour of non-Western contestants can be both instrumental/hypocritical and normative/sincere.
Author: Pilar Elizalde (London School of Economics and Political Science)
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Panel / Making Sense of Global Politics Carloil, Civic CentreSponsor: Interpretivism in International Relations Working GroupConveners: IIRG Working group , Hannes Hansen-Magnusson (Cardiff University)Chair: Hannes Hansen-Magnusson (Cardiff University)Discussant: Hannes Hansen-Magnusson (Cardiff University)
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This paper contributes a securitisation-based, interpretive approach to state weakness. The long-dominant positivist approaches to the phenomenon have been extensively criticised for a wide range of deficiencies. Responding to Lemay-Hébert's suggestion of a 'Durkheimian', ideational-interpretive approach as a possible alternative, I base my conceptualisation on Migdal's radically ideational view of state weakness as emerging from a ‘state-in-society’s’ contested ‘strategies of survival’. I argue that several recent developments in Securitisation Theory enable it to capture this contested 'collective knowledge' on the state: a move away from state-centrism, the development of a contextualised 'sociological' version, linkages made between securitisation and legitimacy, and the acknowledgment of 'securitisations' as a contested Bourdieusian field. I introduce the concept of ‘securitisation gaps’ - divergences in the security discourses and practices of state and society - as a concept aimed at capturing this contested role of the state, operationalized along two logics (reactive/substitutive) – depending on whether they emerge from securitisations of the state action or inaction – and three intensities (latent, manifest, and violent), depending on the extent to which they involve challenges to state authority. The approach is briefly illustrated through the changing securitisation gaps in the Republic of Lebanon during the 2019-20 'October Uprising’.
Author: Kevork Oskanian (University of Birmingham) -
In recent years, the research on ontological security in IR has been flourishing and a growing body of the literature has moved beyond state-centric approaches. Nonetheless, ontological security has been predominantly studied through various forms of discourse analysis. This paper seeks to make the case for the use of focus groups as a method to study how (inter)national meta narratives, routines and practices translate into the personal ontological security and anxiety management mechanisms of regular citizens. We argue that the analysis of group discussions can improve our understanding of the vernacular aspects of ontological security by observing its mechanisms at an ‘everyday’ interpersonal and interactional level. In other words, this method provides a way to make use of ontological security’s psychological and psychoanalytical origins by exploring how subjects react to everyday conversations that potentially challenge their self-identity narratives, routines, and practices. In this paper, we review how the main concepts of the ontological security literature such as anxiety, identity and fantasy narratives can be studied with the use of focus groups. We demonstrate this operationalization by drawing on evidence from four group discussions with students, young unemployed people, young people without a diploma, and white collars from Florence, Italy.
Authors: Nicolai Gellwitzki (University of Warwick) , Anne-Marie Houde (University of Warwick) -
Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP) is a deeply visual and contextual method of civilian (self-) protection. The centrality of visibility to its methods such as protective presence means it effectively challenges and reshapes the material-aesthetics of violent, military infrastructures as places of security. The importance of in-person research when studying epistemological process of embodied conflict-knowledge is crucial, yet increasingly precarious due not only to Covid but to ever more stringent ethics procedures and funding limits. Moving research of such a practice which is so contextually and spatially bound online presents unique challenges; to create a shared space between researcher and participant in which mutual trust and understanding can be built without physical proximity or extended social interaction. Whilst there is a wealth of literature covering online ethnography of digital communities, work on online research of communities that centre on their contextual and spatial boundaries is sporadic at best. This paper will argue that a combination of PhotoVoice and DrawingOut, two arts-based methods, can combine to explore the materiality of space through the blurred spatial bounds of online research. By asking participants to take and share photographs of embodied metaphors of key conflict-related themes, such as security, this method seeks to merge the physical and technology; to ground the intangibility of meaning-making processes through imagery of physical space. This paper explores the possibility of (re)creating shared space through digital arts-based methods and allowing participants to remake ‘their place’, and the potential this may have for understanding epistemological processes when researcher and participant are kept at an unsocial distance.
Author: Ridden Louise (Aberystwyth University )
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Panel / New Approaches to Strategy Bewick, Civic CentreSponsor: European Security Working GroupConvener: Andrew Neal (University of Edinburgh)Chair: Helena Farrand Carrapico (Northumbria University)Discussant: Patrycja Rozbicka (Aston University)
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This paper addresses a stringent omission in the role theory in foreign policy, that of operationalization of role change in foreign and security policy (FSP). Building on theoretical propositions from classical role theory research, I show that role change occurs differently than previously understood. Adding to the literature of role theory, this paper proposes a new and original typology of the role conception in foreign and security policy role adaptation, role transformation and role emulation. It argues that role conception in this domain depends on two key factors: 1) threat perception; 2) strategic objectives. In a second step, the article tests the explanatory power of this conceptual framework applying the case of UK security and foreign policy pre- and post-Brexit. Empirically, parliamentary debates, national strategic documents, speeches and other salient reports between the period 2010-2021 are employed for estimating the value of the two proposed factors. The article reveals a paradox of UK positionality towards Euro-Atlantic policy. Although there was no significant change in the threat perception, there was a substantial change in the strategic objectives. To account for these discrepancies, I argue that it was a strategy of compensation that pushed the UK to an asymmetric adjustment of its level of ambition. This was motivated by the desire to compensate for absolute and relative loses associated with the withdrawal from the EU. The findings add a theoretical distinction to role theory.
Author: Cornelia Baciu (University of Copenhagen) -
Security scholars have long questioned whether ‘security’ should be widened beyond state security to include ‘human security’ and other concerns such as climate change. Today, many national security strategy documents do identify a wider range of security threats and risks than in previous decades. However, whether this is lip service or corresponds to a wider approach to security backed by deep policy commitments has not been tested empirically or systematically on a global scale. Using a unique new comprehensive dataset of national security strategy documents this paper will use a combination of inductive content analysis and natural language processing to analyse, compare, and rank the ‘wideness’ and policy 'depth' of declared state approaches to security.
It is common for security strategy documents to discuss a wide range of threats, risks, and challenges, but not necessarily to offer correspondingly wide security approaches or deep policy commitments to address them. Indeed, the ‘widening of security’ theme is on its way to becoming ubiquitous in national security strategy documents. However, the mere presence of these wider threats and risks may be superficial. Many security strategy documents make only loose and even banal policy commitments to respond to the threats and risk they have identified. For example, claimed intentions to ‘strengthen’, ‘increase’ or ‘promote’ different areas could be as vague as commitments to strengthen the economy or increase the level of education with no time scale, plan, or indication of what achieving the goals looks like. This may be articulated only at state level, with no implementing agency or ministry. In contrast, Finland’s 2017 ‘Security Strategy for Society’ specifies detailed responsibilities, tasks and operating modalities for all government ministries and many other state agencies.
To create a meaningful comparison between the width and policy depth of different states’ approaches, this paper will offer two indices: a ‘security approach wideness index’ and a ‘policy depth index’. By weighing and ranking the detail, responsibilities, and actions states attach to their security policy commitments, the indices will make visible whether a state is merely stating a policy position or tasking its ministries and agencies in detail.
Author: Andrew Neal (University of Edinburgh)
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Panel / Non-Western Involvement in Peace- and Statebuilding – a Shift in Norms and Practices? Part 1 Dobson, Civic CentreSponsor: Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Working GroupConveners: Nadine Ansorg (University of Kent) , Thorsten Bonacker (University of Marburg)Chair: Nadine Ansorg (University of Kent)Discussant: Thorsten Bonacker (University of Marburg)
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Security norms established during the colonial era continue shaping institutions until today. Remnants of colonial laws continue existing until today, particularly in frontier regulations, shaping relationships between state institutions and populations even after processes of decolonization interrupted the link to the original colonial powers. While this has been criticized both academically and politically, efforts to decolonialize security institutions have been relatively new, with post-colonial states struggling to find a decolonial perspective. In this paper, I argue that the logic inherent in international efforts to provide security through state institutions reinforces colonial security norms, thus preventing deeper reforms within institutions. By emphasizing security provision through state institutions, they inhibit efforts to reform laws which protect state institutions against a populace.
Author: Tareq Sydiq (University of Marburg ) -
Although Libya did not host a UN peacekeeping force after the fall of the Gadhafi regime in 2011, international actors -under the coordination of the UN Support Mission in Libya- supported the state building and security reconstruction efforts of the Libyan authorities in the following years, though to a limited extent. Turkey was surely one of the (non-Western) states that actively involved in these international efforts. Thus, this paper aims to critically analyse the main motivations and outcomes of Turkey’s Security Sector Reform (SSR)-related activities in Libya since 2011, and, examine if and how they differ from those of the Western states in terms of norm and practice. The paper maintains that Turkey’s SSR-related engagement in Libya should be analysed comparatively in two different periods: 2011-2014 and post-2019. It also argues that while the first period activities were more in accordance and coordination with other international actors, the second period engagement was more guided by Turkey’s geo-strategic/economic interests in the region. The research is based on a thorough analysis of the news, official announcements, international agreements, legislations, and, parliamentary debates on Turkey’s SSR-related activities in Libya in both periods.
Author: Nuri Yesilyurt (University of Kent / Ankara University) -
This paper focuses on the past two decades of non-Western (Chinese, Russian, Indian, and Arab Gulf) involvement in state-building in Afghanistan bilaterally and through the UN mission (UNAMA), including twenty UN programs and bodies in the country. Particularly, the paper explores correlations in non-Western governments’ reconstruction, stabilization, development, and public sector support practices with migration and trade restrictions placed around Afghan populations, goods, and services. Noting remarkable similarities in how Afghanistan and its people are represented and treated by Western and non-Western governments alike, I argue that the management of postcolonial spaces such as Afghanistan (i.e. those labeled “failed” or “fragile” states or “conflict zones”) aligns external governance interventions across a range of diverse actors. Thereby, where or who they are (Northern or Southern, Western or non-Western, liberal or illiberal) becomes immaterial for ordinary Afghans as external governance strategies ultimately converge around a nebulous public good of "global" or "regional stability". Governments with historically divergent, even conflicted, foreign policy discourses and geopolitical attitudes toward Afghanistan have supported a common set of interventions into the Afghan postcolony over the past two decades. Their effects have amounted to a geopolitical and population containment of Afghanistan aided by global governance institutions.
Author: Bojan Savić (University of Kent, BSIS) -
Since the late 1990s, security sector reform has been an important cornerstone of peacebuilding and statebuilding efforts worldwide. The design and implementation in particular of so called first-generation SSR were characterised by state-centred and Western-dominated concept with inflexible, set templates. In the last decade, concepts and implementation of SSR have further developed: critiques of state-centred models have prompted a change in thinking amongst policy makers. The normative critique in the SSR literature can be linked to a wider debate on challenges in statebuilding and peacebuilding that calls for a better inclusion and recognition of the agency and security needs of local populations in post-war peacebuilding endeavours. But how is this received at an international level? How are norms and practices around SSR from the Global South adapted or adopted at an international level? This paper explores these questions by analysing debates on SSR norms and practices at different UN forums. It traces these debates according to power dynamics and power structures, and assesses the role of actors of change within the international system.
Author: Nadine Ansorg (University of Kent)
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Panel / Norms and Emerging Technologies Parson, Civic CentreSponsor: International Studies and Emerging Technologies Working GroupConveners: Andre Barrinha (University of Bath) , Theo Westphal (University of Sheffield) , Raquel Gontijo (PUC Minas, Brazil) , Arindrajit Basu (Centre for Internet and Society)Chair: Andre Barrinha (University of Bath)
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Weaponising artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of so-called autonomous weapon systems (AWS) is the subject of considerable international debate. What is at stake is the extent to which humans can remain in meaningful control over the use of force. This paper critically investigates the evolving understandings and, in particular, the emerging normativity in the international debate about AWS. To address this, I draw on the community of practice (CoP) literature, as well as science and technology studies (STS) and critical norm research in two steps. First, I argue that there is a constellation of intersecting CoPs composed of weapon manufacturers, political actors, as well as media/academic commentators shaping the debate about AWS and human control. They all engage in the inter-connected practices of designing, using, and talking about AWS. Second, I investigate emergent normativity in the debate via two STS concepts: boundary work and relationships of configuration. Boundary work allows me to investigate the dynamics of interaction between overlapping CoPs that are invested in shaping understandings of basic technological concepts: automation, autonomy, and AI. The paper further argues that understandings of human control are being configured in the course of diverse stakeholders performing practices of designing, using, and talking about weapon systems with autonomous features in targeting. Studying such dynamics can shed light on how normativity emerges and is shaped in practices. I illustrate these dynamics by considering a particular type of AWS: loitering munitions.
Author: Ingvild Bode (University of Southern Denmark) -
In the last century, two technology-related spaces have acquired strategic importance: outer space, in the second half of the 20th century; and cyberspace, at the turn of the millennium. Diplomacy has played a central role in attempting to regulate both, with varying degrees, and forms of success. In the 1960s, the Outer Space Treaty (OST) was the successful outcome of a fast-track diplomatic process that understood the urgency of regulating an emerging field. In cyberspace, where the need for an international treaty to regulate state behaviour is contested, diplomacy has not been as agile and consequently failed to provide the same level of normative stability. We seek to examine how sociotechnical imaginaries contributed to the divergences in these processes – the development of the OST and the ongoing UN General Assembly process on ICTs. In particular, this paper investigates how distinct notions of political urgency embedded in these ‘collectively held, institutionally stabilized, and publicly performed visions of desired futures’ (Jasanoff, 2015, p.4) shaped outer space and cyberspace as diplomatic issues, and the international push towards the creation of stable normative framework in different directions. Overall, this paper makes a valid contribution to existing literature by examining how sociotechnical imaginaries can shape diplomacy and the development of global governance regimes around it.
Author: Andre Barrinha (University of Bath) -
Cultural Lag and Sensitive Technological Advances: Building International Norms for the Space Sector
The cultural lag hypothesis, proposed by sociologist William Ogburn, refers to the delay in social adaptation to innovations, which can particularly be a problem when these involve sensitive technology that can be used to cause harm. In this paper, I analyze how international cooperation struggles to deal with the development and diffusion of space technology. I ask if and how this cultural lag manifests in international norm building and diffusion, as states negotiate the creation and improvement of a regime for outer space. I draw from the literature on norm life cycle and diffusion to analyze norm development in the space sector, considering the time lapse between the starting point of the space age and the formation of international agreements. I conclude that the delay in norm building has both positive and negative consequences for the space sector, as it allows for flexibility in technological development and innovation, but also creates a permissive environment for worrying trends that may affect crucial parts of social life. This issue deserves great attention, by both academics and practitioners, due to the increasing speed of technological innovation in the 21st century.
Author: Raquel Gontijo (PUC Minas, Brazil) -
This paper examines how China’s elites use the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to export its cybersecurity laws to recipient countries. These laws are based on norms reflecting individual states’ ability to independently govern and control cyberspace, which diverge from the focus on private and business influences espoused in current Western-dominated practices of Internet governance. Bridging recent insights from Global International Relations, which emphasize the need to consider how local agents are able to object to diffused norms (reactive contestation) or critically engage with them (proactive contestation) and the Chinese Relational School, which focuses on relationality, the paper approaches norms as inherently situated and contested elements of social structure and advances the argument that China’s normative influence in the issue area of cyberspace security is based on mutual processes of relational adaptation/learning taking place within institutionalized relationships. Accordingly, China has to be responsive to material and normative criticism from recipient countries for its norm entrepreneurship to be recognised as legitimate and to have normative influence. While originally focused on physical infrastructure such as railways, the export of smart city solutions, facial recognition software, telecommunications, and 5G has become increasingly important as part of the BRI’s ‘Digital Silk Road’, which has especially taken shape in Central Asia’s authoritarian countries. Hence, the paper takes China’s BRI relationship(s) with other Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states as the case study for testing the argument empirically. Employing a process-tracing methodology, the study uses mixed methods content and conceptual analysis of discursive materials to analyse relational exchanges within the BRI between 2013 and 2021 to trace the (co-)production of normative understandings surrounding cyberspace security and the diffusion of China’s cybersecurity laws to recipient countries.
Author: Theo Westphal (University of Sheffield)
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Roundtable / Post-Structural Politics: Twenty Years of Reflections Martin Luther King, Student Union
A Roundtable discussion with past PPWG convenors on the past, present, and future of post-structural politics.
Sponsor: Post-Structural Politics Working GroupChair: Uygar Baspehlivan (University of Bristol)Participants: Martin Coward (Review of International Studies) , Maja Zehfuss (Københavns Universitet) , Elisa Wynne-Hughes (Cardiff University) , Kodili Chukwuma (University of East Anglia) , Henrique Tavares Furtado (University of the West of England) -
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Panel / The (Gendered, Racialized) Politics of Collective Memory in Security Imaginaries Daniel Wood, Student UnionSponsor: Critical Studies on Terrorism Working GroupConveners: Tom Pettinger , Alice Martini (QMUL)Chair: Alice Martini (QMUL)
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What does it mean to “move past” political violence undertaken in the service of hegemonic power structures? In the wake of the Christchurch massacre and the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, policymakers have frequently turned to Germany as the prototypical example of a country that has previously reckoned with white supremacist violence. Yet the frequent invocation of German memory culture as a blueprint for other countries to aspire to papers over contention, hostility, and at times outright refusal to reckon with white supremacy itself. I suggest, instead, that the limits of memorialization and social change in Germany underscore the differences between symbolic and institutional reckonings. Using fieldwork and archival data from Berlin and Washington, DC, I show how the process of binding white supremacy to a particular historical era both erases and strengthens its continued presence, producing institutional continuity rather than transformative societal change.
Author: Anna Meier (University of Nottingham) -
Memories – defined as individual and collective interpretations of past conflicts – may spark disputes or foster cooperation within the international community. Particularly where memories compare to compete, tensions emerge between countries and their societies. This paper is interested in the dynamics of different memories of conflict in the international sphere. It asks about the diverse ways in which memories of conflict interact. Do memories of conflict compare or compete with those of other conflicts, and to what effects for global politics? To approach this question, the paper attempts to theorise diverse memory dynamics without establishing causality between particular memory dynamics and specific international outcomes. It looks at the macro-and the micro-level, i.e., the level of states and individuals. For each of them, it investigates how a) a memory of conflict interacts with b) the memory of other conflicts. Therefore, the key research interest is to find out the ways in which countries and individuals position their own memory vis-à-vis other memories. In combining the individual with the state-level, the article hopes to contribute to IR a comprehensive theory on the dynamics sparked between memories internationally.
Moreover, in practice, the paper highlights the competitive potential that a global/Western Holocaust memory may trigger, especially today when new international memories of colonialism or slavery are in the making. As its empirical analysis shows, when these memories are pushed exclusively by those in subordinate power positions, the pre-eminent logic of competition will be aggravated. As a result, when the emerging memories of colonialism and slavery remain unrecognised by the West, the global Holocaust memory frame is unlikely to bring its productive, multiplying side to fruition. Instead of providing a universal platform to articulate a broader vision for anti-authoritarianism and anti-racism, the Holocaust may rather stand in as the place to capture in a perceived hierarchy of suffering. As a result of such a climate, the evolving memories of the Holocaust, colonialism, and slavery will compete to bloc one another from view, rather than standing next to one another as warning signs to humanity in the moral spirit of "never again".
Author: Kathrin Bachleitner (University of Oxford) -
When those deemed terrorist die they are remembered in multiple ways, from television shows, to political speeches, video games and beyond. In this paper we offer a discursive analyses of mainstream newspaper obituaries of prominent ‘terrorist’ figures from Abu Nidal to Manuel Marulanda, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and beyond. These obituaries, we argue, reproduce dominant constructions of gender in their efforts to simultaneously appraise and biographise their subjects’ lives. Thus, on the one hand, we encounter depictions of the public ‘work’ and personas of terrorists as physically imposing soldiers, unrepentant in their use of violence to 'mastermind' ‘spectacular and brutal terrorist actions’. These stereotypical constructions of masculinity, however, are nuanced by feminised depictions of their private lives and relationships, such as bin Laden’s willingness ‘to submit to dressings down by his mother’. Taking these constructions seriously, we argue, sheds further light on the gendering of terrorist discourse and memory in this relatively neglected genre.
Authors: Lee Jarvis (University of East Anglia) , Andrew Whiting (Birmingham City University) -
This paper analyses the establishment and implementation of CVE across Europe, revealing how programmes designed to prevent terrorism risk from emerging are enacted through systematic acts of forgetting. Examining the establishment of terrorism preemption programmes in the UK, Norway, and the Western Balkans, the paper articulates how significantly disastrous periods and moments of violence – “the Troubles”, the Utøya attack in 2011, and the Yugoslav Wars respectively – did not provoke CVE to be enacted, despite these episodes of violence being characterised by continuity rather than exceptionality. Instead, the domain of CVE across Europe was established only after much smaller-scale violence perpetrated by, and the perceived threat of violence from, racialized Muslims. The paper also investigates how the racialized policy enactment of CVE is mapped onto the day-to-day implementation of such programmes, through analysis of 17 interviews with officials from the UK’s counter-radicalization strategy Prevent and its ‘de-radicalization’ intervention scheme Channel. The discussion argues that the policy paradigm of CVE is only able to be upheld by the consistent forgetting of systemic and White violence, which in turn enables much more destructive forms of violence (from environmental exploitation to austerity politics) to be situated as the norm.
Author: Tom Pettinger
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Break with tea and coffee
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Conference event / Keynote Address from Kim Stanley Robinson - Dodging the Mass Extinction Event: SPONSORED BY BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Council Chamber, Civic Centre
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Panel / The Newcastle Blitz: A History of Newcastle During WW2 Northern Stage, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RHSponsor: War Studies Working GroupConvener: James Rogers (University of Southern Denmark)Chair: James Rogers (University of Southern Denmark)Discussant: Stephen Moore (Newcastle University)
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Conference event / Conference Reception Wylam Brewery, Palace of Arts Exhibition Park, Claremont Rd, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4PZ
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Conference event / Toon Run around Newcastle - Find out more in section 2 at https://conference.bisa.ac.uk/highlights Civic Centre Steps
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Conference event / The Limits of Safety – A Sound Installation - Find out more on our highlights page https://conference.bisa.ac.uk/highlights’ Outside the Student UnionSpeaker: Michael Mulvihill (Newcastle)
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Panel / (De)Bordering the Middle East: Space, Mobility and Thought Kate Adie, Student UnionSponsor: BISAConvener: Deniz Yonucu (Newcastle University)Chair: Deniz Yonucu (Newcastle University)
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Who are the (most) vulnerable? Dissecting humanitarian vulnerability assessments of refugees
Author: Lewis Turner (Newcastle University) -
Crossing the Green Line: Everyday processes of (de)bordering in Israel-Palestine
Author: Una McGahern (Newcastle University) -
Living with ruins: Hebron and the politics of settler-colonial urban ruination
Author: Moriel Ram (Newcastle University) -
Locating the Middle East in International Political Economy
Authors: Cemel Burak Tansel (Newcastle University) , Merve Sancak (Loughborough University)
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Panel / European Security Inside Out Martin Luther King, Student UnionSponsor: European Security Working GroupConvener: ESWG Working groupChair: Nele Marianne Ewers-Peters
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This paper employs Securitization Theory to examine the extent to which China’s rise as an economic player in Europe has become securitized – transposed from ‘ordinary politics’ to a security threat necessitating an exceptional response. In the past few years the EU’s public discourse around the implications of China’s rising economic power has become markedly critical, although terminology such as ‘trade war’ (as featured in US discourse) remains absent. As China’s exports increase, EUropean actors are now starting to articulate perceptions of an economic threat posed by China. The expansion of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and investment in critical national infrastructure has reinforced concerns about national security implications. This is also evident in the discourse around the involvement of Chinese companies investing in high-end technology industries and Europe, and especially the involvement of Huawei – a Chinese telecommunications giant – in the development of networks around Europe, in part due to the potential for espionage. Using discourse analysis, we survey official policy documents, public statements (speech acts) of EUropean leaders and policymakers to ascertain how the intersection of technology and trade relations has been securitized on the European side, and subsequently consider the implications for the broader trajectory of the bilateral relationship.
Authors: Evangelos (Evans) Fanoulis (Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) , Scott Brown (University of Dundee) -
How do material and doctrinal changes in EU partnership instruments affect African agency in international security? This paper contextualises the European Peace Facility (EPF) as a change of EU foreign policy instruments, in line with recent changes towards a more militarised and more interest-based foreign policy doctrine, with implications for security partnerships. This evolution reliably spells out the 'principled pragmatism' now firmly established in EU foreign policy doctrine. Yet African actors working towards collective security on the continent have consistently called for partners to support the achievement of African agency. We develop a theoretical argument on how African agency in security partnerships calls for autonomy in agenda-setting and shared decision-making in implementation. The empirical part of the paper critically introduces the design and initial activities of the EPF on the African continent. We find that the design, material capacities, and non-participatory governance of the EPF stand in stark to the aspiration of African agency. More broadly, the EPF also potentially undermines the EU's established principles of partnerships with Africa and the African Union in particular.
Authors: Toni Haastrup (University of Stirling) , Ueli Staeger (University of Geneva) -
Title: HUMAN RIGHTS AND EUROPEAN ONTOLOGICAL SECURITY; The “Crisis” That the Refugees Gave Rise To
Abstract:
The ontological security approach primarily focuses on identity and security relations and is mainly founded on a socio-psychological basis. That being so, it delivers us a way to study securitization on a bottom-up scale. Mitzen (2006), in a most basic way, defines it as the need to experience oneself as a whole, a continuous person in time – as being rather than constantly changing – in order to realize a sense of agency. Besides Laing (2010) indicate that for ontologically secure subject their identity and autonomy are never in question. During the period between 2015-2016, Europe faced the largest inflow of refugees since World War II (Nieman & Zaun, 2017; Lavenex, 2018). Since the number of refugees was unexpected, it was commonly voiced that the EU had been in crisis. However, it is not an actual but perceptional issue, and the essence of the whole problem is primarily existential, and it is indeed stimulated by the existing uncertainties about the European Unions's (EU) future (Kinnvall et al., 2018; Mitzen, 2018; Kaunert et al., 2020).
Straightforwardly, the EU does not indicate merely a well-defined territory in a Westphalian sense; rather, it is a political being with an identity included those routines and narratives which constitute the EU's self-identity. Therefore, it can also enter into ontological security-seeking activities. Considering this, the paper aims to demonstrate that the so-called refugee crisis was essentially an existential dilemma, so a matter of ontological security in terms of the EU. To support this claim, this paper examines the peculiarities of the existing refugee dilemma regarding the issue's racial, cultural, and historical dimensions. Besides, the question of how far human right is enough to restore the EU's sense of ontological security after the refugee influx is specifically addressed. Different from the normative perspectives, human rights, and today's human rights discourse are discussed from a critical perspective through this paper.
Keywords: Ontological Security, Human Right, European Union, Migration, Refugee Crisis, SecurityReferences
Laing, R. D. (2010). The divided self: an existential study in sanity and madness. Penguin.
Lavenex, S. (2018). ‘Failing Forward’ Towards Which Europe? Organized Hypocrisy in the Common European Asylum System. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 56(5), 1195–1212. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12739
Kaunert, C., & Léonard, S. (2018). The collective securitisation of terrorism in the European Union. West European Politics, 42(2), 261–277. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2018.1510194
Kinnvall, C., Manners, I., & Mitzen, J. (2018). Introduction to 2018 special issue of European Security: “ontological (in)security in the European Union.” European Security, 27(3), 249–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2018.1497977
Mitzen, J. (2006). Ontological Security in World Politics: State Identity and the Security Dilemma. European Journal of International Relations, 12(3), 341–370. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066106067346
Mitzen, J. (2018). Feeling at Home in Europe: Migration, Ontological Security, and the Political Psychology of EU Bordering. Political Psychology, 39(6), 1373–1387. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12553
Niemann, A., & Zaun, N. (2017). EU Refugee Policies and Politics in Times of Crisis: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 56(1), 3–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12650Author: Tolga Karakoç (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) -
The current migration crisis in the Mediterranean has influenced the development of new European Union policies. From the use of the Navy to implement the EUNAVFOR Operation Sophia in the Mediterranean, to the training of Libyan coastguards, or the EU-Turkey agreement, the EU has designed policies that seem to fail at both avoiding migrants from reaching Europe and from drowning in the Mediterranean. The crisis of the Aquarius, in June 2018, showed a real possibility of a similar tragedy to the one in Lampedusa in 2013, which paradoxically, it was the catastrophe that brought the attention of the society to the migration crisis in the first place, and put pressure on the EU to develop policies that could avoid similar outcomes. While recent literature on the migration crisis focuses on the role of Italy and Greece, Spain is also considered both, a transit, and destination country for migrants from African countries and in particular from Morocco for a long period of time. This paper aims to critically analyse the conflicting responses from Europe to the migration crisis with a focus on the Spanish involvement (i.e the Aquarius). This analysis will critically discuss also how some NGOs such as “Open Arms” and other Spanish activists dedicated to the rescue of migrants in the sea, have been questioned from a legal point of view. Finally, this paper will discuss to what extent Spanish bilateral agreements with Morocco could have an impact on the migration crisis in the Strait of Gibraltar.
Author: Arantza Gomez Arana (University of Northumbria) -
We are told that Brexit is now “done”, and that the UK has “taken back control” of its borders. But what exactly does that look like? Particularly taking back control of the Irish border – a rebordering of a long-contested border.
The UK and EU’s commitment to “avoiding a hard border, including any physical infrastructure or related checks and controls” has resulted in the UK relying on a series of bordering practices to secure the Irish border against undesirable immigration, specifically checks conducted under the EU Settled Status and Frontier Worker Permit schemes.
These checks, unlike conventional bordering practices, rely less on immigration and border professionals, enlisting ordinary citizens who lack the training and experience of the border field. In the Irish border region this is further complicated by questions of identity and citizenship; the UK requires British and Irish nationals to secure its border in Northern Ireland, potentially challenging Irish/European identities and leading to resistance to enacting the UK’s border.
In this paper I analyse these practices and engage with ‘citizen border guards' in Derry-Londonderry to understand how these ordinary citizens navigate their role as border guards, and the implications for their sense of ontological security, identity, and citizenship.
Author: Ben Rosher (Queen's University Belfast)
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Panel / IPT Key Thinkers Dobson, Civic CentreSponsor: Contemporary Research on International Political Theory Working GroupConvener: CRIPT Working groupChair: CRIPT Working groupDiscussant: Cat Wayland (University of Edinburgh)
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How and why have Pierre Bourdieu’s interventions into social theory been incorporated into international relations? This paper argues that that “Bourdieu” has come to be incorporated into IR in a partial and somewhat peculiar way. For much of the contemporary literature, “Bourdieu” is equated with practice theory, and vice versa. Although there are multiple theoretical approaches to the study of “practice”, rooted in disciplines ranging from anthropology to science studies, the approach has, within IR, come to be equated primarily with one theorist. Conversely, this also suggests that Bourdieu’s work has been incorporated into IR in a limited way, with relative neglect towards other of his conceptual innovations that might prove fruitful for the discipline. This paper develops an intellectual history of the incorporation of “Bourdieu” and “practice theory” into IR, suggesting that these resulted from the successes of a few intellectual entrepreneurs who introduced their particular interpretation of Bourdieu’s practice theory into IR, which was then adopted and reproduced by others in the discipline. Expanding the theoretical repertoire of practice theories within the discipline will open up both the critical potential of the approach, and its utility for explaining relations of power in practice.
Author: Lisa Stampnitzky (University of Sheffield) -
My paper examines the epistemology of Hans J. Morgenthau and claims that, as a member of the Humean-Nietzschean tradition, he is an empiricist and naturalist scholar. The papers draws on Brain Leiter's ideas on soft methodological naturalism and Susan Haack's concept of aposteriorist reformist naturalism. I argue that Morgenthau’s epistemology was not inconsistent, that Morgenthau should not be read as a forerunner of either IR as a "proper science" or of post-modern, critical IR theory, and that the debate between positivist and post-positivist images of Morgenthau which dominates the existing literature, is unfruitful. Both camps can easily find ample evidence from the oeuvre of Morgenthau and blame each other for doing selective reading. I also challenge scholars who take into consideration the arguments from both perspectives and believe that the distinct philosophical traditions of European and American academic circles caused a shift in Morgenthau's epistemic claims. I argue that Morgenthau’s epistemology remains consistent and that he was a particular kind of naturalist, neither hard core positivist, nor post-positivist.
Author: Ahmet Borazan (Durham University) -
Hannah Arendt once wrote to Karl Jaspers that she wonders whether it is more difficult to instill awareness of politics in the Germans or to explain philosophy to Americans – and with only a slight exaggeration one could say that Hannah Arendt wrote her groundbreaking book “The Origins of Totalitarianism” twice: once in English (first published in 1951) and once in German (published in 1955). This paper will interrogate the differences between the two versions of the book in regard to the following questions: How did Arendt’s experience as a refugee and as an émigré scholar shape the way she developed her theory? And what do the differences in her books tell us about the addressed audiences of the two versions? Or are the differences better explained if we look at the way the Cold War developed in between the years that the two versions got published? By analyzing the internationality of this book, particularly the section on totalitarianism, I hope to show how Arendt was crafting her books and to offer insights for scholars engaged in the intercultural translation of political ideas.
Author: Hanno Berger (Freie Universität Berlin) -
IR scholars highlighted the affinity between E. H. Carr and Mitrany’s visions of the post-war order. In particular, Carr endorsed aspects of Mitrany’s functionalist theory, particularly the emphasis on cross border institutions oriented towards socio-economic purposes, such as full employment, as a bulwark against nationalism. There is, however, a psychosocial aspect in Carr’s analysis of the post-war order that is under-theorised in the literature on Carr. Functional institutions, to Carr, did not only serve a socio-economic purpose, but also a psychosocial one. For instance, the ‘European Reconstruction and Public Works Corporation’ and the ‘European Planning Authority’ did not only ‘remedy unemployment’ but also ‘promote[d] practical international cooperation as a psychological substitute for war’ (Carr 1943, 252). This aspect in Carr’s work is crucial because, on one hand, it shows that Carr rejected the economically reductionist explanations of nationalism and war. On the other hand, it shows that Carr located what is presently known as the ‘cultural backlash’ thesis against globalisation in the historical context of laissez faire that failed to address the psychosocial needs of the individual. This paper argues that Carr’s insight on the psychosocial function of nationalism and war is relevant today, as it helps explain the recent backlash against neo-liberal globalisation by reactionary forces such as Trumpism and the ‘New Right’. The paper concludes that IR theory today needs to address this aspect in Carr’s work, by presenting an alternative narrative to these forces.
Author: Haro Karkour (Cardiff University)
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Panel / Images, Voices and Silences: New Empirical Vision in Transitional Justice Collingwood, Civic CentreSponsor: Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Working GroupConvener: Denisa Kostovicova (London School of Economics and Political Science)Chair: Denisa Kostovicova (London School of Economics and Political Science)Discussant: Rachel Kerr (King's College London)
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There has been extensive literature that discusses the role of photography in war and conflict but scant research that considers the intentional use of images and image-making as a means to combat division, recover histories and embed a culture of peace. An emerging agenda for visual peace research asks the question, what does a photography of peace consist of (Ritchin 2013, Möller 2019)? This article presents case studies of strategic visual peace-building from cultural organisations and NGOs in countries dealing with recent histories of conflict and violence and considers the multiple ways that visual practitioners and peacebuilders are harnessing photography to recover histories, to catalyse dialogue and to create shared narratives that are required for post-conflict justice. It proposes that often overlooked participatory and community engaged photography initiatives are central to a conception of peace photography that not only depicts and represents, but actively serves to shape, catalyse and embed peace and justice.
Author: Fairey Tiffany (King's College London) -
The acknowledgement of wrongdoings of an ingroup and suffering of an outgroup is deemed key to reconciliation between ethnic communities involved in a violent conflict. Yet, victims of war are often largely unrecognised. This paper analyses online and offline interactions of ordinary people in relation to the Yugoslav wars to understand what impedes the acknowledgement of war crimes committed by members of one’s own ethnic group. Scholars in social psychology have developed different theories and concepts to explain why people fail to acknowledge such crimes. However, social causes of non-recognition in this context have seldom been tackled. This paper investigates social triggers and argues non-recognition is not only triggered psychologically - by perceived threats to self-esteem, but also socially – by perceived threats to one’s social status at an international level and their symbolic implications. Insights of six focus groups interactions in Serbia and discourse analysis of over 300 tweets and Facebook posts in relation to Yugoslav wars suggest that a fear of stereotyping presents one of the major impediments to the acknowledgement of crimes committed by members of one's own ethnic group.
Author: Vico Sanja (London School of Economics and Political Science) -
Wartime sexual violence has been recognized as a gross human rights violation and a weapon of war, for which justice is due. Transitional justice scholars have pinpointed victim-blaming and victim-shaming culture that the victim survivors face, which is why it is difficult for them to break the silence about wartime rape. This paper investigates how women victims of wartime violence break silence, and whether silence-breaking generates social recognition conceptualized as a form of justice. The analysis turns to the analysis of interactions with the silence-breakers in the public domain. The paper shows that injustice for sexual violence is perpetuated in the public domain even when victims/survivors break the silence. It identifies cultural (family and gender roles) and political (ethno-national) mechanisms that explain how the victims’ act of speaking out is subverted to deny them justice for their suffering. The empirical evidence draws on fieldwork interviews conducted in Kosovo and Croatia, and the analysis of TV interviews, print media and social media. A multi-method comparative analysis of silence-breaking demonstrates how different post-war contexts impact on discursive interactions and social recognition. This paper advances the scholarship on gendered transitional justice, specifically, recent attempts to problematize the relationship between silence and justice.
Author: Cocaj Venera (London School of Economics and Political Science) -
Although the global norm of transitional justice is localized in national parliaments, scholars have overlooked how female legislators shape national transitional justice policy-making. Instead, the importance of women’s agency in shaping transitional justice processes has been based on the study of women’s civil society activism. This paper extends the understanding of women’s contribution to transitional justice by conducting a multi-modal discourse analysis of parliamentary questions about transitional justice asked by male and female members of the Croatian Parliament from 2004 to 2020. The paper investigates whether female legislators are marginalized by the adversarial nature of parliamentary discourse, considering women’s preference for cooperative discourse, as sociolinguists have argued. Quantitative analysis of the interactional dimension of parliamentary questions shows that women’s questions are as adversarial as men’s questions. Also, qualitative analysis of discourse demonstrates that female legislators broaden the scope of entitlements and press for the right to reparations to both male and female victims of violence. They overcome constraints posed by ideology and nationalism, although the constraints of partisanship appear most difficult to transcend. The paper advances feminist perspectives on transitional justice by identifying women’s discursive agency in post-conflict parliaments and its impact beyond the advocacy of women’s interests
Authors: Denisa Kostovicova (London School of Economics and Political Science)* , Vesna Popovski (London School of Economics and Political Science)
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Panel / Managing Risk and Conflict Escalation in the Digital Age Armstrong, Civic CentreSponsor: International Studies and Emerging Technologies Working GroupConveners: Eugenio Lilli , Tim Stevens (King's College London) , James Johnson (University of Aberdeen)Chair: Mabda Haerunnisa Fajrilla (The London School of Economics and Political Science)Discussant: Ingvild Bode (Associate Professor)
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Digital risk arises from contemporary conditions of informational hyperconnectivity and consequent relations of value and dependence. As the pandemic has illustrated, increased use of and reliance upon digital networks and systems has heightened awareness of these dynamics and deepened attention to digital risk as the object of public policy, corporate practice and user behaviours. Scholarship on digital risk management, as found in the cybersecurity literature and adjacent fields, has yet to fully link these processes and practices to wider notions of societal and systemic risk, particularly to sociological accounts of the contemporary ‘risk society’. This paper explores the notion of ‘digital risk’, asking how we might understand it through a sociotechnical lens. It pays specific attention to how we can begin to theorise ‘digital risk’ in Large Technical Systems (LTS), in which our understanding of risk goes beyond organisational imperatives of ‘risk management’ and into treating digital risk as a set of productive knowledges and practices within a political economy of uncertainty. This emergent research programme will contribute to theoretical and methodological innovation at the intersection of International Relations (IR) and Science and Technology Studies (STS).
Author: Tim Stevens (King's College London) -
This paper revisits the classical “security dilemma theory” – and the broader spiral models – to consider the potential implications of artificial intelligence (AI) technology for the US-China security dilemma. The paper argues that specific traits of AI technology intersect with the established security dilemma theory in ways that might intensify security dilemma dynamics within competitive (and nuclear-armed) dyads – or “AI-security dilemma dynamics.” Specifically, security dilemma dynamics will shape how AI influences relations between strategic dyads. How might dual-use disruptive AI technology influence security dilemma dynamics? What (if anything) makes AI different from other emerging technologies? And do those characteristics matter for the mechanisms described in the security dilemma? Addressing a gap in the literature – that consider the effects of emerging technology on established international relations theoretical frameworks – the paper not only advances a theoretical framework for exploring dual-use AI technology and the security dilemma (or the “AI-security dilemma”) but describes the potential implications of this rapidly evolving global security phenomena for international politics more broadly.
Author: James Johnson (University of Aberdeen) -
Campaigns and operations in and through cyber space are playing an increasingly visible role in international relations both in times of peace and of war. This increased visibility, along with the growing reliance of contemporary societies on cyber-related technologies for their correct functioning, have generated widespread interest in both academia, policymaking circles, and the wider society. Significant attention has been recently paid to the issue of cyber escalation risk. In other words, people have been trying to assess whether the growing reliance on cyber operations in interstate relations increases or decreases the likelihood of conflict and war among states. However, most of the debate has taken place at the theoretical level with few works testing such theories through actual empirical evidence. This paper contributes to this important area of research with an empirical study of the cyber escalation risk concerning the specific case of Iran-US relations in the 21st century. In particular, it aims at assessing whether the bilateral relationship offers any evidence substantiating the idea that increased cyber activity makes crisis escalation management more difficult.
Author: Eugenio Lilli
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Panel / Operational Experiences, Military Role Conceptions and their Influence on Civil-military Relations Swan, Civic CentreSponsor: European Journal of International SecurityConveners: Chiara Ruffa (Swedish Defence University ) , Christoph Harig (TU Braunschweig)Chair: Jason Ralph (University of Leeds and EJIS)
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Academic research on civil-military relations often assumes that dangers for democracy and civilian control mainly emanate from the military’s predisposition of ‘pushing’ its way into politics. Yet, civilian control frequently is a pre-condition for governments’ moves of ‘pulling’ the military into roles that may potentially be problematic. These can include the military’s involvement in political disputes or internal public security missions. Notwithstanding its empirical relevance, little academic work has been devoted to understanding how ‘pulling’ works. In this article, we aim to provide a first, exploratory framework of ‘pulling’ that allows to capture the dynamics of the military’s reactions and indirect consequences for civil-military relations. We identify three analytically distinct phases in which pulling occurs. First, politicians initiate either operational or political pulling moves. Second, we situate the military’s reaction on a spectrum that ranges from refusal to non-conditional compliance. This reaction is driven by the military’s role conceptions about appropriate missions and their relation to politics. In a third phase, the military may slowly start shifting its role conceptions to adapt to its new roles. We illustrate our argument with case studies of two different instances of pulling: operational pulling in the case of France (2015-2019) and operational – then-turned-political – pulling in the case of Brazil (2010-2020).
Authors: Christoph Harig (TU Braunschweig) , Chiara Ruffa (Swedish Defence University ) -
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were deployed extensively relative to other democracies’ militaries to combat the coronavirus during 2020-21. Ostensibly, the military’s engagements are instrumental in addressing the pandemic due to its resources and hierarchical discipline, and especially in light of its centrality in Israel. However, problems remain concerning this deployment, the most prominent and relevant to the case of Israel being the high legitimacy that the Israeli public afforded this policy, especially given the alternative options available to the government. Motivated by this conundrum, I present a circular argument: securitization legitimized the deployment of the military and in turn, this deployment, constitutive of the discourse of securitization, further legitimized securitization. Consequently, Israel could legitimately adopt an enemy-oriented approach to deal with the crisis, an approach that ‘enemizes’ the population.
Author: Yagil Levy (The Open University of Israel) -
What roles are military institutions expected to play in today’s rapidly changing security environment? How are they supposed to interact with the society they are expected to protect? These questions have since long been posed by classical military sociologists as well as more recently by a newer generation of scholars. Yet so far, a comprehensive mapping of the military’s potential roles in contemporary society seems to be missing. In this article we contribute to an update of this debate by providing a categorization of the different and sometimes overlapping roles and tasks that the military institution plays in current industrialized democratic states. We identify three core roles, each divided into sub-roles, by drawing on an extensive reading of 70 National White Papers and Security Strategies from the 37 OECD member states: (collective) defense, collective security and aid to the nation. We then analyze how these roles and tasks influence recent configurations in civil-military relations. This study thereby contributes with 1) a useful illustration of the military’s shifting roles and tasks in contemporary society; 2) increased understandings of how the different roles impact civil-military relations and related to this; 3) a practical starting point for further analyses of the military organization’s internal challenges related to its, at times, contradictory roles.
Author: Nina Wilén (Lund University) -
How do combat missions, defined as an armed confrontation which causes casualties, shape civil-military relations and military’s role conception? This article argues that militaries which incur combat casualties gain a stronger hand in the civil-military equilibrium. This is because casualties affect domestic political opinion and give prominence to the views expressed by military officials. Civilians are then more deferential to professional military advice. In turn, the military obtains considerable operational freedom, and can pick and choose missions which they find desirable. Second, the military’s role conception—an important determinant of military missions, is shaped most prominently by its combat experience. Militaries sustaining casualties obtain leverage vis-à-vis civilians and based on their institutional preference, they either prioritize or avoid non-traditional missions. While making these arguments, this article examines combat casualties, role conception and civilian control in India. These concepts as a whole and, the Indian case study especially are surprisingly understudied considering it is among the few non-western democracy with firm civilian control, a record of overseas intervention operations and a military with varying roles and missions. Analysing India’s experience therefore adds to the literature and illuminates the mechanism through which casualties affect civil-military relations.
Author: Anit Mukherjee (S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS))
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Panel / Pandemics, Power and Foreign Policy Stephenson, Civic CentreSponsor: Foreign Policy Working GroupConvener: FPWG Working groupChair: Marianna Charountaki (University of Lincoln)Discussant: Marianna Charountaki (University of Lincoln)
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This paper evaluates international public health responses to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic through the ‘two regimes of global health’ framework. This framework captures the contrasting ethics and priorities of global health security, which responds to the threat of emerging diseases to states in the global north, and humanitarian biomedicine, which emphasizes neglected diseases and access to treatments, especially among marginalized populations. To what extent did the security versus access divide characterize the response to COVID-19?
Analysis focuses on policy statements from the World Health Organization (WHO), humanitarian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and American health officials. Drawing on a systematic content analysis of policy positions and statements (e.g. press releases) by these actors, the research finds significant convergence in the stances of the WHO, a central institution of health security, and MSF, an exemplar of humanitarian biomedicine – even as American health officials continued to adhere to the traditional threat framing. Specifically, both the WHO and MSF came to align on a shared ethics of common humanity, with a focus on equity and access to medicines and treatments. In the WHO response, security remained, but was reconfigured; instead of national security, collective security was emphasized.
Author: Denis Kennedy (College of the Holy Cross) -
A new phenomena and term that has entered the international relations lexicon since 2020 is: “vaccine nationalism”. This concept describes the competition amongst nation states on vaccines for Covid-19. Vaccine nationalism has been defined in numerous ways by observers and experts during this period. This paper conceptualizes vaccine nationalism into three categories: (a) as an element of soft power in which manufacturing countries see it as a matter of prestige to be the supplier (and donor) of vaccines to the world; (b) competition amongst nations to gather supplies of vaccines for one’s own population as part of a zero-sum game; (c) rejecting and discrediting vaccines from unfriendly countries to deter their soft power. The paper uses various case studies to illustrate the different facets of vaccine nationalism. A number of implications emerge from this conceptual assessment for international relations scholarship and the international policy arena. It especially advances the research on global soft power moves through this new arena of vaccine competition and nationalism.
Author: Sharad Joshi (Middlebury Institute of International Studies) -
This paper contributes to the conference’s theme of global cooperation in times of crisis by responding to a particular question: “to what extent does a two-level (international and internal) patron-client framework explain Philippine responses to the COVID-19 pandemic? The paper is divided into four parts – first, the paper reviews literature on patron-client state relations and on domestic patron-client structures. Second, the paper applies Carney’s (1989) characterisation of international patron-client relationships to Sino-Philippine relations at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Carney, patron-client relationships involve asymmetry (uneven resources of the two states), affectivity (client’s loyalty to the patron due to benefits received), compliance (patron’s expectation from the client), and reciprocity (patron’s compliance to client preferences and needs). The third part of the paper analyses Philippine COVID-19 responses using Lande’s (1965) pioneering patron-client framework which claims that organised interest groups do not influence Philippine polity more than a network of mutual aid relationships between vertical dyadic ties. The paper utilises discourse analysis on President Rodrigo Duterte’s pronouncements on COVID-19 vaccination. The paper brings to light limitations and advantages of using the interplay between patron-client relations outside and within the state in explaining the Philippine response to the pandemic.
Authors: Chester Yacub (University of Nottingham) , Pauline Eadie (University of Nottingham)* -
The ongoing C-19 pandemic has seen international organizations take leading roles in co-ordinating the procurement and supply of crucial vaccines, medicines and equipment. In the Middle East, it has also created new opportunities for regional organizations to pursue strategic foreign policy objectives. This paper examines bilateral and regional health diplomacy initiatives undertaken by the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council in response to the C-19 pandemic including foreign aid spending patterns and health communication. Through a comparative examination with similar activities during the 2012 MERS pandemic, it argues that coordination experience gained in 2012 provided sufficient space for member states to pursue foreign policy objectives during the C-19 pandemic.
Author: Lucy Abbott (University of Edinburgh)
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Panel / Popular Culture and Social Media – Moving Beyond Hierarchy in the 21st Century University Carloil, Civic CentreSponsor: Learning and Teaching Working GroupConvener: Nick Robinson (University of Leeds)Chair: Catherine Baker (University of Hull)
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This paper explores teaching international politics, international political economy, and urbanism through a reading of China Miéville’s novel, Perdido Street Station. The novel as an artefact of popular culture affords a critical encounter with the production of space for students of international politics and IPE. Departing from prevailing approaches to understanding the urban in relation to the international that tend to focus on networks and circulation, the paper offers a reading of the novel as demonstrating the production of space. The paper links a critique of the hierarchical relations between teacher and student to critiques of the subordination of labour to design and planning, both of which render invisible the work of producing knowledge and space. Through an analysis of the political struggles over the formal and real subsumption of labour in Perdido Street Station, the paper argues that studying the politics of urbanism in relation to the international through artefacts of popular culture can disrupt the invisibility of work.
Author: Matt Davies (Newcastle University) -
Trump was banned from Twitter, Mi5 has an Instagram account, terrorist attacks are now immortalized in ‘memes’ as well as official memorials, revolutions are arranged through WhatsApp. International politics is liked, tweeted, shared, and preformed online. The global pandemic has accelerated a move to understanding, organizing and delivering online, hybrid and blended learning of Politics and International Studies. At the same time IR as a discipline is grappling with the role of social media in international politics. It is increasingly important that students are taught a critical digital literacy in order to be able to engage in an international politics that is increasingly done online, whilst social media provides a pedagogic opportunity for teaching and learning International Relations. This paper draws on the latest pedagogical literature in relation to digital practices, open educational practices and the role of social media in the classroom to understand how students can (and already do) learn world politics through social media. It uses focus group research with students to explore their understanding of social media in world politics to build a digital repository of examples, create and test an open pedagogical approach to learning IR in/through social media, and enhance the understanding and place of social media in the IR syllabus.
Author: Louise Pears (Universi#) -
Grief, joy and excitement, fear and trauma, and boredom are emotions which are increasingly seen as vital to our understanding of contemporary power and world politics. On the surface, videogames may seem an unlikely place to seek understanding of the complex intersection between feelings, empathy and war? These are difficult issues for students and tutors to engage with in our IR teaching and studies. With ever fewer of us having direct connection to the military, millions now 'actively participate’ through playing military combat games. These encounters with war occur through the processes, narratives, visuals and sounds within military videogames. Reflecting through the literature on aesthetics, emotions and empathy, alongside Michael Shapiro’s aesthetic subject allows for an exploration of what we 'learn' or 'feel' from playing military games. The paper explores the role of military games as productive sites for engendering reflection and learning in relation to the variety of emotions experienced within war. Cumulatively the paper reflects on the impact of these contrasting aesthetic experiences of war for players – they are much more than 'just a game'!
Author: Nick Robinson (University of Leeds) -
This paper aims to provide insights into the benefits and challenges of using videogames as a tool for teaching and learning politics and international relations. Technologically enhanced learning and innovative teaching practices are increasingly advocated by higher education bodies to ensure that students graduate with a wide range of twenty-first century skills. While there is an increasing amount of research into the use of popular culture and digital games as education tools, little has been conducted into the use of commercial videogames as pedagogical tools for teaching politics and IR. Several commercially available videogames present not only relevant themes, such as migration, conflict, and protest, but also present players with moral dilemmas, offer different perspectives, and encourage empathy. This paper reflects on my experience facilitating undergraduate teaching sessions using videogames, during which the gameplay, interactions between students and group discussions were observed and post-session surveys analysed. The insights into the student experience, as well as the practicalities of delivering sessions that incorporate videogames, contribute to conversations on the use of novel mediums, popular culture, and pedagogical methods.
Author: Jane Kirkpatrick (University of the West of England)
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Panel / Popular Culture and World Politics – Activism, Agency, Resistance and Subjugation Bewick, Civic CentreSponsor: Post-Structural Politics Working GroupConvener: Nick Robinson (University of Leeds)Chair: Lee Jarvis
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From the subversive memes of #OccupyWallStreet (Milner, 2012) calling people to action against global finance, to the reactionary internationalism of Alt-Right trolling subcultures (Michelsen & de Orellana, 2019), to the often cringe-worthy attempts by governments and international corporations to incorporate memes into their public relations strategies, it is increasingly clear that internet memes – popular sets of humorous images that circulate online through viral repetition and mutation - and wider memetic cultures that saturate online spaces are playing an expanding role in the shaping of contemporary global politics and its knowledge-production processes. However, theoretical and critical engagements with internet memes as emergent artefacts in the mediation and practice of everyday global political knowledge-production remain scarce.
This paper questions how internet memes as low cultural artefacts circulate “internationally” and how their circulation produce a disruptive and/or (re)productive impact on the bordered notion of the “international”. It engages with critical conceptions of political space in international relations and argues that we should conceptualise and theoretically engage with what it calls “the memescape” as an emergent political spatiality in which political, cultural and social meaning is contested, maintained, disrupted and/or (re)produced through low political (Weldes, 2006) interventions, circulations and provocations. Deploying Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s (2013) oppositional concepts of the “smooth space” and “striated space”, the paper argues that the international memescape is a smooth, nomadic and heterogeneous space of “horizontal artistry”, “playful meaning” and “affective circulation” that stands in a relation of tension – but also potential recuperation- to the striated, bordered and serious site of the international. It argues that understanding the impact of the memescape through the metaphor of the smooth space allows us to think about potentials of resistance and pitfalls of reaction in the digital era saturated by an increasing “memeification of (world) politics” (Dean, 2019)
Author: Uygar Baspehlivan (University of Bristol) -
This paper explores some of the empiric-conceptual and challenges arising from research undertaken for Sampling Politics: Music and the Geocultural (Oxford University Press 2021) given the formative role that the ‘digital’ now plays in scholarship at the popular culture and world politics nexus. I argue for a consideration of sampling as more than the sum of the myriad digital tools and software applications that regularly (re)fashion samples for western pop and classical music playlists.
Using additional examples and ongoing conversations with musicians, the paper develops an approach beyond privileging lyrical content as the primary locus for music-making and/as politics. Furthering the argument that music sampling’s repertoires of sonic ‘borrowing’ techniques, now contingent upon digital tools and internet-dependent networks, are inherently political, I return to some of my starker findings. The aim is to further scholarly forms of political listening and contribute to correcting misperceptions about the geocultural provenance of sampled works - their musical aesthetics, performance cultures, musicianship cross the “colour line” undergirding the global cultural industries and world music playlists. For debates over the copyrights and copywrongs of music sampling, however construed (e.g. as creativity or its absence, modes of signifyin’, or cultural appropriation) continue to rage.
Author: Marianne Franklin (Goldsmiths, University of London) -
Social media activism around global social justice issues has gained momentum over the past decade spearheaded by youth led movements such as the ‘Fridays for the Future’ climate strikes. However, in light of COVID-19, the past year saw an acceleration of activity through online educational and social justice campaigns including #BLM and #StopAsianHate. This paper explores preliminary findings from the EERA funded project exploring the role and impact of social media as a platform for education and activism for young people. Drawing on focus groups with students from several schools across the UK, the paper will unpack on how students engage, utilise and critical reflect on social media as a tool for activism and education for global social justice issues.
Author: Madeline Le Bourdon (University of Leeds ) -
Pharrell Williams performed his hit song ‘Happy’ during his appearance at a 2016 campaign rally for Hillary Clinton. Lady Gaga sang the national anthem at the 2021 United States Presidential Inauguration. William Shatner joined tech executives and a former NASA engineer and became the oldest person in space. Barbie has partnered with the European Space Agency to promote the education of girls in STEM fields. This paper argues that iconology provides area within which we can examine popular icons and images of our time to critically explore the concept of survival in both our present and future worlds.
Using this methodological approach to images traditionally used in art and media studies alongside intersectional theory, we present an iconological analysis of the icons and imagery that are employed in electoral and exploration politics. Based on data gathered during the 2016 and 2020 US general elections and social and news media coverage of the SpaceX and Blue Origin launches in 2021, we contend that the influence of fame and celebrity not only continues to impact political outcomes in the present, but now extends into an intergalactic future, requiring us to ask, “can the world – both present and future – survive?”
Authors: Skyler Hawkins (Newcastle University) , Jana-Maria Fey (Queen Mary University London) -
The paper investigates the imaginative economies and scopic fields of popular culture representations of sudden environmental change. These fictions foreground radical exposure to variants of human extinction. As such, then, texts such as Cormack McCarthy's The Road and Jeff van der Meer's Annihilation can be read as stagings of the question of dwelling with an irredeemable vulnerability. However, such fictions are, essentially, a fantasy of the persistence of the anthropocentric subject: a redemption of vulnerable subjects through parables of their individualist survival of what should have been their end. As such, these fictions expose a two-fold political problematic. On the one hand they act as a way to reassert a particularly anthropocentric understanding of the anthropocene: one that is firmly located in the fantasy of surviving and thriving which dates back to organic and evolutionary metaphors deployed to justify colonialism and imperialism. On the other they avoid a key question posed by the concept of vulnerability: how can radical exposure (to extinction in this case) be mitigated if it comprises a condition of possibility of existence. As such, they avoid the question of dwelling with irredeemable exposure. The latter is, of course, a (historical) fact of life for subjugated, colonised, enslaved, and exploited peoples. As such, apocalyptic imaginaries neglect to address the ways in which worlds have already ended and the lessons such endings could have for a theory of vulnerability and thus reassert particularly western, liberal fantasies of anthropocene futures.
Author: Martin Coward (Review of International Studies)
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Panel / Sexual and Gendered Violence in Times of Insecurity Pandon, Civic CentreSponsor: Gendering International Relations Working GroupConvener: Annika Bergman Rosamond (Lund University)Chair: Annika Bergman Rosamond (Lund University)
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The Shadow Pandemic and the Need for Gender-Specific Policy Intervention
The Gender gap remains as the world look over the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic simultaneously nurtured a parallel and silent pandemic which is also now known as ‘Shadow Pandemic’. The Shadow pandemic effectively reversed the hard-fought gains the world has thought it has made in terms of gender equality and women empowerment. This paper essentially aims to diagnose the direct correlation between lack of gender specific policy intervention and increased gender exploitation in times of pandemic. The unsung women lead from the front as a part of Covid-19 response team but the lack of gender specific policy intervention during the time of crisis across the globe exposed the fragility of social protection. The previous research works reveal that in times of limited resource and international emergencies the policy-framers and response teams although partially acclimatized with such crisis since 1918, remained ignorant and equally unequipped to address the gender-specific problems. The findings are therefore inadequate to address a global crisis and that the women across all societies faced in a similar manner for the first time ever leading to a scope of introspective analytical study. After the initial crisis has eased out, international organizations like United Nations, medical Journals like Lancet and National governments turned their attention and started to reach out to women. While the women lead from the front during Covid-19 crisis they were found missing in response teams and in teams of policy framers. The pandemic aggravated gender-specific violence where domestically they were often locked up with the abusers and in the public sphere, they were facing economic exploitations, doing unpaid care giving jobs, handling health emergencies without support and facing migrant crisis like never. Contrary to what is often assumed that the general policies during the crisis address the entire population equally, women do need gender specific policies to fight the existing inequalities which accelerate during any crisis.
Key words: Shadow Pandemic, Gender specific Policy, Covid-19, Women, PandemicAuthor: Swati Bhattacharya (University of Calcutta) -
The paper asks whether individualistic and collective representations of leadership are generating a discursive divide between modern presidential leadership and women as political leaders in the United States. Multimodal discourse analysis methods are used to investigate how presidential leadership is constructed intertextually across a selection of texts from academic, popular culture, and elite political actor settings. Arguing that presidential leadership is moulded in a particularly narrow gendered way - through especially competitive, individualistic, leadership discourses - the paper will assess potential implications of this for (post-)pandemic leadership. Continuing to heed Rudalevige’s (2010) call to be “more transparent about what we value, and should value, in the realm of political leadership”, the paper will reflect upon the role and impact(s) of theorising and theory building for the understanding and practice of presidential leadership. The research aims to highlight the merits of interdisciplinary work that can be conducted between the extremes of individualistic and collectivist/structuralist approaches competing for esteem on the agency-structure continuum of social sciences research ontologies. Thus, through an interdisciplinary study of presidential leadership in the United States, this paper addresses the issue of cooperation versus competition in global diplomacy and within the field of international relations.
KEYWORDS: Gender; Leadership; Presidentiality; US Politics; Theorising Women and Leadership; Discourse Analysis; World Politics and Popular Culture.
Author: Corrin Bramley (University of Bristol) -
This article examines the specific, gendered discourses which can be uncovered within political apologies for conflict-related sexual violence. Whilst apologies are often perceived as either cynical, ‘empty’ gestures which seek to carry out governmental interests or as attempts by political actors to (albeit, often inadequately) emphasise their commitment to addressing violence and associated cultures of impunity, a Feminist analysis of two cases of apology for conflict-related sexual violence (the Japanese imperial ‘comfort women’ and the USA’s infamous Abu Ghraib torture scandal) elicits that such apologies articulate in unique ways the continuing ambivalence of sexual violence in global politics as well as state responsibility for this violence. In centring apologies as rich affective-discursive, deliberately emotional sites at which CRSV is explained and/or accounted for by the state, I show how this violence is framed as both normalised and abhorrent.
Author: Emma Dolan (University of Limerick) -
To memorialize sexual violence is particularly difficult, because histories of sexual violence are veiled in multiple layers of silence. While feminist historiographies are concerned with practices of un-silencing to establish hitherto silenced knowledges, their reliance on silence-and-speech as each other’s alleged either/or alternatives risks to sustain marginalization as it feeds un-silenced histories into existing structures and thereby intensifies rather than un-does marginalization. This paper addresses challenges to narrating and problematizing sexual violence in feminist activism and analysis by differentiating un-silencing practices from a constitutive approach to feminist historiography. It suggests that while gendered memories, understood as the products of prior histories, end up as descriptions of former comfort women’s ordeals that leave the constitutive conditions of possibility of those histories unchallenged. By instead understanding mnemonic practices as epistemic regimes that connect the past to the present, the paper highlights how women’s classed, gender and raced positionalities condition contemporary descriptions of their roles at war and circumscribe sexualities in the war’s aftermath. The paper illuminates how the contextualization of survivors’ war experiences as parts of their everyday lives at the Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace in Tokyo highlights multiple structures of marginalization and thereby unsettle official silencing.
Author: Anna-Karin Eriksson (Linnaeus University) -
State institutions and agencies of global governance increasingly speak the language of feminist concepts. The institutionalization of gender mainstreaming, the adoption of gender policies, the appointment of gender advisors, and the provision of gender training are key ways in which the term gender is taken up by powerful institutions. While some observers see this as an important step towards feminist transformation, critical feminist theorizing warns of the amenability of feminist concepts to become co-opted to serve the status quo. This paper tracks the travels of the concept of gender to an unlikely setting: the training of military and police peacekeepers. I ask: What political and epistemic work does the concept of gender do when it is taken up by martial institutions? Drawing on participant observation of gender training across a range of sites, I suggest that the politics of gender training are deeply ambivalent: training both reproduces forms of epistemic violence that sustain colonial hierarchies and heterosexist worldviews and involves a practice of small subversions that destabilize hegemonic norms. In order to push our thinking beyond the eminently reasonable but analytically and politically unsatisfactory conclusion that training is both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ feminist politics, I argue for the need to contend with such projects as specifically paradoxical. I advocate for developing analytical modes which attend to a politics of the present and recognize the political worth of subversive engagement, and, ultimately, for continuing to contest what work gender can and cannot be made to do.
Author: Aiko Holvikivi (LSE)
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Panel / The Responsibility to Protect: Norm Contestation and Diffusion Parson, Civic CentreSponsor: Intervention and Responsibility to Protect Working GroupConvener: IR2P Working groupChair: Dr Chloe M Gilgan (York Law School)
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The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is generally understood as a multi-layered and highly contested international norm relevant to humanitarian intervention. As an emerging non-Western power, China is often seen as a veto-er and a non-conformist, yet it may more consistently engage in R2P actions and respond more to the R2P norm than other norm takers. However, the problem with extant literature is portraying China’s approach in an over-generalised way, which presupposes it is static and in an ahistorical veto fashion, does not change according to the context or evolve. Neither it does not take account into the process of how China calls for attention to its normative preferences and persuades other states.
To challenge oversimplified portrayals of China’s approach, this current research seeks to take a more complex, dynamic and relational perspective, in keeping with recent developments in norm theory which call for the embrace of a non-linear process and a potential circulation of international norms. Critically examining the Chinese source, this research will take a broader and comparative approach, containing China’s vote in favour of the R2P resolution than previous studies. It will also look at the process of China’s justification for its normative argument and see how China attempts to legitimise through its use of languages.
Keywords: Chinese foreign policy, the Responsibility to Protect, norm shaper, justification, state sovereignty, diplomatic discourse
Author: Ruolan Gan (The University of Edinburgh) -
Since the R2P stimulated the responsibility in the state sovereignty, variants of contestation towards it started. Although R2P appeared in the discussion between world leaders after series of fatal inabilities to protect civilians without positioning itself against the norms of state sovereignty and principle of non-intervention, states continued to hesitate its coexistence with sovereignty. The opponent’s camp is composed of variety of states, from the ones with colonial pasts by which they still feel threatened, to the strong powers whose attitudes towards their own citizens are already discussed in the world arena. As the opposition is not homogenous amongst the camp, their contestation strategies also differ. Moreover, in time, their strategies for contesting R2P started to differ.
This paper takes two strong powers, China and Russia, to compare their contestation of R2P in their UN appearances and discourses. As the UNSC Resolution 1973 is a breaking point for the evolution of R2P, while at the same time for China and Russia’s voting behavior, this paper seeks to trace the two’s position of contestation after 2011, until the end of 2021. With the two having different norm contestations, the paper reveals their position towards R2P and compares their contestation in the UN.Authors: Zeynep Selin Balcı (Ege University) , Altuğ Günal (Ege University)* -
The paper analyses recent formal State discourse at the UN General Assembly on Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to understand how contestation of the ‘emerging norm’ is framed, and which specific aspects of R2P are contested. Disaggregating R2P into its component parts, nuanced points of contestation are identified which are often overlooked in scholarly debate. Largely agreeing with the existing literature, the paper finds wide consensus around notions of ‘Sovereignty as Responsibility’, rejection of unilateral coercive measures, and agreement that ‘prevention’ should be the focus of R2P practice. However, the paper uncovers a more subtle contestation around what ‘prevention’ means and how ‘root causes’ are understood. Broadly speaking, official UN R2P documents reproduce liberal interpretations of the root causes of atrocity crimes – rooted primarily in the internal configuration of States which have insufficiently internalized norms of liberal governance. This implicit assumption of much liberal R2P speak is contested by many developing States. Whilst agreeing with the focus on prevention and tackling root causes, they identify these causes as being primarily rooted in unfair and exploitative international structures. In sum, whilst liberal States emphasize internal conditions with external solutions, many critical States contrarily emphasize external conditions whose remedy is to be found internally.
Author: Thomas Peak (Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University)
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10:30
Break with tea and coffee: SPONSORED BY BRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (BJPIR)
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Panel / Aspects of Coloniality and Race in the Women, Peace and Security Agenda Collingwood, Civic CentreSponsor: Gendering International Relations Working GroupConvener: Laura Shepherd (University of Sydney)Chair: Marsha Henry (LSE)Discussant: Aiko Holvikivi (LSE)
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Climate Change Resilience through WPS: Exploring Indigenous and Ecofeminist critiques
Author: Maria Martin de Almagro (University of Ghent) -
Governing the Feminist Peace: Domesticating the Gender Perspective
Authors: Laura Shepherd (University of Sydney) , Paul Kirby (Centre of Women, Peace and Security, London School of Economics)* -
Over the last two decades of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, National Action Plans (NAPs) have been used as a measure of states’ commitment to the implementation of the agenda. Whereas states in the Global North have been consistent in producing these NAPs, their content has tended to reproduce racist and gendered global power hierarchies (Haastrup and Hagen, 2020; 2021). This is especially visible where states have ignored their own domestic blind spots, while criticising the records of others, especially in the Global South. These critiques of the coloniality of power of Global North countries has had an impact on policymakers. In new commitments to the WPS, Canada and the United States now acknowledge their own histories as settler colonial societies. Ireland’s NAP also acknowledges these global power hierarchies, situating the nation as a post-conflict postcolony. Our contribution reflects on the implications of these recent acknowledgements by states for gender, peace and security initiatives. Through our analysis, we observe both the approaches and results of decoloniality within the WPS agenda. By drawing on decolonial feminist insights we consider the potential/limitations for state-based policy actions to pave the way for more inclusive and transformative spaces of global governance.
Authors: Toni Haastrup (University of Stirling) , Jamie Hagen (Queen's University, Belfast) -
Feminist IR scholars have criticised the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda for exclusively focusing on sexual violence in wartime, ignoring the continuum of violence across times of war and peace. This paper not only highlights the problems of viewing sexual violence solely through a conflict prism, but also demonstrates the need to understand sexual violence within the specific gendered, racialized, classed, sexualised, and (post-)colonial context in which it occurs, which, in turn, is historically constituted. Towards this end, the paper focuses on the Cyprus rape case. On 17 July 2019, a 19-year-old British woman on a working holiday in the Cypriot tourist resort of Ayia Napa reported being gang raped by twelve Israeli male tourists. Initially, the Israeli men were arrested by the Cyprus Police but, subsequently, were released without charge and, instead, the woman was accused of making a false allegation. In January 2020, she was convicted of “public mischief” in a Cypriot court and received a suspended sentence. The case-initiated solidarity protests in Nicosia and Tel Aviv by feminist and women’s groups, a campaign on Twitter with the hashtag #boycottcyprus, in addition to raising questions about the relationship of the case to the recently signed Cyprus-Israel gas pipeline deal. Recognising the complex liminalities surrounding the island’s ambiguous postcolonial and post-conflict nature, and its implications for gendered and race-ed notions of sovereignty, we challenge the fictive and reductive binaries established in WPS between the ‘domestic’ and ‘international’ (as spatial domains) and ‘conflict’ and ‘peace’ (as temporal domains). We therefore argue that sexual violence and responses to it should also be viewed as a matter of geopolitics, in that they are constituted through and constitutive of the workings of power across different scales of space, from the personal to the international.
Authors: Columba Achilleos-Sarll (University of Birmingham) , Nicola Pratt (University of Warwick) -
This paper examines the translation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda at the national level through UN agencies in conflict-affected areas, taking the UN system in Kosovo as the primary case study. Through a comparative analysis of different UN agencies in Kosovo, the paper assesses how the socio-economic aspects of the WPS agenda operate in practice and are implemented at the field level. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis, it analyses how different UN agencies have engaged with the socio-economic aspects of the WPS agenda on the ground, such as the under-researched fourth pillar of WPS ("Relief and Recovery") and the degree to which it features in socio-economic programming. The paper concentrates on the decision-making and design phases of UN country-level office programming, in order to analyse UN agencies’ awareness and knowledge of the economic aspects of WPS and the extent to which they conceive of their work in relation to WPS. This paper makes a significant theoretical and empirical contribution by reflecting on how economic empowerment has been conceptualised by UN staffers and which logics of economic empowerment dominate on the ground.
Author: Lucy Maycox (University of Oxford)
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Roundtable / BISA PGN Meet the Editors Roundtable Pandon, Civic Centre
BISA PGN Meet the Editors Roundtable
Sponsor: BISAChair: David Mainwaring (Cambridge University Press)Participants: Carolina Moulin (Review of International Studies) , Andrew Dorman (International Affairs) , Martin Coward (Review of International Studies) , Edward Newman (University of Leeds) -
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Panel / British Politics and Foreign Policy Kate Adie, Student UnionSponsor: British International History Working GroupConvener: Patrick Finney (Aberystwyth University)Chair: Patrick Finney (Aberystwyth University)Discussant: Gaynor Johnson (University of Kent)
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Drawing on the correspondence between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence, and the British diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia, held in the British National Archives, this paper examines how it was possible for the British to land one of the biggest arms deals in history with Saudi Arabia in 1985, despite evident strained relations in the preceding years. The British were not only struggling at the bilateral level, but also in the competitive multilateral setting of the Cold War. Saudi Arabia was staunchly anti-communist and therefore Western aligned. Thus, only Western Bloc countries competed for Saudi defence contracts. In the 1970s and early 1980s, other Western states, particularly France and the United States, were much more successful at winning the big contracts to a degree that the Saudis informed the British that they were a disappointment. Yet, despite the shared Anglo-Saudi frustration over British performance, the two parties signed the first Al-Yamamah arms deal in 1985. It was the first part of what became one of the biggest arms deals in history- catapulting Britain into the top tier of Saudi security partners, surpassing the other Western states.
Author: Johanne Marie Skov (Lancaster University) -
Despite being one of IR’s foundational concerns, scholars of International Relations have paid little attention to secessionist nationalism since the collapse of communism in Europe. Notwithstanding this relative neglect, nationalism in its different varieties continues to play a significant part in global politics, not least through the relationship between nationalism, European disintegration and Brexit. This paper places the relationship between Brexit and English nationalism in the conceptual and typological contexts of nationalism theory. By examining the politics of sub-state nationalist mobilisations across the UK in the decade that straddled the Brexit referendum of 2016, this paper takes a novel approach by considering Brexit as an important shift in the political goals of English nationalism. When put in such perspectives, Brexit represents a historic shift in the goal of English nationalism. It did so by moving English nationalism from an integrative mode (integrating its main historic political structures of UK state, British Empire and EU) to a secessionist mode (seeking independence from the EU). Importantly the British state remained the vehicle for this shift at the elite level, and discursive constructions of English nationalism remained highly merged with the legitimisation of British sovereignty at this critical juncture.
Author: Ben Wellings (Monash University) -
The results of the Brexit referendum brought out two positions: a sense of rupture that emphasized cultural and political divisions, and a desire to move closer to European institutions. In this sense, the results in Scotland and Northern Ireland were far from the UK, leading both regions to identify this as an opportunity. Therefore, to analyze the different dimensions of the problem, it is essential to consider the role of these independence movements during the negotiation process and to identify the latent internal and external consequences for British and European institutional integrity.
For that, it was decided to structure a qualitative matrix analysis model that would allow the use of multidimensional analysis and an explanatory approach to historical-cultural issues related to the political and bureaucratic approach to Brexit. Also, the methodologies (qualitative and comparative) and methods of analysis (process tracing), based on sources and bibliography on the subject, will allow us to trace the position of both regions in the negotiations and to reflect about the consequences and implications.
The theoretical framework was thus defined: The constructivist perspective, which aims to show that this topic can be grounded and understood through a more theoretical and conceptual approach; Negotiation Theory, which allows to observe the divergence and convergence views of the actors, taking into account the decisions made and the behavior of the parties during the negotiations; and Bureaucratic Politics, not only because it is necessary to consider the positions of each actor throughout the process (actions, negotiations and debates), but especially for the analysis of movements.Author: Bruno Santos Fonseca (NOVA University (FCSH) | Portuguese Institute of International Relations (IPRI-NOVA))
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Panel / European Strategic Autonomy I Daniel Wood, Student UnionSponsor: European Security Working GroupConvener: Jocelyn Mawdsley (Newcastle University)Chair: Simon Sweeney (University of York)
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The debate on European strategic autonomy which emerged in the early and mid-2010s related primarily to European strategic autonomy vis-à-vis the United States (US), although it also reflected a more general view that Europe needed to be an autonomous global actor in its own right. Since then, the debate on European strategic autonomy has become intertwined with Europe’s relations with China and what is sometimes viewed as a Europe-US-China strategic triangle. For Europe – both individual states and the EU – the China question and the Europe-US-China strategic triangle now pose major foreign policy challenges. This paper will explore the debate on European strategic autonomy as it relates to European relations with China and to how Europe seeks to position itself in the Europe-US-China strategic triangle. The paper will argue that both European states and the EU are now seeking to reduce their economic and technical dependence on China and that Europe and the US are finding that they have significantly more in common with one another than with China – both trends which are likely to continue.
Author: Andrew Cottey (University College Cork) -
Marching into battle or extinction? Understanding the existence of the EU Battlegroup Concept
Author: Laura Chappell -
In the past few years, the ill-defined concept of strategic autonomy has been broadened far beyond military capabilities to include digital, technological and economic sovereignty. These trends are particularly evident in the speeches of Thierry Breton and often couched in terms of strategic industries and technological futures. This paper argues that ideas are often drawn from French sociotechnical imaginaries of the future and reflect the unusually prominent place of defence industries in French economic planning (Kolodziej, 1987). The paper looks at whether these imaginaries can or cannot be successfully exported to an EU where many states have very different visions.
Author: Jocelyn Mawdsley (Newcastle University) -
To the untrained eye, the assumption is that the space-age came of age with the moon landings. However, it is now, in the 21st century that we see space as truly central to our day-to-day life, fundamental to military manoeuvres, and playing an essential part in state based strategic power play. Although not a state in so many words, the EU has taken this step forward with serious intent, and we see space and security now mentioned together with growing regularity as the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) takes a front seat in the management of the EU’s satellite constellations, Galileo and Copernicus.
This paper will first highlight the strategic importance of positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) satellite constellations such as the USA’s GPS, China’s Bei Dou, Russia’s GLONASS and the EU’s Galileo.
The paper will go on to look at the IPE of the EU’s constellations, asking – has the EU achieved economic sovereignty regarding development, construction and maintenance.
The paper will then ask: does a modern state, or indeed supranational body, need a PNT satellite constellation to achieve security autonomy? And to that end, what does the development and ownership of Galileo say about the strategic importance of the EU on the global stage?Author: Sarah Lieberman (Canterbury Christ Church University)
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Panel / Grand Strategy: New Approaches and Perspectives History Room, Student UnionSponsor: Foreign Policy Working GroupConvener: Cornelia Baciu (University of Copenhagen)Chair: Rob Geist Pinfold (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)Discussant: Cornelia Baciu (University of Copenhagen)
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The paper shows the idea of maintaining equilibrium. Under hegemonic shifts (which cause bipolar system) regional power strives to equalization of the levels of relations with each of great powers. When challenger rises, regional power sees a threat to the stability of the system and, consequently, to its position in this system. Therefore, it aims to minimize the effects of increasing rivalry by establishing cooperation with each of the great powers. Regional power notice, however, that relations with one great power are more advanced than with the second one, and therefore tries to level them. When this goal is achieved, the regional power tries not to deteriorate relations with each of the great powers by maintaining equilibrium, i.e. a situation in which each act of cooperation with given great power results in a different act of cooperation with the second great power. This theory will be tested by analyzing British behavior under contemporary US-China competition in 2017-2019.
Author: Mateusz Ambrożek (University of Warsaw) -
How does the research programme of grand strategy represent, frame and scrutinise contemporary geopolitics? Contemporary scholars have broadened their understandings of grand strategy to examine how states use their hard and soft power assets in war and peacetime alike to advance their goals. Others have scrutinised the grand strategies of non-state actors. This paper assesses the impact of these trends, by constructing and reviewing an extensive database of grand strategy scholarship. In so doing, it identifies a paradox: most works now perceive grand strategy as a broad concept that is applicable to a diverse array of cases, time periods and actors. Nevertheless, the literature remains fixated on great powers and conventional tools of statecraft. Most problematically, grand strategy research remains dominated by American scholars who write almost exclusively on US policy. To rectify this bias, this paper identifies pathways to empower marginal, innovative perspectives that would bolster grand strategy’s relevance to contemporary world politics and the increasingly diverse discipline of international relations.
Author: Rob Geist Pinfold (Peace Research Center Prague) -
Donald Trump formulated a foreign policy vision of America First that combined nationalist anti-globalism with populist anti-elitism. Trade protectionism, staunch anti-immigration measures, transactionalism and the sustained criticism of US allies and partners as source of national weakness and decline signaled a sharp departure from a grand strategy of liberal hegemony. Both foreign and domestic perceptions of America’s role in the world and its global influence shifted in the process. This paper will first examine how Trump exploited a longstanding disconnect between elite and public opinion on the appropriate degree of US engagement with a populist intervention against a ‘corrupt’ foreign policy establishment and the failed policies it promoted, from trade liberalization to military interventionism. It will then detail how America First formulated a polarizing vision primarily addressed to a core audience of White working-class and non-college educated voters, reinforcing popular sentiments of economic pessimism, nativism and anti-elitist resentment for domestic political gain. Finally, the paper will examine the lasting political effects of America First on US foreign policy beyond the Trump presidency, and to what extent the strategic assumptions of the Biden administration and perceptions of the United States continue to be shaped by the forces of nationalism and populism.
Author: Georg Löfflmann (University of Warwick) -
The Grand Strategic Value of Empathy
Author: Claire Yorke (SDU) -
“Strategic planning,” so-called, is a practice into which states, firms, universities, and many other large organizations regularly invest substantial resources. The study of strategic planning is, however, mostly absent in the academy. Strategic planning had its heyday as a field of study in the three or four decades following World War II, mostly in the discipline of strategic management, but research on the subject has steadily declined in volume since the early 1990s. Much of the contemporary literature on strategy, including on states’ grand strategies, has focused on strategy content – explaining its causes, effects, or the relative merits of competing proposals – rather than on strategy process. This paper undertakes an intellectual history that aims to explain the apparent disconnect between the on-going, widespread, real-world practice of strategic planning and the decline in scholarly research on the subject. Based on this history, this paper proposes a new conceptual framework and methodology for multidisciplinary research on strategic planning, and discusses its particular application to the study of grand strategy in the discipline of international relations.
Author: Nina Silove (ETH Zürich)
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Panel / Groundings - The Practice of Global Thought From Below Model Room 2, Civic CentreSponsor: Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working GroupConvener: Sharri Plonski (Queen Mary University of London)Chair: Sarah Gharib Seif (University of St Andrews)
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In a recent article published at the American Affairs entitled The Brazilianization of the World, Alex Hochuli claims that “the West’s involution finds its mirror image in the original country of the future, the nation doomed forever to remain the country of the future, the one that never reaches its destination [...and] has been a byword for gaping inequality”. By identifying the tendency within the ‘West’ of becoming more like Brazil, where walls and advanced security systems separate the elite from a population living in poverty, Hochuli (2021) adds that the “Brazilianization of the world is our encounter with a future denied, and in which this frustration has become constitutive of our social reality”. This paper aims at investigating the implications of narratives that simultaneously normalises crisis at the global level and dislocate the responsibility of an allegedly interrupted and denied future onto the global South, represented as the original reflection of dystopia. While problematising the relationship between progress and involution, utopia and dystopia, what I argue is that if we want to ask questions about the survival of the world, it is relevant to develop an understanding of the trajectories that are currently been shaped to humanity in the post-pandemic world and the potential for future imaginaries beyond progressive imaginaries that have not been and could never have been.
Author: Francine Rossone de Paula (Queen's University Belfast) -
IR proceeds on a Eurocentric ontological assumption that sovereignty has universal validity today. How can IR be decolonized, when in spite of countless examples of the enactment of "sovereignty otherwise," the discipline remains unconcerned with the fact that the logic of sovereignty remains uni-versal. The question is as much political as it is intellectual because as a discipline, we have allowed the inertia of our professional rhythms to marginalize pluri-versal sovereignty, or the organization of sovereignty along different ontological starting points. I argue IR must abandon it's disciplinary love affair with uni-versal sovereignty and the reification of the EUrocentric state as an acceptable unit of analysis. I argue that explaining away (or ignoring altogether) enactments of pluriversal sovereignty either historicallyr or in the present day dullens the discipline's ability to decolonize. I propose that as a starting point, IR needs to be more mature about recognize the decolonizations that are happening under our feet if we are to stand any chance at disciplinary decolonization. As an illustrative example, I draw on the still unfolding collision of settler-colonial and Mi'kmaw sovereignties in Mi'kma'ki, or "Nova Scotia" as it is known in the colonial tongue.
Author: Ajay Parasram (Dalhousie University) -
Decolonization has become an increasingly salient and debated term in various academic disciplines and political movements. For some, the adoption of “decolonization” in such diverse spaces runs the risk of turning it into a buzzword emptied of radical meaning. Building on the understanding that the “Western” university has historically benefited from and contributed to colonial and Imperial projects, this talk argues that the task of decolonization in university curricula remains limited if detached from efforts to transform society.
Building on almost ten years of ethnographically-informed research with urban Indigenous, maroon (quilombo) and favela communities and movements in Brazil, the paper reflects on the (im)possibilities of politically meaningful scholarship that crosses the borders between two asymmetrically positioned settler colonial contexts, the US and Brazil, and those between academia, political organizing, NGOs, and community-produced arts and memory. It highlights that settler colonialism and Imperialism, as well as resistances to them play out on material as well as symbolic levels, involving questions of land, labor, and embodied and written knowledge production. It illustrates this argument through two sites of community-led memory and artistic production, one dance ritual and one visual art exhibit, that prefigure the goals of decolonization in society and the academy.
Author: Desiree Poets (Virginia Tech)
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Panel / Interpreting Russian Security Stephenson, Civic CentreSponsor: Russian and Eurasian Security Working GroupConvener: Jenny Mathers (Aberystwyth University)Chair: Natasha Kuhrt (King's College London)
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This paper investigates the evolution of Russian conceptualisations of security under Putin via an in-depth empirical analysis of official foreign and security documentation since 2000. This includes analysis of long-term, medium-term and immediate treatments of security: national security concepts and strategies; strategic documentation in defined priority areas; and the more responsive articulations of the annual addresses of the Russian president to the Federal Assembly. The analysis shows that inconsistencies characterise the Russian political elite’s approach to security. Rhetorical shifts towards ‘softer’, collaborative and individual-centred conceptualisations of security have occurred over time but not been integrated as part of a broader conceptual or strategic approach. The dominant conception of security remains linked to the preservation of state (and regime) interests. Even in doctrine that is not expressly intended to contribute to Russian national identity construction, this conceptualisation of security is supported at every stage by a very specific and restricted notion of Russia’s national identity and of its identity, role and potential for action on the international stage.
Author: Precious Chatterje-Doody (Open University) -
As multilateral relations between Western states and the Russian Federation increasingly deteriorated especially after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, strong anti-Western narratives and sentiments in Russia have once again caught the attention of the Western audience. The Western academia and the media, however, took Russian hostility as old news, a remnant from the Cold War era and failed to pay much attention. This paper argues that the contemporary anti-Western narratives in Russia significantly diverge from the prevailing anti-Western narratives during the Soviet period as well as the Tsarist period. There is a case to be made that the Western reckoning of its past and traditions in the last decades triggered a "postmodern anti-Westernism" in Russia where the Western Other is condemned for failing to preserve their Western heritage while a Russian image that continues to uphold "Western values" is promoted.
Anti-Western rhetoric in Russia has its roots in opposing the Westernising socio-political reforms of Peter the Great. Since then, those who were skeptical of the West and its values categorically rejected the idea that the Russian people belong to the Western civilisation, whether it be defined as Catholic or Capitalist. The anti-Western rhetoric of today, on the other hand, fundamentally argues that "Russia is a part of the Western civilisation", that refuses to follow the trajectory of West European and North American states. Hence, the dominant narrative of Russian anti-Westernism has shifted from pointing out the irredeemable corruption of "the West" as a concept to pointing out the irredeemable corruption of Western socieites.
All in all, during the Putin era Russia has embraced the idea of being a part of the Western family and this is in fact reflected in the contemporary narratives of anti-Westernism. Indeed, unlike Islamist anti-Westernism, for instance, where any cultural affiliation with the West is renounced, the Kremlin promulgates a narrative where Russia is the representative of an alternative or even the authentic Western civilisation vis-à-vis a so-called Western world who is actively in rejection of its moral and cultural roots.
Author: Dogachan Dagi (University of Warwick) -
Many scholars of 1990s Russia argue that the post-Soviet state was largely demilitarised during this period. They largely attribute the end of the Cold War and internal political decisions (e.g., regarding the economy) as reasons for the military’s demotion in Russia’s state structures to a secondary position. Yet this is not entirely the case. While the Cold War was over, some tensions defined by the conflict re-emerged in the new Post-Cold War world – namely, Russia’s relations with NATO. This paper demonstrates that NATO’s expanding influence on countries of the former Soviet Union led to a stream of discourses in Russia’s media that raised questions relating to Russia’s security. It examines a number of discourses in Russian newspapers in the 1990s through the use of Critical Discourse Analysis, finding that many media outlets in post-Soviet Russia produced inflammatory discourses that justified the build-up and use of Russia’s military as a viable response.
Author: Allyson Edwards (University of Warwick) -
EU-Russia relations are widely deemed to be at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War, a claim made for a number of years now, the timing of that claim varying depending on the perspective of the commentator. Putin’s Munich speech was for some in the West the moment when the Russian threat was first deemed to exist. For others, it took the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Nevertheless, for some in central and eastern Europe, the threat had never disappeared, illustrated, not least, by the insistence of former Soviet and Warsaw Pact states on joining the EU and NATO, a position that looks all the more justified seen from the distance that 2021 affords. But given that insistence, how and when was it that the Western perception of Russia as a threat to central and eastern European states – as well as others - disappeared?
This paper explores academic perceptions of the threat Russia poses to European security over the post-Cold War period. Focused on relevant publications in two specialist peer-reviewed journals, I seek to identify those moments and events which academics saw at the time as key to understanding the trajectory of EU-Russia security relations. Such a study is significant insofar as it reveals the co-constituted nature of the discipline and the subject that we study, especially in relation to the formulation of foreign and security policy strategies and perceptions.Author: Maxine David (Leiden University) -
This paper uses a feminist lens to analyse key institutions of the state that are charged with protecting Russia’s security. With a focus on the Putin presidencies, it takes Cynthia Enloe’s famous question “Where are the women?” as the starting point, exploring the presence (and absence) of women and the roles that they occupy in such organisations as the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Federal Security Service. Although all of Russia’s major security institutions are clearly male-dominated, the paper will examine the nuances of women’s contributions to security work in Russia. The aims of this paper are twofold. First, to apply Joan Acker’s concept of gendered institutions to security institutions in Russia, deepening our understanding of how the process works in this particular case. Second, to discover the extent to which these masculinised institutions actually depend upon the support and work of women in order to carry out their functions.
Author: Jenny Mathers (Aberystwyth University)
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Panel / Pacifism, Nonviolence, Security, and Rebellion Parson, Civic CentreSponsor: Ethics and World Politics Working GroupConvener: Alexandre Christoyannopoulos (Loughborough University)Chair: Naomi Head (University of Glasgow)Discussant: Naomi Head (University of Glasgow)
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Research about Palestinians in Israel during the period of military rule from 1948 to 1966 describes them as acquiescent and primarily focuses on the mechanisms of control imposed by Israel. This paper examines the role played by improvised sung poetry in Palestinian weddings and social gatherings during this period, and it assesses the contribution that this situated art form made to asserting this community’s agency. Ḥaddā’ (male) and Badāaʿa (female) poet-singers are considered as agents of cultural resilience, songs as tools, and weddings as sites of resilience and resistance for Palestinians who lived under Israeli military rule. Folk poetry performed by Ḥaddā’ and Badāaʿa is identified as a form of cultural resilience and resistance rooted in Palestinians’ cultural heritage. The data signals the persistence of resilience, dignity, and rootedness in the land and identity, as well as demonstrating the risks of such resilience and of resistance actions in such asymmetrical power relation.
Author: Marwan Darweish (Coventry University) -
The path that the European project took could have been different. The competing visions of an integrated Europe which germinated in the nineteenth century did so on ideological landscape cross-fertilised by the blossoming of various internationalist ideologies such as liberalism, socialism, anarchism, and pacifism. Revisiting and updating arguments articulated by a stance which combines the latter two, informed therefore by the more radical edge of ideological continuums concerned with peace and socio-economic justice, what became of the European project failed on four counts. First, functionalist integration might have powered economic growth, trade, and integration, but it has repeatedly shown too little after-thought for the economically left-behind, and too little concern for the perpetuation of neo-colonial dependencies and inequalities. Second, European internationalism might have brought peace between historically belligerent regional powers, but tensions with the Soviet bloc and neo-colonial wars have entrenched a vibrant militarism disguised in soothing normative messaging, whilst peace within the European bloc has come at the expense of ongoing structural violence. Third, the EU might provide a model of multilayer governance and subsidiarity, but its democratic accountability is deficient, its subsidiarity impeded by tenacious Westphalian imaginaries, and the most influential levers of multi-layered sovereign power captured by the interests of international capital. Fourth, Europe might portray itself as a model of normative and soft power, but this glances over the impact of fortress Europe on trade and migration, the mercantilist lobbying for European economic champions and interests, and the dirtier work which Europe is happy to let its transatlantic ally lead on and benefit from. In short, sharpening existing criticisms of the EU with an anarcho-pacifist focus, this paper argues that the EU’s neoliberal capitalist internationalism falls short of its self-assured rhetoric and aspirations on economics, peace, multiplayer politics and the place of Europe in the world.
Author: Alexandre Christoyannopoulos (Loughborough University) -
In recent years, the politics of rebellion has fundamentally shaped internatioanl political life. Drawing on long histories of Black radical politics, the Black Lives Matter movement has forced a reckoning with racist policing, colonial legacies, and institutionalised anti-Blackness. Meanwhile Extinction Rebellion have repeatedly placed the climate emergency at the centre of political discourse. Both movements mount important challenges to the entrenched hierarchies of liberal/racial capitalism. At the same time, and in sharp contrast, a series of more reactionary political currents are also mobilising the intellectual, aesthetic and affective politics of rebellion. This includes elements of the alt-right and anti-mask/COVID ‘sceptic’ activists. While the politics of those movements are not substantively opposed to existing structures of local and global power, their political strategy turns in part on the recognition that the claim to be rebelling against authority has become a standard move to legitimacy in liberal democratic societies.
This paper explores the disjunctions and resonances between these opposing figurations of rebellion. It asks how such contrasting projects are able to mobilise often unnervingly similar political registers. Is this simply a case of surface-level resemblance or co-optation by the right, or are there more substantive relationships and complicities to be addressed? In what ways does the apparently easy adoption of rebellious imagery and rhetoric by the alt-right and other neo-fascist movements unsettle the categories of progressive politics? How are reactionary global solidarities formed through rebellious imaginaries? What does this mean for the radical emancipatory project implied by the idea of rebellion? Through a comparative study of these different political mobilisations, the paper charts the ambiguous political life of rebellion. It is guided by the twin aims of understanding how the concept is increasingly deployed in the service of political violence, and cultivating the ground for more liberatory uses.Author: Chris Rossdale (University of Bristol) -
Whereas recent research on civilian/community-led protection and violence prevention efforts has largely focused on communities in the Global South—frequently subject to military intervention and/or peacekeeping in the name of protection—this paper turns attention instead towards such efforts in the U.S., amidst a nationwide surge in gun violence and debates on the role of police in community safety. Specifically, this paper examines public health approaches to gang-related violence prevention/reduction and focuses on the key role and expertise of so-called “credible messenger” outreach workers and violence interrupters. Drawing on program reports and/or interviews, the research asks: How do these individuals understand their day-to-day work with those at high risk of violence, and which approaches to these interactions are most crucial to clients’ decisions to turn away from violence, both immediately and longer term? Special attention is devoted to the nature of the mentoring relationship, the demonstration of alternative possibilities for being/acting, the creation of space for reflection and accountability, and the cultivation of clients’ self-worth and sense of responsibility, especially towards the community. Additionally, what are the security implications for clients who decide to move away from engagement in violence? The paper closes with broader implications for 1) the role of police in community safety and 2) responses to other violent contexts in the U.S. and worldwide.
Author: M.S. Wallace (Portland State University)
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Panel / Power and Wealth in Pandemic Times Bewick, Civic CentreSponsor: International Political Economy Working GroupConvener: IPEG Working groupChair: Juanita Elias (University of Warwick)
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Since the initial shutdown of economic activities in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, global production and logistics networks have not been able to recover back to normal and deliver goods in time. This crisis of production and logistics has had political ramifications for the state’s worst organized for disruption and may be stifling policies aimed at refloating the economy post pandemic. A rethinking and reorganization of the post-pandemic global networks of production and circulation is now underway. This paper aims at understanding the disruption to global production networks under pandemic conditions and its consequences for the structure of global production networks and their future. In doing so it explores the logistics market structures and dynamics as well as the national and global policies that made global supply chains vulnerable prior to the pandemic. Thereafter the paper tracks the strategies and policies by firms and states respectively to fend off and ameliorate congestions at logistics bottlenecks. Using the concept of infrastructural power within a geoeconomics and a Global Production Networks framework, this paper argues for the importance of logistics as a conduit for infrastructural power. The reorganization of global supply chains may lead into more regionalized global production networks with distinct gravitational poles organized surrounding the Asian, European and North American regions, with a focus on resilience and reliability, creating a new set of winners and losers in the global economy.
Author: Federico Jensen (Copenhagen Business School) -
How will post-corona capitalism look like? While we do not yet have a firm answer to this question, we can extrapolate from studies on empirical developments so far. The paper is based on a survey of some 300 academic studies on 31 corona-related issues published in Comparative and International Political Economy during 2020/21 (book to be published by Bristol University Press in May 2022). It distinguishes five different options for the near future of capitalism.
- Classical liberal capitalism: The focus is on a central role for
private business, the preponderance of shareholder value and
unregulated markets (laissez-faire). - Cosmopolitan technocratic capitalism: While sharing some concerns with classical liberal
capitalism, the focus here is on managing global capitalism in a
frictionless way, which includes some form of regulation and often
the delegation of authority to non-majoritarian institutions. - National social-democratic capitalism: Departing from a vision of
Northern capitalism after the World War II, the emphasis is on social
equality and parliamentary democracy, with an important role for the
welfare state. - Authoritarian capitalism: This is a vision of apitalism that has gained much popularity during the last decade,usually under the heading of ‘populism’.
- Alternative capitalism: This could also be called ‘alternatives to capitalism’, with its general
opposition to economic growth, inequalities of all kinds and top-down
policies.
The empirical evidence during the first two years of the crisis speaks against the first two options. While the last option has gained in importance, the two most likely contenders for the near future of capitalism are authoritarian or national social-democratic capitalism.
Author: Andreas Nölke (Goethe University Frankfurt) - Classical liberal capitalism: The focus is on a central role for
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The G20 has been missing in action in the covid-19 crisis: slow to react, offering no concrete responses to the health and economic crises, and unable to prevent the rise of protectionism. This is especially glaring given its success during the previous global crisis – the 2008-9 Global Financial Crisis – when its networked structure enabled it to devise a timely and effective response to the crisis. This paper interrogates the reasons for this failure, which stem from both the nature of the G20, and the broader international context. Specifically, I argue that despite an expansion of its remit, the G20 remains focused on finance, which sits uneasily with addressing issues like health, especially as incorporation of more diverse voices from civil society has been limited. The G20’s failures also stem, paradoxically, from its networked nature, which means that it lacks the necessary leadership to take action and offer solutions. Finally, the G20’s paralysis also reflects the larger crisis of global governance, characterised by a populist backlash against international cooperation driven by secular stagnation of the global economy. The G20 itself has done little to resolve this stagnation or address its underlying causes, thus undermining faith in the efficacy of global governance.
Author: Tom Chodor (Monash University) -
This contributions explores the ways Covid19, in health and economic terms, has exacerbated
inequality in the UK, where inequality was already intensifying as a result of years of austerity. In order to show how Covid widened the gap, we examine the UK’s Covid19 economic response package, starting from the first national lockdown in March 2020 until October 2021, this includes the package of economic measures undertaken but not the public health measures. Initially hailed as a complete change of direction of the Conservative government after years of commitment to fiscal austerity, we articulate the substantial continuity in the approach with Privatized Keynesianism, the economic template pursued since the 1980s. We show the remarkable preservation of asset-based and means-tested welfare mechanisms following a recognisable logic where individuals are responsible for their own wellbeing and the state provides only limited welfare; unless of course you own large asset holdings.Authors: Daniela Tepe-Belfrage (University of Liverpool) , Johnna Montgomerie (King's College London) -
The COVID-19 pandemic has elicited a wide range of national responses and outcomes in terms of infections and mortalities. Australia’s success in keeping infections and deaths low appears puzzling, since it adopted many of the same neoliberal reforms that led to failure in other countries. This has been explained as resulting from Australian leaders’ choices. We argue that while political choices matter, the options available to leaders and whether these are implemented effectively are still shaped by the legacy of neoliberal state transformation processes. Decades of neoliberal reforms have hollowed out state capacity and confused lines of control and accountability, leaving Australia unprepared for the pandemic. Leaders thus abandoned plans and turned to ad hoc emergency measures – border closures and lockdowns – which averted large-scale outbreaks and deaths, but at a high cost. By mid-2021, while other developed countries began returning to some normalcy, Australia remained stuck with the same emergency measures, increasingly failing to contain the more transmissible Delta variant. Notwithstanding leaders’ choices, Australia’s regulatory state has failed to deliver an effective quarantine system, crucial for border controls, and vaccination program, essential for exiting the pandemic.
Author: Tom Chodor (Monash University)
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Panel / Reconsidering Stability - the Risks of Deterrence and Disarmament Dobson, Civic CentreSponsor: Global Nuclear Order Working GroupConvener: Laura Considine (University of Leeds)Chair: Laura Considine (University of Leeds)
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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons won 2017’s Nobel Peace Prize. Yet if a multilaterally disarmed world was actually achieved, just how militarily stable would that world be? This paper begins from the premise that the knowledge required to reconstruct nuclear weapons can never be expunged from the world, meaning that rearmament – even in a world where all nuclear powers had agreed to dismantle their extant weapons – would always be attainable. That being the case, a race towards nuclear reconstitution would remain possible during serious international crises between latently capable major powers, even if the seemingly desirable goal of multilateral nuclear disarmament had previously been achieved. Crucially, moreover, unlike contemporary deterrence – which is stabilized by the survivability of the major powers’ seaborne nuclear arsenals – the facilities of rearmament would not be survivable, creating acute first-strike incentives and thus crisis instability. As such, the argument that conventional military aggression would be more likely in a world free of nuclear weapons may indeed be commonplace, reflecting a risk that disarmament advocates are willing to bear. But this paper’s rationalist analysis demonstrates that nuclear aggression would also be more likely in a world that had dismantled its extant nuclear warheads, casting doubt on the desirability of the multilateral disarmament goal.
Author: David Blagden (University of Exeter) -
Will the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in strategic decision-making be stabilizing or destabilizing? What are the risks and trade-offs of pre-delegating military force to machines? How might non-nuclear (and non-state actors) state leverage AI to put pressure on nuclear states? This paper analyzes the impact of strategic stability of the use of AI in the strategic decision-making process, in particular, the risks and trade-offs of pre-delegating military force (or automating escalation) to machines. It argues that AI-enabled decision support tools by substituting the role of human critical thinking, empathy, creativity, and intuition in the strategic decision-making process will be fundamentally destabilizing. In particular, if defense planners come to view AI’s ‘support’ function as a panacea for the cognitive fallibilities of human analysis in decision-making. The paper also considers the nefarious use of AI-enhanced fake news, deep fakes, bots, and other forms of social media by non-state actors and state proxy actors, which might cause states to exaggerate a threat from ambiguous or manipulated information, increasing instability.
Author: James Johnson (University of Aberdeen) -
Within NATO countries, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has provoked scholarly and political reactions from considering it a fundamental attack on NATO’s extended nuclear deterrence to the best hope for genuine progress on nuclear disarmament. Predominantly normatively driven, the scholarly debate was divided along the theoretical fault line around two incompatible concepts: realists preferred deterrence and its materialist notion, critical scholars disarmament and through discursive elements.
The fourth wave of deterrence research, following on a constructivist understanding through which discourse shapes deterrence, could help to advance the debate theoretically and empirically. In a single-case study focused on Germany, this paper makes use of qualitative discourse analysis, primarily focussing on discourses in the domestic political arena. The evidence suggests that through the TPNW, particularly domestic audiences are increasingly debating about deterrence and disarmament, which might be part of a (re-)politicisation and de-strategisation of deterrence. NATO’s extended deterrent is thus already be impacted by the new treaty, but the political discourse could help to advance disarmament.Author: Jannis Kappelmann (University of Hamberg)
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Panel / Refugees and Insecurity Carloil, Civic CentreSponsor: International Politics of Migration, Refugees and Diaspora Working GroupConvener: Ian Paterson (University of Glasgow)Chair: Ian Paterson (University of Glasgow)
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Migratory movement often leaves traces, despite the many attempts to erase any sign of passage. People are rendered invisible by removing them from public space, through detention and deportation, or even through violence resulting in death. The same applies to the objects they leave behind. Those are regarded as waste, although some escape this fate by becoming pieces of humanitarian art, or clues for forensic efforts to identify their deceased owners. Scholarly analysis of such traces oscillates between observing their production as waste and removal from public view and their production as objects of value and their display.
However, while a significant amount of literature has discussed each of these engagements and read them against one another, little attention has been paid to those moments when they overlap, coexisting on the same objects. In this paper, using the case of “Barca Nostra”, a boat sunk in the Mediterranean and recovered by Italian authorities, I show how this object repeatedly became waste, a body of evidence and a piece of art. I argue that, rather than being mutually exclusive, the different “afterlives” of the boat depend on one another and come together to give a multiple story of migratory movement.Author: Finiguerra Anna (QMUL) -
To govern migration and displacement, states around the world attempt to capture the movement of ‘irregular’ migrants through detention and encampment. These camps are sites of violence and enforced isolation, but they are also sites of transversal connection, action and resistance. Detained people have long drawn on varied repertoires of resistance as well as performative acts of communication to challenge detention regimes. A range of actors, both inside and outside detention, enact heterogeneous relations of political community and solidarity performed across international contexts. Their struggles thus transform entrenched notions about what politics is, who is entitled to perform it, and where and how it can be practiced.
This paper explores how these struggles that emerge in and over detention reveal entanglements of power that function to govern mobility in a range of interconnected contexts across the globe. They reveal an archipelago of camps with intertwined logics, technologies and practices. The paper examines acts of resistance in detention camps run by the Australian and United Kingdom governments respectively. It shows how people in camps forcibly bring to light often disavowed connections, denied linkages and erased histories, to tell the story of the global management of people and movement in new ways.
Author: Lucy Kneebone (Queen Mary University of London) -
The ‘near unanimous focus in the literature on successful cases of securitization’, is demonstrated by Jan Ruzicka (2019) to be as problematic as it is untenable. The call to arms to interrogate ‘failed securitisation’ is one this article responds to, focussing on the securitisation of asylum seekers and refugees in the United Kingdom, and the puzzle of why this securitisation has, in many respects, failed in Scotland. With the normatively troubling securitisation of migration deepening across much of Europe and beyond, the bucking of this trend in Scotland is remarkable and in need of much greater attention. Exploring both discursive and non-discursive mechanisms, empirically, the article reveals that whilst some securitisation policies have been enacted in Scotland, the securitisation of asylum and refugees has not succeeded entirely and that many elements have failed. The article helps refine the theorisation of ‘failed’ securitisation, with consequences for broader understandings of ‘success’ in securitisation studies, in two principal ways. First, by demonstrating that effective contestation of securitisation can play a key role in securitisation failing, and second, by revealing that binary notions of ‘failed’ and ‘successful’ securitisations are insufficient: securitisations can both fail and succeed simultaneously.
Author: Ian Paterson (University of Glasgow) -
The growth of cities across the Somali Horn of Africa is being shaped by the arrival and settlement of people displaced from rural hinterlands by conflict, climate-linked ecological shocks, and associated economic pressures. Although displaced people live in conditions of extreme precarity, they are nonetheless active users of information and communications technologies (ICTs). People employ different features of (now) ubiquitous mobile phones to maintain multi-scalar social networks, navigate urban space and labour markets, transfer and store money, and receive international aid. Building on a wider body of literature on refugee connectivity – but addressing an empirical gap in understandings of the implications of ICT use by internally displaced populations in East Africa - this paper explores mobile phone infrastructure as a connector between the micro-level and transnational political economies of urban marginalisation and globalised urban reconstruction in Somalia. The findings caution against techno-optimist developmental discourses, highlighting instead benefits, constraints and risks entailed in ICT-mediated connectivities. Everyday mobile phone use connects marginalised urban populations into entangled humanitarian, telecom sector, and diasporic investment-linked networks that are central to the growth of Somali cities and urban economies. ICTs can reinforce labour exploitation in growing urban economies, and structure power imbalances between receivers of international aid and the transnational regimes that govern precarity in Somali cities.
Authors: Peter Chonka (King's College London) , Jutta Bakonyi (Durham University) -
Access to social rights is crucial to refugee settlement and integration, and a whole range of social policy measures determine the limits on those rights. In the United Kingdom (UK) various relevant social policies are divided into devolved and reserved categories. This has resulted in distinct territorial variance in social rights and welfare provisions within the country. The aim of this article is to explore how young Syrian refugees experience this territorial divergence in two jurisdictions: in Scotland, where they are part social citizens; and in England, where access to social rights is more limited. We use the prism of social citizenship as a means of examining the experiences of settlement and integration of Syrian refugees in the two nations. We draw out contrasts between these experiences and locate them within the interactions between the politics of welfare and refugee politics in the two nations. We argue that fine variances in England’s and Scotland’s social rights and welfare regimes have an impact on the settlement experiences of refugees, exacerbating existing negative gendered experiences of labour market integration, as well as unequal treatment of refugees based simply on how they entered the country. This has overarching implications in refugees’ outlook on life, long-term planning and, essentially, sense of belonging.
Authors: Dimitris Skleparis (Newcastle University) , Gareth Mulvey (University of Glasgow)*
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Panel / Surviving the Human Epoch: Popular Culture and the (Geo)Politics of the Anthropocene Armstrong, Civic CentreSponsor: Environment Working GroupConvener: Robert Saunders (State University of New York)Chair: Simon Philpott (Newcastle University)
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Published in 1936, Czech author Karel Capek’s The War with the Newts (Válka s mloky) is best known as a satirical indictment of the rise of fascism and Nazism in interwar Europe. Yet, in the current era of the Sixth Great Extinction, rising sea levels, and other catastrophic effects wrought by human exploitation of the planet and its resources, Capek’s work deserves a second look specifically through the lens of the so-called Anthropocene. With focus on his geographical and geopolitical imaginaries of a world terraformed by an ascendent race of salamanders, this paper interrogates the ongoing crisis of Anthropogenic distortions of the global ecosystem for the purposes of making Man comfortable in his ‘home.’ As human dominion over the earth is ended by the rise of the amphibians, Capek’s multimedia narrative presents a distressingly timely history of the future anterior of the ongoing ecological cataclysm. In the text’s climax, the newts eradicate themselves, after having already nearly destroyed the planet; thus the novel offers a prophetic warning of the dangers of unsustainable development nearly a century after its original publication. Suggestively for IR and related fields this is managed not by offering up a desolated world and an attendant bleak future for mankind; instead Capek’s work presents in farcical detail the processes of the destruction itself as it reminds the reader that the developmental gains of industrial capitalism are intimately woven into the national project and the (neo-)colonial agenda of global powers in their rush to securitize land and resources. Moreover, the multi-perspectival narrative and the multi-nodal web of actions in the story suggest something of the eco-philosopher Timothy Morton’s notion that industrial capitalism is itself already a form of crude Artificial Intelligence while also reckoning with climate change as a hyperobject so over-distributed in time and space that it has become nonlocal and both more substantial than its immediate manifestations, and correspondingly impossible to grasp. The irony of Capek making a central character a sea captain from an interior state is stripped away when one considers the fact that climate change recognizes no borders – or as a Bangladeshi Major General noted at the 2013 American Security Project, the US Air Force base at Langley, Virginia ‘will need similar coastal embankments that are currently being used in many rural parts of Bangladesh . . .’ More plainly, as the simple butler at the heart of Capek’s work notes when he sees the glassy head of a newt bob up from the Vltava River, ‘We might as well go home now. We’ve all had it.’
Author: Joel Vessels (Nassau Community College - SUNY) -
The representation of climate change such as to alter the configuration of the landmass and the liveability of large regions of the planet is not new (see Ballard's climate novels, for example, which date back to the 1960s). In the last two decades, however, narratives centred on the topic have multiplied, so much so that some critics have spoken of a ‘new’ narrative genre: Climate Fiction (cli-fi). Compared to traditional climate-based science fiction, the novelty of the genre consists not only in the anthropogenic nature of the change, but also in the degree of scientificity of the explanations offered. Regardless of the diversity of the phenomena represented (drought, rising sea levels, wild storms) or the consequences on the landscape (which can become arid or ice-covered, or see entire cities submerged), the texts of the genre are united by a strong environmentalist message. Moving beyond the message, Ecocritical Geopolitics investigates discourses of power and entanglements around the environment, interrogating the relationships between human beings and everything animate or inanimate around them. From a (geo)political point of view, cli-fi often defaults to a conservationist and primarily anthropocentric articulation of mainstream environmentalism. Thus, climate change is to be avoided because it endangers the quality of life of human beings, disrupts human systems of planetary dominance, and reduces the resources available to the species. Consequently, limited concern is expressed about non-human animals or other forms of life, which are barely represented, or seen as a menace and a factor of estrangement. "In this paper, I will examine two feature films that are classics in terms of their depiction of climate change (The Day after Tomorrow & Mad Max: Fury Road) and the presence/absence of non-human animals in them.
Author: Elena dell'Agnese (Università di Milano-Bicocca) -
How can we comprehend, let alone act in response to, the crises of the Anthropocene? This article makes a theoretical contribution to International Relations by drawing upon recent work in cultural geography to considering the Anthropocene through the lens of affective atmospheres, and in particular how a sense of futility about current crises is brought into being through popular culture. The central claim of the article is that addressing how the Anthropocene is rendered meaningful, and felt, through our engagements with popular culture is critical for understanding our failure to comprehensively and effectively address the associated crises of climate change, conflict, capitalism, and covid-19. I examine the affective atmospheres of the Anthropocene through an engagement with Bo Burnham’s song ‘That Funny Feeling’ from the Netflix comedy special Inside, and I argue it not only draws attention to the importance of affect in shaping a sense of futility about the crises of the Anthropocene, but also serves to resist that same sensibility. I then explore how an affective atmosphere of the Anthropocene – or what Bo Burnham refers to as ‘That Funny Feeling’ - is felt by members of the public by exploring social media comments made in response to the song. In doing so I reflect on the global politics of the Anthropocene and suggest how a sense of futility in the face of crises can be challenged and overcome.
Author: Rhys Crilley (University of Glasgow) -
This paper critically evaluates the emergence of a new genre of speculative fiction, Solarpunk. The, at present, disparate and sparse literature is characterised by an optimistic rendering of the future in light of climate change with the aim of fostering alternative futures that go beyond allegorical warnings or presenting apocalyptic scenarios. The genre mainly consists of an online community and some short story collections, which generally advocate and describe a ‘green utopianism’. The three collections in English are Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation and Wings of Renewal: A Solarpunk Dragon Anthology, and Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastic Stories in a Sustainable World. Solarpunk builds on the subversive tradition of various forms of punk to address issues of technology, science, and equality. The emerging aim is to move beyond a preoccupation with only ‘Western’ futures where the genre finds its hope in the renewable potential of solar power. While presenting some visual suggestions of where we might already see Solarpunk present in our world, this paper poses two sets of questions to the emerging genre: where and what are the politics of Solarpunk? And secondly, how do and how can the utopian visions of Solarpunk contribute to our imagining of climate change and the future?
Author: Benjamin Coulson (Durham University) -
Since 2000, quality long-form television drama has demonstrated a profound attraction to IR topics, from The Wire’s interrogation of the local effects of transnational criminality to Occupied’s imagining of a Russian invasion of Norway. The visualization of place and space has become increasingly central to the storytelling process of such geopolitical TV series, with the screening of meaningful landscapes serving as an indispensable enhancement to the sensory feedback loop enabled by the advent of Television 3.0. As television outpaces film as the primary dispositif through which individuals imagine and understand the world around them, how showrunners treat the challenges of the Anthropocene is critical to the popular culture-world politics nexus as we draw closer to the survivability moment for the current global system. Drawing on Mirzoeff’s (2016) notion of the ‘see change’, or the problem of learning to see the effects of the Human Epoch on the planet, my paper assesses the possibilities and questions the limitations of ecocritical series to help viewers grapple with the totality of our interwoven ecological crises. Employing Apple TV+’s See (2019- ) as a tool to think with and through the Anthropocene, my analysis interrogates the series’ speculative geographical imaginary wrought by the end of Homo sapiens’ reign as a singularly disruptive force on the planet (some 500 years in the future the meagre remnants of humanity are all blind due to a twenty-first-century pandemic). However, turning See’s representational paradigm upon itself, I critique the prosaism of the series’ (visual) politics, both from the ocular-centric perspective of its visual culture and its inability to imagine a world that does not mirror the ‘Western’ extractivist, patriarchal, and ableist nature of contemporary geopolitics.
Author: Robert Saunders (State University of New York)
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Panel / Theorising International Orders Martin Luther King, Student UnionSponsor: International Law and Politics Working GroupConvener: Kevork Oskanian (University of Birmingham)Chair: Kevork Oskanian (University of Birmingham)
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This paper draws upon the Aristotelian framework for the politics of friendship to explore relations between Libyan and American citizens in the context of Facebook friendship groups and how these groups can be used to foster trust, understanding and peace. This paper focuses on friendship as a social process that can possess both political and personal attributes and has the potential to transform relations within the international arena. To do this, it applies the Aristotelian framework on friendships of utility, pleasure, and virtue to a case study of relations between Libyan and American citizens. However, this requires a loosening of the ridged requirement of sameness that Aristotle sets forth. Instead, this paper argues that the value in international political friendships is how these interactions allow people to develop trust and understanding which is necessary to foster peaceful relations within the international arena. It is through this process of interaction and relating to one another that actors bridge the difference that exists between people of different cultures and develop a shared identity of friend and where “other” no longer must connote enemy.
Author: Gibson Lisa (LCC International University) -
Building on previous applications by Go (2008, 2013), and Nexon and Neumann (2018), this paper proposes a field-theoretic understanding of International Orders. Existing applications have usually endowed hegemons with a state-like role in managing the terms of exchange of various forms of capital – in the Bourdieusian sense – at the international level. After critiquing their exclusion of forms of international ordering which do not involve hegemonic states, as well as questioning the compatibility of these approaches with Bourdieu’s own conceptualisation of the state, the paper proceeds to provide an alternative that restores the balance between the hierarchy assumed by hegemonic order theories, and the anarchy presumed by their alternatives. In a first, Hobbesian turn, the international social space is conceptualised as a supreme meta-field created by upwards projections of power, and related attempts to shape international practice, by state nobilities; this anarchic social space is then seen to display various forms of possible order through varying configurations of capital, and distinct hierarchies of doxic, orthodox and heterodox practice. The decline and transformation of such orders is tied to reconfigurations of the meta-fields of power and practice through growing hysteresis. The framework is illustrated by contrasting the current Liberal International Order with its defunct Cold-War predecessor.
Author: Kevork Oskanian (University of Birmingham) -
In this paper, the editors of The Handbook of Global Politics in the 22nd Century (HGP22, forthcoming 2022) reflect on the ways debates about the future(s) of IR enable and limit open-ended imagination of global politics in the years to come. HGP22 is an experimental edited volume project exploring a range of theoretical perspectives and approaches to ‘write the future’ of global politics, from the perspective of the year 2122. Written in a futur antérieur style, the book offers a number of engaging essays that ‘write the future’ of global politics on the basis of a wide range of theoretical perspectives and approaches. Written around the 200-year anniversary of the birth of International Relations as an academic discipline, the contributors offer plausible analytical accounts that extrapolate from the existing present-day state of global politics, but also narratives of the ‘not yet’, and showcase a multiverse of virtual possibilities for the future of world politics. The editors will present the concluding chapter to the book which discusses the theoretical and pedagogical approach, pushing IR to consider how we think about futures.
Author: Franziska Müller (University of Hamburg) -
Despite being the focus of a number of studies since the initial publication of his works, Georg Schwarzenberger’s oeuvre remains significantly less studied than that of other realist theorists. Through a detailed focus on the complete works of this theorist, this paper contributes to this literature, offering an analysis and a commentary of the fundamental aspects of his theory of international law and international relations. It explores the elements at the heart of Schwarzenberger’s theory of international relations, which, though examined infrequently, retain their relevance in today’s international society. Finally, this paper argues that Schwarzenberger’s theory provides a powerful commentary on the fundamental structure, nature, and problems of international law; pointing and revealing issues which have remained at the heart of international law until today.
Author: Carmen Chas (University of Kent) -
The proposed paper is a draft of my concluding chapter for a book manuscript on the evolution of international institutional restraints on power. I first summarize the patterns in the emergence and changes over more than a century in international courts (such as the Permanent Court of Arbitration, International Court of Justice, and International Criminal Court), international assemblies (such as the League Assembly, UN General Assembly and European Parliament), and international secretariats (such as those in the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine, League of Nations, and World Bank). I draw three main conclusions listed in order from lowest to highest level of generalization: 1) developments involving international institutional restraints mirror those of domestic institutional restraints in medieval European states; 2) the three phases in the evolution of both domestic and international institutional restraints (emergence, change, and consolidation) can best be explained through institutionalist approaches (rational choice, sociological, and historical, respectively); 3) the evolution of institutional restraints in both realms is primarily driven by fear of concentrated power that can best be described through a “Lockean” version of liberalism as applied to IR. This Lockean strand of liberalism complements existing “Kantian” and “Rawlsian” forms of liberalism in IR.
Author: Alexandru Grigorescu (Loyola University Chicago)
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Lunch and networking: SPONSORED BY BRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (BJPIR) Banqueting Hall, Civic Centre
Banqueting Hall, Civic Centre
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Roundtable / Plenary Roundtable: The Global Governance of Scientific Challenges: SPONSORED BY CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Council Chamber
SPONSORED BY CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Sponsor: BISAChair: Georgina Holmes (Imperial College London)Participants: Lorraine Elliott (Australia National University) , Elbe Stephen (University of Sussex) , Trevor Taylor (RUSI) -
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/ Photography Exhibition: Visualizing Global Challenges Grand Staircase
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Conference event / Ethics & World Politics Working Group AGM Armstrong, Civic Centre
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/ European Security Working Group AGM Swan, Civic Centre
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/ Intervention and Responsibility to Protect Working Group AGM Carloil, Civic Centre
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Conference event / Russian and Eurasian Security Working Group AGM Stephenson, Civic Centre
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Break with tea and coffee: SPONSORED BY BRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (BJPIR)
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Panel / Anxiety, Emotion, and Ontological Security Dobson, Civic CentreSponsor: Emotions in Politics and International Relations Working GroupConvener: EPIR Working groupChair: Kaul Nitasha (University of Westminster)
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Norms of responsible state behaviour in the cyberspace are at the forefront of shaping the global governance of the Internet. However, cybernorms development likewise reflects stratification in international society bolstered by hierarchies of knowledge production, here a model of norm diffusion that relies on socialisation to the international liberal order. In effect, although contestation is necessary for norms legitimacy, the global liberal democratic coalition for “free, safe, and secure” Internet defends against cybernorms contestation, seeks to depoliticise the process by replicating the norm socialisation model, and thus diminishes prospects for democratic internationalism. Meanwhile, Internet ‘sovereigntists’, that is, actors that favour regime-controlled regulation of the Internet, call for democratisation of the global governance of the Internet but relativise cybernorm contestation and thus hollow out its democratic potentialities. The paper engages literature on emotions, anxiety and psychoanalysis in International Relations to re-interpret the current gridlock as an enactment that affectively suits all parties while re-entrenching the impasse. The enactment mediates anxiety over identity, supported by apparently rational claims to establishing a framework for responsible state behaviour. By crystalising the affective and psychosocial character of international norms, the paper further ponders the limits of cybernorms in de-escalating global antagonism, and facilitating democratic internationalism more broadly.
Author: Xymena Kurowska -
Status politics, which refers to political contestations about a state’s standing in international hierarchies, is affective. Anxieties and associated emotions drive status ambitions of states. The existing accounts of emotions in status debates, however, fail to theorise and illustrate the significant role anxiety plays in the ways in which state elites narrate and perform their status ambitions. This analysis will conceptualise status anxiety through the conceptual framework provided by the recent Lacanian interventions in ontological security theory (OST). In this endeavour, firstly, a new understanding of status in relation to ‘subjectivity’, not only identity (the approach solely dominates the status literature), will be proposed. This will allow the introduction of anxiety stemming from uncertainty about not having a stable identity. This theorisation will lead to significant revisions to the existing accounts in status theorising in International Relations. Firstly, status-seeking is not about the pursuit of recognition of one’s identity by the ‘superior other’ but a desire for completeness to tackle existential anxiety. Secondly, emotions are the driving force of status ambitions of states. Finally, desired status is a fantasy, a joy that will never be achieved.
Author: Ali Bilgic (Loughborough University) -
In this paper, we engage with the psychological strand of ontological security theory to argue that Bolsonaro’s Brazil represents (yet another) attempt to 're-construct' the nation as a projected ideal. We conceptualise ‘bolsonarismo’ as a symbolic order, which provides a form of transitory enjoyment and anxiety-relief by offering a particular interpretation of Brazil’s national self-identity. We claim that, under Bolsonaro, core discursive signifiers, related to an ultra-conservative conception of societal/cultural norms and national symbols, have emotionally underpinned a sense of ontological insecurity in a significant sector of the Brazilian society who had been marginalised since the end of Brazil’s right-wing military dictatorship in the mid-1980s. In that sense, the conflation of an uniquely favourable political, cultural and socio-economic environment with political language that offered an appealing/soothing resolution to Brazil’s alleged degeneration under the previous regime shaped an hegemonic, even if illusory and transient, form of collective subjectivity. By interpreting the Brazilian case through psychological/ontological security lenses, we hope to contribute to current theoretical debates on the emotional/psychological components of states’ national self-conceptions.
Authors: Marco Vieira (University of Birmingham) , Bruno Carvalho (University of Birmingham)
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Panel / Constructing Islam and the War on Terror Carloil, Civic CentreSponsor: Critical Studies on Terrorism Working GroupConvener: Bareeha Fatima (University of Aberdeen)Chair: Bareeha Fatima (University of Aberdeen)
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Abstract:
Islam dictates two cardinal principles: Consensus and Consultation towards formation of political life of Muslim societies. Political Islam is a response by the Islamists to the fundamental problems of Islamic societies which are suffering from moral, cultural, social, economic, and political crises. Islamists claim that “Islam is the solution” and radically challenge and reject the existing dominant ideologies of the West and others and blame Muslim political elite as protégé of Western powers. After crusades, colonialism was the most horrific encounter of Islam with the West which still echoes in the Muslim minds. Since decline of Muslims societies, certain responses by the Muslims were emerged for the preservation of identit and spiritual believes. These responses are categorized as: i) Restorationists, ii) Secular Modernists and iii) Pragmatists/Modernists. Contrary to the claims of Islamists, it has been witnessed that intentionally or otherwise, they are tarnishing the image of pluralistic vision of Islam. There is a research gap regarding defining the concepts and contexts of political Islam. Evaluating the Islamists response to fundamental crises: whether it is constructive or further deteriorating the dilapidated state of affairs of Muslim societies. Why the cardinal principles of political Islam: consensus and consultation were not followed historically by the Muslim political and intellectual elites and why the Islamists are also ignorant of these? How and why the West is selective, inconsistent and emotional in dealing with the political Islam? How the globalization is further creating chaos on both sides? In the end, the way out for the peaceful co-existence and development of Muslim societies?
Key Words: Political Islam, Islamist, West, fundamental crises, Consensus and consultation.Author: Altaf Hussain (Student/Civil Servant) -
This paper investigates the continual re/inscription of militaristic aesthetics and values in and through the cultural landscapes during Pakistan’s experience of the Global War on Terror (GWoT). From a theoretical standpoint, it advances the analysis of non-Western militarism using the case of Pakistan, while also engaging with the critical scholarship on Western liberal polities (Stavrianakis and Selby 2012; Basham 2013; Ahall 2011; Bacevich 2005; etc.). It argues that contemporary developments in everyday militarism of Pakistani society arise from a twofold impact of the history of engrained domestic militarism (Shah 2014; Shah 2011) and the US-led policies in the Middle East and South Asia intensified by the GWoT (Mukherjee 2017; Muherjee 2011). The case of Pakistan offers a unique opportunity to explore the forays of military governments in the management of popular culture through such unorthodox measures as the liberalisation of electronic media (Hassan 2017) and an increase in production and circulation of the military–generated media content (i.e. films, documentaries, tv-series, music videos, etc) aimed at popular audiences. In doing so, this paper draws upon the analysis of an acclaimed action-thriller titled ‘Waar’ (To strike) which was facilitated by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) - the media wing of Pakistan Military - during the GWoT. The film is a stylised depiction of events surrounding Pakistan’s Counter-Terrorism Efforts. Using Visual Discourse Analysis, Semi-structured interviews, and field notes to analyse the film, the paper examines the subtle mechanisms and discourses in the popular culture of Pakistan that have imbibed and sustained ‘militarised subjectivities’ during the War on Terror. In this vein, it deconstructs how the hegemonic power of the military diffuses through the construction and contestation of heroes, victims, and enemies, which are made in/visible and notable within the national imagining. It will further contribute to understanding how in/visibility of Pakistan’s War on Terror articulated with other political and cultural structures, processes, and practices of social power to determine the limits of what can be thought, talked, and written of in a normal and rational way in Pakistan.
Author: Bareeha Fatima (University of Aberdeen)
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Panel / Energy Colonialism: Roots, Racialization, Recurrent patterns Model Room 2, Civic CentreSponsor: Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working GroupConveners: Anne Kantel (Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung ISI) , Daniela Salite (University of York) , Franziska Müller (University of Hamburg) , Johanna Tunn (University of Hamburg) , Joshua Kirshner (University of York) , Joshua McEvoy (Queens University) , Birte Förster (University of Bielefeld) , Liam Midzain-Gobin (Brock University)Chair: Franziska Müller (University of Hamburg)
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Settler states are the site of competing claims to sovereignty, with Indigenous nations asserting their authority in the face of settler colonial claims to jurisdiction. In this paper we explore the tension between these claims through the realm of energy governance and utility infrastructure, and specifically the British Columbia Utilities Commission’s (BCUC) Indigenous Utilities Regulation Inquiry. Through an analysis of the Inquiry and its final report, we argue that such ‘technical’ bodies represent a sort of security professional, effectively depoliticizing the ongoing reproduction of settler sovereignty. In the BCUC’s Inquiry, this takes the form of prioritizing “economic reconciliation” and the creation of legal “certainty” which enables the continuation of a colonial form of the security/development nexus in and through energy. However, as observed in the final recommendations of the Inquiry, engaging with these technical bodies on issues such as energy governance also offers Indigenous nations meaningful opportunities to build their own infrastructure and institutions, thereby enacting their own decision-making authority. Understood in the context of the contemporary reconciliation discourse, processes of energy governance, and specifically the Inquiry and its recommendations, thus represent at once both a novel approach to reifying settler sovereignty and an opening for greater Indigenous self-determination.
Authors: Liam Midzain-Gobin (Brock University)* , Joshua McEvoy (Queens University) -
Energy colonialism is an essential, yet scarcely theorized concept for understanding how past, present and future energy systems are shaped by imperial and neocolonial imaginaries and practices. Energy coloniality becomes manifest as power over energy transition processes, as an epistemic force with regard to knowledge orders and knowledge transfer, and as a coloniality of being with regard to livelihood and energy poverty. Facing climate crisis and the rise of green capitalism, energy colonialism may serve as a concept that offers new analytical perspectives to understand, criticize and connect apparently unrelated phenomena such as green financialisation, land conflicts over solar and wind park sites, hydrogen geopolitics or energy extractivism. However, debates on energy colonialism are still scattered and a systemic overview is lacking. This paper hence seeks to recapture current debates on energy colonialism, with the aim of carving out typical claims, blind spots and challenge, and creating a research agenda.
Author: Franziska Müller (University of Hamburg) -
Green hydrogen and its synthesis products are regarded as important elements of the energy and climate transition in both Germany’s and the European hydrogen strategy. Importing these products is considered an important strategy component as particularly Germany's own potential for renewable energy production is limited. Policy makers are increasingly looking at countries outside the European Union with favorable geographic and climate conditions to meet import demands for green hydrogen in the future. This paper explores if and how Germany's and the European hydrogen strategy take the needs and desires of potential partner countries into consideration. By using the theoretical approach of coloniality as a lens, it seeks to make visible (post-)colonial path dependences and narratives within current hydrogen policies and outlines potential counter-narratives and different knowledges when it comes to the production and import of hydrogen. The paper concludes by recommending points for research and policy that can contribute to the development of partnerships that take sustainability and energy justice for all actors involved into account.
Author: Anne Kantel (Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung ISI) -
There are multiple ways of defining and understanding energy transitions, but many scholars now argue that systemic changes in energy systems require deep transformations in social and ecological dimensions that support social life, especially in urban areas. These systems and associated infrastructures have been shaped by distinct historical and political-economic processes, which in African contexts involve colonial histories of settlement, planning, and market formation. Accordingly, understanding energy transitions requires accounting for historical path dependencies that are embedded in energy systems, yet these have received little attention to date.
In this paper, drawing on a collaborative project about electricity grid access in urban Mozambique, we examine the ways that colonial legacies shape the contours of the country’s current energy system, and efforts by planners and policymakers to promote more just and sustainable energy futures. First, we focus on electricity provision to examine the effects of locations of power generation sources in relation to distribution and consumption centres, and the lack of redundancy in the network, meaning that no system of electricity dispatch exists in cases of excess or deficit of electricity. We explore the government’s plans to construct new power generation sources to supply external markets while building grid interconnections with southern African neighbours, and its parallels with colonial-era hydroelectric planning, in which whole regions were sacrificed to support national development objectives. We then turn to resource extraction, and the prospects for lucrative energy investments in natural gas or large hydropower, which have led to the deprioritizing of distributed renewables, to the detriment of local energy needs.Author: Joshua Kirshner (University of York)
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Panel / Gendering Economies Daniel Wood, Student UnionSponsor: International Political Economy Working GroupConvener: IPEG Working groupChair: Owen Parker (University of Sheffield)Discussant: Juanita Elias (University of Warwick)
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This paper is a feminist interrogation of the concept of productivity within political economy. It begins by exploring some of the dominant and explicit definitions of productivity from economics textbooks, before identifying some of the more implicit uses of the concept across contemporary political economy debates, including those around stagnation, inequality, automation, and the potential for a green transition. While this discussion does not cover every use of the concept, it identifies a persistent trend, whereby productivity is understood as separate from the gendered and racialised power dynamics of the economy.
The paper then explores productivity by breaking it down into its key components of inputs and outputs. Inputs, in particular labour inputs, are measured in ways that elide the gendered and racialised nature of work and pay, and that in general mis-understand the ways that wages are politically, and not technically, determined. Output, for the purposes of measuring productivity, is generally seen as synonymous with Gross Domestic Product, a measure that has been subject to significant critique from feminist economics amongst others. By exploring productivity at this component level, the paper shows how it is at best a flawed measure, and at worst a distorting one.
The paper focuses on the measurement of productivity within the UK, speaking directly to the so-called ‘productivity puzzle’ and to on-going attempts by scholars and policy makers to improve this measurement. Moreover, it highlights how debates within political economy over how to characterise our current economic moment are inherently partial when built upon this conceptualisation of productivity. As such, this paper shows the importance of feminist political economy insights.
Author: Muireann O'Dwyer (University of St Andrews) -
This paper studies HarassMap (a Cairo-based anti-street harassment NGO) in order to understand the role such groups play in authoritarian neoliberalism. It responds to work in IR that critiques such groups for securitizing street harassment, shaping racialized and classed targets for state intervention, and privileging middle class consumers and neoliberal rationalities (Amar 2011; Grove 2015). Such work does not appropriately contextualize these anti-street harassment groups’ tactics and how they have been reshaped over time in response to various constraints. This paper draws on several years of interviews to examine how HarassMap’s approach has changed in the period surrounding the 25 January revolution. During this unique time, HarassMap was involved in campaigns that avoided securitizing street harassment, targeting mainstream ideas and gendered conduct on the street to provoke societal change. This paper goes on to study how, over the years that followed, HarassMap modified its approach based on the strategies available to them as non-state actors, functioning in negotiation with state and global forces in the context of an increasingly authoritarian regime. I argue that, despite representing a less securitized response to street harassment, HarassMap’s non-state governance tactics have been complicit in authoritarian neoliberalism, creating their own forms of exclusion by shaping and privileging good neoliberal subjects and businesses. Tracing this NGO’s changing tactics reveals how we cannot understand authoritarian neoliberalism without examining how it is being negotiated and reproduced on the ground.
Author: Elisa Wynne-Hughes (Cardiff University) -
Feminist IPE has studied intensely the emergence of a new ‘Davos woman’ (Elias 2013) and of ‘transnational business feminism (Roberts 2014) as a legitimising figure in response to the global financial crisis; scrutinising a potential 'dangerous liaison' (Eisenstein 2005) between feminism and capitalism. Yet during the Eurozone crisis, the gendered impacts of its austerity-driven management notwithstanding, (neoliberal) feminism was marginal at best in the public discourse, and gendered representations relied instead on more traditional performances of femininity and masculinity.
This paper investigates the relationship between gender performances and politico-economic crisis responses through a more nuanced analysis. Drawing on performances and newspaper representations of ECB presidents Jean-Claude Trichet and Mario Draghi, and of heads of government Angela Merkel and Silvio Berlusconi, the paper examines the dynamics of gendered performances and discourses on the contested terrain of crisis politics. The paper argues that through performances of frugal femininities, and disciplinary and profligate masculinities, gender provides a rich metaphorical resource to associate politico-economic decisions with dominant cultural and moral discourses, producing (de)legitimising effects. Investigating gendered performative agency contributes to a nuanced and contingent understanding of the intersections of gender, culture, and political economy.
Keywords
Gender, masculinities, austerity, economic crisis, cultural political economyAuthor: Frederic Heine (JKU Linz) -
International trade agreements have the power to instigate, perpetuate, or transform inequalities that exist between and within states. Recognising the limitations of existing, largely neoclassical, approaches to international trade, Hannah et al. recently put forth a proposal for a ‘feminist trade agenda’ including the need to: redefine the purpose of global trade to value and support “progressive forms of social reproduction”; centre trade policy within a more holistic understanding of the economy; and democratize global trade relations (2020). What is missing from this analysis are ways that global trade relations and theory were developed through European colonial dominance, extraction, and exploitation: these relationships and theories are maintained today with limited interrogation or understanding of their imperial origins. This paper builds on the proposed feminist agenda for trade of Hannah et al. by articulating a feminist decolonizing approach to international political economy. A feminist decolonizing approach understands that decolonisation is an ongoing process that problematizes the naturalization of existing power dynamics and inequalities in the global political economy, seeks to embed history into our understanding of present-day economic relations, and works toward the just and equitable transformation of the extant white supremacist, heteropatriarchal, capitalist trade model. I apply this novel framework in analysing the core principles of ‘free trade’ theory as they are employed and promoted by the World Trade Organization today: namely, comparative advantage, reciprocity, and non-discrimination, and the increasingly prominent principle of transparency. In doing so, the paper contributes to the growing literature highlighting the injustices of trade theory and practice, and proposes alternative objectives for the global trading system that recognise, and seek to remedy, the inequalities of the global economic system.
Author: Asha Herten-Crabb (London School of Economics and Political Science)
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Panel / Human Rights and Security in African International Relations Parson, Civic CentreSponsor: Africa and International Studies Working GroupConvener: AISG Working groupChair: Peter Brett
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The proliferation of democratic rule in Africa has been accompanied by external involvement in fostering democracy. The African Union along with various regional organizations have included in their treaties clauses calling for their member-states to adhere to democratic governance. Moreover, organizations including the AU and the Economic Community of West African States have used punishments such as membership suspension, sanctions, and military force to motivate states experiencing democratic reversals to change course. Yet, despite these trends, there has been no investigation on how Africans perceive external involvement in fostering democratic rule. This study remedies this gap in existing research by evaluating public attitudes towards such external pressure from the sixth round of the Afrobarometer survey. Specifically, the study explores how individual assessment of electoral practice are and a country’s history of unconstitutional changes of government influence public preference for external involvement in fostering democracy. This study’s findings demonstrate how a country’s political history can in turn affect its citizens preferences for external democracy promotion.
Author: Mwita Chacha (University of Birmingham) -
The problem of the Somalia conflict, often referred to as the State Failure issue has attracted the attention of scholars and practitioners in the 1990s as one of the by-products of the dissolution of the Yalta-Potsdam system of International Relations and the end of the Cold War. Ever since that pivotal moment, the issue of a failed state remains unresolved, although the overall conflict landscape in Somalia has improved, especially with the emergence and rise of Somaliland and Puntland, still largely unrecognized diplomatically worldwide. An almost 20-year period of applying various conflict resolution schemes, negotiations, and attempts to resolve, or to create a viable theoretical and practical framework to address conflict in Somalia calls for a revision of some fundamental conflict actors’ notions of this conflict, as it is the major conflict actors that influence this conflict drivers and peace agendas.
At present, in Somalia there are 5 parallel conflicts : 1) Federal Government of Somalia versus non-state violent conflict actors of Islamist groups al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam over ideology and national power issues, which started in 2006 and up to 2013 has been defined by Conflict Barometer as all-out War; 2) Puntland self-proclaimed authority versus Somaliland self-proclaimed authority over territory and subnational dominance issues, which started in 1998 and is characterized as non-violent dispute; 3) Puntland self-proclaimed authority versus Federal Government of Somalia over Puntland autonomy issue and status, which is ongoing since 1998 within a non-violent format; 4) Somaliland versus Khatumo State Autonomy over subnational predominance and power, which is ongoing since 2009 and is currently a violent crisis; 5) Federal Government of Somalia versus Somaliland over secession, territory, and power, which is ongoing since 1991 with a present non-violent status (however, the status has changed over last 25 years). Due to grave security conditions, UNDP does not provide Human Development Index for Somalia.
However, at least two political - territorial entities, Somaliland and Puntland, have performed relatively well as compared to the rest of Somalia. Although still unrecognized by the UN and the majority of the world states as official member states of the world community, these two entities managed to establish their own de-facto viable rules of (non-official)-citizenship and managed to resolve numerous illegal border crossings and illegal trade between the two unrecognized states.
This paper overviews the efforts made by the unrecognized de-facto states of Somaliland and Puntland over the last 25 years in terms of securing citizenship and citizens' rights. It aims to understand how citizenship and corresponding rights evolved as a notion in these two entities and offer a view on how these practices may help to sustain a long-term peace and economic development in these post-state-failure areas.Author: Natalia Piskunova (Moscow State University) -
This paper explores the extent to which Chad’s military interventions in the war on terror in the Sahel and the Lake Chad area contribute to the consolidation of the state. I am concerned about how grassroots understandings of these military interventions reinforce people’s attachment to the state, potentially entrenching its authority. In my prospective argument, I seek to argue that the military interventions provide people with the language to understand the agency of the state, therefore making the fractured Chadian state appears more consistent and coherent in the minds of its citizens. These perceptions are all the more important because they give my respondents the assurance that the Chadian state has the power it takes for a state to impose its will on other international relations actors such as the terror organisations. In the end, my argument challenges the failed state theory (Jackson, 1991) which was so far used to characterise the Chadian state as I argue that through its international actions the state becomes more legible by projecting itself in the mind of its own citizens.
Author: Moudwe Daga (SOAS, University of London) -
Terrorism is an issue of global concern, and the fate of humanity rests on both the national and the international community’s ability to prevent and respond to new and continuing global emergencies. However, very little attention is accorded trauma suffered by the affected communities or its impact on the reintegration of repentant terrorists and their families in Nigeria. The implication is that it limits reintegration and increases the risk of reoffending – a situation, if not appropriately handled, is likely to lead to a humanitarian disaster. This study drew on empirical data of 30 participants recruited from Maiduguri, Adamawa and Kaduna states. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was adopted to analyse the data. It was found that lack of emphasis on trauma limits reintegration alongside the non-involvement of the communities in the design of the reintegration programme. The study recommends an improved policy outlook that embeds the community in the reintegration process to encourage positive reintegration and reduce recidivism.
Authors: Tarela Juliet Ike (Teesside University ) , Dung Ezekiel Jidong (Nottingham Trent University )* , Evangelyn Ebi Ayobi (National Open University )* , Mieyebi Lawrence Ike (Southern New Hampshire University )* , Christopher Francis (Manchester Global Foundation )*
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Panel / IPE of Financialisation 2 Collingwood, Civic CentreSponsor: International Political Economy Working GroupConvener: Engelbert Stockhammer (King's College London)Chair: Engelbert Stockhammer (King's College London)Discussant: Engelbert Stockhammer (King's College London)
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This research project examines the role of the major asset management companies - BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street - in the drive for a just transition within the world’s most carbon-intensive sectors. Specifically, we focus on the Carbon Majors: a small group of fossil fuel, mining and cement companies responsible for over 70% of industry’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1988; and we examine the extent to which the ‘Big Three’ asset managers are promoting change in these companies along more sustainable lines. We map out the growth of the Big Three’s ownership in the publicly-owned Carbon Majors and we investigate how their growing equity stakes translate in terms of influence over these companies’ environmental, social and governance strategies. Overall, we argue that the narrative of sustainable finance may be a dangerous delusion which diverts attention away from the central role that governments ought to play in driving decarbonization.
Author: Joseph Baines (KCL) -
The variegated experiences of Emerging Capitalist Economies (ECEs) require a theory of global structural transformation in which these appearances can be located. Such a transformation can be found in the substantive completion of the internationalisation of the circuits of capital, thereby marking the passage into a new stage of financialised capitalism. In this new stage, finance has taken the concrete form of a US dollar market-based system, while production is carried out through global production networks.
The confluence of these new realities has impacted both the size and the nature of the transfer of value from subordinate regions as well as their domestic models of accumulation. In the era of financialised capitalism, as highlighted by Stockhammer and Kohler (2020) most advanced economies relied on debt-led or export-driven growth models. Similar dynamics occurred in ECEs but in a form that reflects their subordinate position within global production networks and the circuits of global finance. Lower levels of income and wealth in ECEs may circumscribe mass debt-led consumption growth models, although periods of externally financed debt booms can occur and temporarily sustain growth. Consistent with their position in global production, most ECEs have relied on forms of export-oriented growth, although this has not always been the product of a deliberate policy choice.Author: Bruno Bonizzi (Hertfordshire) -
This paper applies a multidimensional approach to the study of informal international organizations (IIGOs). Recent definitions of IIGOs often highlight the differences between informal and more formalized organizations. Instead of adhering to this dichotomy, I build on Martin’s (2021) recent work in calling for a more nuanced conceptualization of informal institutions. I show how this approach allows insightful study of how powerful states can strategically grant different degrees of informality across different areas of an IIGO as a mechanism with which to secure asymmetric control over the organization. In the context of terrorism financing and money laundering, I apply this framework to the case of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which varies in degrees of formalization across several dimensions. Drawing on 21 elite interviews, I show how powerful states have been willing to formalize more technical areas which help to support the overall functioning of the organization (i.e., its monitoring mechanism), while resisting further formalization of more politicized aspects (i.e., its blacklist) and those with the potential to directly threaten their privileged status within the organization (i.e., the decision-making procedures).
Keywords: international organizations, informality, institutional design, power, global security governance
Author: Isabel Rodriguez Toribio (University of Glasogw) -
We conduct a regional comparison that capture financialization of EEs at the international financial level (financial liberalisation, cross-border flows, and the presence of global value chains), the national level (the state, financial sector, Non-financial Corporations, and households) and at a city level (financial centres and house price inflation). We find that productive and financial international integration does not necessarily go hand in hand. We confirm the importance of the external dimension of financialisation for EEs; foreign liabilities are related to financialisation in all domestic sectors, private and public. At the city level also foreign liabilities are positively correlated with the global financial centre index.
Domestically, financialisation is positively correlated among the financial sector, non-financial corporations and households. Global financial centre is strongly linked with foreign measures but equally linked to all domestic private sectoral measures. House price inflation does not seem particularly important for EEs financialisation. Our findings suggest that financialisation should be understood as a variegated process. However, one commonality among EEs is the importance of the external dimension. This is a result that is notably different from the situation in rich countries and therefore constitutes a distinct characteristic of financialization in the global South.Author: Jimena Castillo (Leeds) -
During the COVID-19 crisis, emerging economies have followed advanced economies in providing the necessary monetary and fiscal policy support to achieve economic stabilisation and recovery. According to the literature, emerging economies find themselves in a subordinate position in relation to the global financial system and thus their central banks have a more restricted repertoire of monetary policy tools at their disposal. How can we then explain the Hungarian MNB and the Polish NBP’s successful launch of large-scale asset purchases, including government bonds, without triggering capital flight and increasing risk premia for investors? Moreover, while the Czech lawmakers legislated to give the necessary legal mandate to the Czech CNB to replicate these tools, the CNB has so far shied away from unconventional monetary tools. In this paper, we will argue that (1) the crisis situation has created favourable conditions for emulation of advanced economies and experimentation with monetary policy in emerging markets, and that (2) institutionalised fiscal discipline adherence was a key prerequisite for maintaining credibility in eyes of bond investors. To explain the variation in the three cases, and to account for the unwillingness of the Czech CNB to join the chorus, we focus on the extent of fiscal-monetary coordination in each country. Whereas that coordination has become stronger in recent years under the populist nationalist governments in Hungary, and since the pandemic also in Poland, the strict interpretation of the central bank’s mandate in Czechia points towards a fiscal-monetary mismatch and continuing conservative approach in Czech monetary policy.
Author: Alen Toplišek (KCL)
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104
Panel / Identity, Security, Climate and the Nation Swan, Civic CentreSponsor: International Studies of the Mediterranean, Middle East & Asia Working GroupConvener: Omer Tekdemir (University of Coventry)Chair: Ikram Berkani (Coventry University)
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Jordan is one of the world’s most resource poor, arid and freshwater stressed countries. It is also exceptionally vulnerable to the effects of climate change and has limited mitigation and adaptation capacities. Its environmental challenges have long been exacerbated by poor governance, mismanagement of natural resources (especially freshwater) and associated infrastructure, demographic pressures, and its low levels of economic resiliency. Over the two last decades anthropogenic climate change has aggravated these challenges further. Based on analysis of official climate change policy documentation and elite interviews, we argue that the government promotes a climate change discourse that aims to attract financial, technical and political support from external audiences, and to present Jordan as a modernising and progressive state that seeks to promote the well-being of its citizens by helping them deal with climate change at home. The Hashemite regime’s traditional focus on its own survival is found to outweigh its concern with the longer-term implications of climate change. While Jordan is rarely mentioned in global climate change discussions and debates, we argue that due its climate change vulnerability and low levels of resilience, and its important role in Middle Eastern politics, it is necessary to examine how climate change mitigation and adaptation policies are approached in the kingdom as this can tell us more about authoritarian regimes’ climate change politics and survival strategies.
Author: Imad El-Anis (Nottingham Trent University) -
This paper reveals the geopolitical and geo-economic background of Chinese involvement in Central Asia’s natural gas industry (in five countries: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan). In recent years, energy transport cooperation between energy-hungry East Asian countries and former Soviet successor states, Iran, and the Middle East has become more visible. From the Chinese perspective, Central Asia plays an essential role as a source of energy and raw materials. It is also a significant trade relationship, a transit region to the West and the Muslim world. The timeliness of this research is underlined by the several developments of the last few years that contribute to the rearrangement of the geopolitical and economic situation in Central Asia and have a severe impact on the management of resources in the region.
In this paper, I aim to demonstrate that, although the resources acquired from Central Asia represent only a modest amount in China’s total energy needs, Beijing is still fundamentally transforming the structure of the Central Asian energy space. Still, one question needs to be answered: is there a significant change in the level of Chinese activism in the Central Asian natural gas industry before and after launching the Belt and Road Initiative?Author: Tamas Dudlak (Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest) -
Located in a region with rising tensions and a persistent military build-up, Japan’s seeming shift towards becoming a more assertive military power has attracted much scholarly attention. However, the focus is almost universally on politicians combatting lingering anti-militarist attitudes hindering the so-called Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). This leaves the JSDF’s own agency to escape its social restraints largely unexplored. My research is addressing this, by examining strategic narratives the JSDF creates of itself, paying particular attention to the use of gendered imagery to sanitise and rehabilitate military virtues.
I conduct discourse analysis of mainly visual materials produced by or with the JSDF through various channels. Namely, I examine JSDF PR and recruitment materials, military museums, and pop-cultural products such as animation series produced in cooperation with the JSDF, supplementing those observations with interviews with Japanese officials, military- and local stakeholders. I explore how the prominent featuring women and portrayal of military values through them allows the JSDF to rehabilitate these values in Japan, overcome social resistances, and enable a more militarist foreign policy. My research thus helps to contextualise Japanese security, whilst also contributing to feminist debates on the utilisation of gender by the military and the social implications thereof.
Author: Miklas Fahrenwaldt (University of Edinburgh)
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105
Panel / Public Diplomacy, Influence and Knowledge Production Martin Luther King, Student UnionSponsor: International Studies of the Mediterranean, Middle East & Asia Working GroupConvener: Jessica Northey (Coventry University)Chair: Meryem Abdelhafid (Coventry university )
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The recent discovery of the High-Income Trap phenomena and the established Middle-Income Trap literature have identified the similarity of the structural challenges that both Mainland China and Taiwan have been facing since the simultaneous growth slowdown from the 2000s. Mainland China and Taiwan’s ineffectiveness in productivity growth weakened their overall competitiveness in Global Value Chains. With the subsequent decline of industrial profitability, social compression from late development persists and jeopardises the social cohesion. From Ma Ying-jeou’s ‘633’ promise and Tsai Ing-wen’s ‘5+2’ industrial framework to Mainland China’s 11th to 14th Five-Year Plans, leaderships across the Strait have been striving to constitute new models for inclusive and sustainable development through policy responses. This study argues that social consensuses that have been constructed by the domestic political processes define the feasibility of the reform strategies, which further construct the conditions for Cross-Strait interactions. Based on the existing literature of New Institutional Economics, Middle/High Income Trap and Compressed Development, this study adopts a Historical Institutionalist analytical framework to identify how the historical path-dependency contributes to the contemporary growth constraints in both economies and the political difficulty on navigating the institutional and organisational change. It continues by tracing the political process of economic reform to examine the sustainability and resilience of the manifested social consensus that had empowered the proposed policy frameworks. Afterwards, it examines how the political outcomes in such a simultaneous process shared by both Mainland China and Taiwan construct the social, economic, institutional, and political foundations of contemporary Cross-Strait engagement.
Author: Mingke MA (University of Oxford ) -
Graduate theses constitute a revealing indicator of the nature and transformation of knowledge production in local academia. One central avenue to assess the epistemic engagements of Turkish academia with the Middle East is the graduate research conducted at Turkish universities in the form of graduate theses. This paper is a critical investigation of MA and Ph.D. theses on the Gulf submitted to Turkish universities since 1981 when the Turkish Council of Higher Education was founded. The research draws on the National Thesis Center database of the Turkish Council of Higher Education to access the theses under investigation. The theses are then subject to a comprehensive quantitative coding along a broad spectrum of parameters. Relevant data obtained from this process is collected in four categories: the thesis, the author, the supervisor, and the university. The research aims to observe and analyze multiple dimensions of knowledge production about the Gulf in Turkey. These dimensions include the locality of knowledge production within Turkey, the temporality of knowledge production in the local academia, and the gendered practices of knowledge production among the epistemic community. A particular inquiry concerning theses submitted in the discipline of international relations is conducted. The research is expected to constitute a meaningful contribution to the debates on the dynamics and manifestations of knowledge production in Middle Eastern studies.
Authors: Ali Bakir (Qatar University)* , Eyüp Ersoy (Ahi Evran University) -
This paper examines the Chinese Communist Party’s media presence in Turkey and analyses how the Party’s foreign policy roles, conceptions and international aspirations are communicated to the Turkish public and to what extent it has an impact on public debate. The paper will particularly focus on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and how it has been narrated through media channels such as China Radio International. In doing so, it seeks to identify how these aspirations, roles and conceptions are represented and reproduced in the nexus between political/security and economic relations.
Author: Ozge Soylemez (King's College London)
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Panel / Reimagining / Complicating Everyday Security Discourse and Praxis Bewick, Civic CentreSponsor: Critical Studies on Terrorism Working GroupConveners: Tom Pettinger , Alice Martini (QMUL)Chair: Alice Martini (QMUL)
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This paper looks at the PVE turn in the UN counter-terrorism action. It follows the evolution of the UN PVE action. The work examines the progression of the UN Security Council’s fight against international terrorism and its development of practices to prevent radicalisation and extremism. It also looks at the consequences of these processes and how they have deeply moulded global counter-terrorism. The book looks at the discursive construction of a global threat and tracks how this construction evolved in relation to the Council’s establishment of legal practices and bodies, and by its Members’ discourses.
Author: Alice Martini -
drones and targeted killing; I argue that discourses on counter-terrorism and violence enacted in world politics are co-constituted and normalised in the way videos of targeted killing are circulating on social media platforms.
This paper argues that drone videos on YouTube and other platforms are a synoptic and ultimately cinematic experience for audiences. As synoptic and cultural artefacts they create fantasy relationships between watchers and watched, and geopolitical visions of dangerous spaces. Looking at online videos of drone strikes and their specific performative function on YouTube can help to expand the debate on drone warfare and targeted killing. Manhunting becomes an entertainment product that lacks political or historical context but underpins the way counter-terrorism is being fought by seeping into the everyday while the ’everywhere’ and ’infinite’ nature of the ’War on Terror’ is further embedded in the very same.
Author: Julian Schmid (Institute of International Relations Prague) -
Attempts to bridge the gap between the domestic and the international in Preventing/Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) discourse often focus on the processes and practices that migrate between the two spheres. However, this approach restricts the scope of enquiry to either states or international organisations. An alternative way of collapsing this divide is to explore the interplay of international and domestic security narratives at the grassroots level by turning our analytical gaze to the individual. Enloe’s intervention ‘the international is personal’ aimed to make women analytically visible in the study of politics. This paper will repurpose this statement to make the individual visible in the transversal universe of P/CVE politics.
Drawing on the personal experiences of ordinary citizens conducting counter-extremism surveillance under Prevent Duty in England, this paper will explore how the body of an individual becomes the terrain where the international and domestic security logics converge. The result manifests in ordinary interactions that turn into (in)security-making opportunities and spaces that turn into domestic outposts of the global war on terror. In this symbiotic process, the international sets the parameters of threats and risk and the domestic, in response, develops mitigating strategies that can be replicated across different borders and systems.
Author: Amna Kaleem (University of Sheffield) -
This paper explores what has previously been excluded from the study of counterterrorism: the political role and experience of emotions in deradicalisation. Deradicalisation, known as the cognitive (and sometimes grouped with the behavioural) process of disengagement from violent extremism, has become something of a buzzword, generating a global and fast-growing marketplace for experts, handbooks and programmes. No success recipe exists; scholars explain again and again the variance, complexity and difficulty in examining and evaluating deradicalisation processes. Not to mention some deradicalisation programmes’ (neocolonial) tendencies of ‘thought policing’. Yet, many scholars point to the importance of ‘emotional connections’, including trust, empathy and care, between practitioner and radical in these programmes (Bjørgo and Horgan, 2009; Horgan, 2009; Chernov Hwang, 2018; Dalgaard-Nielsen, 2013; Garfinkel, 2007). Unfortunately, the analysis stops here. Emotions are seemingly important in deradicalisation, but deeper analytical attention to emotions is missing. Emotions have, as a result, become something politically unproblematic or unpolitical. Drawing from feminist and poststructuralist thoughts, this paper offers an alternative framework to understand and examine deradicalisation: to re-imagine counterterrorism by exploring the politics of emotions. Incorporating the concepts and thinking associated with ‘emotional labour’ (Hochschild, 1983) and ‘ethics of care’ (Gilligan, 1982; Tronto, 1993), and applying narrative analysis to everyday experiences among practitioners and radicals, this paper not only uproots well-entrenched assumptions in previous literature on deradicalisation, more importantly, it aims to show that emotions are not only significant in this process but that they are political. This alternative framework invites new questions to the analysis of deradicalisation, such as: how are emotions practiced and/or managed and what are the effects? How is deradicalisation experienced (emotionally)? Where and when are emotions used/practiced/needed in deradicalisation? And whose or what emotional needs are accounted for or created? This paper argues that the lack of deeper analytical attention to emotions in the study of deradicalisation masks its social and political significance and obscures its oppressive structures (Tronto, 1993). In short, this paper differs from previous deradicalisation literature by taking the political role and experience of emotions seriously and, thus, contributing to a deeper understanding, and re-imagination, of counterterrorism.
Keywords: deradicalisation, counterterrorism, emotions, emotional labour, ethics of care, everyday experiences, narrative analysis.
Author: Yrsa Landström (Swedish Defence University) -
This paper looks to the history of pre-criminal technologies, presenting a methodology that can expose the persistence of coloniality within contemporary countering terrorism and trace convergences in tools used across democracies and autocracies. This feminist methodology provides a fragmented view of contemporary authoritarian tools as shared global phenomena, similarly dependent upon the marginalisation of racialised, classed and gendered subjects.
Pre-criminal tools – which purport to ‘catch’ potential extremists before they are ‘radicalised’ – are primarily understood to be new exceptional post 9/11 developments within the west that erode liberal democratic values. By looking to the relationship of pre-criminal thinking with colonial law-making in British-occupied Egypt, however, I demonstrate that these tools are instead part of normal and everyday legal and administrative governance central to the development of both liberal democracies and autocracies. This paper uses archival research and contemporary interviews to show how the development of pre-emptive governance is dependent upon the colonial erasure and re-writing of marginalised modes of thinking and being through occupation. By interrogating the legitimising effects of (western) law-making, this approach provides the tools to disrupt narratives that would posit contemporary Egyptian law-making as qualitatively different to that in Britain. Finally, by looking to forms of everyday violence, this paper also provides a methodology that holds together the local and the intimate with the national and the global, contending that contemporary counter terrorism is dependent upon the everyday production of categories of difference and classifications of suspicion.
Author: Alice Finden
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Roundtable / Screening Violence: a Transnational Approach to the Local Imaginaries of Post-conflict Transition Council Chamber, Civic Centre
“Screening Violence: A Transnational Study of Post-Conflict Imaginaries”, an AHRC-sponsored research project currently in progress, aims to map the local imaginaries of conflict and post-conflict transition in five locations across the globe (Algeria, Argentina, Colombia, Indonesia and Northern Ireland). Our decision to focus on the social imaginaries of conflict is based on the premise that it is within the imaginary that the meanings of these struggles is fixed. A key feature of the project is its interdisciplinary and participatory approach to knowledge production, which draws on popular culture and its reception as a way into the rich textures, ambiguities and inconsistencies of symbolic worlds. We work with the medium of film in a multi-faceted way: as a methodological tool designed to set up debates that allow us to chart social imaginaries; as an imaginary space itself, both reflective and constitutive of the popular imaginaries in question; and as creative expression, as we work with local filmmakers to co-create a cinematic cartography of the imaginaries that emerge in each site throughout the project. Focus groups and audience ethnography serve as a people-centred, participatory approach to the production of knowledge that goes beyond the screenings in our attempt to understand local imaginaries.
Reflecting on this complex work in progress, this panel seeks to engage conference participants in key areas of discussion:
• How do questions of scale affect the study of local social imaginaries? In other words, how do local understandings of conflict show the influence of the local, the national and the international?
• The value of using film as both a conceptual frame (film as a popular imaginary space in itself) and methodological tool (film spectatorship and reception as a window into the imaginary) for carrying out field research that aims to map the local imaginaries of post-conflict transition;
• The architecture of the project and the challenges of carrying out this study comparatively across five sites.
The roundtable will be structured and present findings as follows:
1. Brief film screening (Sowan, 18 minutes) and commentary followed by discussion of following themes:
2. The role of the imaginary in understanding post-conflict societies.
3. Film reception and audience ethnography: Researching using film in a transnational context.
The roundtable proposes to share preliminary findings from the research project and to seek audience input, comment, criticism and suggestions for further development of the conceptual and fieldwork approaches. Equal amounts of time will be divided between the presentation and audience participation to ensure a fully interactive session.Sponsor: BISAChair: Guy Austin (Newcastle University)Participants: Nicholas Morgan (Newcastle University) , Simon Philpott (Newcastle University) , Diah Kusumaningrum (Gadjah Mada Universit) -
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Panel / Selective Reconstruction: Conceptualising (Re-)Engagement in the Post-Brexit UK-EU Security Relationship (Panel 1) Stephenson, Civic CentreSponsor: European Security Working GroupConveners: Benjamin Martill (University of Edinburgh) , Helena Farrand Carrapico (Northumbria University)Chair: Richard Whitman (University of Kent)
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Historical (De-)Institutionalism and the Breakdown in UK-EU Security Cooperation
Authors: Benjamin Martill (University of Edinburgh) , Monika Sus (Hertie School of Governance)* -
Following UK withdrawal from the European Union, the AUKUS agreement, and deterioration in Anglo-French relations, the previously close defence and security relationship is undermined by mistrust and even antipathy. This threatens European security and defence capability, coherence, and resilience. We argue that both the EU and UK must recognise the risks from degraded European defence and security cooperation. To enable re-engagement, France must lead on ensuring EU relevance and capability within NATO, thereby convincing the UK of the necessity for full cooperation with France and its EU partners. The onus is on the EU to make itself an indispensable partner, fully compatible with NATO obligations, and committed to upgrading European capability and military-industrial heft. This requires substantial uplift in EU member states’ resourcing of capability, and integration through PESCO and joint operations. The EU must ensure openness to full UK participation in CSDP-related activities, including European defence-industrial projects.
Authors: Simon Sweeney (University of York) , Neil Winn (University of Leeds) -
The EU–UK foreign, security and defence policy (FSDP) relationship has been transformed in a short space of time from a member state enmeshed in EU decision-making and implementation, through a brief period of ‘shadowing’ during the Transition, to the current state of absent agreement. This article explores, how, in the absence of a formal EU-UK agreement, there has been the establishment of ad hoc patterns of managing interaction on FSDP issues. The article locates an EU-UK muddling through FSDP relationship within a broader post-Brexit pattern of UK European foreign policy that exhibits patterns of differentiation (demonstrating the capacity to caucus with other groupings to highlight new possibilities – e.g. Five Eyes partners); compensation (prioritisation of other foreign-policy cooperation formats in Europe - most particularly bilateral and mini-lateral cooperation with European states); and competition (seeking a differently calibrated relationship from the EU’s third country partners – illustrated in the relationship with Turkey).
Author: Richard Whitman (University of Kent) -
In a post-Brexit world, foreign policy crises have been mounting between the UK and its traditional European partners. This paper proposes to assess the extent to which these tensions have put in danger the rise of efficient informal diplomatic venues, such as E3 which, in the absence of institutionalization appears to be more vulnerable to exogenous changes. Due to the success of this informal diplomatic venue, meetings became more regular, coordination with the European Union (EU) was strengthened and additional issues were dealt with. To what extent have Brexit and the ensuing foreign policy crises impacted these types of venues and informal trilateral cooperation? Is Brexit impacting upon past socialization of actors and habits? Is there a risk of fragmentation and disjointed foreign policy initiatives? Based on interviews in London, Paris and Berlin, this paper supports the idea that past practices of cooperation have changed the interests, representations and habits of national officials and the fairly institutionalized format of E3 could prove to be an asset and be resistant to political speeches and stances. Contributing to the debates on Europeanisation, we will demonstrate how it can still happen through more informal venues going beyond the formal membership to the EU.
Authors: Sarah Wolff (Queen Mary, University of London)* , Agathe Piquet (Queen Mary, University of London)* , Helena Farrand Carrapico (Northumbria University)
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Panel / The Performance of Identity in the Production of (In)Security Armstrong, Civic CentreSponsor: Critical Studies on Terrorism Working GroupConveners: Alice Martini (QMUL) , Tom PettingerChair: Lee Jarvis
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To what extent does social categorisation deprive people of their dignity, affecting individuals’ radicalisation processes? While existent literature contributes significant knowledge on groups’ radicalisation and how socio-political, historical, and economic factors affect the outbreak of violence, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of how and why individuals radicalise. To this end, this paper investigates the Italian case of far-Left violence, which took place between the early 1970s and the mid-1980s, during the so-called ‘years of lead’. The intensity and scope of violence makes this an interesting case for researching individuals’ radicalisation processes. Using narrative analysis as methodological approach, this paper surveys personal stories of former members of far-Left armed organisations. It examines how they perceived the socio-political world that they intended to change, scrutinising (auto)biographical material to explain the complexity behind individuals’ decision to use violence. It also engages with socio-psychological literature to explore the multifaceted components constituting violence. This paper finds that society’s practice of categorising people can lead to violence by contributing to some individuals’ radicalisation processes. It appears that by morally judging, social categorisation promotes social divisions, harming people’s dignity. Ultimately, this paper provides thought-provoking insights for research in (de)radicalisation, peace, and conflict.
Author: Giulia Grillo (University of Kent) -
The crumbling of the Islamic State’s Caliphate brought with it the ever-recurring question of what to do with ‘its citizens’. The fear of large waves of returnees quickly became a possible reality. The returnee is constructed around the notion of fear, leading some states in the West to resort to the use of denationalization, or citizenship stripping, to prevent their return. States have argued that denationalization is used as a security measure to protect that state and its citizens from the dangerous other. Much of the literature has focused on the denationalization debate, but not on what role citizenship potentially plays in processes of deradicalization and reintegration. The paper looks at this debate through the lens of categories of citizenship, including the ‘good citizen’ and the ‘failed citizen’. Consequently, the paper provides an important contribution to the debate, as it looks at the consequences of these categorizations for returnee reintegration: Can the ‘failed citizen’ ever become a ‘good citizen’ again?
Author: Louise Tiessen (University of Kent) -
In July 2015, a legal duty came into force as part of the United Kingdom’s Counter Terrorism and Security Act that included a requirement for schools and other education providers to ‘prevent people from being drawn into terrorism’. As part of this initiative (referred to as the Prevent Duty), schools in England and Wales were required to include teaching on ‘Fundamental British Values’ as part of the curriculum, to ‘build pupil’s resilience to radicalisation’.
Yet this element is not required in schools in Scotland or Northern Ireland, and the Prevent Duty guidelines for Scotland make almost no mention of ‘fundamental British Values’. This paper argues that the absence of a requirement for teachers in Scotland to include teaching on Fundamental British Values simultaneously politicises and depoliticises the Duty, Britishness and British identity in this context. By withholding the requirement for values education to be framed through the prism of Britishness, teachers are not asked to engage in contentious and subjective discussions on the nature of what makes values uniquely ‘British’. Yet this decision also highlights the political nature of its original inclusion and the contentious nature of British identity in Scotland, especially in the wake of fractious debates about Scotland’s constitutional future, and its absence is a distinctly political act.
Author: Nick Brooke (University of St Andrews) -
This paper explores an emerging strategy by sections of the British radical right towards the LGBTQ+ community, who the radical right claim are existentially threatened by the alleged violent homophobia of Islam, and their ostensible betrayal by ‘the left’. Consequently, parts of the radical right present themselves as the ‘true’ protectors of LGBTQ+ (especially cisgender gay/bisexual people) individuals through what we term alter-progressivism. By analysing video communications of some radical right figures, we highlight three key themes. First, the broad radical right discourse of a ‘Great Replacement’, altered to appeal to perceived LGBTQ+ anxieties. Second, a narrative depicting the radical right as the defenders of (some) minorities; and (3) an emerging distinction between the far-right and radical right concerning LGBTQ+ rights. We conclude that these themes demonstrate the flexibility of radical right narratives in appealing to some minority communities. While it is difficult to gauge the success of these attempts (and we do not claim they will necessarily work), this emerging theme may have important consequences for how we understand radicalisation.
Authors: Xander Kirke (Glasgow Caledonian University) , Russell Foster (King's College London)
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Panel / Transnational Politics, Nationalisation, Geopolitics and the State Kate Adie, Student UnionSponsor: International Studies of the Mediterranean, Middle East & Asia Working GroupConvener: Jessica Northey (Coventry University)Chair: Omer Tekdemir (University of Coventry)
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There is a literature gap in conceptualizing the interconnectedness between the global hegemonic order and conflict-affected polities with fragile social structures. Hegemonic states along with their local armed agents are increasingly shaping the emerging dynamics rather than the unitary state actors. Web of Influence (WOI) theory showcases how multiple hegemons seize the opportunity of political change to mobilize agentive primordial loyalties and divide their overlapping influence within the same polity. This paper explores under what conditions the Web of Influence has emerged in contemporary Syria in the 2015-2020 timeframe with critical narrative and causal analyses as the overarching research methodologies. This interconnected WOI produces a relational social structure that is actors-centered with patterns of interaction at both ends of the agent-principal arrangement. WOI is a conceptually modified version of the Spheres of Influence (SOI), which recognizes that neither the epistemology nor the conceptual framework of the SOI concept encompasses the complex dynamics of how multiple local agents and their hegemonic enablers divide the influence pie in a polity with a disintegrated state.
Author: Joe Macaron (University of Bath) -
This paper examines how in Egypt a new and consolidating authoritarian regime has sought to extend direct state controls over private religious institutions, including mosques and the provision of preachers within them. In 2014, the newly elected president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, called for a “religious revolution” to “renew religious discourse” to combat what he called “Islamist extremism”. The Ministry of Religious Affairs was subsequently tasked with the nationalization of all private mosques, by placing them directly under the administration of the government. Despite these pronouncements, insufficient state capacity meant the implementation of this nationalization plan remained incomplete. In Egypt under Sisi, despite the implementation of controls over religious institutions being incomplete in practice, the government continues to project the attainment of these aims discursively through public pronouncements. This paper addresses this contradiction by developing the concept of ‘hollow statism’, showing how ‘performative acts’ attempt to account for this gap between discourse and praxis. Drawing on Egyptian government data and Arabic-language articles from Egyptian media, this paper shows how empirical practices intersect with the production of discourses to help reconstitute authoritarian rule. ‘Hollow statism’, however, demonstrates that despite the heightened level of repression towards private actors in Sisi’s Egypt, the foundations of the new regime’s attempts to control the religious sphere rest on a fragile pretence of these policies being fulfilled.
Author: Neil Russell (Glasgow Caledonian University) -
During the 2010s the Eastern Mediterranean started increasingly to be seen as a distinct geopolitical space, both in scholarly and political debates. This change was largely attributed to the dynamics propelled by shifts in the international system after the Cold War and particularly after 9/11. Part of this academic discussion sought to assess the forces of region-building in the Eastern Mediterranean and included approaches from International Relations, International Security, International Political Economy, and Geopolitics. This paper aims to revisit the question of region-building in the Eastern Mediterranean in light of the pandemic and its impact on security and other relations. In line with other works in the literature, it will argue that the pandemic accelerated and deepened already existing political and security trends in the international system. Thus, in the context of a post-American world order, region-building (or regionalism) tendencies in the Eastern Mediterranean have been enhanced (particularly among, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Egypt, and some extra-regional actors). Yet at the same time, growing power vacuums, political instability and geopolitical fluidity have given rise to region-deconstructing efforts by actors - primary among which is Turkey - that contest the new order and want to impose an alternative one.
Author: Zenonas Tziarras (Peace Research Institute Oslo Cyprus Centre) -
Although Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have various historical, political, cultural and structural similarities, they have followed different and even conflicting foreign policies towards events, conflicts and civil wars in the Middle East, from Libya to Yemen, since the beginning of the Arab Uprisings. This study investigates the reasons behind the differences between these two Gulf monarchies’ foreign policy attitudes against the Yemeni Civil War by using role theory. To explain the divergent foreign policies, I investigate Qatar and the UAE’s socialisation experiences and domestic role contestations using content analysis and process tracing. This study contributes to role theory scholarship by combining socialisation experiences and domestic role contestations to explain foreign policy roles and enriches theoretical approaches in foreign policy studies of the Middle East by applying role theory to the foreign policies of two Gulf countries.
Keywords: Middle East Politics, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, foreign policy analysis, role theory, socialisation, role contestation
Author: Yusuf Topaloglu (The University of Edinburgh)
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Break with tea and coffee: SPONSORED BY BRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (BJPIR)
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Panel / Emerging Trends and Issues in Drone Warfare Carloil, Civic CentreSponsor: War Studies Working GroupConveners: Emil Archambault (School of Government and International Affairs, University of Durham) , Vincent Keating (University of Southern Denmark) , Lindsay Clark (University of Southampton)Chair: Tracey German (King's College London)Discussant: Tracey German (King's College London)
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This paper argues that ethical decision-making should occur at every level in the process known as the ‘Kill chain.’ This is counter to claims made by the military to the author. In private correspondence following at approach to UK drone squadrons regarding conducting interviews on the ethics of drone violence, the military personnel corresponding for Headquarters Air Command claimed that the line of enquiry (how ethical decisions are made by armed drone crews) was inappropriate for those crews. This was because, the correspondent claimed, that ‘UK Reaper Crew operate under the Rule of Engagement’ which are approved by staff at MOD and ‘ultimately reviewed and approved’ by Ministers. The argument was that it is ministers not crews who make ethical decisions, the crews merely act on those decisions – as laid out in Rules of Engagement. This article will argue that this assertion is both factually incorrect and ethically concerning. Using data gathered by other researchers and available in the press, the article will demonstrate that ethical decisions are made by all members of the drone crews - and that ultimately the decision to make a strike rests with the pilot. And they are empowered to refused to make strikes which they feel breach ethical rules – and this power is considered very important by those crew members. It will then demonstrate why this continued ethical decision-making at every level is important, indeed integral, to meeting the requirements of the laws of armed conflict (LOAC) and its backbone of Just War theorising.
Author: Lindsay Clark (University of Southampton) -
This presentation consists in a critical investigation of the June 20, 2019 shooting of a United States Navy BAMS-D surveillance drone by the Iranian armed forces over the Strait of Hormuz, and its implications for the strategic theorization of drone usage. This incident presented a high-profile military crisis revolving around the employment of military drones, and as such provides an excellent opportunity to test existing theories concerning the impact of drone usage on escalation dynamics. According to multiple contemporaneous news accounts, the absence of an onboard pilot significantly impacted both the Iranian decision to shoot down the drone and the American decision to avoid direct military retaliation. This presentation, as such, will begin by reconstructing the sequence of events and the decisions made by both parties from available open-source documents and accounts. I will then analyse this account to explore the changes in escalation dynamics brought about by the implication of a drone, concentrating on the Iranian decision to select a remote-piloted aircraft as target, and U.S. President Trump's ultimate decision to not retaliate militarily. Through this analysis, I will provide a preliminary empirical test of theories concerning the impact of drones on escalation and avenues for further theorising.
Author: Emil Archambault (University of Ottawa) -
There has been a long-standing debate over the ethics of targeted killing, with a particular concern over these operations becoming commonplace because of technological advancements and normative change. This latter concern has been primarily framed in social constructivism, which posits that if states increasingly behave in a manner contrary to the prevailing norm against assassination, a global normative cascade liberalizing this behavior becomes increasingly possible. This paper puts forward an alternative perspective via a novel construction of the international society/international system distinction found in the English School of international politics, arguing that international society acts as a firewall against the generalization of these practices, compartmentalizing the potential norm erosion. This perspective generates a novel understanding of targeted killing, suggesting that while the practice is less likely to be generalized than the current literature suggests, it is more likely to persist as a practice against violent non-state actors outside of international society. In making this argument, this paper opens up a new line of critique that problematizes the assumed global nature of norm cascades within social constructivism.
Author: Vincent Keating (University of Southern Denmark)
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Roundtable / Abolitionist Thinking as an Unanswered Question Dobson, Civic Centre
In light of increasingly sinister attacks on anti-racist praxis in academic spaces and scholarship across the globe, the roundtable is part of a year of activities through which we, as a community of colonial, postcolonial and decolonial scholars, carve out space for collective responses. We are inviting our colleagues to submit work that speaks to a range of colonial, postcolonial, and settler colonial contexts, past and present, in order to carry on the conversation started last September at the BISA workshop.
The themes are:
From the physical sites of prisons/military complexes; to the legal and bureaucratic infrastructures that produce carceral life; through to the deeply colonial and capitalist structures that organise our everyday intimacies; our suggestion is that all struggles, all violence, all structures can be framed through the lens of abolition. Although academic training can lead us too quickly to the assertion of certainties, abolitionist thinking, we hope, opens the possibility of creativity through uncertainty, experimentation in the service of justice, with the idea that as we reveal, we also refuse, challenge, produce and create new things. Abolitionism, while it has a specific history in anti-slave and anti-colonial movements, remains unfixed and open. We invite colleagues to reflect on the lessons of newly resurgent abolitionist movements, in both their refusal of institutional structures built on and through carcerality and in the insistence that the work of liberation demands that we imagine new worlds every day. The roundtable offers a space to participate in that opening - stretching and extending our thinking of what abolition is, might look like, might be, from multiple different lenses, practices, spaces and experiences.
Participants and their emails:
Chair/Discussant: Dr Gargi Bhattacharyya (email: g.bhattacharyya@uel.ac.uk)
Dr Menna Agha (email:menna.agha@gmail.com)
Dr Jasmine K. Gani (email: jkng@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Jessica Oddy (email: J.Oddy@uel.ac.uk)
Taylor Borowetz (email: 676614@soas.ac.uk)
Dr Sabrina Villenave (email: sabrina.villenave@manchester.ac.uk).
Key words: Abolitionist Thinking, Colonial and Capitalist Structures.
Sponsor: Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working GroupChair: Sharri Plonski (Queen Mary University of London)Participants: Jasmine Gani (University of St Andrews) , Sabrina Villenave (University of Manchester) , Jessica Oddy (University of East London) , Taylor Borowetz (SOAS University of London) -
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Panel / Approaching Climate Crisis History Room, Student UnionSponsor: Environment Working GroupConvener: Richard Beardsworth (University of Leeds)Chair: Richard Beardsworth (University of Leeds)
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ABSTRACT: Pacific Island Negotiators at COP26 were outnumbered by fossil fuel representatives by more that 12 to 1. The Pacific Islands are of those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change with increasing risks of the inhabitability of islands. In an advancing digital age, representation from these islands have increased and Pacific participation was felt at many side events during COP26. However, these countries with low internet penetration, still face challenges in having their voices and needs consulted.
Through the prism of climate justice, communities most affected by the impacts of climate change need to be consulted. It is not enough to listen to their plight; they must be actively involved in shaping climate policy. This paper critically asserts and engages with amplifying voice and agency of vulnerable communities in the South Pacific Islands, to recognize the needs and preferences of these communities to better inform policy and adaptive strategies.
This paper will draw and reflect on the widening discrepancy between climate policy development, community perceptions and needs. It will assess how climate governance policy outcomes do not represent the voices of the most vulnerable, asserting the need for their inclusion and a higher standard of accountability to States whose words do not match their actions.
Presented as a guide to facilitate discussion, this paper offers, a people-centred approach, which favours multiple adaptive strategies that incorporate the variety of perspectives that demonstrate regional, community and even cross-generational preferences and needs.
Author: Keysha Jaime (Queen's University Belfast) -
Is planned obsolescence – the intentionally flawed design of mass consumer products – increasingly perceived as a global political problem or not? Planned obsolescence can be shown to contribute to the escalating climate crisis by generating avoidable carbon emissions, but it does not figure very prominently in mainstream public discourses about climate change. Against this background, this exploratory paper charts the emergence of efforts by inter- and supranational institutions to regulate planned obsolescence. To gauge the scope and ambition of institutional efforts, I also examine how selected civil society organisations have problematised planned obsolescence, especially in relation to questions of global warming and (e-)waste. I suggest that the formation of such initiatives indicates that industry routines to make products purposively wasteful, short-lived and unrepairable face some, albeit still diffuse, resistance. Overall, the paper aims to draw attention to the (non-)governance of planned obsolescence at the global level.
Author: Matthias Kranke (University of Kassel) -
Regarding the accelerating global climate crisis, the intergovernmental summit COP26 in Glasgow was both a success and a failure. The gap between pledges and implementation remains stark, but there are several strong outcomes that will structure the international politics of climate crisis for the next decade. Science-based policy is now at the heart of international political decision-making. The new norm for climate action is keeping average global temperature increase to 1.5C, and this norm requires a global 45% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030. Diplomatic and policy balances between mitigation and adaptation are now as important as mitigation alone, as vulnerable countries face the increasing realities of the climate crisis. Finally, the implementation of adaptation strategies within this balance requires the reorganization of public and private finance so that massive support can be channeled effectively to the countries of the South. This paper rehearses the way in which these outcomes from COP26 will underpin the coming ‘decade of decision’ and the dilemmas that this international politics of decision will meet.
Author: Richard Beardsworth (University of Leeds) -
This research focuses on the gendered environmental discourses accumulated at the Conferences of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and their impact on the way gender is understood, presented and discussed as a part of the international climate change policy-making. For studying discourses, the critical discourse analysis is used, analyzing the documents produced at the Conferences of the Parties that speak about gendered effects of climate change. This study demonstrates that women are labelled as climate victims, but at the same time, they are viewed as having special knowledge on how to adequately address climate change challenges. These dominant discourses are most commonly emphasized when looking into women's involvement with food; women are vulnerable to climate change as they perform the majority of food-related work, thus they would need to walk further to get water and spend more time farming or
producing food. However, due to the food provisioning role, they are portrayed as having power to adopt sustainable farming techniques or make sustainable choices when buying and preparing food. However, the study points out that these formulations are limiting as in the dominant discourses, the differences between women are disregarded as well as the social inequalities that have placed them in the precarious positions in relation to the changing climate. Therefore, this research concludes that an intersectional approach and a micro level perspective is necessary to understand the gendered effects of climate change, and to secure a just and inclusive climate change policy-making.Author: Dora Matejak (phD candidate, Univversity of Ljubljana)
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Conference event / BISA Working Group Convener Meeting: closed session by invitation only with BISA Chair and Director Council Chamber
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Panel / Implementing Peace Agreements in a Complex World Kate Adie, Student UnionSponsor: Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Working GroupConveners: Kathryn Nash (Edinburgh Law School, University of Edinburgh) , Michael Aeby (Politics & International Relations Department, University of Edinburgh)Chair: Michael Aeby (Politics & International Relations Department, University of Edinburgh)Discussant: Toni Haastrup (University of Stirling)
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Somalia is complex conflict with internal and internationalised elements alongside localised conflicts. There have been multiple peace processes across conflict levels, and there are many stakeholders. The Federal Government of Somalia has struggled with controlling Somali territory and with moving beyond a fragile political coalition based on a power-sharing formula to a more encompassing democratic system. There are many domestic, regional, and international actors involved in peacemaking in Somalia due to geopolitics and concerns about extremist groups, and there is a large, multi-dimensional peacekeeping mission, AMISOM, authorised by the African Union (AU) but supported by an array of states and institutions. This policy paper analyses the inter-governmental organisations (IGOs) engaged in peacemaking in Somalia - both how they collaborate as well as any competition. It also analyses the interaction of these IGOs with states that are domestic and bilateral actors.
Author: Kathryn Nash (Edinburgh Law School) -
Peace agreements can serve as roadmaps for both peacebuilding efforts and the reconstruction of the post-conflict state more generally. For this reason, the inclusion of provisions addressing children in peace agreements is seen as central to the wider objective of advancing children’s rights after conflict. This necessity is reflected in international human rights law, stands as an important aspect of the UN Agenda on Children and Armed Conflict, and forms the central purpose of guidelines recently developed for mediators. While much of the existing literature identifies the relative lack of child-specific provisions in peace agreements, little attention is directed towards understanding whether and how provisions that are included are subsequently implemented. Drawing on a recently developed dataset that both codes peace agreement provisions on children and their subsequent implementation, this paper seeks to fill this gap. In identifying levels, patterns and modes of implementation of provisions addressing children, this paper contributes to discussions on children and peace agreements by demonstrating some of the opportunities and challenges that arise, and strategies available when peace agreement provisions addressing children are included.
Author: Sean Molloy (Newcastle Law School) -
The African Union (AU) and Regional Economic Communities (RECs), which jointly form the African Peace and Security Architecture, have facilitated numerous peace agreements in the past two decades. But many agreements broke down shortly after their conclusion without being implemented. Comparative research on peace-making shows that continued third-party support after the conclusion of agreements can better the chances of their implementation. Intergovernmental organisations may support implementation processes through continued mediation, third-party guarantees and monitoring. Whilst policies of the AU and REC recognise the need to support agreements which their mediators facilitate, how the organisations support implementation processes in practice constitutes a major research gap.
The objective of the paper is, therefore, to explore how African organisations support the implementation of Comprehensive Peace Agreements (CPA) through mediation, guarantees and monitoring in practice; how these three forms of support interdepend; why the organisations do or do not provide support; and how their support practices affect the outcome of peace processes. To explore these issues, the study process-traces and compares the implementation support practices of three African organisations in peace processes in Kenya, South Sudan and Zimbabwe, where CPAs were facilitated by the AU, Intergovernmental Authority on Development and Southern African Development Community.Author: Michael Aeby (University of Edinburgh)
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Roundtable / Manchester University Press Sponsored Roundtable: Counter-terrorism: International proscription and proliferation Stephenson, Civic Centre
This roundtable will bring together academics and practitioners who have authored three books on the subject of counter-terrorism respectively, all recently published by Manchester University Press. The participants will endeavour to explore recent developments in counter-terrorism including: the impact of 9/11 on the proliferation of terrorism and efforts to combat international terrorist groups, organizations, and networks; the effect of proscribing armed groups as ‘terrorists’ on the parties to the conflict, third party actors and the broader ecosystem of peace; the result of the UK proscribing specific terrorist organizations since 9/11 and how it contributes to the construction of Britain as a liberal, democratic, moderate space. Comparing the different approaches taken to counter-terrorism in Colombia, the UK and the USA, the discussion will centre on the symbolic and material effects of the framing of terrorism and armed conflict. From the security practices that have become a common trend and have assisted in the establishment of 'best practices' among non-liberal democratic or authoritarian states, to the timing and sequencing of peace processes in the context of proscription. Together, they will debate the treatment of counter-terrorism powers and security measures used by legislatures across the globe, the actions both of armed groups and those of the state and the possibility of peace.
Sponsor: BISAChair: Alice Martini (QMUL)Participants: Tim Legrand (UEA) , Sophie Haspeslagh (American University in Cairo) , Kseniya Oksamytna (City, University of London / King's College London) , Lee Jarvis -
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Conference event / PGN: Meet The Editors (one-to-one): closed session by invitation only Pandon, Civic Centre
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Panel / Pathways In and Out of Violence Armstrong, Civic CentreSponsor: Political Violence, Conflict and Transnational ActivismConveners: Annamaria Kiss (King's Russia Institute, King's College London) , Mark Youngman (University of Portsmouth)Chair: Cerwyn Moore (University of Birmingham)
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Accountability mechanisms have recently been used more widely during transitions from conflict and grave human rights violations to a more peaceful coexistence. However, little research has been done on the transitional justice processes using national justice mechanisms. Additionally, little has been written on how these accountability institutions and mechanisms are accepted domestically and the challenges they face.
My research asks to what extent the involved parties and direct beneficiaries to the 2016 peace agreement between the FARC-EP and the Colombian Government, such as victims, former combatants, and the armed forces, have knowledge of and accept the final accountability mechanisms of the agreement. The research question is significant in the Colombian context, as in contrast to earlier peace agreements, the question of accountability was a central discussion point during the 2016 negotiations.
Different stakeholders were invited to round tables or to Havana directly to discuss the needs of the different parties involved. However, in the plebiscite, which sought the approval or disapproval of the Colombian voters of the suggested peace agreement, 50.23 percent of the voters decided against the agreement. The in parts negative reaction to the plebiscite and the final peace agreement raises legitimate questions about the overall acceptance of the peace agreement.Author: Kerry-Luise Prior (King's College London) -
Civil war remains the dominant form of contemporary armed conflict. While major advances have been made in civil war studies in recent decades, we still know little about how conflicts turn violent, how civil wars unfold over time, and how distinct dynamics of civil war affect the post-war potential for peace. This paper charts an agenda for future research on civil war and introduces the Civil War Paths project funded by a £1.2m UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship. This project makes three departures from the existing literature. First, it views civil war as a complex process that connects the pre-war, wartime, and post-war stages of conflict through evolving interactions between states, non-state armed groups, local populations, and external actors. Second, it seeks to understand the dynamics that link the pre- to post-war stages of conflict to one another by focusing on the different ways in which non-state armed groups form and transform in the course of conflict. Finally, it argues that civil wars follow different paths based on how they emerge, unfold, and end or transform and identifies four typical paths, namely, civil wars that emerge from organized social movements, spontaneous mobilization, clandestine militant groups, and regime fragmentation.
Author: Anastasia Shesterinina (The University of Sheffield) -
Recent headlines in several NATO countries have sparked a public fear of a potential extremist threat against liberal-democratic forms of government originating within the armed forces established to protect them. Although numbers involved are very small when compared to those currently serving or who have previously served in the military, concerns regarding potential recruitment to, or sympathy for, extremist ideologies and groups cannot be lightly dismissed. With this in mind, this presentation will examine and compare the legal frameworks, regulations, and best practices of six NATO member states (Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and France) to counter radicalization and extremism within their armed forces. In doing so, the authors assess the extent to which safeguards against radicalization and extremism exist within the armed forces of these six countries. Considerations include what significant gaps exist between legal, regulatory, and policy frameworks in effectively addressing radicalization/extremism within national armed forces of these NATO members, what lessons can be learntfrom these respective approaches, and to what degree they are transferable to other countries.
Authors: Yannick Veilleux-Lepage (Leiden University) , Anne Peterscheck (University of St Andrews)* -
On the 30th August 2021 the last US aircraft left Afghanistan ending a 20 year campaign; during which over one hundred thousand Afghans died, trillions of dollars were spent, yet resulted in a comprehensive victory for Taliban forces. For Just War theorists this case is difficult; the US and allied forces had a prima facie ‘Just Cause’ whilst the Taliban are seemingly (to western eyes at least) an unjust force. Their eventual triumph highlights the complexities of a ‘Just War’ in the 21st Century and leads this paper to ask whether you can wage a ‘Just’ counterinsurgency campaign in pursuit of a ‘Just Cause’?
Traditional Counterinsurgency Theory holds that given enough time and money a foreign power can build an effective indigenous security structure within a state, remove their own forces gradually, and the new state will stand on its own. Given the expenditure of time, blood and treasure in Afghanistan we are faced with the question: did this approach go wrong or was it fundamentally flawed from the start?
This paper will explore the War in Afghanistan 2001-2021, specifically the coalition efforts to establish a new government and security apparatus, whilst highlighting questions as to the viability of this approach in the 21st century, whether it is ethical and what responsibilities it leaves us with going forward.
Author: Alex Crockett (Durham University ) -
Violent extremism may be defined as violent resistance by one section of the society to confront varied challenges to its sense of self or identity. In the post 2003-2004 period, militant infiltration from Afghanistan into the Pashtun tribal belt of Pakistan resulted in the creation of 27 different militant groups in the area which led to the initiation of chain of military operations by Pakistan army. Consequently, 2000 tribal elders were killed and more than 15000 tribal youngsters joined the militant organizations. The paper argues that the military operations and the subsequent displacement of the inhabitants from tribal areas to cities/urban-areas has greatly transformed the socio-political institutions of the tribesmen. The paper examines that the awareness and transformation triggered by displacement has halted the enrollment of the tribal youth in the religious political and religious militant organizations. Since the merger, the tribal youth is politically more active and continuously engaged in holding nonviolent protests providing them platform to express their grievances. The study emphasizes that since the merger of the tribal areas into Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP) province, relatively low extremist tendencies have noted among the tribal youth. The study employs ethnographic based data collection tools, such as semi-structured interviews, informal discussions and personal observations to reach its findings.
Keywords: CVE, Tribal Youth, Mainstreaming, Transformation, Radicalization, Militancy.Author: Muhammad Irfan Mahsud (Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, National Defence University Islamabad, Pakistan)
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Roundtable / Policing’s Contested Relationalities Martin Luther King, Student Union
Policing’s geographic location and borders have long been taken for granted rather than being subjects of explicit analysis and theorization. Policing is most frequently associated with a small scale and ‘domestic’ realm, assuming a mythic status as a quintessentially local state institution (Seigel 2018). Yet as policing’s colonial and imperial origins (Brogden 1987; Khalili 2012) have been excavated and recuperated in recent years, this mythic status is emerging as a vigorous and productive site of reevaluation across a range of social science fields (Schrader 2019; Seigel 2018) including IR (Honke and Muller 2016; Howell 2018; Neolcleous 2014). This transnational and relational shift in focus, however, is not merely descriptive of police in its actually existing forms. It has shown how the routine transgressions of the political and geographic boundaries of police have been predicated on comparisons between different sites that have in turn enabled these circulations to take place and which have made possible the exchange of ideas, logics and tactics between different state authorities. Building on these conversations, this roundtable grapples with two key dimensions of the contested relationalities of policing. First, is how conceptual and material connections across time inform state violence against racialized communities and structure new logics of pacification. Second, is how attending to contested relationalities might inform anti-colonial, anti-racist and abolitionist organizing in specific locations but also transnationally. Bringing together case studies from Palestine, the US, India and the UK, this roundtable reflects on the common logics, patterns and techniques of pacification and order-making, but also on the disjunctures between multiple ontologies of violence and the possible frictions at play in the border crossings of police work.
Sponsor: Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working GroupChair: Amal Abu-Bakare (University of Liverpool)Participants: Chris Rossdale (University of Bristol) , Kate Hall (Queen Mary University of London) , Rhys Machold (University of Glasgow) , Catherine Chiniara Charrett (University of Westminster) , Nivi Manchanda (Queen Mary University of London) , Paul Higate (University of Bath) -
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Panel / Presenting, Narrating and Translating Security Parson, Civic CentreSponsor: European Journal of International SecurityConvener: Jason Ralph (University of Leeds and EJIS)Chair: Jack Holland (University of Leeds)Discussant: Nick Robinson (University of Leeds)
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This paper poses the question of how incorporating the subjugated knowledge of queer histories of the Troubles in Northern Ireland affects understandings of the conflict in International Relations and Security Studies. It argues that while the centrality of the ‘two communities’ model drives all other issues to the political margins and perpetuates division, adopting a queer approach can deconstruct the identities of those communities and move beyond that model. It uses Halberstam’s queer methodology as ‘scavenger methodology’ to draw on existing published interviews, combined with plays and films representing queer experiences during the Troubles, and a queer theoretical approach which seeks to both foreground queer experiences and challenge normative and binary understandings of identity in this context. It finds that focusing on queer lives during the conflict reveals that: constructing the identities of the two communities depends on excluding the queer subject; LGBTQ people’s security during the conflict was shaped by their queer identity; queerness can and has been mobilised to deconstruct received narratives and the apparently essential identities of the two communities; and there are opportunities to transcend the unionist/nationalist dichotomy in theory and practice.
Author: Aine Bennett (Royal Holloway University of London) -
Anti-Muslim racism keeps spreading across Europe. While several studies addressed the securitization of Islam, what these approaches miss is the movement and adaptation of anti-Islamic narratives across parties. Both Right and centre-Left parties see Islam as a source of potential insecurity, but they have in mind different “referent objects” of securitization (ethno-religious for the Right, socio-liberal for the centre-Left). The article contributes to securitization theories by analysing how specific manifestations of anti-Islamic securitization cannot be understood without engaging with Right and Left partisan ideologies. I argue that we need the intra-linguistic meaning of “translation” to answer the question: How do securitization tropes travels across parties? I define translation as an active, collective, and contextual transfer of meaning. Both Right and Left securitize Islam because of shared historical context marked by orientalism and Islamophobia. They actively adjust external tropes into a version fitting their ideological legacy, which is necessary to collectively negotiate securitization with intra-party audiences. I show that while the Radical Right translated liberal-progressive rhetoric into a chauvinist version, the bulk of the translation occurs from Right to Left. Particularly, the centre-Left has translated from the Right rhetoric and policies that frame Muslims as a threat to national security. The paper provides empirically illustrations of its conceptual statements through the case study of Italy, that instantiates how centre-Left parties translate securitization of Islam from electorally rising Radical Right parties – namely a broader trend happening across Western Europe.
Author: Ugo Gaudino (University of Kent) -
This paper examines the ambivalent ways in which children and the youth are presented as part of the war on drugs in Southeast Asia. Drawing upon the case studies of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s war on drugs in Thailand in 2003, and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s ongoing campaign, the paper shows how both leaders upheld the protection of the youth and children as a key reason for tackling drugs. However, it is also shown how the vigilante style killings of children in both contexts delegitimised the project to apparently protect young people. Using the speeches of Thaksin and Duterte as a starting point, this paper argues that as well as being referred to as prized referents in the drug war, the youth were also presented and understood as a biopolitical entity- who were both essential to the future of the nation, but also a risk to ‘life as it should be lived’. Consequently, this paper builds upon and nuances work by Jacob (2015), Wagnsson, Hellman, and Holmberg (2010) and Macmillan (2015) on the presentation of children in conflict situations as objects of international concern.
Author: Euan Raffle (University of Leeds) -
This article builds on a 2021 special issue of Critical Studies on Terrorism: in which I argued that critical terrorism studies had paid insufficient attention to the discursive histories of ‘terrorism’, and in which I advanced 1970s Northern Ireland as an important context for understanding the ‘genealogy’ of contemporary security practice (Livesey 2021). Content analysis of the Hansard archive of parliamentary debates suggests that the term ‘terrorism’ first entered British political discourse in the mid-1970s, in the context of anxious deliberations about the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’. Specifically, around the year 1974: a year which featured 20 times more mentions of ‘terror*’ per million words of parliamentary debate than the seventy-year average, 1900-1970. In this article, I mix quantitative corpus linguistics and qualitative discourse analysis to explore this mid-1970s explosion of concern about ‘terrorism’. I suggest the concept, which emerged as a way of disciplining non-state violence, gained traction precisely because it spoke through an established vocabulary of concepts relating to Northern Ireland. Namely, concepts which frame Northern Irish politics as ‘deviant’ or ‘abnormal’: synchronising productively with foundational perspectives on terrorism, as an equally exceptional or abnormal form of violence. The article contributes to the fields of critical security studies and critical discourse studies. Firstly, by addressing shortcomings in attention to historical cases in critical analyses of security discourses/practices. Secondly, by revealing the importance of continuity in the evolution of such discourses: which don’t merely emerge overnight, but which tend to succeed when they speak through a language of familiar concepts.
Author: Michael Livesey (University of Sheffield)
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Roundtable / Newcastle Conference Team: Reflections on Collaborations Between Creative Arts Practice and Social Science in Military, Conflict, and Peacebuilding Research Bewick, Civic Centre
This roundtable brings together researchers from Newcastle University whose military, security and peacebuilding research sits at the intersections of creative art practice and the social sciences. Some are from a creative arts background, others are social scientists. The aim of the roundtable is for the participants to critically reflect on their experiences, share what has worked (and not) and to discuss where research interactions between social sciences and creative arts practice can add value to researching military, security and peacebuilding topics.
Sponsor: BISAChair: Jocelyn Mawdsley (Newcastle University)Participants: Michael Mulvihill (Newcastle) , Alice Cree (Newcastle University) , Chloe Barker (Newcastle) , Nilanjana Premaratna (Newcastle) , Hannah West (Newcastle University) -
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Roundtable / Russia’s War in Ukraine: Implications for the World Collingwood
The War in Ukraine: Implications for the World
Sponsor: War Studies Working GroupChair: James Rogers (University of Southern Denmark)Participants: Tony King (Warwick University) , Sir Lawrence Freedman (Kings College London) , Caroline Kennedy-Pipe (Loughborough University) , Patrick Bury (Bath) -
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Panel / The Politics of Truth in the Digital Age Swan, Civic CentreSponsor: Post-Structural Politics Working GroupConveners: Anam Kuraishia (University of Essex) , Seb Bierema (National University of Ireland) , Beatriz Lopes Buarque (University of Manchester) , Peter Stuart Robinson (The Arctic University of Norway ) , Linda Monsees (Institute of International Relations Prague)Chair: Ilan Baron (Durham University)
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The terms ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ have lost their shock value in
today’s public discourse and seem to have become part of our normal
political vocabulary. Fake news, mis- and disinformation are not a problem
of a particular country but are found in politics around the world. In this
paper, I look at how disinformation appears as a problem for democracy.
Empirically, this paper explores dominant patterns of argumentation with a
focus on the US, Germany and Czechia. I discuss the themes of media
literacy, hybrid warfare and the emergence of fringe media. This paper
argues that more attention needs to be paid to the affectual dimension of
why people share fake news. Even though there is no easy solution for
dealing with fake news, a first step is to stop denouncing people for
believing in fake news and putting all our hope in media literacy.Author: Linda Monsees (Institute of International Relations Prague) -
Conspiracy theories and post-truth politics have figured prominently in the popular consciousness since the Brexit referendum and the American elections in 2016. These conspiracies have been broadly dismissed in both academic and media circles as being paranoid and divorced from reality. I attempt a slightly more generous reading of conspiracy theories by drawing on Cornelius Castoriadis’s work on the role of the imagination in bringing the world into being. Castoriadis’s social imaginary bears some resemblance to Foucault’s Regime of Truth, which has recently been gaining prominence in critical readings of conspiracy theories. Rather than conceiving of conspiracies as attempting to provide a narrative which explains an underlying reality, however, Castoriadis highlights a double hermeneutic whereby the imagination is central to creating reality. From this perspective, conspiracy theories can be understood as radical instituting imaginaries which attempt to undermine the givenness of reality as instituted imaginary. This approach does not go as far to exonerate conspiracy theories tout court—some conspiracies, such as the Qanon movement, undoubtedly follow Benjamin’s logic of fascism as the aestheticisation of politics. Instead, it takes the proliferation of conspiracy theories as an impetus to recognise the contradictions and absurdities within our instituted reality. In particular, this paper will explore this process of reality being imagined into being with reference to the Qanon movement and the War on Terror.
Author: Seb Bierema (National University of Ireland) -
The ocean biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction covers 64% of the world’s ocean (Gjerde et al 2018). Its new avenues of “blue economy” are at the centre of the international claims over oceanic resources and space (Virdin et al 2021, OECD 2016) and offer new directions of research for how postcolonial agencies are un-doing the norms of international relations (Jabri 2017, Holmes 2019).
This paper draws on examples from two contemporary phenomena, Small Island Developing States and their emerging “large ocean state” discourse and Inuit statements of sovereignty to discuss the (mis)recognition discourses (Epstein et al 2018), their entanglements with the symbolic structure of sovereignty (Holm & Sending 2018) and its implications for the current negotiations on a new international legally binding instrument under the United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ treaty).
Based on post-structuralist discourse analysis at three different levels, the state level, the supra-state level and the substate level, I explore how the production of global environmental knowledge, including competing knowledge forms such as Indigenous epistemologies (Winter, 2020), technological and scientific knowledge, has informed and shaped the power struggles on sovereignty and the postcolonial agencies during the BBNJ treaty negotiations (2016-2020). To what extent and under what conditions have certain knowledge forms, such as Traditional Knowledge and Scientific Knowledge emerged as the objects of struggle in the BBNJ treaty negotiations? How did these “struggles” over competing knowledge forms shape the States’ identities and their (mis)recognition discourses? Can the ocean biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction ‘survive’, having in view the extreme divergences of subject positions of the negotiating states?
Keywords: post-structuralist discourse, norms, (mis)recognition, sovereign agency, postcolonial subject, biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ)Author: Georgette Matthews (University of Sydney) -
The conspiratory nature of the alternative right was noticed by a number of scholars. Nevertheless, the way conspiracy theories such as the great replacement and the white genocide have been produced, consumed, and circulated as truth remains largely overlooked in the literature. By examining this digital political phenomenon as a multitude, this paper exposes how and why the alternative right has managed to trigger its own regimes of truth. It argues that digital media has facilitated the appearance of novel ays of claiming authority, which have contributed to make the leap from “stigmatized” to “legitimate” knowledge. The multimodal critical affect-discourse analysis of nine YouTube videos containing authoritative articulations of the great replacement, white genocide, deep state and cultural Marxism (narratives found in alt-right circles) illuminates how authority is discursively constructed, recognized through comments and likes, and further reinforced through shares across different platforms. This paper makes two important theoretical contributions. To political studies, it presents a new way of examining digital political phenomena by focusing on what is shared as commonality in digital spaces. To international relations, it demonstrates how amorphous political bodies have found on the internet a space to produce and disseminate their own truths.
Author: Beatriz Lopes Buarque (University of Manchester) -
The crisis-ridden early 21st Century arguably represents a critical historical juncture, relatively susceptible to active interrogation of dominant ideas and institutions, as well as the social movements forming its vehicle and catalyst. Their long-term prospects for mobilising social resistance hinge on their capacity for critical reflection that at least appears to offer a deeper truth and fuller ground to human aspiration. A case-study of the residual social network generated by Occupy London explores the conditions of – and obstacles to – such capacity. A deep-rooted radical-egalitarian, anarchist-influenced sensibility energises and democratises its ‘co-creative learning’ project. At the same time, an increasingly digitalised, networked and algorithmically tailored ‘knowledge environment’ is especially conducive to eclectic modes of interpretation, and susceptible to the intellectually satisfying reconstruction of imperfectly hidden elite conspiracies. Such a conspiracist tendency is a product of (i) the available materials and tools of oppositional speech-acts, and the forms of cognitive processing they favour, (ii) the regressive amplification of algorithmic filtering, (iii) a penchant for the eclectic per se borne of anarchist sensibilities, and (iv) the unconscious reproduction of hegemonic codes of interpretation presupposing extraordinary individual autonomy and instrumental rationality.
Author: Peter Stuart Robinson (The Arctic University of Norway )
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Panel / Transnational Perspectives on Memory, Trauma, and Conflict Daniel Wood, Student UnionSponsor: Emotions in Politics and International Relations Working GroupConvener: EPIR Working groupChair: Naomi Head (University of Glasgow)Discussant: Naomi Head (University of Glasgow)
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Assuming that nationalism is constitutively affective, this paper explores the memorialization of the war-dead at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine with its adjacent Yūshūkan War Memorial Museum in Tokyo as a love trope. War memorialization, the practice of assigning history the task of coping with societal problems, idealizes gender as a means to invoke certain agendas. It works by socializing pupils into patriotism through museum exhibitions. Meanwhile, the Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace, also in Tokyo, displays testimonies that were given by so-called ‘comfort women’, who also served as parts of the war machinery and died in large numbers. Comfort women are, however, absent at the Yasukuni and the Yūshūkan. While the love trope organizes the only available mode of critique as a juxtaposition against the allegedly voluntary self-sacrifice that was made by individual soldiers and nurses as a questioning of their unconditional love, comfort women are, against their will, not only inscribed to having participated in the war machinery voluntarily, but are also dismissed from history and war memory based on that alleged voluntarism. The paper explores possibilities of feminist critique against the memorialization of some, at the expense of other, war-dead.
Author: Anna-Karin Eriksson (Linnaeus University) -
COVID19 has produced millions of global deaths: medical services have been severely challenged and mortuary infrastructure overwhelmed. This paper conceptualises COVID19 as differing from more familiar events – national emergencies and private instances of grief – by three factors: the scale of death; an inability to perform ‘normal’ mourning practices; and the transnational character of the pandemic. As modern practices of death management/mourning are often articulated in the idiom of nationalism, the transnationalism of the pandemic, both epidemiologically and as a shared experience, presents a substantial challenge to existing state-based, nationalists (and increasingly populist) forms of social and political authority. Empirically, this paper looks at two experiences of COVID death related to the UK – of UK citizens abroad and migrant health workers within the UK – to interrogate the political and affective implications of this transnationalism for the (re)making of political community. Overall, it argues that COVID is an experience of ambiguous loss, defying conventional social scripts of grief/death, with the potential to project collective trauma into the future.
Author: Katharine Millar (London School of Economics) -
Starting in the late 80’s and continuing with the dissolution of the USSR, both Georgia and Azerbaijan experienced separatist conflicts which led them to lose control over a portion of their internationally recognized territory. The conflicts in Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh each caused between 20.000-30.000 casualties and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
The domestic publics of the two countries reacted very differently to these devastating events. For Azerbaijanis the conflict was arguably more traumatic, and most people developed extremely negative emotions towards Armenians. Instead, for Georgians the conflicts were arguably less traumatic, and most people did not develop such extremely negative emotions towards Abkhazians and Russians. While the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was relatively more devastating than the Abkhazian conflict, the conflict differences alone are not so great to justify such different public attitudes. Thus, a deeper understanding of why the conflict was more traumatic for Azerbaijanis than for Georgians, and how emotions grip people to their beliefs is required.
With this research, I am therefore analysing in a comparative way why we observe such vast and persistent different post-conflict attitudes between Georgians and Azerbaijanis. In terms of literature, I combine the literature on trauma and emotions in international relations (Hutchinson, Bleiker, Mercer, Crawford, Koschut, Kaufman, Halperin, etc.) with more psychoanalytical literature (Laclau, Glynos, Stavrakakis, J. Y. Hor, Eberle, Alford etc.). Methodologically, I am conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews with IDPs and the broader public to understand their beliefs and emotions, whether they feel traumatized, and what implications these emotions and traumas have on identities and meanings. Moreover, the research also investigates how hatred grips the beliefs and identities of individuals more so than anger, fear and resentment. The research should, thus, shed some light on the functioning of trauma and emotions in post-conflict settings.
Author: Cesare Figari Barberis (IHEID) -
The Flanders Poppy emerged as a symbol of British remembrance after the First World War, sold to commemorate military sacrifices and to raise funds for returning veterans, their families, and the bereaved. Originally worn in early November in the run up to Armistice Day, recent years has seen the dramatic temporal and spatial expansion of poppy-themed remembrance. What lies behind this trend? In this paper, I bring Critical Military Studies scholarship on remembrance into conversation with work in Ontological Security Studies. Whereas the former has viewed anxiety primarily as instability, the latter argues that it can also be generated by feelings of existential meaninglessness, sometimes leading actors to court change and instability. The paper argues that whereas anxieties in the aftermath of the First World War led to the creation of remembrance practices intended to stabilise the social order by confining grieving to narrowly-defined times and spaces, anxieties around meaningless in late modern British society, coupled with the militarization of British society over the course of the ‘War on Terror’, have led to the expansion of remembrance into ever greater areas of social life as a way of re-signifying the everyday with existential meaning. Such processes ironically generate anxieties resulting from the tension between drives for stability and meaning.
Author: Joseph Haigh (University of Warwick)
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Panel / Working Towards a Just Transition Model Room 2, Civic CentreSponsor: Environment Working GroupConvener: Lynette Shultz (University of Alberta)Chair: Lynette Shultz (University of Alberta)
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This empirical paper examines state-public relationships that are being re-shaped by environmental pressures and digitised worlds. The paper draws on ethnographic research across three case studies of grassroots environmental movements with distinct digital lives in Scotland, Singapore and India, part of a broader project undertaken to reflect on what it means to be human in the digital anthropocene. Three related findings are discussed: First, the three cases illustrate the potential varieties of digital environmentalism, embedded within unique historical and political contexts. Second, the digital lives of the campaigns may be used to map broader and iterative changes in state-society relations, with regards to environmental attitudes, public perceptions of (collective) action and civic participation, and the possibilities of transnational solidarity. Third, the environmental action corresponding to the cases are used to reflect on increasingly urgent questions around the ethical responsibilities of Big Tech companies. While technological capacities can help communities to organise against the power of states and corporations, these capacities are enmeshed within privatised systems that work hand-in-glove with repressive governments and anti-democratic modes of operation built on data surveillance, exploitation and manipulation.
Author: Audrey Verma (Newcastle University, UK) -
My paper is on technology fetishism. To give context, in the introduction I analyse Britain's decarbonisation programme. While auguring major economic transformations, it is heavily geared to speculative technologies such as synthetic aviation fuel and carbon capture. These are proven at small scale but scaling up takes decades. The complexity of even one such programme is enormous; they cannot be compared to missions of “targeted specificity” such as the moonshot. Yet this is precisely the comparison that US climate envoy John Kerry drew earlier this year. Technologies will spring forth, he promised. This mindset, technology fetishism, prevails within elite responses to climate change. It is powerfully influential yet has attracted relatively little social-scientific attention. In this paper I present a Benjaminian account of technology fetishism and apply it to the climate-political field. I provide conceptual clarification on the concept of tech fetishism, via a critical survey of thinkers that include Marx and Freud, Walter Benjamin, David Harvey and Alf Hornborg. I deploy the concept of technology fetishism—Benjaminian at heart but enriched through the work of these other authors —to explore the crisis of climate policy today.
Author: Gareth Dale (Brunel University) -
Despite young people’s activism to end fossil foolery, as evidenced by the recent global youth climate strikes and Indigenous resistance to energy developments globally, education towards energy futures is only beginning to move past scientifically-oriented energy education to engage with energy justice that addresses systemic injustice and historic inequities that reinforce global financial and oil and gas industrial interests. Youth articulate their dismay at a “futureless future” (Goldberg, 2021) as the only imagined option. While climate and energy education is increasingly oriented towards justice, many of the justice frameworks are still rooted in western liberal notions of individualism and the project of modernity built on domination, extraction, and the separation of (some) humans from the rest of nature. These systems and their ontological foundation are inherent to the climate crisis and are thus inadequate to its undoing (Stein et al., 2020).
This paper challenges current education curriculum and pedagogy that limit the potential for education that supports youth’s anticipation of the future (Miller et al, 2018) and presents a study of education for a just energy future by drawing on a 7-month collaborative education project on “Energy Futures,” which engaged hundreds of high school classes in 18 countries through an online networked global classroom. Using a digital platform, videoconferencing, and instant messaging tools, students participated in a layered process that addressed both local realities and interconnected systems, coming face-to-face with the experiences, values, positions, and expectations of young people in diverse contexts in order to begin to understand how energy systems link us all unevenly together - and how we might together make a just energy transition. Through comprehensive analysis of the curriculum development process as well as student artwork, videos, written work, and presentations, and interviews with participant students and teachers, this paper draws on networked global learning experiences to reconceptualize energy justice as a contribution to a liveable future.
Authors: Lynette Shultz (University of Alberta) , Carrie Karsgaard (University of Alberta)
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/ Gendering International Relations Working Group Meeting Stephenson, Civic Centre
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Conference event / Inaugural War Studies Keynote: Command in the Falklands War - Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman - Open to conference attendees and the public Council Chamber
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Conference event / The Limits of Safety – A Sound Installation - Find out more on our highlights page https://conference.bisa.ac.uk/highlights’ Outside of the Student UnionSpeaker: Michael Mulvihill (Newcastle)
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Roundtable / Can the International Peace Architecture and Liberal Interventionism Survive? Council Chamber, Civic Centre
This roundtable, comprised of most of the editorial team of the journal Peacebuilding, considers the extent to which peacebuilding and the infrastructure that supports it, can survive given a dynamic and often unsupportive context. On the one hand we have a clear shift to unilateralism and a retreat from rules-based international order. This context also involves a risen China, and growing emphasis on stabilisation and securitised interventions such as authoritarian conflict management or and the maintenance of hard borders. On the other hand, an ever more elaborate peacebuilding infrastructure has been developed, with its own vernacular and logics (for example, it own technocratic imperative). There is also, of course, continuing conflict, tension and dislocation and thus a need for conflict de-escalation and peace support. The roundtable will take the form of the panel being asked to consider a series of questions/responding to provocations. The roundtabel organisers are aware that a roundtable is different than a panel and want to hold dynamic session with a lot of audience participation.
Sponsor: Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Working GroupChair: Birte Vogel (University of Manchester)Participants: Roger Mac Ginty (Durham University) , Stefanie Kappler (Durham University) , Oliver Richmond (University of Manchester) , Pogodda Sandra (University of Manchester) -
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Panel / Constructing Roles and Narratives in Interstate Relations Bewick, Civic CentreSponsor: International Relations as a Social Science Working GroupConveners: Matthieu Grandpierron (ICES) , Rafael Alexandre Mello (University of Brasilia) , Nino Kemoklidze (University of Chichester)Chair: Matthieu Grandpierron (ICES)
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In June 2019, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) issued a shared regional vision, the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP). Indonesia is a pivotal power in the organisation and has traditionally taken a leading role. This paper will therefore focus on examining the country’s foreign policy behaviour regarding the Outlook. Indonesia exerted significant diplomatic capital developing and securing agreement on the AOIP in ASEAN. This reinvigoration of Indonesia’s leadership in the organisation, and especially the domestic processes that facilitated it, warrant closer attention. Using a role theory framework, this article argues that the Indonesian Foreign Ministry (Kementerian Luar Negeri or Kemlu) lobbied for the AOIP due to its commitment to the ‘regional leader’ role conception. The findings of this research offer both practical insights into the influence of domestic decision-making processes on regional outcomes and contribute to the scholarship about the effects of intra-elite dynamics on foreign policy roles.
Author: Pia Dannhauer (Griffith University) -
The changing constellation of international politics amidst growing uncertainties and the rise of 'emerging powers' have challenged the cosmology of dominant Northern/Western discourses on setting the agenda in international politics. The critique of the dominant discourses have been highlighted through categories like the Global South and alternative conceptions of world order focusing on South-South Cooperation, Pan-Asianism and Pan-Africanism. Taking cognisance of these changes, IR as a discipline underwent professionalization, institutionalization and diversification in the last decades, resulting in a widening of theoretical and methodological approaches, including feminist approaches, critical approaches, decolonial/postcolonial approaches. However, this was not followed by a systematic change in research approaches since the epistemological and ontological underpinnings have been largely influenced by Northern ideas and philosophies. The paper enunciates the inability of IR to realise the full potential of the post-positivist turn due to the hierarchies in knowledge production in IR in general and entanglements of IR scholars in particular. To make IR more inclusive and representative of the marginalised voices, the paper examines the material realities and the lived experiences of IR scholars in the Global South, especially during the pandemic, to revisit the analytic gaze in IR.
Author: Siddharth Tripathi (Käte Hamburger Kolleg, University of Duisburg-Essen) -
The concept of strategic culture has received an increasing attention after the constructivist turn in IR as both have emphasized non-material and ideational factors in making sense of foreign and security policies of states. However, the literature has mostly focused on the impact of strategic culture on state behaviour paying much less attention on the construction of strategic culture itself, and even lesser on the relationship between the construction of strategic culture and the practice of othering. While the concept of othering has been productively applied to explain national identity building, its role in the construction of strategic culture has not been explored despite the fact that the constructivist security studies affirm that there should be a linkage between strategic culture and othering. In an attempt to build a bridge between strategic culture and the concept of othering this paper argues that the practice of othering constantly redefines threat perceptions and security priorities with constitutive influences on strategic culture. Thus, based on the assumption that it is not given or pre-determined but socially constructed, strategic culture is suggested to being constantly reconstructed through othering that takes the form of narratives on matters of security and defence in the present as well as in the past. In so doing othering does not only differentiate the Self from the Other but also portrays (some) Others as a source of threat. As such it does not only define the Self but also sets to defend it through constructing a particular strategic culture.
Author: Dogachan Dagi (University of Warwick) -
Following the end of the Cold War, strategic partnerships (SPs) have emerged in international politics as a new type of engagement among states and have proliferated especially since the early 2000s.
Nonetheless, contrary to the burgeoning practice of strategic partnerships, scholarly studies fall behind to offer a comprehensive understanding of this matter. This is mainly because of a lack of theoretical discussions and excessive attention to particular dyadic partnerships.
In this article, I aim to offer a theoretically informed account originating from Social Exchange Theory to explain factors that drive actors to involve in strategic partnerships and roles that strategic partnerships play in actors’ foreign policies.
I argue that actors’ partnering behaviours most importantly vary depending on their ranking according to relative capabilities in the international system. Accordingly, I introduce three partnering rationales correspondence to the partnering behaviours of a superpower, rising powers, and middle powers respectively. Finally, I explore these three categories in the US, China, and Australia’s partnering behaviours in a comparative manner.Author: Nihal Kutlu (Fudan University )
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Panel / Digital Sovereignty and European Security Integration Martin Luther King, Student UnionSponsor: European Security Working GroupConveners: Andrew Cottey (University College Cork) , Antonia Niehuss (University of St Andrews) , Nele Marianne Ewers-PetersChair: Tim Stevens (King's College London)
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In the European Commission’s vision for 2019-2024, ‘Europe must lead the transition to a […] new digital world’, by achieving technological and digital sovereignty (Von der Leyen, 2019: 4). This ambition would allow the EU to become a leader in this field, namely by setting cybersecurity, data, technology and infrastructure standards, rather than following those of other regions/ countries. The EU’s Digital Sovereignty agenda sits at the nexus of a number of policy agendas, including the ‘EU Cybersecurity Agenda’ (European Commission, 2020) and an ‘Europe Fit for the Digital Age’ (Von der Leyen, 2019). Following the turmoil of years of institutional instability and political polarisation, alleged cyber-attacks and disinformation circulation by other states, and changing relations with private sector digital infrastructure providers, we are now witnessing a critical juncture in the EU’s approach to the Information Society, one which is yet to be reflected upon in the academic literature on EU cybersecurity (Christou, 2016; Carrapico and Barrinha, 2017; Carrapico and Farrand, 2020). Using a novel combination of historical (Fiorettos et Al., 2018) and discursive (Schmidt, 2020) institutionalisms, this paper argues that the historic understanding of the Internet as a borderless, democratising and ultimately beneficial technology is being reconceptualised. In seeking to reassert its control over cyberspace, impose digital borders and reduce its dependence on private sector actors whose values may not reflect those of the EU order, a new approach to cybersecurity is emerging, in which the private sector can be perceived as much a threat as foreign powers, and from whom digital sovereignty must be secured.
Authors: Benjamin Farrand (University of Newcastle) , Helena Farrand Carrapico (Northumbria University) -
The EU’s revised Cybersecurity Strategy (2020) has been constructed in the context of increasing geopolitical tension and within a dynamically evolving technological environment. The onset of new technologies has brought with it new opportunities but also perceived risks and threats in cyberspace, to which the EU has sought to elicit a more comprehensive approach. The new EU strategy aims to harness and strengthen its existing ability through a ‘technological sovereignty’ approach and enhanced leadership. In light of the EU’s willingness to be more assertive in this field - in particular through the imposition of restrictive measures on individuals responsible for high profile cyber-attacks - we seek in this paper to critically unpack what this implies and indeed signifies in terms of the EU’s evolving approach. At the general level, we ask what the practical implications are of the EU taking ownership of a traditionally statist concept such as ‘sovereignty’ and applying it to cyberspace. More specifically, we problematize the concept of technological sovereignty in the context of the EU’s fluid cyber ecosystem; and assess the central implications of it relating to enhancing the EU’s cyber resilience, and most importantly, in further shaping the EU’s international leadership in cybersecurity.
Authors: Andre Barrinha (University of Bath) , George Christou (Warwick University) -
“Digital sovereignty” has emerged as a hotly debated topic in European politics (Floridi 2020). But although the emergence of a coherent European digital sovereignty agenda seems unlikely, it is still useful to take a closer look at the digital sovereignty discourse (Christakis 2020). We contend that this discourse is based on a geopolitical perspective which this paper aims to re- and deconstruct. We deploy theories of critical geopolitics (Ó Tuathail 1996) and conduct a close reading of core European texts on digital sovereignty. Our results indicate three dominant themes in the discourse: First, the digital transformation is a threat to European prosperity and security. Second, the concept of digital sovereignty aims at levelling out a (perceived) loss of autonomy which results from the increasing power of Big Tech quasi-monopolies (Atal 2020) and the threat of cyber-espionage by rival powers, especially China but also the United States. And finally, digital sovereignty is necessary to protect an imagined “European way of life” which is posited as a “third way” vis-à-vis American capitalism and Chinese authoritarianism. As such this article makes a valuable contribution for our critical understanding of how EU cybersecurity policies tie into and impact on wider geopolitical imaginaries.
Authors: Linda Monsees (Institute of International Relations Prague) , Daniel Lambarch (University of Frankfurt)* -
This article provides a genealogy of EU cyber security to critically account for how digitization and the pervasiveness of information and communication technologies acquired the politically salient status of being an EU security issue. Tracing the development of EU cyber security policy over four decades, the article advances our understanding of the conditions of possibility for EU security politics in a digital age and questions its givenness. The analysis demonstrates how EU cyber security policy has become inextricably linked to expanding the Single Market, nurturing security industry, and supporting digital sovereignty. Consequently, the article argues, we are witnessing a redefinition of the role of the Single Market. The establishment of a common European marked was a means to create peace. Today, cyber security is increasingly pursued through the Single Market. The market thereby becomes a security practice writ large. The article asserts that this redefinition of the Single Market is likely to be subject to further expansion as EU policy linking emerging digital technologies, security and digital sovereignty develops.
Author: Tobias Liebetrau (CERI, Sciences Po, Paris and Danish Institute for International Studies)
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Panel / Domestic Politics and US Foreign Policy Carloil, Civic CentreSponsor: US Foreign Policy Working GroupConvener: Julian Schmid (Institute of International Relations Prague)Chair: Julian Schmid (Institute of International Relations Prague)Discussant: Josef Harrasser (University of Innsbruck)
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Most of the existing literature on the Iraq War has devoted significant attention to analysing the perception of US officials regarding the threat of Iraq. However, this approach largely ignores the role that US Representatives played in the process of authorizing the Bush Administration to proceed with regime change in Iraq. Drawing from archival sources from the US Library of Congress we will analyse the perception of US Representatives regarding the threat of Iraq from 1998, the Adoption of the Iraq Liberation Act, until 2002, and the Adoption of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution. The archival sources will also allow us to look at the arguments from experts that were called to testify before Congress regarding the threat of Iraq. Preliminary findings suggest that US Representatives personalized the threat of Saddam Hussein by arguing that not only he managed to, unexpectedly, survive the Gulf War, but he also managed, using propaganda, to blame the United States for the suffering of the Iraqi people. We hope that this research will contribute to the discussion regarding the causes of the Iraq War.
Author: Nikolaos Lampas (The American College of Greece, Deree) -
US-China relations have deteriorated in the last decade, contributing to narratives on a “New Cold War” (Brands & Gaddis, 2021). Areas of tension are manifold, but one issue that spans both micro and macro levels of geopolitical strain between the two global powers is China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), primarily a series of global infrastructure investments that signals China’s rising ambitions and influence.
This paper seeks to explore how US foreign policy think tanks relate BRI to wider aspects of US-China relations and the “return of geopolitics” (Bergesen & Suter, 2018), through the deconstructivist perspective of critical geopolitics (Toal & Agnew, 1992). 167 reports and policy papers from 12 think tanks were analysed through intertextual thematic discourse analysis, supplemented by interviewing key experts engaged in relevant research.
The findings show that BRI is seen by US think tanks increasingly as part of China’s ambition to create a Sinocentric regional (or world) order. Furthermore, explicitly geopolitical logics are seen in the emphasis on certain BRI geographies (Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and the ‘Indo-Pacific’ writ large) as ‘pivotal’, and in BRI’s role in the changing nature of international relations towards geoeconomics and great power competition, which the paper contextualises through a critical perspective on how great powers use geography as a discursive tool in international relations.
Keywords: US-China relations, geopolitics, critical geopolitics, Belt and Road, infrastructure, Indo-Pacific
Author: Nick Sundin (Newcastle University) -
Hollywood has a long tradition of shaping and co-producing the discursive material that feeds into broader discourses of security and foreign policy. In the years since ‘9/11’ it has been the superhero genre and the cinematic universes of DC and Marvel that have re-negotiated collective crisis and trauma, and developed fantasies of protection, safety, and resurrection against the backdrop of the ‘War on Terror’ and more and more overlapping crises in international politics.
Especially during the Trump era, superhero narratives in film have started to introduce more “diverse” texts and characters such as Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Black Widow, Shang-Chi, or The Eternals all of which seemingly help to develop a liberal counter-narrative to Trumpism, perceived positively by progressive and conservative viewers alike. However, the paper argues that rather than shaping progressive discourses on race, migration and gender the superhero genre produces a neo-liberal and violent vision of the world while carefully maintaining the status quo. Understanding the connection between the Trump administration’s policies and the liberal, mythologised visions superhero films are developing can help us understand the importance of cultural artefacts the production of world politics.
Author: Julian Schmid (Institute of International Relations Prague) -
This paper argues that studies on the relationship between public opinion and foreign policy require a more detailed and nuanced understanding of the salience of foreign policy issues to the electorate. The two dominant approaches in this field – liberal and constructivist – both implicitly rely on the ideas that a) foreign policy matters to the electorate and b) the electorate’s view on foreign policy impacts policy. For example, in the influential work of Peter Feaver and Christopher Gelpi, the authors use experimental survey data on hypothetical interventions to show that the U.S. public are not as casualty averse as policymakers have assumed. What is left unexplored in this work, and also in constructivist studies that focus on elite rhetoric as a means of legitimating foreign policy decisions, is the salience of foreign policy matters to the electorate. Without resorting to the debunked theories of the Almond-Lippman consensus on public opinion, this paper explores historical datasets on important issues to the American public to examine the varying salience of foreign policy and explores the consequences of these results on the study of foreign policy and public opinion.
Author: Jonny Hall (London School of Economics and Political Science)
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Panel / European Strategic Autonomy II Pandon, Civic CentreSponsor: European Security Working GroupConvener: Jocelyn Mawdsley (Newcastle University)Chair: Andrew Cottey (University College Cork)Discussant: Jocelyn Mawdsley (Newcastle University)
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The question of European actorness in foreign and security policy has been recently revisited by scholars trying to understand what kind of actor the European Union (EU) is (Youngs 2021; Gstohl, Schunz 2021). The development of the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy from its beginning has been associated with the notion of European Strategic Autonomy (ESA). Originally, it denoted primarily operational capabilities for crisis management. However, following the adoption of the EU Global Strategy of 2016, the concept of ESA has been radically broadened to include new sectors, from digital to health, leading to the emergence of a new understanding of European actorness that comprises multiple policy sectors and indicates a new type of political ambition for European integration.
This paper claims that there are two main meta-narratives on European actorness, that define the same concept of ESA in significantly distinct ways, express different political projects (autonomy vs sovereignty), operate within different logics (intergovernmental vs supranational) and have different ramifications for European integration. This paper is based on interviews conducted with EU officials and representatives of the European think-tank community engaged in the debates on ESA, as well as on qualitative content analysis supplemented by quantitative methods, of key documents and contributions to the debate on ESA produced by the European institutions and think-tanks in the period 2016-2021.
Author: Michał Rekowski (Jagiellonian University) -
This paper analyses the signals from the EU strategic compass, assessing whether this points towards enhanced coherence and capability, and asking ‘Capability to do what?’ The Strategic Compass faces awkward questions: who is involved, what is the new scope of ambition for EU Common Security and Defence Policy, how does it relate to NATO? If the desired outcome is strategic autonomy, does the Strategic Compass bring clarity on whose autonomy, and to what ends? We analyse the extent to which the Strategic Compass may redefine CSDP and whether defence is finally becoming a more significant component within a policy field hitherto reluctant to whisper the D word for fear of upsetting NATO and the more Atlanticist EU member states.
Authors: Simon Sweeney (University of York) , Neil Winn (University of Leeds) -
Five years after the call for Strategic Autonomy in the 2016 EU Global Strategy, despite a worsening security environment in its neighbourhood and globally, shifting US interests and priorities, and Brexit leading to the loss of a major security and defence actor, progress has been very limited. There are still significant differences across EU member states about what strategic autonomy means for security and defence policy and how to achieve it. In security and defence policy the notion of strategic autonomy hollow without the appropriate military capabilities, structures, and financial resources. This leads directly into the three key questions this paper addresses. (1) What kind (if any) military capabilities does the EU need for the increasingly multidimensional and transboundary nature of the security challenges facing the EU? (2) Where does the EU seek to act? Is strategic autonomy regional or global? (3) Who does the EU wish to work with; which partnerships are enhanced by strategic autonomy? How each question is addressed will significantly shape the kind of capabilities and structures the EU will need for strategic autonomy in security and defence policy. The paper argues that strategic autonomy in security and defence needs to address the transboundary nature of threats facing the EU and the implications these have for the role of military capabilities.
Author: Alistair Shepherd (Aberystwyth University) -
European strategic autonomy and the drafting of both NATO’s new Strategic Concept and the EU Strategic Compass fall into a time of growing great power rivalry, a changing threat landscape, and growing complexity and unpredictability that all require more coordinated responses. The 2016 and 2018 Declarations have been milestones for EU-NATO relations, cooperation is yet not sound. The emergence of European strategic autonomy within the EU has initially been perceived with a distaste from both the United States and the NATO alliance. Yet, strategic autonomy in the European context is needed more profoundly with the lack of reliability and trust across the Atlantic (Binnendijk and Vershbow 2021). Understood as the capacity to act based on its own interests and values, and with an appropriate level of ambition and the required capabilities (Ewers-Peters 2021), this article elaborates on the possible implications of European strategic autonomy for the EU-NATO relationship. It thus argues that European strategic autonomy can serve as an enabler for enhanced EU-NATO cooperation, allows for a more equal partnership with an increase of the EU’s level of ambition, and it will result in a more coordinated division of labour emphasising their comparative advantages and allowing for joint defence planning.
Author: Nele Marianne Ewers-Peters
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Panel / Forced Migration and Diplomacy: New Forms of Diplomacy? Kate Adie, Student UnionSponsor: International Politics of Migration, Refugees and Diaspora Working GroupConvener: Fiona Adamson (SOAS, University of London)Chair: Lewis Turner (Newcastle University)
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Human mobility has been reframed in recent decades to be portrayed primarily through the prism of ‘risk’. Individuals are now categorized along a spectrum of risk – they may be low risk or high risk or somewhere in between, but never innocent. While this classification is justified though the logic of ‘expertise’ and ‘objectivity’, the algorithms that produce risk scores and generate risk profiles collect data from various networked databases across the world. The networking is so intricate that it often makes it hard to locate the sources these data are collected from. Nonetheless, the border officials are instructed to ‘trust’ what the data claims about the identity of a mobile individual over what the individual claims. How do we critically analyze this ‘politics of trust’ at play in this bordering and mobility control of today? What are its implications on the individual and their mobility? I argue in this paper that this mobility control regime demands greater trust in data that is nonetheless shaped by the biases of its sources, and leaves the mobile individual with lesser agency in terms of claim-making regarding their own identity.
Author: Samah Rafiq (Jawaharlal Nehru University) -
Although death in the Mediterranean is a common occurrence, only in rare cases have authorities carried out formal procedures of recovery and identification of missing migrant bodies. This paper analyses the case of the shipwreck of August 18th 2015 in the Mediterranean to highlight how forensic investigation contributes to processes of assembling migration through a particular scientific optic. The process of forensic investigation makes migration perceptible by sorting and cataloguing bodies in the hope of their future reunion with their kinship networks. In this sense, the bodies recovered need first to be made intelligible to technical forensics procedures and then fed into particularly ordained missing people databases. Afterwards, genetic information from potential kinship networks is gathered and compared to those present in the database. I argue that this attempt at matching the assembled forensic evidence with people’s memories and personal histories rests on practices of translation that are often unstable and incomplete, leaving bodies unidentified and buried in anonymous numbered graves. However, the tentative stitching together of the situated knowledges of forensic practitioners and those of sending communities reveal the multiple trajectories and imaginaries which contribute to constructing migration as a phenomenon, belying any univocal narrative of human mobility.
Author: Anna Finiguerra (QMUL) -
Scholarship on refugee recognition has overwhelmingly focused on contexts in the Global North, in which state actors typically assess individualized claims to refugeehood. In states that host the vast majority of the world’s refugees, however, the politics of refugee recognition processes have rarely been the focus of academic attention. This paper explores the politics of refugee recognition in Jordan, a non-signatory state hosting the second highest number of refugees per capita in the world. It argues that governmental and humanitarian policies and practices, heavily shaped by national and racial hierarchies, intersect to create refugee recognition systems that fail to adequately recognise the protection threats people face. In particular, several nationalities of protection seekers – most notably Somalis, Sudanese and Yemenis – are now in practice unable to claim asylum. These nationalities have received much less humanitarian and scholarly attention than Syrian or Iraqi refugees, yet often face particularly challenging circumstances in Jordan. Furthermore, the paper tracks how evolving labour market interventions – focused exclusively on Syrian refugees – are in effect creating different categories of asylum seekers who variously can, or cannot, simultaneously work legally in Jordan. This paper is based on fieldwork and interviews – both online and in Jordan – undertaken as part of the EU-funded ASILE Project.
Author: Lewis Turner (Newcastle University) -
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries there was a transition from a ‘kaleidoscope’ of political formations in Europe to the dominance of the nation-state, first as an ideal, and then as an attempted reality. While nation-states were not the first form of territorial politics, they reconfigured people-place relations by depending on the myth of a homogenous population within a fixed territory. The ‘fixing’ of people in place involved displacement of minorities. In addition, the creation of nation-states in Europe was coeval with European colonial expansion outside of Europe. This double standard in relation to people-place relations was made possible through the rise of racial ideology and international institutions, such as international law, that legitimised and codified a nation-state international order that was perfectly compatible with the contradictions it contained: namely, the need to displace peoples to create the myth of territorial nations, and the double standard of settler colonialism, which promoted migration of settlers and indentured labourers to colonies outside of Europe.
In this paper I develop this argument through analysis of the role of the League of Nations in managing and categorising people in movement, and how this institutionalised the categories of ‘refugee’ and ‘migrant’ that are central to the study of people in movement today. I suggest that while nation-states did not replace transversal political relations, such as diasporic networks or empires, these are made to appear secondary when the movement of people is understood on terms that are internal to the current global political order.
Author: Alice Engelhard (LSE)
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Panel / From the Pull of the People to Geopolitical Pressures: Contemporary Challenges in Russia and Eurasian Polities Armstrong, Civic CentreSponsor: Russian and Eurasian Security Working GroupConveners: RESG Working group , Precious Chatterje-Doody (Open University)Chair: Precious Chatterje-Doody (Open University)
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In the critical period for opposition movements from 2004 to 2012, when there was still some open space for political dissidence in Russia, some populist nativist social movements critical of the government managed to survive longer than others. This article argues that Russian populist nativists entered a noncompetitive informal coalition by deliberately adopting flexible organizational structures and by coordinating their mobilization and framing strategies to both support each other and to keep their distinctive profiles. As a result, they gained mobilization and survival advantages vis-à-vis their competitors and managed to exercise some influence on Russia's foreign policy towards Ukraine. Russian nativists made, thus, an innovation in the way that nativist movements organize by introducing themes that differ in content and not only in style. Additionally, the article shows that hybrid regimes can open new cooperation perspectives for populist nativist movements, not despite but because they close opportunity structures.
Author: Sofia Tipaldou (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow) -
A collective security oriented organization in the post-Soviet space, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has been discussed on various occasions by its members. As it is a regional security organization, than an international one, the member states’ expectations from it are high but not fulfilled. Feeling protected under the Russian umbrella, but at the same time threatened by Russian aggression, the member states are not yet committed to the value of the organization. As more members require Russian assistance in their domestic troubles or outside conflicts, under the CSTO framework, e.g. Oshi protests in Kyrgyzstan of 2010 or Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan of 2020, the position of CSTO became more important on whether it has the right authority to assist to those issues that the states deal with. With the discussion started between members, it becomes more popular to assume CSTO, as a Russian tool to show its role in the post-Soviet region.
By looking at the official reactions of Russia towards the crisis in the CSTO member states and comparing them with the actions, this paper suggests that CSTO is not directly used as a tool to influence or control the post-Soviet sphere by Russia since CSTO has its own framework and Russia already has its own foreign policy tools. For this purpose, within the case of Nagorno-Karabakh War, this paper analyses the Russia’s flexible acting and CSTO’s Charter-led behaviour through looking the organization’s “institutional design” in order to understand CSTO in its own context.Authors: Zeynep Selin Balcı (Ege University ) , Altuğ Günal (Ege University)* -
Central Asia’s geopolitical neighbourhood is not a forgiving one. Straddled between their former overlord Russia and the increasingly assertive People’s Republic of China, the region’s constituent republics are experiencing the whole pressure of great power competitions. Despite these pressures, the two Central Asian states examined in this paper have shown a remarkable geopolitical resilience and maintained fiercely independent foreign policy strategies. Both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan continue to engage in meaningful diplomacy with a range of often conflicting partners without sufficiently frustrating these to incur their wrath. While much is written on this phenomenon, however, few scholars have attempted to explain this extraordinary agency of these small powers in the midst of an increasingly tense Great Game for influence in Eurasia’s heartland. Embedded within a Neorealist framework, much of the existing literature fails to consider local political contexts and narratives. This paper seeks to partially remedy this. By presenting data from interviews with political leaders in both countries, and proposing a Neogramscian analytic approach, the paper argues that Central Asia’s often overlooked states provide a unique case study for countries to peacefully coexist with their powerful and ambitious neighbour.
Author: Carl Mohr (Oxford Brookes University) -
The assumption that protest in nondemocratic contexts is always met with repression remains widely held, but rarely investigated. My doctoral research challenges prevailing assumptions through an investigation of the response of Central Asian governments to street protest and seeks to understand why these governments sometimes respond to protest with concessions.
Using Protest Event Analysis (PEA), I have constructed a dataset of protest events and government responses in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, between 2014 and 2019. This data generates two key findings. Firstly, protests were frequently met with concessions in all three cases. Secondly, whilst protest events were less frequent in Uzbekistan, when they did occur, they were more likely to win concessions than protests in either Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan.
I am testing the plausibility of a novel theoretical framework to account for this surprising finding. I hypothesise that protest functioned as a mechanism of communication between state and society, allowing the government to identify and respond to popular demands as part of a long-term survival strategy.
Popular mobilisation has the potential to bring down presidents, but it also presents them with an opportunity to respond to popular opinion. Protest may thus play a stabilising function whilst representing an immediate crisis.Author: Katherine Crofts-Gibbons (King's College London) -
It is well-known that millions of ethnic Russians permanently left the Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union after its collapse in 1991. Less widely appreciated, however, is that the exodus – often of highly skilled professionals - to Russia continues. The figures reach the 10,000s per year, and the trend is reshaping the demography of Kazakhstan, especially in the northern regions where Russians once made up more than 50% of the population. These population changes are likely to be reflected in the results of the twice-postponed 2021 Kazakhstan census.
This research was driven by curiosity to understand the motivations driving this dramatic trend. Accordingly, 30 semi-structured interviews were conducted with ethnic Russians and non-Kazakh Russophones who had left Kazakhstan to permanently resettle in the Russian Federation since 1991. The sample included both those who had left during the initial wave of resettlement in the 1990s and those who left more recently, often as part of the Russian government’s Programme for the Voluntary Resettlement of Compatriots which was launched in 2006.
The findings revealed a broad spectrum of motivations, with some key recurring themes that are not widely reflected in the literature, such as the perceived inability to realise themselves in Kazakhstan for cultural as much as linguistic reasons. Among the sample, ethnic-based animosity, “political factors”, and reasons of abject poverty and unemployment featured much less prominently than might be anticipated based on the available literature, particularly among the more recent cohorts of migrants.
The qualitative insights offered by this research inform the design of a larger n quantitative survey which, it is hoped, will be conducted by a sociological research agency in Russia among the same target sample. This will provide understanding of the extent to which the conclusions suggested by the interviews are generalisable to the population under consideration at large.
In addition to summarising the in-depth, rich insights provided by the interviews, the paper will also report official demographic statistics on a regional and local level, which to the author’s knowledge are only available in Kazakh.
Author: Victoria Hudson (King's College London)
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Roundtable / Global Struggles, Anti-carceral Solidarities and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign Collingwood, Civic Centre
Since 2005 Palestinian civil society has led an international campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS). Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS call urges action to pressure Israel to comply with international law. Since its launch BDS has been extensively discussed across multiple academic and non-academic fora, with scholarly engagements touching on core debates in IR, including human rights and international law, ethical responsibility and knowledge production, academic freedom and unfreedom, transnational solidarity and decolonial praxis. Several academic associations and student unions have adopted BDS resolutions as a form of material and symbolic action, while detractors continue to claim it is ineffective and counterproductive.
Building from traditions of anti-colonial, internationalist, antiracist, and abolitionist forms of scholarship, pedagogy, and praxis, this roundtable explores the impact of the BDS campaign. It asks how academic associations have responded and what key debates have emerged regarding academic freedom and unfreedom? And how does the BDS movement conceive of solidarity with other contemporary, and avidly decolonial movements, including those advocating for reparations, and social and economic justice? Specifically, in what ways does putting BDS in conversation with Indigenous, anti-racist, and feminist movements benefit the global and interconnected struggle against colonial carcerality?
Sponsor: Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working GroupChair: Sharri Plonski (Queen Mary University of London)Participants: Elian Weizman (London South Bank University (LSBU)) , Lisa Tilley (SOAS, University of London) , Rhys Machold (University of Glasgow) , Sharri Plonski (Queen Mary University of London) , Somdeep Sen (Roskilde University) , Rafeef Ziadah (Kings College London) , Nivi Manchanda (Queen Mary University of London) -
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Panel / International Gendered Politics of the Family History Room, Student UnionSponsor: Gendering International Relations Working GroupConvener: Lindsay Clark (University of Southampton)Chair: Annika Bergman Rosamond (Lund University)
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Research indicates that women have been required to take on more domestic labour during the pandemic and have found juggling caring responsibilities with paid work a challenge. Less is known about how remote working is impacting on women’s ability to network. In the UN system, staff are potentially less visible while working from home and may be less able to network. Yet, remote working also has the potential to create new spaces and opportunities for networking and interaction with colleagues around the world that would otherwise have been difficult in the physical office space. Drawing on extensive in-depth interviews with employees working in headquarters and in duty stations within the UN system during the COVID pandemic, this paper explores how women and men address the liminalities of silence, absence and presence within international institutional spaces during a global pandemic and examines the tactics they use to help progress their career while in lockdown and working remotely, often from home.
Author: Georgina Holmes (Imperial College London) -
Part of a larger project on dynastic marriage and the borders of state and empire, this paper looks at two cases of the building and maintenance of dynasties which rely heavily on the constitution of the son-in-law relationship. First, it engages the building and early stabilization of the Qing dynasty in China using efu, or son-in-law, relationships to convert members of the Ming dynasty and secure loyalty to the Qing (would-be) rulers. Second, it analyzes the crucial role of the father-in-law and son-in-law relationship in the transition between Jahangir and Shah Jahan in what is known as the Mughal dynasty. Looking at these two transitional moments, this paper suggests that the signification of the ‘son-in-law’ relationship can be important to the establishment, maintenance, and inheritance of empire(s), reified even through denaturalization. Theoretically, it engages three constructs: the family:state metaphor, the construct of paternalism, and the utilization of the body of the ‘daughter’ as a political bargaining chip.
Author: Laura Sjoberg (Royal Holloway, University of London) -
Keywords: Stigmatization, Gender, Feminist Peace Research, Continuums of Violence, Sustainable Peace
Abstract
In most conflicts and post-conflict zones, children born of wartime sexual violence are a hidden population who often lives on the margin of society. Research suggests, that across countries, the stigmatization against these children can be so severe, that the end of conflict is actually not experienced as peace. Rather, some children understand their life to be “a state of war,” and do not perceive their country to be at peace, while others, who were born in captivity, are even longing for the war because back then they were not stigmatized and treated as outcasts. Drawing on Feminist Peace Research the purpose of this study is to contribute to dismantle the binary between war and peace by pointing at how stigmatization against children born of war is not just a side-effect of physical (sexual) violence but is in fact a form of violence in itself. Based on qualitative analysis of a diverse material, this article demonstrates how stigmatization against children born of war in the Central African Republic, Bosnia, and Northern Uganda, can be located on a continuum of violence, rooted in unequal gender relations, and how this dynamic is negatively affecting the achievement of a sustainable peace.Author: Sofie Rose (University of Southern Denmark)
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Panel / Nuclear Weapons in a Changing World Parson, Civic CentreSponsor: Global Nuclear Order Working GroupConvener: Laura Considine (University of Leeds)Chair: Tom Vaughan (University of Exeter)
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Nuclear deterrence theory states that the relationship between two or more nuclear armed states yields stability and security, at least on the condition that the political leadership acts rationally, that vital interests are at stake, and that the deterrent is perceived as credible both with respect to capabilities and intentions. Nuclear deterrence advocates believe that the presence of nuclear weapons is an important explanation for (strategic) stability, security and peace among big powers since 1945. Nuclear deterrence critics state that the relationship cannot be proved, and that there are at least other explanatory variables for stability, security and peace. This paper aims to bring the phenomena of the so-called new weapon systems (drones, autonomous weapon systems, AI, hypersonic missiles, cyber, space) into this debate. What aspects related to the above-mentioned new weapon systems (or which of these weapon systems in general) either strengthen or undermine the strategic stability that supposedly results from the nuclear deterrence relationship between big powers? In other words, will these new weapon system strengthen or weaken strategic stability in a nuclear weapons world ?
Author: Tom Sauer (Universiteit Antwerpen) -
The second nuclear age is characterised by proliferation of nuclear technology to small and middle powers, emerging technological threats with introduction of dual-capable military systems and a growing trend towards great-power competition. However, with slow diffusion of nuclear technology, there are emerging regional centres of power like South Asia, or the Indo-Pacific where tensions are rising.
Unfortunately, the global nuclear order created at the back of the second world war continues to be seeped in the Cold-War rhetoric with focus on great nuclear powers forging the rules of the game through institutions and regimes which continue practice exclusionary and to a certain extent, discriminatory norms and decision-making procedures. This is evident in Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Annex 2 of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and so on. These institutions continue to treat the Third World nuclear powers as marginalised rather than as equal stakeholders in the global nuclear order. As expected, this has further deepened the divide between the two camps. This paper aims to analyse this divide from a normative lens and also suggest areas of convergences that can be envisioned to strengthen the functioning of the nuclear regimes and institutions in the global nuclear order.Author: Shivani Singh (Aberystwyth University, U.K) -
Under the September 2021 AUKUS pact, the UK and US have pledged to sell Australia eight nuclear-powered attack submarines. Until now, no country without nuclear weapons has ever acquired a nuclear-powered submarine. Moreover, the nuclear submarines built by both the UK and US are fueled with nuclear weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium (HEU). If the UK and/or US were to sell such submarines, each one would require export of approximately one half-tonne of HEU, sufficient for at least 20 nuclear weapons. This would also set a precedent that could spur demands by other countries for HEU-fueled submarines. Resulting proliferation risks could be substantial, especially because IAEA safeguards agreements permit countries to avoid international inspections, for as long as decades, on nuclear materials declared for naval propulsion. A less dangerous alternative would be to sell Australia submarines fueled with low-enriched uranium (LEU), which is unsuitable for nuclear weapons. France and China already fuel their submarines with LEU, and the United States has had a program since 2016 to develop LEU Navy fuel that could last for the life of a submarine. This paper explores options for implementing AUKUS in ways that minimize risks of fostering nuclear proliferation.
Author: Alan Kuperman (University of Texas at Austin) -
While the Indian nuclear tests (1998) heralded the ‘Second Nuclear Age’, the India-USA Civil Nuclear Agreement (2008) marked the reorientation of the global nuclear order; these portended profound repercussions on international relations and epitomized the confluence of global and domestic factors. The paper contends that existing literature is circumscribed by linear classifications between domestic and external processes and provide partial explanation for Indian nuclear behaviour. India is several ways an outlier case in nuclear issues, and the paper investigates nuclear decision-making in India through a Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) prism. To that end, Bayesian reasoning is utilised to perform process tracing on data collected from recently concluded fieldtrip, and insights from international relations, security studies, diplomatic history and comparative politics integrated to explain these episodic transformations. Such an exercise, contests prevailing theoretical assumptions, connects domestic politics to the nuclear sphere, and contextualises nuclear policymaking in India. This illustrates nuclear decision-making in an emerging power and facilitates meaningful understanding and interpretation of nuclear issues.
Author: Shounak Set (KCL) -
How might nuclear deterrence be affected by the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems? How might the introduction of intelligent machines affect human-to-human (and human-to-machine) deterrence? Are existing theories of deterrence still applicable in the age of AI and autonomy? The paper builds on the rich body of work on nuclear deterrence theory and practice and highlights some of the variegated and contradictory – especially human cognitive psychological – effects of AI and autonomy for nuclear deterrence. It argues that existing theories of deterrence are not applicable in the age of AI and autonomy and introducing intelligent machines into the nuclear enterprise will affect nuclear deterrence in unexpected ways with fundamentally destabilizing outcomes. The paper speaks to a growing consensus from advocates and critics of nuclear deterrence calling for conceptual innovation and novel approaches. It builds on the nascent modern post-classical deterrence theorizing that considers the implications of introducing non-human agents into human strategic interactions.
Author: James Johnson (University of Aberdeen)
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Panel / Race, Discourse and the Colonial Media Stephenson, Civic CentreSponsor: Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working GroupConvener: Sarah Gharib Seif (University of St Andrews)Chair: Jasmine Gani (University of St Andrews)
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This paper examines how media reporting in the United Kingdom on the so-called ‘jihadi brides’ continues to create and perpetuate racialised and gendered narratives. In 2015, the so-called ‘phenomenon’ of women traveling to join the Islamic State seemed to have taken over the news, with regular mentions of disbelief of why they would decide to leave their ideal Western lives to join a barbaric terrorist group. Media portrayals typically assume that they were forced into it by men in their lives, describing a gendered and racialised ideal where these ‘innocent young women’ are seduced into joining IS. The paper seeks to interrogate the relationship between the media and the government, as arms of the state, in the UK, and examine the media landscape and its nature, particularly when it comes to discourses of and about terrorism. The paper seeks to examine how this relationship perpetuates the dominant cultural order, in which dominant and colonial representations of gendered and racialised identities are sustained. Furthermore, the paper seeks to question how terrorism studies (both critical and ‘mainstream’) have neglected examining the media landscape in the UK and how the media acts in tandem with the government in complicity to perpetuate colonial discourses.
Author: Sarah Gharib Seif (University of St Andrews) -
Ethiopia, often praised for being one of the only two African countries never colonised, is still subject to highly miserabilist western media coverage. Famine, drought and war were for long the only focus of western media, to the detriment of the myriad political, social and cultural stories to be told about the country (Brookes 1995; Gill 2010). While western narratives evolved to include the state’s role in regional stability and the global war on terror, the overall discourse about Ethiopia is not attuned to the country’s own image projection (Fanta 2015; Newbery 2021).
Breaking away from the state’s image, this paper intends to investigate one of its citizens, internationally renowned model Liya Kebede. Multiple narratives and counter-narratives are in play, among which the model’s own account about her relation to her home country through her investment in business and philanthropic activities, and the story of a black African female model in the US.Author: Gabrielle Bayle (SOAS) -
Popular culture is increasingly seen as a discursive site of international politics, reflecting and reifying local, national, and global discourses of race, migration, and belonging. Repeated and shifting constructions of ‘the other’ in international settings filter down into the everyday experiences of individuals, affecting their own identity construction, including through their engagement with popular culture and media. This paper explores discourses of racial belonging in popular culture and their effects on Black/white and Asian/white mixed-race identity in Britain. It examines how mixed-race individuals draw on transnational elements of popular culture, in conjunction with their own experiences, to construct racial identity, and how this facilitates unique and varied identity constructions. This framework for examining the influence of international politics and transnational culture in identity construction allows us to explore the relationship between popular culture/media and racial identity in new ways, particularly in exploring the role of phenotype and appearance in how discourses of popular culture are personally interpreted. It sheds light on the ways discourses of belonging emerging from international politics are (re)produced in popular culture and are internalised, subverted, or challenged by mixed-race individuals, as they negotiate multiple or ‘in-between’ identities.
Author: Heather Proctor (Newcastle University) -
This paper explores Hindutva with/as coloniality to offer a deeper understanding of media constructions of protestors in India as epistemic harms. Despite formal British rule ending in 1947, the oppressive gendered and religious logics of colonialism remain hegemonic in India and are perpetuated by these media constructions.
The Shaheen Bagh protests were a series of spontaneous sit-ins across India, led by predominantly first-time Muslim women protestors, against the ruling right-wing Hindu nationalist BJP's discriminatory anti-Muslim citizenship laws. Protestors perceived the laws as the culmination of anti-Muslim injustices since the BJP’s 2014 election victory: lynchings, acquitting destroyers of holy Islamic sites, and ever-increasing militarisation of Kashmir. These injustices resonate with the BJP’s epistemic agenda of Hindutva (‘Hinduness’), which constructs ‘the...peaceful Hindu Self vis-à-vis the threatening minority Other’ (Anand 2011,1). Key to sustaining this epistemic agenda were hegemonic media constructions of the protestors as paid actors; as being forced by their husbands; and as anti-India Pakistan agents.
In turn, Shaheen Bagh protestors engaged in epistemic resistance: ‘us[ing] epistemic resources and abilities to undermine and change oppressive normative structures’ (Medina 2013,3). Namely, protestors subverted India’s hermeneutical structures which construct Muslim women as victims of Islam and Muslim men who need rescuing (Abu-Lughod 2013).Author: Mandeep Sidhu (University of Brighton)
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Panel / Regional Development Banks and Governance of Global Crises Dobson, Civic CentreSponsor: International Political Economy Working GroupConvener: Stuart Shields (The University of Manchester)Chair: Daniela Tepe-Belfrage (University of Liverpool)
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This paper sets out to analyse the role played by regional development banks (RDBs) in consolidating neoliberal reforms in the European periphery. It does so by considering the pivotal role of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in articulating neoliberal development strategies in post-communist transition and subsequently rearticulating them in Egypt’s ‘post-authoritarian transition’. The paper stems from the baffling scenario of why an ostensibly Eastern European institution is so intimately involved in bulwarking the neoliberal prerogatives of contemporary reforms in Middle East/North Africa (MENA)?
The paper focuses on how the EBRD helps perpetuate neoliberalising common sense among those populations who are least likely to be the beneficiaries of such reforms through the ‘Transition to Transition’ strategy developed by the EBRD for Egypt. It questions whether key policies, ideas, and guidance, first operationalised in post-communist transition are also being inculcated in the Egyptian transition through this strategy. The paper concludes by discussing the continuing and evolving commitment of reformers to neoliberalisation through the role of the EBRD in the refinement of reform strategies that maintain the disciplining power of capital over the population of Egypt.
Author: Stuart Shields (The University of Manchester) -
The European financial development architecture needs reform. The European Investment Bank (EIB), originally established for European Union members, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), for Central and Eastern European countries, lend across a similar group of countries despite both banks official discourse standing for a clear division of their activities. Drawing on Agency theory, this paper examines the execution of both EIB and EBRD mandates between 1991 and 2018 by investigating EIB and EBRD investments in those countries borrowing from both institutions. The paper finds both the EIB and the EBRD expand their activities beyond their mandates. We argue agency loss largely explains this expansion.
Author: Ana Lara Gómez (University of Cantabria) -
Synchronised and in concordance with the European Union’s Green Deal, the European Investment Bank (EIB) proclaimed its turn into a ‘Climate Bank’ in November 2019. Thereafter, the bank pledged to double its climate lending to 50% by 2025. Conversely, the bank has not committed to any green borrowing targets, despite being the pioneer and largest issuer in outstanding green bonds.
The proceeds of green bonds are ring-fenced for climate-related investment and strictly monitored. For its climate orientation the EIB could have easily and ‘silently’ increased further its green borrowing, for on-lending its green-borrowing to climate-related projects, under capital markets’ scrutiny and oversight. Instead the EIB privileged a bold public announcement, associated exclusively with lending-related targets and milestones. The question that arises is why did the EIB opt for the bold over the ‘silent’ climate metamorphosis. Drawing on the resource dependence theory, the paper examines why the EIB based its climate future on its lending instead of the borrowing side.
Author: Helen Kavvadia (University of Luxembourg)
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Panel / Security, Identity and Foreign Policy Daniel Wood, Student UnionSponsor: Foreign Policy Working GroupConvener: FPWG Working groupChair: Cornelia Baciu (University of Copenhagen)Discussant: Cornelia Baciu (University of Copenhagen)
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The denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula has been a critical policy objective for the United
States and its relations with North Korea has been the determining factor of the future of the Korean
Peninsula and the United States’ security objectives. Thus, the paper asks how US hegemonic
identity is reflected in its North Korea policy and investigates the link between the US hegemonic
identity and North Korea policy. The paper will analyse the story of the US-North Korea relations
through the lens of identity. Although the paper admits the systemic analysis of the regional
dynamics as crucial, it aims to shed a light on the identity aspect of the analysis by investigating the
relationship of the identity and foreign policy and seek an answer to how identities of the US and
North Korea affect the relations between the two countries and the foreign policy outcomes.
Keywords:
Identity; National Identity; United States of America (USA); North KoreaAuthor: Irem Cihan (SOAS) -
In the International Relations literature, ontological security provision and seeking are primarily discussed as a domain of modern states, which provide order and stability to their citizens in an insecure world. As Huysmans (1998) argues, the legitimacy of the state is based on this very responsibility. This article will attempt to illustrate how responsibilities that are directly linked to the legitimacy of a state's agency are not solely bound by its sovereign territory. It concentrates on the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a non-western country that attempts to reconcile its agency of a modern state with the revolutionary mission of protecting the rights of the oppressed beyond national borders.
The study will demonstrate that the legitimacy of the Iranian state and, accordingly, its ontological security are tied to this double responsibility. It will look into the concept of Umm al-Qura that encompasses this notion and tries to reconcile the potential contradictions between protecting national interests and pursuing revolutionary ideals. In this way, the paper will show how seeking and providing ontological security are carried out by a non-western actor that socializes in the international order and at the same challenges some of its key tenets.Author: Alen Shadunts (University of Oxford ) -
The crisis before the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the North Korean nuclear crises in the 1990s and early 2000s displayed stark differences in Western governments' responses to the alleged threats, especially between the UK and Germany (Iraq) and the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations (North Korea). However, the extant literature fails to account sufficiently for the leaders behind those governments' foreign policies. Securitization theory demonstrates how leaders' decisions to speak of an issue as a security threat or not can lead to foreign policies that either resort to force or political solutions. But the theory's methodological collectivism inhibits explaining why some leaders carry out speech acts that securitize an issue while others desecuritize it. To answer this question, I draw on operational code analysis. I suspect that particular political beliefs concur with leaders' attempts to securitize or desecuritize because they affect threat perception and the willingness to use force. Furthermore, I test both mine and existing explanations via process tracing to identify causal relationships. My findings demonstrate how securitization causally connects leaders' beliefs to conflictual or cooperative foreign policies. Scholars and policymakers can use this knowledge to better assess the behavior of states during crises.
Keywords: Foreign policy analysis, Iraq crisis, North Korean nuclear crisis, Securitization, Leaders, Beliefs
Author: Alexander Schotthöfer (The University of Edinburgh) -
This article analyses the ‘value added’ of narratology for constructivism in International Relations. In doing so it develops two contributions to critical IR literatures. First, we argue that narrative analysis can help constructivist and discourse analytic research to move beyond a propensity for identity binaries. More nuanced relational identities are formed in the web of characters that populate stories. The opening analytical move underpinning this argument is key – the figure of the protagonist looms large in foreign policy narratives and that character is not necessarily the Self, as author. Second, narratology adds to constructivism the analytical leverage of narrative power which helps to explain how stories propel forwards and inspire (in)action. This, then, in combination with the agency of the author, speaks to the structural force of stories, which arises from audience expectations of narrative closure – we already know how a story will end from its opening scenes and the introduction of our protagonist. To illustrate this argument in context, we interrogate US foreign policy during the opening chapters of the Syrian Civil War, with a focus on the storying of the conflict and characterisation of the protagonist, the Syrian people. As well as shedding light on narrative power and the importance of identity and character construction beyond binaries, we are the first to locate America’s debilitating ends-means gap (a policy of regime change in lieu of a commitment to undertake military intervention) as emerging specifically from the writing of Syria’s protagonist and the narrative power this characterisation engendered.
Authors: Jack Holland (University of Leeds) , Xavier Mathieu (University of Liverpool)* -
How did the Government of the United Kingdom adjust foreign policy strategy after leaving the European Union? As Brexit promoted the propitious political environment to the development of new ideas, this paper looks specifically into the idea of ‘Global Britain’ in British foreign policy strategy. The ‘Global Britain’ term started to be used by Prime Minister Theresa May shortly after the European Union membership referendum, in June 2016. Literature has been written on the process of foreign policy decision-making, and policy implementation. However, where do ideas come from? There is a gap concerning how ideas emerge and arrive into the political environment and therefore influence foreign policy strategy delineation. This study considers three main process phases for foreign policy adjustment: ideational, policy building, and policy implementation. The main aim of this paper is not to analyse specifically these three phases, but to identify the connections between ideational entrepreneurs, policy architects and governmental engineers. This paper argues that this process happens at different political levels, over time. Ideas travel the British political environment between actors and structures. Linkages will be traced amongst government, parliament, parties, and think tanks. A series of elite interviews with British political actors are conducted, building an exploratory qualitative study, considering the governments of Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
Author: Catarina M. Liberato (University of Kent)
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Roundtable / Review of International Studies: Up to Our Necks - International Relations and Existentialism Swan, Civic Centre
This Roundtable showcases a forthcoming Review of International Studies Special Issue.
There has been almost no systematic treatment of Existentialism in IR theorising, and leading existentialist lights remain on the margins of IR discourse. Yet concepts derived from Existentialism permeate and even structure how we typically think and talk about international relations. From freedom and subjectivity to the “existential” in “existential threats,” ideas derived from the existentialist lexicon have long pervaded and shaped IR discourse—even if IR scholars have not always acknowledged their provenance. Existentialism also speaks directly to some of the most pressing concerns in world politics today. It wrestles with the relation between violence, coloniality, resistance, and gender; offers a guide to surviving pandemics and environmental catastrophes; and provides a resource for thinking through questions about what it means to live under threat of nuclear apocalypse in a post-truth society. This roundtable, therefore, explores the relation between IR and Existentialism.
*More authors to be added
Sponsor: Review of International StudiesChair: Richard Devetak (University of Queensland)Participants: Cian O'Driscoll (ANU) , Andy Hom (University of Edinburgh) , Eileen Hunt (University of Notre Dame) , Rens van Munster (Diis) -
10:30
Break with tea and coffee: SPONSORED BY REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
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Panel / Technology and Future War Council Chamber, Civic CentreSponsor: War Studies Working GroupConveners: David Galbreath (University of Bath) , Tony King (Warwick University) , Patrick Bury (Bath) , John Alexander (Air Historical Brancb (Royal Air Force))Chair: Caroline Kennedy-Pipe (Loughborough University)Discussant: Caroline Kennedy-Pipe (Loughborough University)
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In the current literature on AI, there is a widespread presumption that the armed forces are on the threshold of a revolution - even a singularity. In the next decade, the armed forces will be harness the power of AI and connect it to autonomous and remote systems to produce swarms of killer drones, revolutionising the character, maybe, even the nature of war. This paper takes a sceptical position. Returning to the 1920s and 1930s, it examines the reality of strategic air power. In those decades, many air power theorists argued that the bomber was about to transform war; cities and civilian populations would helpless before disruptive aerial technology. The reality was different. The effects of strategic bombing were initially very limited and the technique only became effective with massive investment of resources. The paper suggests that the military application of AI, autononous and remote systems is likely to change the close battle but, if strategic bombing is taken as a guide, these technologies are likely to be less disruptive than their advocates and opponents presume.
Author: Tony King (Warwick University) -
The last two decades have witnessed a rapid rise in the use, size and capability of many western Special Operations Forces (SOF). A response to the global jihadist threat, the growing presence, prominence and technology-enabled lethality of SOF in conflict zones has resulted in increased scholarly attention. Some have argued their rise is indicative of important and ongoing changes in the character of war itself. One of the most influential of these works is Steven Niva’s study of the transformation of US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) Task Forces in Iraq. Niva argues that JSOC (more accurately its Task Force 714 Command Headquarters, henceforth TF714) was forced to adopt a networked organisational structure to counter Al-Qa’ida in Iraq (AQI). For Niva, this transformation provided evidence of a shift towards ‘counter-net’ and ‘chaoplexic’ forms of warfare conceptualised by Bousquet in this journal. This article uses new primary and secondary sources to critique these claims. It argues that although a network approach was an important part of TF714’s transformation, it was only one part. Instead, JSOC’s transformation is more accurately understood through a post-Fordist industrial framework of the centralization of management control and the simultaneous decentralization of decision-making; the integration of core and periphery forces; outsourcing; and a network approach to knowledge. From this analysis, it argues post-Fordist, rather than network or chaoplexic theory, best describes even the most networked military organisations in the 21st century, and that this may remain so given the persistence of battlefield friction associated with future ‘binary warfare’.
Author: Patrick Bury (Bath) -
In 2018, the Australian Army launched its Robotic and Autonomous Systems Strategy to capitalise on the military opportunities presented by the much-anticipated ‘fourth industrial revolution’ in artificial intelligence and machine learning software. The key to realising this potential lies in the effective integration of soldiers and autonomous systems, known as human-machine teaming. Through human-machine teaming, military automation is predicted to radically reshape the conduct of war, with substantial implications for the future of command and control. However, such visions depend not just on the technical capabilities of new autonomous systems, but also on the choices soldiers make about how to use them. This paper explores the compatibility of emerging concepts of human-machine teaming with existing Australian Army culture and practices, drawing on interviews with serving officers and focusing specifically on the implications for military command and control. The paper assesses the risks and opportunities arising from automation for future concepts, doctrine development and organisational change.
Authors: David Galbreath (University of Bath) , Farrell Theo (University of Wollongong)* , Alex Neads (University of Bath) -
This paper examines the relationship between the use of strategy and operational art by liberal democracies in response to the combined use of military and non-military means by revanchist autocratic powers, and the increasing blurring of war and peace in an era of systemic competition. With the fusion of technologies and the overlapping of the diplomatic, military, economic and increasingly the information instruments of power, as foreseen by Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui twenty years ago in their Unrestricted Warfare, Western concepts of war increasingly see the strategic as the level at where the instruments of power are integrated and where therefore multi-domain campaigns are conducted. Meanwhile British military doctrine languishes unchanged since 2014, notwithstanding the increasing Russian ‘gray zone’ activity in the Euro-Atlantic area since then and contrary to the literature that suggests military doctrine should rapidly evolve in competition or conflict. This paper -re-examines the development of operational art and current Western, Chinese and Russian doctrine. The paper finds that the US introduction of the idea of a military operational-level of war as separate to the political/military strategic and tactical levels hinders Clausewitz’s notion of war as politics with other means. Furthermore, the idea of fixed levels is contrary to the original Soviet notion of operational art as the fusion of the strategic and the tactical, where the supreme headquarters frames the campaign and operational art is the sequencing of operations connected by the unifying idea of campaign ends. The paper proposes the original Soviet conceptualisation of operational art offers greater utility than the notion of levels of war in the current strategic context and should be clarified in Western doctrine.
Author: John Alexander (Air Historical Brancb (Royal Air Force))
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Panel / Ethics and World Politics: Cutting-edge Research Daniel Wood, Student UnionSponsor: Ethics and World Politics Working GroupConvener: Ethics & World Politics Working Group (BISA)Chair: Susan Murphy (Trinity College Dublin)
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This paper considers the implications of a post-liberal order for Just War Theory. It focuses on two questions. First, what challenges will Just War Theory face in a post-liberal order? Second, in light of these challenges, how would the requirements of Just War Theory differ in the post-liberal order? In response the first question, it argues that, in a post-liberal order, Just War Theory is likely to be less influential, as its ability to constrain and influence states and other actors decreases. In response to the second question, it argues that the rules of Just War Theory will be affected in several ways, including being more demanding, requiring greater consideration of questions of abuse, in some scenarios, being closer the ‘revisionist’ vision of Just War, and potentially even abandoned.
Author: James Pattison -
Healthcare provision by the NHS is framed by an ethical framework fleshed out in values and principles that should inform the service in everything it does. Values such as dignity and ‘everyone counts’, as well as principles such as ‘healthcare based on clinical need, and not ability to pay’ reveal a normative commitment to humanity and a sense of universal care on the basis of equal human worth. From this perspective, healthcare is provided as an act of hospitality: the NHS is the ‘home’ which welcomes the ‘ill’ by providing the ‘gifts’ of curing bodies and alleviating suffering. However, this promise of hospitality seems to be troubled by the figure of the migrant. Data-sharing policies between the Home Office and the NHS allow migrants’ non-clinical data to be deployed for immigration enforcement, blurring the boundaries between healthcare and border control. By articulating Derrida’s notion of hospitality with Foucault’s analytics of power, this paper explores how hospitality in the NHS operates techniques of power that enable a welcome of migrant patients into the service while enacting hostility towards them. I illustrate my argument by focusing attention on the COVID-19 pandemic as an instance where healthcare intersects with immigration enforcement through the NHS. In doing so, I analyze how the ‘migrant’ disrupts hospitality as a simply benevolent act of welcoming, and explain the operation of techniques of exclusion, surveillance and control of migrant bodies through the delivery of health services in England.
Author: Moises Vieira (University of Manchester) -
The paper problematises the role of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), questioning their presumed status as normative agents in international politics. It argues that large INGOs are not immune to neoliberal logics of competition that subsequently diminishes political agency of their staff. Drawing on international ethics, political theory and management studies literatures, the paper presents an interdisciplinary argument on the ways meaning can be created in international politics and international institutions, questioning the source of meaning of the shared experiences that are inherently international. The paper starts with an account of neoliberal logics as an ontological orientation where it is accepted that no alterative exist to current social reality, drawing on literature by Mark Fisher and William Davies. It problematises the role of INGOs in creating parameters for collective responsibility and prospects of social development of meaning, within inherently neoliberal institutional framework. While the paper is limited in its ability to provide specific solutions, it nevertheless draws on feminist pragmatism, particularly social ethics of Jane Addams, to suggest an alternative imagining of normative practices in INGOs through an ongoing renewal of normative and political commitments.
Author: Marija Antanaviciute (QMUL) -
This paper explores Cicero’s work on war and peace and its contribution to the development of Western political thought. It argues that Cicero’s just war approach contains the same contradiction seen between Rome’s actual policy of waging mostly aggressive wars and its claimed adherence to just wars to be seen as waging wars in line with the law of nations. It explores how Cicero developed this approach from a combination of moderate versions of Skepticism and Stoicism to justify Rome’s preventive wars, wars to avenge injuries, wars for supremacy and glory, and extensive military interventions on behalf of global human society. It argues that notwithstanding Western scholars’ critique of his public career and his philosophy as largely derivative, he is seen as an adherent of just war in Western political thought despite being an advocate of Rome’s aggressive policy of war. It explores the contribution his work made to the development of Christian and Renaissance humanist just war traditions, theories of colonialism, and modern international law. It examines what Rome’s policy of war and its justification by Cicero may tell us about modern war trends especially the US policy of preventive, humanitarian, and regime change wars and their justifications by Western just war theorists.
Author: Muhammad Ashfaq (University of St Andrews)
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Panel / Extractive Enclaves and the Legacies of Spatial Inequalities Kate Adie, Student UnionSponsor: Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working GroupConvener: Sharri Plonski (Queen Mary University of London)Chair: Lisa Tilley (SOAS, University of London)
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How does the focus on different subjects of intervention disrupt the confines of established scholarly and policy discourses on international intervention? Studies of international intervention have been heavily criticised for their disregard for the experiences, actions, and thoughts of people living the consequences of intervention projects. Much of this literature, moreover, has contributed to putting the problem of Eurocentrism—and ways in which it shapes engagement with difference—squarely in the centre of academic debates. Yet, these debates have not considered that an engagement with different subjects of intervention might not only help us understand intervention better, but also move us beyond its conceptual confines. This paper takes on this issue. It first distils the limitations of intervention thinking, and then presents the politics of improvement as a conceptual alternative that can better investigate the multiple scales of power and inequality involved in liberal interventionism: able to trace hierarchies beyond the local/international dichotomy; expanding fields of visibility beyond those prescribed by interventions themselves; and taking seriously the contradictions that stand at the heart of liberalism. The potential of thinking about statebuilding and peacebuilding interventions within a wider politics of improvement is demonstrated by drawing on research in non-formal youth education in Serbia and showing how it functions within the larger politics of youth (un)employment.
Author: Katarina Kusic (University of Bremen) -
Stigma Reversal in Development Aid Discourse: An Analysis of Ethiopian States’ Discursive Mechanisms
Ethiopia is known among development practitioners and academics for its strong developmental agenda, its commitment to programme implementation, and its resistance to foreign development policies and to foreign mischaracterisations of its work. In the recent years, academia has linked it to the authoritarian nature of the state (Brown and Fisher 2020; Dereje 2011; Furtado and Smith 2009; Hagmann and Reyntjens 2016). Building on postcolonial and queer readings of international development aid (in particular on Kapoor’s 2008 and 20015 works), however, this paper argues that past Ethiopian states have systematically performed a form of combative queerness, through stigma reversal and reappropriation of international power narratives.
This paper is constructed as a comparison of three different regimes: the imperial rule of Haile Selassie, the Derg regime and Meles’ EPRDF, the longue durée erasing the notion that development aid empowerment is the sole success of the EPRDF. The paper’s findings are based on a large compilation of archives from the Ethiopian states’ discourses aimed at the international community (public speeches, letters, clippings state-owned newspaper).Keywords: International development, queer theory, discourse analysis, Ethiopia
Author: Gabrielle Bayle (SOAS, University of London) -
Tourism is the largest form of embodied international relations and, thus, is constitutive of ‘the international’. Nevertheless, tourism is often ignored within International Relations (IR) and, consequently, has not been adequately theorised. In contributing to the critical (re)theorisation of international tourism, this paper asks: how does tourism govern? To answer this question, we introduce the concept of ‘touristic governmobilities’ and theorise the emergence of a touristic zoopolitical mode of governance. Our concept of touristic zoopolitics combines insights from the colonial practice of ‘human zoos’ (which helped to legitimise colonialism and produce the Western tourist gaze) and the neoliberal biopolitical order (where governing occurs for the market) to show how places and people – especially in the Global South – are increasingly being governed, not as national territories and citizens, but as desirable/safe ‘tourism destinations’ and ‘touristic figures’ (where governing occurs for international – often white Western – tourists). This mode of governance, we show, prioritises international tourists’ imaginaries, affects, and experiences (over those of citizens), resulting in the (re)production of colonial logics, hierarchies, exclusions, and resistances. Our findings challenge the inside/outside dichotomy assumed in IR and point to an emerging form of de facto (rather than de jure) touristic citizenship. Taking tourism seriously, then, offers new insights into the continued coloniality of the international and contributes to key IR debates.
Authors: Sarah Becklake (Leibniz University Hannover)* , Elisa Wynne-Hughes (Cardiff University) -
Reckoning with Ruins: Colonial Carceral Debris in Africa
Author: Laura Routley (Newcastle University) -
Making sense of the state: citizens and state buildings in South Africa
Author: Julia Gallagher (SOAS, University of London)
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Panel / Non-Western Involvement in Peace- and Statebuilding – a Shift in Norms and Practices? Part 2 Carloil, Civic CentreSponsor: Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Working GroupConveners: Thorsten Bonacker (University of Marburg) , Nadine Ansorg (University of Kent)Chair: Thorsten Bonacker (University of Marburg)Discussant: Nadine Ansorg (University of Kent)
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How Unrecognised States Consolidate Statehood? Bargaining Role in Understanding Sovereignty and Statebuilding Processes
Author: Dilara Ozbek (University of Kent) -
Recent literature recognizes a shift in peace- and statebuilding from Western-liberal frameworks, focusing on democratic institutions, human rights, and economic reforms, to a more heterogeneous field of agents and practices. However, norm competition and complex power relations have shaped peace- and statebuilding already since the 1990s. In my contribution, I will focus on the domestic, regional, and international power dynamics and the complex realities of peace- and statebuilding in Timor-Leste to illustrate my arguments. The initial intervention in Timor-Leste in 1999 and the subsequent statebuilding process appear to be ‘textbook liberal peacebuilding’. However, the violent political power struggles of the Timorese elites, the rising competition between regional powers Australia and China in the country, or the ‘post-colonial renaissance’ of Portugal in Timor-Leste, with enormous Portuguese influence in political and socio-economic matters since the end of the 1990s, all counter liberal narratives. Instead, the case shows that liberal peace- and statebuilding norms never were as potent as suggested, and that practices of intervention have always been informed by (non-liberal) norms, political agency, and power competition. Consequently, the observed shift from liberal to new, non-liberal peacebuilding might be smaller than thought.
Author: Werner Distler (University of Marburg) -
In recent years, there has been a normative shift in the debate about international interventions to combat war crimes and violence against civilians from large scale interventions to new actors in post-conflict missions. Against this background, the paper examines the current Anglophone conflict in Cameroon, focusing on hierarchies of knowledge related to security, peace, and conflict. Specifically, the paper investigates the influence of non-western actors, such as China, on conflicts and what form such interventions take in the contestation of former colonial powers, such as France. The main interest is to examine what changes are taking place as a result of strengthening non-Western actors on the international level: Do conflicting norms of justice and claims of transformative responsibility change the situation for civilians concretely in the case of Cameroon? What is the influence of non-Western actors without colonial past - do they share the non-interference norm and in what ways does this stance offer more peace for whom? The impact of new actors on peace and security dimensions are fundamental not only on the ground but also in international institutions (Fung 2019), again raising the question of to what extent does it sustain and legitimize international conflict prevention illiberal states alike. What new hierarchies are emerging and what does this mean for decision-making power on the ground? The paper delves into these questions by contributing to research on the practices and norms of intervention and statebuilding.
Author: Maria Ketzmerick (University of Bayreuth) -
India is amongst the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping forces, providing 200,000 troops to 49 different missions since 1950’s1. In the recent years, India’s role has increasingly evolved to include peacebuilding support wherein, it provides development and economic aid to post-conflict fragile states. This process of increased cooperation with the UN and several developing, post-conflict nation-states has led to India’s acceptability as a democratic and collaborative nation-state on the international platform. Simultaneously, the country is also experiencing the ongoing conflict of Kashmir, where India’s domestic policy has been that of military control in order to curb any secessionist politics and movements of self-determination. The theoretical framework of critical peacebuilding has analysed the leveraging of international cooperation to extend policy goals for different states. This paper will utilise the framework of critical peacebuilding to understand the specific case of India, its position, strategy and participation in the UN peacekeeping and peacebuilding projects. Additionally, this paper hopes to explore the linkages and cleavages between India’ UN participation and its domestic policy towards the conflict of Kashmir.
Author: Arshita Nandan (University of Kent)
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Panel / Pacifism and Survival: Exploring the Readiness to Adopt Violence Bewick, Civic CentreSponsor: Political Violence, Conflict and Transnational ActivismConvener: Alexandre Christoyannopoulos (Loughborough University)Chair: Alexandre Christoyannopoulos (Loughborough University)
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The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were unsuccessful. This is the prevailing view among the citizens of the allied countries that prosecuted those wars. One might expect this to have weakened the confidence that these citizens have in their armed forces establishments, but it has not—Americans have as much confidence in their military today, after two decades of failure, as they had before the war on terror even began, and the United States is not unique in this regard. Our trust in the efficacy of military force has become so firmly entrenched that countervailing evidence cannot dislodge it: no amount of military failure, it seems, can persuade us that our institutions of violence are ineffective. Appraisals of past military performance and expectations of future military performance have been severed. I will provide an overview of the preliminary research on this phenomenon, before suggesting some explanatory factors of my own. My main aim, however, is to draw attention to the dangers associated with our dogged faith in the institutions of violence.
Author: Dobos Ned (UNSW Canberra) -
The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots was officially launched in 2013, bringing together a range of activist groups aiming to prevent the development and deployment of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS). The primary aim of the group is to ensure that ‘meaningful human control’ is maintained over new weapons systems, on the grounds that delegating killing to machines is contrary to human dignity. In this paper I undertake a close examination of the ‘human dignity’ arguments being advanced by anti-LAWS campaigners. I argue that this approach represents the latest example in a long history of attempts to humanise war, which Samuel Moyn (amongst others) argues has instead led to the perpetuation of war.Thus, the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots approach is not only unlikely to succeed, but also runs the risk of reinforcing the war system by implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) endorsing the ‘dignity’ of humans making decisions to kill others. A pacifist critique of the anti-LAWS campaign could engender a more radical and morally-consistent position from which to criticise and resist the emergence of new weapons technologies and sustain anti-war politics.
Author: Jeremy Moses (University of Canterbury) -
Pacifism is often criticised or simply dismissed due to its apparent moral absolutism. Pacifism has long been rejected as being too ridged to properly account for the nuances of political life or harsh realities of national security. Within the context of anti-racist, anti-fascist and anti-colonial violence, pacifism could also be viewed as a position held by those who are privileged enough not to have to fight for their rights or their lives. Demands for non-violence are directed towards those with the least power; liberal demands for non-violent protest can be seen to reinforce structural and state violence. In response, this paper aims to offer a vision of pacifism, referred to as deferred pacifism, that is characterised as a space of uncertainty. The paper aims to disrupt the prevailing one-dimensional view of pacifism arguing instead that pacifism has the potential to open up a space for genuine political dialogue about violence. It argues that pacifism can offer a critique of violence that doesn’t simultaneously reproduce or legitimise other forms of violence. Deferred pacifism has two sources - it results from embracing the complexity and fluidity of cosmopolitan identities, and by acknowledging the complexity, fluidity and context-specific nature of violence.
Author: Helen Dexter (University of Leicester)
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Panel / Past Is Present - Tracing Intellectual Histories Model Room 2, Civic CentreSponsor: Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working GroupConvener: Sharri Plonski (Queen Mary University of London)Chair: Christopher Balcom (York University)
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This paper looks at the colonial constitution of urban technologies of control of racialised populations and spaces by exploring the relationship between the UK and Latin America, in the rise of the modern nation-states. The paper recovers early Latin American thought on ‘colonial capitalism’ (Bagú 1949) to argue that Latin America continues to be part of a transnational ‘colonial enterprise’ (Prado Jr 1945), where ‘land’ (i.e. natural resources) is indivisible from social domination (Mariátegui 1928). To explore the relationship between land and people, and Britain and Latin America, the paper focuses on the outcome and rationale behind the destruction of tenements in Brazil in the wake of the 20th century. The paper explores how colonial legislation on social behaviour and on migration, and a new and privatised housing and sanitation system helped reframe ideas about race to the new time, beyond Brazil. Furthermore, the paper challenges the view that there are no direct connections between Latin America and Britain by showing how a close border regime in Europe and British commercial and ideological interests shaped Brazilian modernity, maintaining the capitalist-agrarian character of the Brazilian economy, and fulfilling George Canning’s (1824) dream of domination of Latin America.
Author: Luísa Calvete Portela Barbosa -
In his conclusion to Wretched of the Earth (1961) Frantz Fanon called for a “new humanism” that would transcend the limits of a European humanism distorted by colonial violence. This paper considers Fanon alongside two other advocates of a “new humanism,” namely Karl Marx, whose early writings offer a materialist critique of Hegelian humanism, and the revolutionary Indian philosopher M.N. Roy, who played a key role in the Communist International of the 1920s, but gradually abandoned Marxism to champion what he called a “radical humanism” in the 1930s and 1940s. In a comparative study, this paper considers what the call for a “new humanism” meant to these different thinkers. By engaging the promise and limits of their respective humanistic politics, the paper considers what "humanism" represents for anticolonial intellectual history.
Author: Christopher Balcom (York University) -
This paper positions itself within the contemporary drive across political, sociological, and international relations theory to reanimate the Haitian Revolution within historical analyses of central philosophical frameworks including freedom (Roberts 2015), Enlightenment (Dubois 2006), sovereignty (Bhambra 2016), race (Shilliam 2008, 2017), rights (Kaisary 2012), and history (Buck-Morss 2014, Trouillot 1995). Beginning with work that maps intellectual continuities between Haitian revolutionaries and the French revolutionary triptych of “liberté, égalité, fraternité”, this paper will analyse these concepts through a selection of primary material including Louverture’s proclamations and the Haitian Constitution of 1801. Louverture’s writing offers a foundation for this analysis, situating these concepts in Haitian (post)revolutionary struggle. The next step of the argument will provide a theorisation of these concepts, and their connection to an Enlightenment philosophical tradition, in the context of Foucault’s “Age of History” (around 1800) and Koselleck’s “Sattelzeit” (between 1730 and 1850). Both intellectual historians describe an age of transition into modernity, accompanied by linguistic and epistemological shifts in concepts and terminology. Exploring both provincialization and continuity, various localities and various universals, Louverture’s republicanism allows for a critique of conceptual and temporal flows, and questions the boundaries of contemporary political-theoretical canons. Louverture’s Haitian revolutionary conceptualizations also foreground an interrogation of the lag between theory and practice, experience and expectation, or political rights and lived reality.
Author: Taylor Borowetz (SOAS University of London) -
Because of its consequences, 1857 is an episode in South Asian history that neither India, not Pakistan can ignore. While India chooses to celebrate its legacy, Pakistan remains indifferent to it. This paper seeks to explore the ways in which nationalist histories of the Indian and Pakistani states have sought to articulate 1857, primarily through a study of their postage stamps. The paper argues that in their initial years, the postcolonial state in both India and Pakistan were keen on claiming a direct historical link between themselves and the events of 1857 conveying that though they were merely ten years old as countries, their struggle went back a hundred years. However over the years, this has changed drastically. Through the study of stamps, this paper argues that in order to weave a composite and inclusive history of the country, India celebrates the legacy of 1857 by appropriating it within the frames of national unity, patriotism, and anti-imperialism. In contrast to this, Pakistani history has reduced 1857 to the loss of Muslim political influence which then becomes a prelude to Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s efforts for a socio-political awakening of the community.
Authors: Sridhar Krishnan (SOUTH ASIAN UNIVERSITY, New Delhi) , Mumitha Madhu (South Asian University)
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Panel / Practices of Violence Dobson, Civic CentreSponsor: Political Violence, Conflict and Transnational ActivismConveners: Mark Youngman (University of Portsmouth) , Annamaria Kiss (King's Russia Institute, King's College London)Chair: Mark Youngman (University of Portsmouth)
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It is widely accepted that individuals and states have a right to resist unjust aggression, a right enshrined in international law and various moral and ethical frameworks. However the right to continued resistance during an occupation is not universally accepted. It may seem intuitive that ‘Just Warriors’ should be able to continue their struggle against ‘Unjust Aggressors’ but some Just War Theorists adopt a highly restrictive view on the legitimacy of armed resistance after a state surrenders.
For those who defend this possibility, one area of particular scrutiny is the question of who could be targeted by ‘Just Resistors’. Accepting a right to resist does not necessarily mean accepting a right to kill, there are non-lethal options for resistance. But should those approaches fail, who can be targeted? And what degrees of culpability must those targets display to be legitimately justified?
This paper reflects on the ethics of resistance, exploring the threats to two kinds of security forces: firstly, members of foreign occupying forces; secondly, members of indigenous forces aligned with them. In doing so the paper explores the arguments around who represent legitimate targets for justified resistance and what impact different degrees of culpability have on any targeting criteria.
Author: Alex Crockett (Durham University) -
The shift from a nationalist and separatist insurgency to a regional and Islamist movement and the role leaders play in the transition process remains neglected on the margins of research in international studies. This paper examines the insurgency in the North Caucasus, which evolved from a frame of activism associated with the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI) to a regional insurgency known as the Imarat Kavkaz. The first part of the paper introduces Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, the leader of the ChRI who oversaw the transformation of the insurgency. Although only in power for a short period, Sadulayev was a leader who sought to traverse several internal and external challenges to his leadership and the movement. In the second part of the paper, we develop an account of leadership as a negotiated process, highlighting the importance of assessing leadership succession and enabling analysis of the challenges faced by Sadulayev. The third part of the paper locates Sadulayev’s role in leading the movement through a period of change. The final section examines the implications of Sadulayev’s leadership for external operations undertaken by the movement. The paper, therefore, contributes to work on militant groups, leadership, and succession in international studies.
Authors: Cerwyn Moore (University of Birmingham) , Mark Youngman (University of Portsmouth)* -
This presentation will outline a theoretical framework for a comparative analysis of non-state actors’ violent use of drones and provide initial findings from empirical case studies. Remotely-piloted aircraft are increasingly used successfully by non-state actors to support a large range of violent actions, from guiding vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices and insurgent troops towards their targets, to vectoring and adjusting indirect fire. This adoption of modified dual-use technology by non-state groups presents significant new challenges to military forces engaged in peace and security operations as well as to wider dynamics of asymmetric conflict and terrorism.
Drawing on six short case studies (Hamas, Hezbollah, Jabhat al-Nusra, ISIS; Houthi rebels, and the PKK) this presentation will lay the foundations for our research agenda into the use of drones by violent non-state actors. More specifically, we will examine 1) How do various non-state groups employ drones violently? 2) How do non-state groups develop drone technology programs, and how is drone technology diffused between states and non-state groups? 3) What new challenges does the proliferation of non-state violent drone programs present to military forces engaged in security operations? 4) What factors influence the decision by non-state groups to employ drones violently?Authors: Emil Archambault (University of Ottawa) , Yannick Veilleux-Lepage (Leiden University)
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Panel / Rethinking World Order and the Study of State Power Parson, Civic CentreSponsor: International Relations as a Social Science Working GroupConveners: Rafael Alexandre Mello (University of Brasilia) , Matthieu Grandpierron (ICES) , Nino Kemoklidze (University of Chichester)Chair: Nino Kemoklidze (University of Chichester)Discussant: Kevork Oskanian (University of Birmingham)
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Neorealism struggles to explain the reckless expansionism of great powers. Neither offensive nor defensive realists give a fully satisfactory account. This paper maintains that the problem lies in their shared assumption that states pursue security. Tracing neorealism’s roots in evolutionary economics, and hence indirectly in biological theories of natural selection, I argue that many policies are compatible with state survival. Where the competition is harsh is in surviving as a great power. States that rise to that rank, and remain there, behave as if they sought to maximize their influence, not their security. This Darwinian competition selects in favour of states with expansionist institutions and ideologies. Failing to recognize this phenomenon risks conferring a spurious legitimacy on imperialism. At the same time, neorealists have also committed a fallacy familiar to biologists: assuming that traits that enhance group fitness are selected even when they diminish fitness in intragroup competition. Whereas interstate competition selects in great powers for traits that promote influence-maximization, with the spread of democracy, intrastate competition increasingly selects for security-seeking, promoting the pacification of international relations.
Author: Matthew Rendall (University of Nottingham) -
Seventy years ago, the world institutions, created under the leadership of the Western countries, formed world policies to cope with first and foremost finance, trade, and security problems. Such institutions and policies were the corner stones of the world political order based on the overall consent of the states and the overt opposition of some with no decisive effect at that moment but with late de-legitimating results. The paper analyses the process of the reconfiguration of the world political order at the present time in which order depends on the states’ will to form world policies towards the world’s largest problems.
Author: Fulvio Attina (University of Catania)
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Panel / Security, Coloniality and the Policing of Mobility Stephenson, Civic CentreSponsor: Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working GroupConveners: Joe Turner (University of York) , Terri-Anne Teo (Newcastle University)Chair: Joe Turner (University of York)Discussant: Joe Turner (University of York)
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A thorough analysis of the Southern dimension of the EU's European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) calls attention to how discourse and practices cast light on a shifting imagination of the Mediterranean space: from a ring of friends to a ring of fire, to fortress Europe in which the ‘European way of life’ has to be protected. Recent developments on the study of the EU’s behaviour as a neo-imperial power elide a more systematic analysis of race not only in civilizational terms but above all regarding the materiality of the global colour line, and in this case of the colour line that is the Mediterranean. Focusing mainly on the Communication ‘A New Agenda for the Mediterranean’ and engaging with the literature on Racial Capitalism, this research aims at understanding how the ENP casts light not just on the EU’s failure to come to terms with its colonial history but also with its (post)colonial realities characterized by a colonial continuum operated by different mechanisms of Racial Capitalism.
The relationship between the EU and its Southern Neighbourhood has been since its inception structured alongside hierarchizing and differentiating logics of ongoing reproduction of regimes of racialization whereby the South is implicitly perceived as an expendable periphery whose dispossession is not collateral damage, but a requirement, for the EU to maintain the logics of capitalism according to racial regimes that instrumentalises race as a dispositif to naturalize and justify structural asymmetries in different fields, such as migration, security, and trade, but also the fight against climate change and digitalisation. Racialized capital accumulation does not only create and perpetuate a core in the Global North and a periphery in the Global South but also contributes to the shaping of the South’s own peripheries maintained by co-opted political and economic elites, which can also be found in the EU’s Southern Neighbourhood. This colonial continuum is not without resistance across societies in the South.
Author: Itxaso Domínguez De Olazábal -
Migration control is a ubiquitous global phenomenon. Immigration detention is a central component of these efforts to curb migration. Using archival sources, I trace the history of immigration detention in Germany. Often viewed as a recent phenomenon, German immigration detention emerged after the end of World War I and needs to be placed into the larger context of the intersections of xenophobia against Eastern European migrants and connected conceptions of deservingness and the economic situation. In doing so, the paper brings together two strands of scholarship that have gained in prominence in explaining the roots of migration controls: examinations of the role of colonialism and of internal mobility controls through vagrancy acts targeting the rural poor. Applying the insights of these inquiries in the context of German colonialism adds additional nuance to debates around colonialism and migration. Moreover, my project allows us to further theorize the co-constitutive nature of the criminal justice system and border controls within the larger framework of controlling marginalized and racialized populations. Recognizing the entangled histories of immigration detention with the carceral state, as I do here, enables us to see their role in a broader effort to control mobility in the service of capitalism.
Author: Axster Sabrina (Johns Hopkins University) -
This article examines colonial practices of security through the architecture of ‘veillances,’ and how they shape the borders of discourse around race, migration and citizenship. Beyond surveillance (authority monitoring the population), there is now more space for lateral surveillance (population monitoring each other) and sousveillance (population monitoring authority). Within the context of race, the disruptive power of sousveillance is often celebrated as the democratisation of power, creating opportunities for escape, resistance and change (Browne, 2015: 164). This article argues that while empowering, technologies of surveillance and sousveillance may reinforce colonial practices of self-discipline and self-regulation that unevenly affect populations. This is illustrated through the case of Singapore and narratives surrounding low-waged migrant workers as threat and resource, perpetuator and victim, secured and insecure. This discourse is propelled by the concurrent movement of ‘veillances,’ as state rhetoric intermingles with ground-up narratives that are concurrently critical and supportive of the state, citizens and low-waged migrant workers. Within these reactions, however, remains a certain stasis where the marginalised groups continue to be governed and spoken for through a voice not their own.
Author: Terri-Anne Teo (Newcastle University) -
This paper analyses the so-called 'zero-anchor point' migration policy that has become prevalent in Calais (France) after 2016, following the destruction of the notorious migrant camp dubbed 'the Jungle'. In sharp contrast to the previous policy of concentrating migrants in a camp and ensuring their immobility, this new strategy is designed to make sure that migrants are continually en route, on the move, so to speak. This is carried out through the combination of myriad methods, inter alia, consistent violent evictions or the threat thereof, food-bans, confiscation of personal belongings, and even deforestation of areas wherein migrants could potentially hide from authorities.
Borrowing from authors such as Iman Jackson, Sylvia Wynter, and Katherine McKittrick, and Julietta Singh, I unearth the links between the zero-anchor point policy in Calais with colonial tactics of racialisation primarily based on dispossession. In particular, I show how such policy mimics processes of territorial, bodily and material dispossession faced by the black slave and the native in settler colonial projects. My argument is that the politics of extreme mobility in Calais, coupled with the continual precarisation of the migrants’ lives and the incessant confiscation and/or destruction of their belongings, operates as a racializing device that co-produces the borders of the human (the white European master) vis-à-vis the non/sub-human figure of the migrant. I dub this process ‘the politics of (de)materialisation’. Such politics, on one hand, is premised upon the ‘dematerialisation’ of the migrant, that is, its ceaseless detachment from ‘physical’ forms of existence, namely, land, body, and belongings. And, on the other hand, this politics ‘materialises’ the migrant in a different way, that is, by making the migrants into objects, mere bodies at the mercy of the colonial power. Such policy, I show, ensures the so-called global colour lines are continually redrawn and strengthened in Calais.Author: Tarsis Brito (London School of Economics) -
Abstract
Authors: Robin Redhead (Leeds Beckett University) , Radoslaw Malinowski (Haart Kenya)
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Panel / Selective Reconstruction: Conceptualising (Re-)Engagement in the Post-Brexit UK-EU Security Relationship (Panel 2) History Room, Student UnionSponsor: European Security Working GroupConveners: Helena Farrand Carrapico (Northumbria University) , Benjamin Martill (University of Edinburgh)Chair: Arantza Gomez Arana (Birmingham City University)
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Brexit has seen the most significant re-alignment of British foreign policy and diplomacy in more than 40 years with the elite consensus - particularly around the importance of UK-EU relations - upended under the banner of ‘Global Britain’. How fundamental are the changes to Britain’s foreign policy-making machinery and how it identifies and pursues its international priorities? And what are the implications for future UK-EU foreign policy co-operation? While existing literatures on de-Europeanisation and dis-integration offer some important insights, we lack a more granular level of analysis of the change processes at work and what they may mean for the future. Applying the theory of de-institutionalisation and its four key drivers of change - political, functional, social and the role of individuals - this article examines the extent to which post-Brexit UK foreign policy and particularly the UK-EU relationship has been altered in practice, and how this sits alongside the UK’s pledge in the Integrated Review that Europe “can always count on the UK”.
Author: Nicholas Wright (University of Surrey) -
The article investigates how the considerations on Brexit-related de-/re-engagement in the context of the UK-EU security relationship (Martill and Sus 2021; Sweeney and Winn 2021) have been discursively (re)presented in a public domain by the UK government and the EU institutions (especially the European Commission and the European Parliament). Taking the discourse-analytical perspective (Reisigl and Wodak 2001; Wodak 2011) and working with a qualitative dataset of official pronouncements vis-à-vis the UK-EU security relationship, the study surveys the communicative treatment of the de-/re-engagement during three key phases: 1) the withdrawal process (2016-2019); 2) the transition period (2020); 3) post-transition period (since 2021), thereby allowing for temporal comparisons. By doing so, the inquiry provides critical insights into how the key actors have made sense of the Brexit de-/re-engagement and legitimised, through language, their perspectives thereof in a bid to shape the impact of Brexit in this policy field.
Author: Monika Brusenbauch Meislová (Masaryk University) -
Cybersecurity stands out in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement as one of the few areas earmarked for special cooperation in the context of the new UK-EU relationship post-Brexit (TCA, 2020: Part IV, Title II). This prioritisation of cybersecurity reflects, not only the cross-border nature of cyber threats and challenges, but also the continued political willingness to address these threats through cooperation, the depoliticised and technical character of this policy field, and the mutual respect for UK and EU expertise and capabilities (Wolff, Picquet and Carrapico, forthcoming; Walden and Michels, 2021). One would therefore expect to observe a pattern of continued engagement in the area, despite the UK’s now ‘outsider’ status in much of the EU’s formal cybersecurity institutional architecture. We argue, however, that Increased tensions derived from the politicization of the TCA negotiation and implementation, the turn to and emergence of competing security agreements, and the gradual erosion of trust between the EU and UK government, have come to dominate the tone of the UK-EU relationship. In this context we assert that this has implications for the direction of travel of the future cybersecurity relationship, how we can characterise engagement in this policy area, and subsequently, how we can explain the efficacy of any future arrangements for jointly addressing shared cybersecurity threats and challenges. More specifically, we argue that these increased tensions are pushing UK-EU cybersecurity relations in the direction of further selectivity and differentiation within the depth, scope and forms of cooperation in the field.
Authors: Helena Farrand Carrapico (Northumbria University) , George Christou (Warwick University) -
The regulation of content disseminated online by states, organisations and individuals serves as an effective example of de-engagement in EU-UK security relations. Both the EU and UK perceive communications such as disinformation, extremist media and algorithmically-generated content as presenting security threats. However, despite surface-level similarities in the regulation of this content being demonstrated by the EU and UK, this article will demonstrate that this is an area of increasing divergence, underscored by contrasting philosophies on what content to regulate, and how. It argues that where the EU is focusing on broader security threats to societies on a collective level, the UK is more concerned with threats to individuals, and while the EU is predominantly concerned with combating disinformation, the UK specifically excludes it from its regulatory approach. With this divergence taking place in the context of an increasingly politicised and contentious relationship, this de-emgagement could facilitate further mistrust and inability to manage security threats.
Author: Benjamin Farrand (University of Newcastle)
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Panel / The International Political Economy of Development Collingwood, Civic CentreSponsor: International Political Economy Working GroupConvener: IPEG Working groupChair: Ben Richardson (University of Warwick)
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New states often find themselves highly dependent on a single commodity for revenue mobilization. This is not surprising given that control over valuable resources was often a key strategic objective of independence movement itself. But the literature has thus far neglected to explain how this reliance affects subsequent development and what accounts for the differences among states. Rentier state and resource curse theories simply predict that countries will experience authoritarianism, conflict, and underdevelopment. Yet, the political outcomes of young extreme rentier states vary substantially in practice, even among states with broadly similarly characteristics. Through a comparative case study of Timor-Leste and South Sudan, two young nations in which the discovery of oil preceded independence, we explore why this is the case. We find that the ideological commitments of the independence movement, the political and legal institutions established, the nature of political competition, as well as the approaches of external actors have dramatic consequences within the overarching confines of resource dependence. This highlights the importance of institutional design, ideology/norms, and constructive international engagement.
Author: Geoffrey Swenson (City, University of London) -
Since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, China’s infrastructure diplomacy in developing regions has generated growing interest. Most studies, however, focus on China’s geopolitical and economic goals and therefore overlook the agency of recipient countries. Addressing this gap, this paper presents a framework to analyze the way in which Latin American countries shape Chinese infrastructure projects in the region. To do so, it draws from two qualitative case studies, Argentina and Ecuador, based on interviews and the analysis of primary and secondary sources. The framework (inspired by Putnam’s two-level game) is based on three key elements 1) leaders’ ideas about development, 2) the strength of domestic businesses and institutions and 3) the country’s needs for financing and technology. It argues that the characteristics of Chinese projects (location, scale, role of domestic labor and corporations, financing conditions) are not an imposition from Beijing, but the result of complex interactions between Latin American actors and Chinese corporations, bans and government entities. This paper shows that the implications of China’s infrastructure diplomacy cannot be studied in a vacuum, but must be rooted in the institutional, ideational and socioeconomic structures of recipient countries.
Author: Bruno Binetti (LSE) -
The paper answers to a key research question: Why does China (continue to) engage with multilateral development finance institutions (MDFIs) despite the effectiveness and convenience in reaching national political and economic objectives through bilateral overseas development lending? The existing literatures of international development finance tend to distinguish China’s bilateral development lending, sourced from its various domestic financial institutions to the developing world, from its participation in MDFIs such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The former is often regarded as the Chinese state’s aggressive and self-serving outward expansion that challenges the liberal international order. Whereas the latter is considered as Beijing’s subjection to the western-led Bretton Woods system and that it is being socialised into the liberal economic norms. The dichotomy between describing China as either a ‘revisionist’ power or ‘status quo’ supporter does not help us understand its strategic engagement in bilateral and multilateral development finance mechanisms simultaneously.
This paper shows how a nuanced study of key domestic Chinese actors’ participation in both bilateral and multilateral development finance can effectively help us understand the country’s role in the international development finance regime. More specifically, the paper specifies top political leaders, minister-level state agencies, provincial governments, policy banks, state-owned commercial banks, non-bank financial institutions, non-financial SOEs, and private companies’ respective participation in both bilateral and multilateral development finance cooperation, the challenges they face in bilateral lending, and how they pursue ‘efficiency’ and ‘strategic’ gains through engaging with the MDFIs. It argues that the domestic Chinese actors adopt a comprehensive participating approach to international development finance. They do not choose between either bilateral or multilateral approach to overseas development activities. Instead, they engage in both, the extent to which depending on their respective political and commercial interests as well as their ‘efficiency’ and ‘strategic’ needs.
Author: Jue Wang (Leiden University)
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Panel / The Role of Actors in Foreign Policy Change Armstrong, Civic CentreSponsor: Foreign Policy Working GroupConvener: FPWG Working groupChair: Cornelia Baciu (University of Copenhagen)Discussant: Cornelia Baciu (University of Copenhagen)
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While the Indian nuclear tests (1998) heralded the ‘Second Nuclear Age’, the India-USA Nuclear Agreement (2008) marked the reorientation of the global nuclear order; these portended profound repercussions on international relations and epitomized the confluence of global and domestic factors. However, extant approaches are circumscribed by linear classifications between domestic and external processes and provide partial explanation for Indian nuclear behaviour. India is in certain ways an outlier case in nuclear issues, and the paper investigates Indian nuclear decision-making through a Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) prism by leveraging previously unexamined primary sources. To that end, Bayesian reasoning is utilised to perform process tracing and insights from international relations, security studies, diplomatic history and comparative politics integrated to explain these episodic transformations. Such an exercise, contests prevailing theoretical assumptions, connects domestic politics to the nuclear sphere, and contextualises nuclear policymaking in India – an emerging power with significant stake in the global nuclear order.
Authors: Shounak Set (KCL) , Shounak Set (kcl)* -
This paper extends the use of role theory to narrow social contexts. Role theory is extensively used to explain individual foreign policy (FP) decisions, broad international positions of states, or long-term patterns of FP behaviour. However, role theory has yet to focus on narrow social contexts of specific issue areas. This paper uses role theory to reveal how beliefs about specific FP issue areas unfold in patterns of FP behaviour. The use of narrative methodology centralises actor experiences with a specific issue area and identifies the international narration of an actor’s role. This narrow approach to roles is applied to the case of British FP behaviours emerging from its understandings of Russian digital disinformation. Russian digital disinformation is applied because it is an evolving technological challenge that must be continually reinterpreted by the UK. Evolving British understandings produce roles specific to itself, Russia, and digital disinformation, setting expectations for patterns of future FP behaviours. These roles can refer to proximity to other actors, responsibility, status, and capabilities.
Keywords: Foreign Policy Analysis, Role Theory, British Foreign Policy, Russian Digital Disinformation
Author: Sean Garrett (University of Bath) -
This paper introduces a “leader-centered framework of foreign policy change.” The framework seeks to account for the role of leaders in bringing about major redirections in a country’s foreign policy, in the sense of broader substantive reorientations that entail multiple decisions in its implementation. More specifically, the framework highlights the possible independent and systematic effect of leaders on both the direction of foreign policy change (substance) and the way foreign policy change is brought about in the domestic political arena (process). The framework is distinct from alternative frameworks in that it evolves around individual leaders and, in doing so, systemically incorporates insights from the Public Policy literature. This paper applies the framework to account for a major reorientation in Western Germany’s foreign policy towards the Eastern bloc, in form of Willy Brandt’s “Eastern Policy” (Ostpolitik).
Author: Brummer Klaus (Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt) -
After 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) attributed a special role to former Soviet Union and, after its dissolution, to the Russian Federation (RF) in its foreign policy. These discourses included two main groups of historical analogies. The first one was related to the Second World War experience and the FRG's responsibility for the war crimes. Whereas the second was linked to the experience of economic cooperation during the 'cold war'. The narratives are still powerful in German politics, when it comes to Russia and cooperation with Moscow in different sectors.
Against this background, it is necessary to look into following research questions:
1. Why is the issue of 'historical responsibility' toward Russia still influential FRG's foreign policy?
2. To what extent can the 'cooperative discourses' on cold war experience be treated as factors stimulating continuity in Germany's Russia policy?
3. Is there a potential of a narrative change within the historical plane of the FRG's foreign policy toward Russia?
The review of these topics enables to understand the nature of continuity within FRG's Russia policy after the German re-unification. The assessment is done basing on the methodology of foreign policy analysis reflecting the issue of 'analogical thinking' in foreign policy. Within the paper, key foreign policy documents and speeches of foreign policy decision-makers of the FRG with regard to Russia will be analyzed. On the results of this review, it will be determined to what extent the narratives on historical memory are powerful within the framework of Germany's Russia policy, and to what extent they could be assessed as cooperative ones.
Key words: Germany, Russia, foreign policy, continuity, analogical reasoningAuthor: Viktor Savinok
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Panel / The Cultural Politics of Empathy in War and Memory Swan, Civic CentreSponsor: Emotions in Politics and International Relations Working GroupConvener: Naomi Head (University of Glasgow)Chair: Alister Wedderburn (University of Glasgow)Discussant: Alister Wedderburn (University of Glasgow)
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The ability to kill in war has often been attributed to propaganda that has made the enemy subhuman, or to technology which has placed the enemy at a more comfortable distance. This paper, however, traces an alternative trajectory of feeling for the enemy as a ‘strange friend’ as Wilfred Owen famously put it, in which enmity is swiftly transformed into forms of fellow feeling. As Owen’s work suggests, and a wealth of other soldier writings confirm, intimacy with the enemy is not necessarily a barrier to killing him. Taking Owen and his influences as a focal point, this paper considers encounters with the enemy in literature, philosophy, and soldiers’ life writings. I seek to explore the range of work done by announcements of feeling for the enemy both to challenge and enable militarism.
Author: Holly Furneaux (Cardiff University) -
How do we enter the discipline of IR as sensing and sense-making living beings and what affective landscapes do we move through as we encounter and work through questions of the ‘political’? Students’ learning journeys in the discipline often revolve around the norm of ‘objectivity’ – as a particular, affective yet dispassionate mode of relating to the subject matter – as a trade-off between recognition and connectedness, status and solidarity, visibility and social change. Drawing on experimental pedagogical research the paper sets out to both narrate and theorize pedagogical practice as a continuing self-reflexive journey in constant negotiation of student experience, learning needs and professional ambitions, especially when it comes to the study of statecraft, war, violence and the lives of ‘others’. It focuses on how transformational experiences may be curated within the field of IR by cultivating an approach to text, ‘theory,’ representations and everyday practices that is sensitive to the complex life worlds and practices of their origins, and equally, appreciative of the life worlds and practices of their reception.
Author: Erzsébet Strausz (Central European University) -
The “hearts and minds” agenda of contemporary counterinsurgency explicitly located war in cultural and affective terrain, setting up imagined geographic and cultural dichotomies between the West and its ‘enemies’ in so doing. What emerges from the population-centric COIN doctrine brought to bear in Iraq and Afghanistan by the U.S. military and its allies is a deeply affective project. Examining U.S. military programmes such as the Human Terrain System and Female Engagement Teams through a range of first-hand participant and documentary accounts reveals a range of affective relations embedded within a complex militarised political project. By asking ‘feeling what for whom?’, this paper explores the everyday politics of empathy contained within the urgent political demand for more adequate socio-cultural understanding of the Iraqi and Afghan ‘other’ to support the military in their mission. It also examines the argument that ‘hearts and minds’ represents a ‘kinder’ and ‘gentler’ way of fighting war, thus seeking to re-orient our attention to the forms of violence that are written out of the cultural narrative of population-centric counterinsurgency.
Author: Naomi Head (University of Glasgow) -
Collective punishment and the distortion of accountability: locating empathy in pre-colonial and land-based communities
Author: Catherine Chiniara Charrett (University of Westminster)
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Roundtable / Towards Hybridity in the Protection of Civilians Martin Luther King, Student Centre
This roundtable will explore Protection of Civilians (PoC) activities, focusing on how we can better understand processes of implementation, contestation and adaption in areas of violent conflict. The roundtable will link civilian protection with the concept of 'hybridity', a term used in the peacebuilding field, to better understand the evolving flexibility of models of civilian protection. The roundtable forms part of an ESRC/IRC funded project which brings academic, practitioners and policymakers together to explore such issues.
Sponsor: Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Working GroupChair: David Curran (Coventry University)Participants: Walt Kilroy (Dublin City University) , Roger Mac Ginty (Durham University) , David Curran (Coventry University) , Kseniya Oksamytna (City, University of London / King's College London) , Nina Wilén (Lund University) -
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/ Critical Studies on Terrorism Working Group Meeting Armstrong, Civic Centre
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12:15
Lunch: SPONSORED BY REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY Banqueting Hall, Civic Centre
Banqueting Hall, Civic Centre
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158
/ BISA 2022 Prize Giving Ceremony Council Chamber, Civic Centre
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159
Roundtable / BISA Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working Group Prize Panel Collingwood, Civic Centre
CPD prize roundtable
Sponsor: Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working GroupChair: Martin Coward (Review of International Studies)Participants: Maia Entwistle (Queen Mary London) , Sharri Plonski (Queen Mary University of London) , Jenna Marshall (Kings College London) , Asma Abdi (Warwick University) , Nivi Manchanda (Queen Mary University of London) -
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Panel / Contemporary Views of a Changing World Order Carloil, Civic CentreSponsor: Foreign Policy Working GroupConvener: FPWG Working groupChair: Marianna Charountaki (University of Lincoln)Discussant: Marianna Charountaki (University of Lincoln)
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Both Russia and the UK have been present in the African continent for many centuries, however, they never competed for power, lands, etc. directly. The history of Russian presence in Africa is lesser-known, however – excluding the vast literature on Soviet and Post-soviet foreign policy projects. The importance of revisiting the tools available to and exploited by Russia in Africa became vivid after the 2014-2015 upsurge of “sanctions war” between Russia and “The West”, as Russian companies had to speedily find new partners to satisfy both the needs of the domestic market and not to lose the gross export volumes of Russian state-run and commercial enterprises. Africa seemed to be “a new old partner” that ideally fit these needs, so the regional focus of Russian policy abroad started to shift towards the African continent quite quickly – the Sochi Russia-Africa Summit 2019 brought great success and publicity to it and yet another one is planned for 2022 already. The UK, in its turn, has been a traditional player and partner in African economies for centuries. This paper seeks to compare the geopolitical and economic activities employed by Russia and the UK in the 21st century in Tropical Africa to understand their major areas of national interest, trade, and development aid partners in the continent. Special attention is attached to post-2014\5 events, as the “sanctions’ war” and hostile rhetoric between Russia, the US, UK, and the EU has triggered Russian activities in Africa.
Author: Natalia Piskunova (Moscow State University) -
This paper seeks to discuss the Brazilian diplomatic capacities and their influence on the foreign policy contents from a comparative perspective. The excellence of Brazilian diplomatic service is well known, a condition underlined both in academic texts and in political and diplomatic circles. In fact, Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Itamaraty) stands out for its quality and professionalization, bringing together all the conditions pointed out in the literature as characteristics of the concept of bureaucratic quality, namely: meritocracy, prediction, long-term careers, rules of inclusion and exclusion that prevent arbitrary substitutions, internal promotion, professionals able to act as experts or as generalists, professionals protected from external influences, control through legal and administrative rules. As underlined by the literature on state capacities, however, bureaucratic capacities are a process and their permanence in time is therefore variable. Likewise governments design different objectives - both domestic and foreign - for the state using their current capacities to implement them or trying to create new ones. Based on the debate on state capacities and on the premise of their transience as well as the transience of the objectives pursued by the state, this paper seeks to compare the reforms in Itamaraty organizational structure carried out during the Luiz Inácio “Lula”da Silva (2013-2010), Dilma Roussef (2011-2016), Michel Temer (2016-18), and the ongoing Jair Bolsonaro government (2019-2022) and their association with the main foreign policy goals of each government.
Authors: Leticia Pinheiro (IESP-UERJ) , Leandro Wolpert dos Santos* -
On August 15, 2021, Taliban fighters carrying their white flags sworn Kabul’s entry points and within hours they seized the presidential palace. Ghani: “the president on the run”, maintained a delusional stance to his American allies and advisors that we can fight Taliban. But he left whiplashed capital to its new masters and paved the way for a humiliating, destructive and chaotic termination of American adventures in Afghanistan. Afghanistan witnessed a Saigon 2.0, after American air force left Kabul, leaving behind its Afghan allies, US citizens and allies at the mercy of Taliban government.
The gap which this research aims to highlight, and address is that U.S invested over $1000 billion (2001-2020) on intelligence, security infrastructure and capacity building of Afghanistan. America also maintained a public discourse on these efforts as a warfare strategy to counter Taliban’s capability of waging asymmetric warfare and to resist their advances and control in countryside. However, this research is of the view that, a calamitous military and intelligence catastrophe in Afghanistan is also a sobering reminder that American diplomatic and military presence to generate, evaluate and implement ground intelligence and boots on the grounds in challenging battle fields of asymmetric warfare like Afghanistan isn’t productive.
Thus, to understand Taliban resistance and failure of American diplomacy, intelligence and military strategy, this qualitative inquiry has used discourse analysis to find answers from the military and unconventional warfare perspective of international relations. The research found key success factors of Taliban resistance as such: ideological recruitments, branding and marketing of Taliban’s jihad, covert intelligence and capability of Pakistan’s intelligence and military support of Taliban. The research concludes on “What went wrong in Afghanistan “by pinpointing the flaws in U. S’s strategic understanding of asymmetric warfare, failed application of intelligence warfare, security paranoid diplomacy, disconnected and gated American embassies and tactical level reluctance for boots on the grounds.Authors: Mudassir Farooqi (Forman Christian College (A Chartered University), Pakistan) , Muhammad Younas (Forman Christian College)* -
Although populism can be defined as a political practice, a discursive strategy, or an ideology, it is mainly connected to domestic politics in mainstream research. There are only a few examples of evidence-based analysis of the populism-foreign policy nexus. Exceptionally scarce are investigations on how populist elements are involved in different Middle Eastern actors’ political and discursive practices.
For a case study of the populism-foreign policy nexus, the rhetoric of the Turkish government after the break of relations with the Syrian government in the Autumn of 2011 will be analyzed. The subsequent period is exciting as it witnesses the recalibration of the theoretical foundations of Turkish foreign policy towards Syria. These issues are connected to the general question of how Turkish foreign policy resolved the dilemma between values (democracy, human rights) and interests (influence, pragmatic bilateral relations)? The research aims to present a detailed analysis of the rhetorical campaign in Turkey concerning the first year of the Syrian crisis. Analyses of the populism-foreign policy nexus tend to explain longer processes and phenomena; instead, this paper will pay attention to the close reading of the foreign policy discourse of Ankara until around mid-2012.Author: Tamas Dudlak (Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest)
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Panel / Defence Reform and Military Transformation in a Changing World: Cross-regional Approaches to Military Change Daniel Wood, Student UnionSponsor: War Studies Working GroupConveners: Mehmet Sahin (King's College London) , Tamiris Santos (UFRGS) , Raphael Lima (King's College London) , Linus Terhorst (King's College London, Defence Studies Department) , Lucie Pebay (University of Bath)Chair: Onur Kara (King's College London)
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The proposed paper identifies the paradox that Germany’s increased geopolitical ambition has not led to reformulating its military procurement policy successfully to live up to this. The Bundeswehr’s equipment situation is lagging behind the politically formulated aim of increased German participation in the transatlantic and European security architecture. Thus, the question how Germany has made procurement policy choices over the past decade concerns greater questions of international order and stability. Consequently, the proposed paper’s central question asks why this gap between political ambition and procurement policy existed throughout the 2010s. The aim of answering this question is to gain a better understanding of German policymaking and therefore Germany’s national political limitations when addressing contemporary challenges to the international security architecture. The proposed paper situates this question in theories on military innovation, strategic culture, and bureaucratic behaviour. This leads to a focus on stakeholders’ relationships in the military policy arena. The paper develops a research approach to qualify how stakeholders’ relationships influence policy reform. The paper approaches these questions through a thematic analysis of elite interviews with stakeholders in Germany’s procurement policy that are triangulated with other sources to aggregate their mutual relationships’ impact on policymaking.
Author: Linus Terhorst (King's College London, Defence Studies Department) -
How are insurgents conceptualised in counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrines, and how are these understandings generated? Emerging classifications in the academic literature highlight the agency of and variations between different types of armed groups – whether partners (militias) or contenders (rebels) of the state – in their political contexts. Works on COIN doctrines recognise that a number of internal and external factors influence doctrinal formulation and implementation. Surprisingly however, there have been no attempts to compare how counterinsurgents’ understandings of rebel organisations shape the formulation and implementation of counterinsurgency doctrines themselves.
This paper begins addressing this gap, exploring the factors that shaped how understandings of rebel groups were integrated into five US counterinsurgency manuals: FMI3-07-22 Counterinsurgency Operations (2004), FM3-24 Counterinsurgency (2006), JP3-24 Counterinsurgency (2009), the US Government Counterinsurgency Guide (2009) and the revised FM3-24 Insurgencies and Countering Insurgencies (2014). Drawing upon novel interview data with military, civilian and technical experts involved in the doctrinal development process, we uncover variations in the ways rebel organisations are integrated across COIN doctrine-making processes. The paper makes an original, policy relevant, contribution to the study of the transferal and creation of knowledge and its incorporation into counterinsurgency doctrines, through understanding the biases, constraints and politics of this process.
Authors: Alex Waterman (German Institute for Global and Area Studies) , James Worrall (University of Leeds)* -
Despite a complex and rapidly evolving security context, France has not altered its ambitious strategic agenda – broadly defined by French autonomy, European leadership and global influence – or redefined its supporting offensive doctrine. Instead, it seeks to transform its military to meet emerging challenges whilst maintaining its grand strategy. I explore the tensions between French strategic ambition and force design and provide an in-depth case study investigating the endogenous and exogenous dynamics driving and shaping French transformation. To provide a comprehensive answer to the core question ‘why and how France is transforming its army?’, I use OST (Ontological Security Theory), the end ways and means model and interview-based qualitative research. My investigation aims to better understand French strategic goals by analysing its strategic culture through an OST lens; identify the major transformations remodelling the land army to meet these goals and see how these are perceived and integrated by the force. The analysis is articulated around several structuring themes including (1) drivers and shapers of transformation; (2) dynamics of continuity and change (3) temporality and transformation; and (3) network and transformation.
Author: Lucie Pebay (University of Bath) -
Authoritarian breakdowns prompt institutional change in militaries in the form of resource allocations, political centrality, and military doctrine. These critical junctures, however, remain poorly understood and often demonstrate contradictions: democratic reform programs may increase authoritarian coercive capacity, officers find themselves further politicised, and the process of change involves substantial trial-and-error. While the extant literature emphasises threat perception and international cooperation as the leading explanations for change, institutionalist scholarship has the potential to provide more insight into these processes. Using post-authoritarian Tunisia as its case study, this paper aims to provide an account of Tunisian military transformation since 2011. Albeit a relatively small force, the Tunisian military today is a very different organisation compared to the marginalised and largely ineffective army under Ben Ali’s authoritarian regime. Based on in-country fieldwork and elite interviews, the paper argues that the Tunisian military has experienced a form of lopsided growth which demonstrates problems with designing institutional change in a transitional setting, including an over-emphasis on special forces, persistent recruitment problems, and selective borrowing of the US military doctrine. As such, the paper aims to contribute to the small but growing literature on MENA militaries, and the literature on coercive institutions in general.
Author: Onur Kara (King's College London)
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Panel / Early Warning and Mass Atrocity Prevention Armstrong, Civic CentreSponsor: Intervention and Responsibility to Protect Working GroupConvener: IR2P Working groupChair: James Pattison (University of Manchester)
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Lack of early warning of the Rwandan genocide was instrumental in the failure of the international community to respond to this crisis. Since then the norm of civilian protection has gained strength and the UN has enhanced its capacity for early warning by increasing staffing as well as developing a framework of analysis specifically for atrocity crimes. However, to date, there has been no systematic study of the evolution and practice of mass atrocity early warning within the United Nations Secretariat, and the impact this has had on UN-led responses to impending and unfolding cases of mass atrocity crimes. Funded by the British Academy, we analyse the evolution of early warning within the UN Secretariat and how the Secretariat responded (or failed to respond) to escalating violence in Rwanda, Darfur, and Cote d’Ivoire to assess the Secretariat’s capacity to respond to future global challenges. The research demonstrates incremental shifts in capacity within the UN Secretariat since the end of the Cold War and highlights remaining limitations.
Authors: Stephen McLoughlin (Coventry University) , Jess Gifkins (University of Manchester)* -
After Covid-19, international relations have changed. The members of the international community have experienced a challenge that reminded them we all are fragile as human beings. However, every country had different experiences facing the virus and the challenges that it brought, this is to say, security, financial and social matters. Notwithstanding, states had to act together for the creation and distribution of the different vaccines to recover a minimum part of the World we used to live in. Would the international community have the same will to stop mass atrocities around the world? This paper argues that international relations are stepping on a new era: the era of cosmopolitism and digitalisation. Thus, to create an effective vaccine against mass atrocities, states must bring to the table the new subjects of international law such as international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and people. To be able to achieve this objective, the United Nations, particularly, the Security Council (as the one whose responsibility is to keep international peace and security) must apply transparency, citizen participation, and collaboration as guiding principles taking advantage of the new technologies to develop an Open Security Council. All in all, this paper argues that to have an effective application of the R2P, as the mass atrocities vaccine, the Security Council must become an Open organ with a cosmopolitan perspective.
Keywords: Responsibility to protect, open government, security council, cosmopolitanism,
Author: María Fernanda Arreguín Gámez (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) -
William Zartman’s ‘ripeness’ theory says that parties to a violent conflict will not negotiate sincerely in the absence of a mutually hurting stalemate (MHS). In such circumstances, Zartman recommends a mediator employ coercion by escalating the conflict into a MHS, but the concept is not fully elaborated. Building on Zartman, this paper specifies a new theory of ‘muscular mediation’, defined as a powerful mediator using coercion to achieve a mutual compromise that it formulates. The theory is evaluated in three cases from the 1990s: Bosnia, Rwanda, and Kosovo. The paper finds that muscular mediation can work but also may backfire by magnifying violence against civilians, especially when all of three adverse conditions are present: (1) the coerced agreement threatens a vital interest of a party; (2) that party has the potential to escalate violence against the opposing side’s civilians; (3) the muscular mediator does not deploy sufficient military forces to deter or prevent such escalation. The paper also explores why muscular mediation has been pursued under such adverse conditions. It concludes with advice for prospective muscular mediators.
Author: Alan Kuperman (University of Texas at Austin) -
An Ounce of Prevention or a Pound of Reaction: The Responsibility to Protect and Atrocity Prevention
This paper considers whether states should prioritize preventing or reacting to mass atrocities. Should states focus on preventing the outbreak of atrocities in one at-risk location or should they instead react to atrocities that are already being perpetrated elsewhere? We defend strongly the case for prevention ideally: it is typically cheaper, less risky, less controversial, and thus less morally fraught than reactive measures, especially coercive reactive measures such as economic sanctions or military interventions that are commonly called for to end atrocities. And yet, prioritizing prevention over reaction could appear callous. It could leave those who are currently enduring atrocities to suffer their fate. The so-called ‘Rule of Rescue’ is a principle commonly advanced to defend prioritizing the assistance of those in immediate peril, even when this may be a suboptimal means of saving lives. We reject three versions of the ‘Rule of Rescue’, arguing that prevention in one place ought ideally to be favored over less effective reaction elsewhere, despite the urgent claims of the latter. We then argue, that nonideally there can be three reasons to pursue the suboptimal option of reacting to the perpetration of atrocities: because prevention can often be politically fraught and practically difficult too; because political leaders may be motivated and/or receive electoral backing for reaction to atrocities when there is no such support for directing resources toward prevention; and because perceived callousness in the face of atrocities can undermine international normative support for human protection. But we conclude by reiterating that preventive efforts should generally be favoured.
Author: James Pattison (University of Manchester)
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Panel / Feminist Foreign Policy - Interrogating a Developing Idea Council Chamber, Civic CentreSponsor: Gendering International Relations Working GroupConveners: Jennifer Thomson (University of Bath) , Clara Eroukhmanoff (LSBU)Chair: Clara Eroukhmanoff (LSBU)
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has engaged late with the global push towards feminist foreign policy (FFP). Recent calls for NATO to adopt a FFP emerge against a backdrop of an increasing number of member and partner states adopting their own FFPs (Canada, France, Spain, Sweden), while others role back their commitment to women’s rights (Hungary and Turkey). Yet, NATO is a political-military alliance whose very purpose runs counter to critical feminist praxis. Drawing on a critical feminist security studies framework we contextualise calls for FFP against recent NATO policy turns, drawing out inconsistencies to deconstruct contemporary developments in NATO militarism. We also make a distinction between NATO’s established work on Women, Peace and Security and the FFP framework, arguing that the former provides better potential for challenging the white supremacist heteropatriarchal logic underpinning NATO as an institution. In so doing we consider what purpose this push for a NATO FFP serves, and for whom, the contradictions underpinning it and the potential (un)intended repercussions.
Authors: Katharine Wright (Newcastle University) , Annika Bergman Rosamond (Lund University) -
In 2018, France officially vowed to promote gender equality as its primary international strategy in diplomacy. This move towards a French version of Feminist Foreign Policy was in line with other ‘good citizen’ states like Sweden and Canada who declared a similar agenda in 2014 and 2017 respectively. Yet France has not been immune to the regressive anti-gender movements that have swathed the world in the last decade. Indeed, efforts to counter the “gender ideology” have gained grounds in France with the help of campaigns like “Manif pour Tous”. This chapter questions French feminist diplomacy in light of the rise and success of anti-gender developments in France. I examine the performativity of French feminist foreign policy and show that, following the work of Judith Butler and John Austin, to say that France adopts a feminist diplomacy also does things. I argue that French feminist diplomacy allows to do three things. First, it elevates France as a gender-equal society, despite massive opposition to the questioning of the ‘natural’ order of sex and gender and the ascent of anti-genderism. Second, this agenda allows to externalize gender equality to countries of the Global South (especially in ‘Francophone Africa’). Finally, drawing on Farris’ concept of “femonationalism”, the chapter demonstrates that France’s mobilization of feminist ideas serves Islamophobic and imperialist international agendas.
Author: Clara Eroukhmanoff (LSBU) -
A few number of states in the international system have established a feminist foreign policy (FFP) that promises a change to the ways the foreign policy of the state is being conducted. The implementation of an FFP by states follows the new and still in flux international norm feminism. While feminist advocators have promoted the benefits of having a feminist agenda in foreign policy, the process by which countries decide and choose to adopt a feminist foreign policy remains unclear. Why do some states have chosen to adopt an FFP? How do domestic and international actors create and navigate the existing conditions to set up a feminist foreign policy? To what extent does a FFP induce change in the whole foreign policy of the state? Mapping out the process in terms of actors, conditions and contexts are key to understand how some states develop a new foreign policy area and deal with changing patterns in the foreign policy apparatus of the state. The decision of a new area of foreign policy is not exempt of political conflicts, and interests that can either facilitate or hamper the adoption of a FFP and thus explain a resultant central or peripherical importance in the foreign policy making process. This paper uses two different cases: one that has already developed and implemented a set of conceptions and practices of FFP such as Sweden, and another case in which recent domestic political transformations have created the necessary political space to adopt a FFP such as Chile.
Authors: Jennifer Thomson (University of Bath)* , Leslie Wehner (University of Bath)
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Panel / From Order to Peace? Debating (and Comparing) Local Ordering and Actor Constellations across Eurasia Martin Luther King, Student UnionSponsor: Russian and Eurasian Security Working GroupConvener: Philipp Lottholz (CRC "Dynamics of Security")Chair: Katarina Kusic (University of Bremen)Discussant: Katarina Kusic (University of Bremen)
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Throughout the history of modern Afghanistan, women’s bodies have acted as the stage for the state to manifest political change and societal reform. With a distinctively similar manner, the 2001 Western intervention to Afghanistan was justified with the rhetoric of “saving the Afghan women”. My research aims to investigate how the Finnish development aid in Afghanistan has taken into consideration women and girls, and how large a portion of the Finnish ODA has been directly allocated to projects for women/girls. Furthermore, I aim to discover what kind of gender thinking the official rhetoric has represented, and how this has correlated with aid allocation. Eventually, I aim to draw conclusions about the impacts of aid in Afghanistan.
My research aims to start filling the gap of missing academic research on Finnish aid to Afghanistan, explore critically both the distribution of aid to gender-sensitive projects and the self-evaluative reports of aid agencies and governments, furthermore, contributing to the larger literature on development and (feminist) gender studies. I will utilise a mixed methods approach in combining statistical data on development aid distribution, governmental documentation and other qualitative material with interviews conducted in Finland and Afghanistan.Author: Ilona Kuusi (Helsinki University) -
Urban spaces and societies serve as primary sites for realising grand projects of development, civilisation and progress. Accordingly, cities are a nodal point within contemporary global capitalist regimes as they serve as testing ground for innovations across technological, political and organisational fields. In this paper, we inquire this intersection through the study of so-called “Safe City” projects, which, notwithstanding their seemingly simple goal of providing a safe environment for residents, yield much more ambiguous insights at closer sight. We develop a feminist perspective on security embedded in a wider critique of infrastructures and urban policy regimes that is applied to the travelling and various iterations of ‘Safe Cities’ from the Israeli to the Central Asian context.
Our empirical analysis thus first traces the emergence and global spread of ‘Safe City’ projects from Israeli security firms and their global partnerships alongside other leading proponents. Second, we analyse concepts, policy measures and technologies employed in the Central Asian cases of Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) and Almaty (Kazakhstan). Besides societal commentary and debate on these efforts, we examine initiatives and programmes that identify and address communities and groups that have been excluded from these grand schemes, such as informal or ‘new settlements’ at the urban margins or children and youth. In conclusion, we highlight that the primary focus on compatibility with business and public policy interests foregrounds the elitist and exclusionary nature of ‘Safe Cities’, but also opens up debates on more representative conceptions of security and wellbeing.Author: Philipp Lottholz (CRC "Dynamics of Security") -
It became common knowledge that international organisations (IOs) are struggling with the
issue of local ownership in their peacebuilding and development interventions worldwide.
This happens despite the ‘local turn’ which gained momentum in recent years in peacebuilding research and practice. Drawing on and adding to the post-liberal debate, this paper argues that this continued failure needs to be seen in the context of multiple and diverse forms of ordering, namely structured and structuring processes of meaning-making and social interactions. The type of ordering with characterises IOs and their interventions can hardly be reconciled with processes of local ordering emerging from the ground in communities which are targeted through internationally funded projects. The paper compares these two ordering mechanisms by focusing on their four specific components: cultural beliefs and norms, everyday practices, institutions and issues of power. To illustrate this argument, the paper refers to the case of Central Asia and provides examples from fieldwork in this region.Author: Karolina Kluczewska (Ghent Institute for International and European Studies, Ghent University,) -
The post-liberal debate on peacebuilding has acknowledged that in their everyday lives people often manage to cope with and curtail minor tensions, even under circumstances of precarity. Building upon Ethnographic Peace Research and Critical Peace Studies this paper
asks if and how international organisations (IOs) could better support peaceful local ordering. Instead of approaching local-international interaction through the paradigm of the order of self it proposes in-depth ethnographic exploration and understanding of everyday local ordering and peace. Emphasizing the relevance of informality, relationality, translation, mutual learning, collaboration and decentralisation, it warns of neglecting local capacities and issues of (inter)national power. Engaging ethnographic knowledge it demonstrates pros and cons of the liberal peace approach in the case of everyday interactions of Armenians and Azerbaijanis at the Sadakhlo border bazaar in Georgia amidst and in the aftermath of the first Karabakh war. The paper draws attention to the organisation of everyday bazaar relationships and demonstrates how and why international peace-building excluded the
agency of Armenian and Azerbaijani petty traders in trans-border cooperation against the logic of ethnonationalist narratives.Authors: Anna Kreikemeyer (Insitute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH)) , Vadim Romashov (Tampere University)
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Panel / Global Defence Policy and Practice Swan, Civic CentreSponsor: War Studies Working GroupConveners: Maryam Nazir , Soul Park (University of East Anglia) , Anit Mukherjee (S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS)) , Malte Riemann (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst)Chair: Claire Yorke (SDU)
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The partnership between India and Japan has fetched some academic attention. However, the transformation of their military and their national security structures has been relatively underexplored. Both militaries have much in common. They face a challenging operational environment, especially with the rise of Chinese military power and its increasing assertiveness. Curiously, both militaries have also had significant civil-military friction with complaints of stifling institutional control. However, over the last decade there has been significant reforms in national security institutions. Both countries now have a National Security Council (NSC) and have brought upon changes in their military command and control structures. What is driving this change and what are its outcome? More specifically, how have such changes affected civilian control and military effectiveness? While answering these questions, this research article compares military transformation and national security reforms in India and Japan. It begins by analyzing the proposed changes and the debates surrounding them. Next, it examines whether civil-military relations, as much of the existing literature suggests, is among the most important driver for this development. Thereafter, it compares the visions of jointness and of joint theater commands in both militaries. It concludes with a broader discussion on what all this means for our understanding of democratic civilian control and the balance of military power in Asia.
Authors: Anit Mukherjee (RSIS, NTU, Singapore) , Bhubhindar Singh (S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS)) -
Global community has recently acknowledged the services of women in security forces yet unable to give them the same opportunities as men. There are only 4.5% female soldiers in People's Liberation Army China, 16% in US Armed Forces and almost 1% in active Military Personnel in Pakistan Armed Forces with a rise of female participation in Pakistan Air Force as Fighter Pilots. All these female soldiers are expected to serve as clerics, computer operators, instructors and trainers to new soldiers. With only 5 Female Major Generals (Two Star Rank) Pakistan Army had its first ever Three Star Rank Female Army personnel in the history of Pakistan Armed Forces when Nigar Johar was promoted as Lieutenant General in 2015. All these high rank Female officers belong to the Army Medical Corps (Nigar Johar becomes Pakistan Army's first female Lieutenant General, June 30, 2020). To put it another way, the term "gender ceiling" refers to the reality that a person who is well-qualified for a position in his or her company is held back by prejudice based on sexism or racism. As a result, the term "glass ceiling" refers to vertical discrimination against women in the workplace. In the Security Policy making process, women should be recognized for their abilities as negotiators. Things are changing, but the pace of this change isn't all that promising at this point. To fill these knowledge gaps and examine effects of gender ceiling theory within security studies and international relations. The present research used an inductive method of inquiry that is populated with more than fifty interviews of women in armed forces and security agencies, the research concludes by presenting an objective and gender based approach of managing diversity in security policy and practice.
Author: Maryam Nazir (Department of Political Science, Forman Christian College.) -
Armed forces around the globe are increasingly investing in education focused defence engagement programs. These programs are aimed at sharing best practices, assist in security sector reform, foster collaborations between host and donor nations, and overall contribute to conflict resolution. As individual state efforts, however, these programs have been criticized for not being integrated into a unified effort across multiple donor nations. However, rather than seeing this lack of unity as an unintended side effect of state practices or the outcome of insufficient communication between donor states, this paper argues that these individually offered programs are an expression of Great Power competition executed via the tool of military education. Specifically medium sized powers, such as the UK, make use of these programs to maintain global influence when budgetary constraints and a willing appetite to engage militarily abroad restrict action. As such, education programs can be read as a non-kinetic aspect of the increasing turn towards forms of ‘remote warfare’. Hence, rather than seeing these uncoordinated efforts as unintentionally produced by state practices and insufficient communication, we argue that this lack of unitary effort is structurally embedded within the rational for such activities.
Authors: Malte Riemann (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst) , Norma Rossi (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst) -
The global arms industry has experienced a major transformation in the post-Cold War era and policymakers predicted the wide-spread adoption of market-enhancing reforms aimed at increasing domestic competition and attracting FDI. However, developments over the past two decades have shown that the globalization of arms production has not necessarily led to a convergence of national defense industries into such a liberal-market model. Drawing on the varieties of capitalism (VoC) literature, recent scholarship has demonstrated how an interdependent web of economic institutions have shaped each country’s response in varied ways. This paper builds upon the VoC literature and argues that hierarchical market economies (HMEs) as a distinct variety of capitalism serve as a better model for non-great power defense industries. We conduct an in-depth case study of South Korea’s defense industry after its adoption of the major reform initiative in 2008 and the subsequent threefold increase in arms exports from 2008 to 2017. That is, we show that the trajectory of South Korea’s defense-industry reform can be seen as the result of an HME’s attempt to adapt to the globalization of arms production in ways that preserve its distinct comparative advantage. We conclude with broad policy implications.
Authors: Soul Park (University of East Anglia) , Chonghyun Choi (National University of Singapore)* -
In Israeli policy-making, national security has often and long been linked to territory. Israelis of divergent ideological outlooks have frequently justified occupation by claiming that strategic depth and a surfeit of territory advances national interests and even promotes peace. But, the dynamics of this perceived territory-security relationship are fluid and inconsistent. Israel’s leaders have argued that leaving an occupied territory would pose an existential threat, only to later order a withdrawal from the same territory. Israel’s elites and public have posited conflicting claims as to whether the continued occupation of, or withdrawal from, a given territory would harm or enhance national security. Correspondingly, this paper explains Israel’s historical withdrawals through the prism of the perceived territory-security relationship. In so doing, it argues that Israel only left territory once a domestic majority perceived that perpetuating an ineffective occupation would harm national security, more than an exit. It delineates the process by which territory loses its attributed security value in three cases of withdrawal: from the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and Southern Lebanon. These findings thus demonstrate that leaving territory, in Israel’s context and beyond, can be an effective policy alternative to perpetuating superannuated occupations that no longer serve national interests.
Author: Rob Geist Pinfold (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
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Panel / Global Intersections – The Governance of Health at the Intersection with Political Economy and the Environment History Room, Student UnionSponsor: Global Health Working GroupConvener: Christopher LongChair: Christopher Long
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Global Public Health Crisis has enflamed due to the outbreak of Covid-19 which has caused immense loss of life and continue to do so. Globally, countries have continued to face shortage of health products and essential medical technology which are necessary to fight. Countries producing essential health products have either banned export or put restriction or raised prices. In contrast, Covid-19 diagnosis, medicines, vaccines, and other medical technologies are urgently needed in right quantities to prevent and constrain several waves of covid globally. Exponential rise in the demand of health products and insufficient supply or no supply has raised questions about effectiveness of Doha Declaration which was negotiated in 2001 between Developed and Developing Countries to thwart such crisis in future. Among all, global vaccination drive is essential to eliminate covid-19 which has been held hostage by vaccine producing countries. This paper seeks to highlight implementation issues or challenges faced by Developing Countries while implementing TRIPS flexibilities recognised by Doha Declaration for accessing health products. Secondly it also highlights the need for temporary TRIPS waiver to enhance availability of vaccines and essential medical products to fight Covid-19 globally.
Author: Krishna Kumar Verma (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) -
Achieving decarbonisation and tackling antibiotic resistance (ABR) represent two interrelated lines of effort: decarbonisation aims to limit increasing temperatures which lead to higher bacterial growth rates as a major mechanism for ABR. These lines of effort also require state action at a global scale. Yet, how to facilitate collective action from individual states in these areas remains an open question. This paper seeks to address in what ways, how, and why states collectively seek to achieve decarbonisation and tackle ABR by examining the contributions of Belgium, Norway, and the Netherlands. Despite their limited influence in global politics, these countries invested heavily in national structures and made significant contributions to international efforts in both areas. Understanding how they contribute to global efforts in achieving decarbonisation and tackling ABR is also of wider relevance given the challenges the global powers face in terms of providing leadership in these domains.
Author: Feyyaz Baris Celik (University of Surrey) -
Whilst the text of the UN Charter outlining the boundaries for collective response and the recognition of threats to international peace and security has not been altered, how states have interpreted this text has evolved significantly over time. This evolution has previously seen the Security Council recognise a range of non-traditional security threats such as HIV/AIDS and Ebola, as directly impacting on international peace and security. Yet in the aftermath of the Security Council’s slow response to the Covid-19 pandemic, there are growing questions surrounding its ability to effectively address new and emerging threats in the 21st century. Building on practice theory research this paper focuses on debates over health and climate-related security threats in order to analyse the development of evolving Charter interpretations which are beginning to shape new fault lines within the Council. Through this analysis, it is argued that Security Council practises remain distinctly fluid, whereby the shift towards a more pluralist international order is now generating further division over what it should mean to support the maintenance of international peace and security. In response, the paper outlines how the Security Council could make better use of the tools at its disposal and thus develop a more proactive approach to threat identification.
Author: Samuel Jarvis (York St John University) -
Although existing studies on global health governance have made a significant contribution to our understandings of global responses to important global health events (such as major disease outbreaks), they have not yet discussed how decisions get made within global health partnerships.
To fill this research gap, this study traces decision-making process in Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) in relation to its involvement, as a co-leader, in global efforts to ensure the fair global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. GAVI is a public-private partnership organisation, created in 2000 to improve global vaccine access. The GAVI Board, the highest decision-making authority in GAVI, is designed to include a wide range of stakeholders (such as donors and recipient countries, civil society, vaccine industry, multilateral health organisations etcetera).
By delving into policy-making mechanisms of GAVI through observation of the GAVI Board’s meetings in 2020 and interviews with GAVI’s policy actors, this study shows how power dynamics among GAVI’s policy actors (the GAVI Secretariat and different stakeholders on the Board) influence GAVI’s policymaking. In particular, it argues that the Board’s discussions are influenced through processes of socialisation through which the interests and identities of Board members are reconstituted.
Author: Minju Jung (University of Sheffield)
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Panel / Interpreting Global Politics Bewick, Civic CentreSponsor: Interpretivism in International Relations Working GroupConvener: IIRG Working groupChair: Ingvild Bode (Associate Professor)
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The article investigates strategies of blame avoidance in the discourse of the Czech Prime Minister (PM), Andrej Babiš, on the conflict-of-interest case over the misuse of European Union (EU) funds. Taking a critical discursive perspective and working with a qualitative dataset of Babiš’s public pronouncements on the conflict of interest in the 2019-2021 period, the study reveals that the conflict of interest case has provided opportunities for the Czech PM to play the multi-dimensional blame game on the EU, orchestrate a discursive battle with the EU and invoke nationalist feelings. The article argues that this discursive patterning signals a departure from his hitherto pragmatic approach to the EU, with Babiš having increasingly radicalized his explicitly exclusionary construction of the EU, promulgating the anti-EU sentiment and countenancing the polarization between the EU on the one hand and the Czech Republic on the other.
Author: Monika Brusenbauch Meislová (Masaryk University) -
The role of popular culture both in the production of, and as a tool to understand, our political realities has prompted a burgeoning range of scholarship in politics and international relations. One of the most significant areas wherein this pervasive form of discourse has the potential to impact a population is through framing. For many decades, the general public’s understanding of the ‘War on Drugs’ has been framed by representations of it in film and television. This paper seeks to demonstrate the manner in which Netflix’s hit show Narcos produced representations of America’s ‘War on Drugs’ and the potential impact of these frames on the American population’s understanding and acceptance of current policies relating to this ‘War’. Emerging research (Adkins & Castle, 2014; Mulligan & Habel, 2011) has demonstrated the power of popular culture to shift an audience’s predispositions, more so than traditional sites of production (political elite & media). As such, this television series provides an important cultural artefact through which we intend to display how the US’ actions are distanced from its own policies carried out by the CIA, in order to reframe America’s involvement in the region. In effect, it others itself by demonstrating how US policies undermined the ‘War on Drugs’, which is simultaneously presented as a just and realistic cause. Despite the complexity of the issues at stake, often for the purposes of a compelling narrative, the subject of drug trafficking is presented as a simple contest between morality and immorality, which then filters into political discourses. The ‘other’ is therefore presented as both the CIA and Pablo Escobar to justify traditionally repressive military approaches as emblemized by the DEA and Narcos protagonists agents Pena and Murphy.
Authors: Ryan O'Connor (BCU) , Euan Raffle (University of Leeds) -
The 2016 EU referendum was a “critical situation” for the UK’s ontological security on the international stage (Giddens 1991). Brexit meant a material effort to restructure the UK system and decouple it from EU bureaucracy, but also a more ideational effort to delineate British identity and foreign policy from the EU. Most work on post-Brexit foreign policy narratives has focused on the “Global Britain” narrative as an effort to recast the role of the UK. By shifting from the macro to the micro, this paper will examine how even small speech acts on the global stage demand a Brexit performance. In the throes of ontological insecurity, UK state agents used narrative performances to build a “cognitive bridge” to allow for pre- and post-Brexit biographical continuity (Subotic 2016). These performances incrementally redefine which actors matter, shift the temporal frame, and envision a new future.
The setting for this paper is the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), where the UK holds a permanent seat, and the EU plays an ever-increasing role in security operations. The data are UK speeches during the annual UNSC meeting on cooperation with the EU (2010-2021). Narrative analysis is used to show how pre- and post-Brexit narratives are performed by UK state agents to counteract the ontological stress precipitated from the announcement of the Brexit vote (2014) until the ultimate exit (2021).Keywords: Brexit; Ontological Security; British Foreign Policy; United Nations Security Council; Strategic Narratives
Author: Lauren Rogers -
How to stop “killer robots” is a popular way of framing the international debate about weaponised artificial intelligence (AI). Most media coverage features sensationalist images of humanoid robots out to get humanity. For scholars writing in this field, avoiding editorial inclusions of Terminator-like imagery, in particular, can feel like swimming against the stream. To address these issues, the paper asks: how is weaponised AI constructed across widely accessible visuals and what are the effects of these imaginaries? IR has increasingly become attentive to visuals as central to political meaning-making and contemporary warfare. In this context I argue that visuals in the debate about weaponised AI communicate narrative, sociotechnical imaginaries (Jasanoff 2015; Cave, Dohal, and Dillon 2020). Following an interpretive methodology, I analyse visuals found in Google image searches of key words such as "weaponised AI" and "AI weapons". This analysis shows three main narrative imaginaries: (1) visuals serve to associate problems of “killer robots” with far-off, futuristic scenarios, masking the extent to which autonomous features are already part of weapons in use today; (2) visuals privilege a Western reference-point as the imaginary for a technological revolution that is decidedly global in nature; and (3) visuals often paint a ‘clean’ and orderly picture of AI when the debate about weaponised AI would benefit, instead, from recognizing the ‘sweatiness’ of AI (Ahmed 2017). The paper concludes with reflecting on what common visuals on weaponised AI render visible/invisible and the boundary-drawing consequences of these performative moves.
Author: Ingvild Bode (Associate Professor)
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Roundtable / Race, Coloniality and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda: Reflections on Research and Practice Stephenson, Civic Centre
The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, commonly related to the sequence of ten resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council since 2000 under the title of “women and peace and security”, involves numerous actors, activities and artefacts. Conventional accounts of WPS development and implementation tend to reproduce a narrative that positions states and actors located in the global North as “providers” of WPS, and those in the global South as “recipients”. This assumption in turn prescribes, and proscribes, forms of WPS engagement and has a constitutive effect on the agenda itself, as shown by the post- and decolonial critiques of the agenda that have been advanced in recent years. This roundtable brings together experts engaged with various aspects of the WPS agenda to explore the operation of racialized power in the agenda and its colonial imprint, reflecting on ongoing research and contemporary policy practice.
Sponsor: Gendering International Relations Working GroupChair: Laura Shepherd (University of Sydney)Participants: Toni Haastrup (University of Stirling) , Collumba Achilleos-Sarll (University of Birmingham) , Jamie Hagen (Queen's University, Belfast) , Aiko Holvikivi (LSE) , Maria Martin de Almagro (University of Ghent) -
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Roundtable / Rethinking Pedagogy in Political Economy Kate Adie, Student Union
How does our scholarship shape our teaching? What kind of insights and experiences do we want to produce in the classroom? And what can we learn as academics from our interactions with students? This roundtable brings together five scholars, each engaged in projects located at the nexus of research and teaching, to stimulate discussion on these questions. The projects address avatars of Eurocentricism in IPE textbooks (Baumann), the teaching of economic policy institutions in Economics and Political Science (Berry), classroom activities inspired by Everyday IPE (Elias, Rethel), an understanding of pedagogy as encounter (Inayatullah), and teaching with activists to help realise a polyphonic university (Natile). After brief introductions of their respective projects, the panellists will be invited to reflect on questions and comments taken from the audience.
Sponsor: International Political Economy Working GroupChair: Ben Richardson (University of Warwick)Participants: Juanita Elias (University of Warwick) , Lena Rethel , Serena Natile (University of Warwick) , Craig Berry (Manchester Metropolitan University) , Hannes Baumann (University of Liverpool) -
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Panel / Rethinking Security and Solidarity Through Emotions Parson, Civic CentreSponsor: Emotions in Politics and International Relations Working GroupConvener: EPIR Working groupChair: Marco Vieira (University of Birmingham)Discussant: Marco Vieira (University of Birmingham)
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The rich literature on the history of international organisation as well as on the history of international governing mainly follows a rationalistic understanding of bureaucratic administration, neglecting the affective dimension of governing. And indeed, nothing seems less associated with affects and emotions than international administrations which aimed at preparing territories for their independence. However, an analysis of UN documents, whether from the Trusteeships system or from post-Cold War administrations, reveals that these documents contain a rich affective vocabulary. They include statements about the political „atmosphere“ or „climate“ in the territories, which are classified as more or less (in)secure. Against this background, the paper analyzes international administrations as affective organizations. It draws on approaches of affective theory, which have also received increased attention in IR in recent years. Based on the analysis of UN documents, the paper investigates, on the one hand, the change in the affective vocabulary of international administrations from the 1950s to the present. Second, it examines the „affective apparatus“ (Anderson) of international administrations and asks how those have measured atmospheres of (in)security, how they have turned themselves into affective organizations, and in what ways collective sentiments in the administered territories have been captured, transported, and translated into a bureaucratic language. A central thesis of the paper is that the affective apparatus of international administrations initially focused on capturing atmospheres, while atmospheres later became the object of international governing.
Author: Thorsten Bonacker (University of Marburg) -
This paper explores persuasive applications of humour and the rise of post-truth trends in public diplomacy. I propose the concept of strategic humour - the use of humour by states and proxy actors to promote instrumental interpretations of contested events to domestic and foreign audiences. Such events involve competing narratives from international actors and the use of strategies that maximise the appeal and outreach of one side’s narrative over the other. The concept of strategic humour brings to the forefront two principal aspects: the uses of humour as a strategy of communicating and framing contested international issues to the advantage of a particular actor, and the choice of humour amid other narrative forms for maximum appeal and outreach because of its newsworthiness, emotive resonance with audiences, and suitability for digital media environments.
The paper presents results from a British Academy-funded study of audience reception of strategic humour about contested international events. The project involves multiple focus groups in Russia and the UK, based on several examples of Russia’s strategic deployments of humour. I focus on Russia as a state recently involved in a range of major controversies and analyse the reception of its humorous public diplomacy messages about western sanctions, protests in Belarus, and accusations of election interference. I demonstrate that while the power of strategic humour to convince audiences is ambivalent, strategic humour provides an effective tool for asserting truth claims through popularity mechanisms and digital visibility.
Author: Dmitry Chernobrov (University of Sheffield) -
For a discipline birthed through wars, it is not surprising that International Relations (IR) has been seeped in the pursuit of survival: of states, structures and systems. While the ‘rational’ focus on survival is well-documented within the discipline’s (his)story, the ‘emotional’ effects, artefacts and subjects of such survival go missing. If the story of IR is indeed a story about survival, where are the survivors? The disciplinary fixation on ‘survival’ pivots itself around prescribing reliable methods against unreliable threats, thereby foreclosing any alternative conceptualizations of doing IR. How can thinkers of global politics join the task of bringing forth unpredictable stories of human survival, in a discipline marked by its affinity for predictability? In the pursuit of emotional stories of humans who can only bring themselves to bear as fragmentated and incomplete, this research turns towards the literary genre of magical realism, to offer an emotional rearticulation of survival that includes survivors’ stories: of humans who magically transform an unbearably rational world by casting emotional spells to survive it. By gleaning magical methods of human survival in the work of magical realist fiction authors, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie and Isabel Allende, this paper posits an emotional turn away from predictable outcomes to magical ones in global politics.
Author: Shambhawi Tripathi (University of St Andrews)
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Panel / The Politics of Emotions in Social Movements Dobson, Civic CentreSponsor: Emotions in Politics and International Relations Working GroupConvener: EPIR Working groupChair: Johannes Sauerland (Durham University)
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Conspiracy narratives linked to Israel, especially with antisemitic content, have rightfully attracted widespread concern. Yet, conspiracy narratives in Israel have not. Additionally, research focuses on reasons for the spread of conspiracy narratives, while their political impact remains neglected.
This paper illuminates the impact of conspiracy narratives on Israeli politics by studying the discourse of right-wing parties and movements through interviews and social media analysis. The paper argues that conspiracy narratives are closely linked to fear. While political leaders might employ conspiracy narratives instrumentally, they are deemed credible because they articulate and channel existing fears towards specific objects. By drawing on work on emotions in international relations theory, the paper shows how discourses of fear are reproduced across Israeli society. Fears of conspiracies create imagined threats of left-wing groups, media, their European supporters, and Palestinian organizations that collude to delegitimize and destroy Israel. Conspiracy narratives and the connected emotion of fear drive polarization, obstruct compromise and perpetuate conflict. They provide a vehicle for fears to move from an individual to a group level and become institutionalized.
Building on the paper’s framework will allow research to study the global impact of conspiracy narratives more thoroughly.
Author: Johannes Sauerland (Durham University) -
In this work, this study focuses on the linkage between emotions and protests to explore emotions and their roles in collective societal reactions. The core aim is to analyse how emotions diffuse at the transnational level as the coping mechanism of people to fight against global injustices. The illustrative case of the article is the Black Lives Matter Movement which has become into a global reaction against injustices and police brutality. The major turning point was the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man who was brutally killed by police officers in Minneapolis on 25 May 2020. After the incident, the protests which initially started in the United States have spread quickly to various places. Social media, special slogans, and symbolic movements are addressed as key components of repertoires of the Black Lives Movement. Hence, this work sheds light on the impact of collective-level emotions in transnational protests regarding collective identity construction and hope for a change.
Author: Efser Rana Coskun (Social Sciences University of Ankara) -
Shame and the Solidarity Movement for Timor-Leste: the Body-in-suffering In the International Agenda
On November 12, 1991, Indonesian troops fired on a peaceful memorial procession to the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, the capital of East Timor. On that occasion, more than 271 East Timorese were killed, and an equal number were disappeared and are believed dead. International journalists recorded the massacre, which subsequently became a turning point in the history of Timor-Leste. According to Max Stahl, who was responsible for the footage, the victims “wanted the world to see... [this was] more important than the fact of their death was that their deaths be meaningful” (Stahl, 2017). These images were smuggled out of Timor-Leste and disseminated throughout the world, drawing attention to the human rights violations in the territory and providing a boost to solidarity movements throughout the world.
In this paper, I argue that the images of 'bodies-in-suffering' were crucial to the East Timorese struggle for independence as an affective technology, in building international solidarity for Timor-Leste. Specifically, I analyse social, political, and artistic manifestations of solidarity in Portugal and demonstrate how the 'bodies-in-suffering' were mobilised as affective technologies within these movements.Author: Marcelle Trote Martins (The University of Manchester)
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14:45
Break with tea and coffee: SPONSORED BY REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
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Panel / (State) Terrorism and Violence: Processes of Legitimation in (In)Security Narratives Council Chamber, Civic CentreSponsor: Critical Studies on Terrorism Working GroupConveners: Alice Martini (QMUL) , Tom PettingerChair: Tom Pettinger
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This study aims to enhance national and international academic and policy understandings of the existence of unconscious cognitive biases in the creation of stereotypes that permeate all areas of society, including the criminal justice system, regarding ideologically inspired hate crimes, both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. We study the Portuguese criminal justice system context focusing on data collected through interviews with victims of ideologically inspired hate crimes, and through the application of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to investigative police and legal practitioners to analyse unconscious cognitive bias in criminal justice decision-making. This study points to best practices that can be adopted by the criminal justice system, both nationally and internationally, to counter ideologically inspired hate crimes and strengthen societal resilience.
Authors: Raquel da Silva (University of Coimbra) , Catarina Rosa (University of Aveiro)* -
How can we explain the state’s decision to develop legal justifications for torture, and to engage in (quasi-) open justification of the practice, in the U.S. “war on terror”? This paper traces the rise and (partial) fall of “plausible deniability” as the central mode to governing knowledge about human rights violations. It identifies three key shifts which altered both the possibility, and the desirability, of secrecy as the dominant mode of managing knowledge about “forbidden practices” such as torture. These are, first, the increased documentation of state violence over the course of the twentieth century, occasioned by both the increased legal regulation of state violence, and the rise of a transnational field of human rights practitioners and organizations, one of whose primary activities was the documentation and exposure of torture and other violations; second, socio-technical shifts, such as the rise of the internet, which made the keeping of large-scale secrets more difficult; and third, geopolitical shifts, particularly the end of the cold war and its attendant contest of moral positioning, including over human rights policy, with the Soviet Union.
Author: Lisa Stampnitzky (University of Sheffield) -
The EU’s approach to counter-terrorism in South East Europe focuses increasingly on preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) rather than on police work. P/CVE practices open up a political space of action that is much wider than police-based counter-terrorism. It enables counter-terrorism to reach into areas traditionally not associated with security policy, such as health, social work, education or rule of law. As P/CVE has become part of the EU’s enlargement agenda, it is interesting to observe that the structural deficits of South East Europe as perceived by the EU are congruent with some of the root causes of radicalisation identified by EU-funded P/CVE programmes. This means that it has become possible for the EU and its implementing partners to tackle some of the main obstacles of enlargement (e.g. corruption, organised crime, state capture) through P/CVE programmes. This raises questions about the possibilities that P/CVE practices enable for EU enlargement. In this contribution, I trace the manifestations and implications of this preventive approach to radicalisation and embed this within critical security studies and feminist theory. In the empirical material that this contribution builds on P/CVE is described as less controversial than for example corruption or organised crime. In this contribution, I therefore examine how P/CVE goes ‘beyond politics’. How do counter-terrorism politics become depoliticised through these specific P/CVE practices? I argue that counter-terrorism (as an empty signifier) has become an important part of the enlargement strategy that helps to achieve consensus on controversial areas outside of the traditional security realm.
Author: Magdalena König (University of Groningen) -
In counterterrorism campaigns, when do democratic states resort to torture and when do they refrain from violating this fundamental human right? This paper examines how public debate – and public silence – contribute to enabling or constraining states from getting involved in torture. Drawing on the literatures on rhetorical coercion and shaming, I outline how international human rights bodies and domestic critics have sought to shame Spain and the UK for their involvement in torture in recent decades. The Spanish government’s response was to use what I call ‘reverse-shaming’ to shun and discredit their accusers in an attempt to shut down public debate on the issue. This enabled the authorities to torture or mistreat suspected Basque militants for decades. By contrast, the British government and its critics engaged in public contestation in which they constructed rival narratives concerning the effects of coercive interrogation. While the UK government made rhetorical manoeuvres which enabled it to continue its involvement in torture, the presence of this public debate was important for shifting the government’s position on some aspects of the issue and significantly reducing Britain’s involvement in torture over time.
Author: Frank Foley (King's College London)
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173
Panel / British Foreign Policy and Human Rights Collingwood, Civic CentreSponsor: Ethics and World Politics Working GroupConvener: Grace Livingstone (University of Cambridge)Chair: David J. Karp (University of Sussex)Discussant: David J. Karp (University of Sussex)
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This paper argues that the 1974-79 Labour governments’ policy towards the Pinochet regime in Chile was an early example of a British ‘ethical’ foreign policy and was a key step towards integrating human rights concerns into British foreign policy-making in subsequent years. Using archival evidence, it demonstrates that Foreign Office officials were critical of human rights campaigners and Labour ministers who advocated ‘ethical’ action against the Pinochet dictatorship. Taking a critical approach to the study of foreign policy, it considers the links between government and the private sector, and analyses the social background of Foreign Office officials and British diplomats in this period. By comparing the implementation of guidelines for the approval of arms export licences for Chile and Argentina, it demonstrates that policy-makers’ perceptions of external pressure and public scrutiny are key to their efficacy.
Author: Grace Livingstone (University of Cambridge) -
During his tenure as British Foreign Secretary (2010-2014), William Hague announced that he wished to pursue an “activist foreign policy… in support of our values”. This article seeks to evaluate how far he was successful in achieving this aim. It begins by identifying the meaning of an “activist foreign policy” and the “values” which Hague was seeking to support, as conveyed in speeches and official documents. Hague tended to see activism and foreign policy as complementary and downplayed potential tensions between these approaches. However, using practice theory, this article will identify differences between the practice of activism and that of statecraft (which is core to foreign policy activity). Using the case studies of UK policy on Syria following the Arab Spring and the preventing sexual violence in conflict initiative (PSVI), the author goes on to argue that “activist foreign policy” worked best when addressing issues that did not impinge on matters of statecraft. Conversely, it hindered effective policy in areas where the practice of statecraft was dominant. It therefore concludes by arguing that sensitivity to the tensions between practices is important in the future promotion of human rights goals.
Author: Jamie Gaskarth (The Open University) -
While foreign policy is a reserved matter for Westminster, it is clear that the Scottish government aspires to, and indeed has implemented, an expanding programme of independent external relations. It is not the first sub-state political actor to do so. Whether as a part of the UK, or as potentially an independent country, Scotland has put considerable effort into developing its soft power (to the extent that it has a soft power team in the government). One area in particular where this has occurred is in human rights, where it has demonstrated leadership on a number of issues, such as women in conflict, business and human rights, and the development of an exemplar national human rights institution. This paper will examine the dynamics of this development, looking at both the constraints and the possibilities for Scotland as an international human rights actor.
Authors: Kurt Mills (University of Dundee) , Andrea Birdsall (University of Edinburgh) -
This paper will illuminate a pivotal juncture in human rights history from a fresh perspective by examining the conservative reframing of Britain’s engagement with the international human rights system following the election of Margaret Thatcher in May 1979. Underappreciated within the rapidly expanding historiography on human rights and international relations, the policies pursued by the Thatcher governments both reflected, and contributed towards, the fusion of human rights discourse with concepts of democratisation and free market economics during the 1980s and the increasing weaponisation of human rights within the East-West dialogue. Furthermore, by examining the continuities and divergences between these policies and those pursued by the Labour governments of Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan (1974-79), this paper will underscore the strategic and ideological disagreements that have separated Labour and Conservative governments on the question of international human rights promotion, investigate the policy implications of the failure to adequately institutionalise human rights concerns within the British foreign policymaking process, and explore the lasting impact of Thatcher’s ‘neoliberal’ human rights agenda, which, by the end of the Cold War, had put down roots within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Author: David Grealy (University of Liverpool)
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Panel / Communication and Messaging of Violence Swan, Civic CentreSponsor: Political Violence, Conflict and Transnational ActivismConveners: Mark Youngman (University of Portsmouth) , Annamaria Kiss (King's Russia Institute, King's College London)Chair: Annamaria Kiss (King's Russia Institute, King's College London)
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Since the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, the People’s Protection
Units (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel, the YPG) has been one of the most
notable groups in Syria. The group has become increasingly known
especially after playing a significant role in the fight against the
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and, later on, declaring autonomy in
northern Syria in 2014. While various political, economic, and social
dimensions of the Rojava struggle and of the YPG have been
examined within a wide array of fields, the group and its identity
have not been adequately examined through a social-psychological
lens thus far. In this study, we seek to fill this gap by examining how
YPG supporters represent, understand, and express the identity and
behaviour of their own group and their adversaries on social media,
particularly on Twitter. In light of social identity theory, we explore
YPG supporters’ (1) ingroup representations (both ingroup members
and allies), (2) ingroup social norms, (3) outgroup representations,
and (4) outgroup social norms. Thus, we not only present the
first empirical study in this regard, but also discuss the meanings of
identity content and social norms in relation to the processes of
mobilization and solidarity among YPG supporters.Authors: Ozden Melis Ulug (University of Sussex)* , Helin Unal (Clark University)* , Arda Bilgen (University of Warwick) -
Images as narrative: Analysing how the Islamic State manipulates images for storytelling purposes
Despite IR’s ‘aesthetic turn’, approaches for analysing political images in a systematic and rigorous manner way remains a significant yet largely unexplored methodological challenge. This paper seeks to address this gap by proposing how the photographs employed in the Islamic State’s propaganda may be ‘read’ narratively – that is as artifacts evocative of implicit, emergent stories in the minds of those that consume them. Whilst the presence of symbols, motifs, or representations of societal or cultural meanings are often noted in reference to extremist propaganda, the images contained also inherently trigger imagination; in any given image individuals naturally see a succession of incidents or events that have led up to it, just as they envision those that follow it. Given that extremists seek not only to persuade but also to inspire – something that necessarily rests on the capacity to imagine – it is crucial to understand how their images are manipulated to shape how they may be read. The methodology proposed in this paper highlights the ‘texture and techniques’ by which the Islamic State carefully composes, frames and edits images to tell certain stories.
Author: Simon Copeland (Swansea University) -
Between 2007 and 2015, the Caucasus Emirate (Imarat Kavkaz, IK) served as an umbrella movement uniting insurgents across Russia’s North Caucasus. Although various aspects of the insurgency have been examined in depth, the ideology of the IK and its place in the broader landscape of jihadism remains understudied and frequently misunderstood, with consequences for how we interpret the legacy of the movement and the potential future trajectory of conflict. Presenting the conclusions from my forthcoming book ‘The Caucasus Emirate: Ideology, identity and insurgency in Russia’s North Caucasus,’ I will outline what IK leaders claimed to be fighting for and against, how they sought to mobilise people behind their cause, and how the ideas underpinning armed struggle varied and evolved across time and space. I show how the movement’s priorities and external relationships responded to changing circumstances, and I demonstrate that insurgent leaders devoted more effort to shaping local identities than articulating political programs or strategies but ultimately failed to forge a common basis for resistance. Rethinking the relationship between ideology and identity compels us to reconsider the legacy of the IK as a movement and the role of jihadism in the North Caucasus.
Author: Mark Youngman (University of Portsmouth) -
Role of Social Media in Extremism: A Perspective for Understanding 'New' Militancy in Kashmir
Author: Namita Barthwal (MMAJ Academy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)
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Panel / Disrupting the Western Intellectual Foundations of IR Martin Luther King, Student UnionSponsor: Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working GroupConvener: Sharri Plonski (Queen Mary University of London)Chair: Jasmine Gani (University of St Andrews)
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This paper examines anti-Semitism in international politics. Despite the recent resurgence of anti-Semitic tropes in global politics, evidenced most strikingly by the groundswell of conspiracy theories– regarding issues as diverse as Covid vaccinations, trans health care and election fraud – IR scholarship has thus far failed to address anti-Semitism as a potent global political force in its own right. This is, the paper shows, a result of a failure of IR scholarship to consider anti-Semitism more broadly. The paper proceeds in two parts. First, we consider three fields of IR scholarship – regarding Nazi Germany, populism and race – where we might expect to find the analyses of anti-Semitism. In each case we find an absence of discussion of anti-Semitism, despite its constitutive roles in the objects of all three fields. The second part of the paper proceeds to outline two ways in which anti-Semitism has structured (international) politics. Drawing on histories of anti-Semitism in medieval and modern Europe, we show that anti-Semitic tropes of blood libel and the all-powerful minority have been a constitutive feature in the government of peoples and polities. To conclude, we return to contemporary conspiracy theories and argue that these anti-Semitic tropes remain central to global circuits of power, fear, and exclusion today.
Authors: Darcy Leigh (University of Sussex) , Laura Jung (University of Sussex) -
This paper discusses the value of African ubuntu thought for the global justice debate. As one of the major fields of discussion in political philosophy, political theory and IR, global justice lacks engagement with thinkers and texts outside of Europe and North America. While global justice is a field with an explicit global outlook, it is in no way a global debate: scholars at the centre of disciplinary theoretical debates do not hear or centre non-Western voices. Prevailing views about the ethics and politics of global justice reflect and continue to reinforce problematic ontological assumptions and unquestioned epistemic privileges aligned with knowledge- and norm-entrepreneurs in the Global North.
As a relational understanding of human existence, ubuntu calls attention to the importance of collective practices of care, community, and solidarity building, and unsettles Western ontological certainties about, for example, personhood and linear time. In contrast to the liberal individualism underlying the mainstream Rawlsian approaches to global justice, ubuntu’s relational view of personhood can capture different aspects of what is at stake when thinking about global justice issues like global poverty, gender inequality, ecological justice, thus offering a particularly promising starting point for de-centring and pluralizing the dominant Western ontological framework underlying the debate.
Author: Katharina Hunfeld (University of St Andrews) -
While prominent accounts of international order, including those of Bull ([1977] 2012) and Ikenberry (2011), display a subtle recognition of a darker underside to the ostensibly “liberal” or progressivist narratives of the creation and operation of international order, the possibility that international order continues to be constituted through forms of colonial and racialised rule is left unexplored. Against this commonplace side-lining of colonialism and race, in this paper, I argue for the centrality of race in understanding the constitution of international order, drawing on work in both critical race studies and studies of order, including that of Patrick Wolfe (2016), Barnor Hesse (2007), Alana Lentin (2020), and Cedric Robinson ([1980] 2016). I reconceptualise race as a fluid technology of power with concurrent epistemic and governmental dimensions, and international order as an ongoing process involving the recognition of patterns and attempts to secure regularity, in order to foreground how the two are dynamically intertwined and co-constitutive. Doing so, I argue, opens up a space for analysing not only how the contemporary international order developed in tandem with colonialism and race but also how it remains imbricated in discourses and practices of racialisation.
Author: Owen Brown (Northwestern University) -
Despite growing calls for a non-Western, ‘post-Western’, or Global IR (Acharya and Buzan 2010; Shani 2008; Acharya 2014) such critiques have paid little attention to security. Postcolonial critiques have demonstrated that security studies is Eurocentric, that it is based on an ‘assumption of European centrality in the human past and present’ (Barkawi and Laffey 2006: 331). This in turn affects the claims made about security, but there have been few attempts to move beyond critiques of Eurocentrism to examine what the concept of security actually looks like ‘elsewhere’. This paper takes China as its starting point, asking: what can looking at China tell us about security, and about security studies as a field? It traces the evolution of the concept of security in China until the present day, arguing that China’s experience of war, revolution, and reform has shaped thinking and practice on security. Drawing on Bhabha’s notion of hybridity and Ling’s theory of postcolonial learning, it demonstrates that security in China is ‘almost the same, but not quite’. Eurocentrism is blinding us to some fundamental differences in how security is understood and how it operates in different places. The field ‘mistakes “Western” experiences for the universal, thus failing to take note of different insecurities and responses in other locales’ (Bilgin 2010: 619). By starting with China, this paper aims to produce knowledge about non-Western international relations without treating these spaces as mere ethnographic data but as sites of theory production. In the process, the paper contributes to calls for a more Global IR.
Author: Jonna Nyman -
The epistemological and ontological hold of the colonial knowledge system continues to exacerbate the epistemic and the structural hierarchies which are a characteristic feature of North-South dichotomy, also within the Global South. This necessitates the need for understanding the assumptions and identifying patterns of knowledge production in IR not only in the Global North but also within the Global South. In this paper, I examine how the epistemic and structural hierarchies in mainstream IR manifest in knowledge production in IR in India between different epistemic communities (English and Hindi Speaking). Methodologically this would entail using mixed methods, incorporating interviews, surveys and qualitative social network analysis. Looking at IR in the specific case of India, as one of the leading voices from the Global South and also being intertwined in the Global IR debate will offer unique possibilities of identifying underlying patterns of knowledge production and finding potential pathways and challenges for intellectual decolonisation in IR in general and in the Global South in particular.
Author: Siddharth Tripathi (Käte Hamburger Kolleg, University of Duisburg-Essen)
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Panel / Emerging Strategic Trends and Hybrid Warfare Dobson, Civic CentreSponsor: War Studies Working GroupConveners: Joe D'Aquisto (Tallinn University) , Mudassir Farooqi (Forman Christian College (A Chartered University), Pakistan) , David Blagden (University of Exeter)Chair: Lucie Pebay (University of Bath)Discussant: Lucie Pebay (University of Bath)
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The closing chapters of the Cold War and Global War on Terrorism (GWoT) in the history of international relations (IR) and warfare is written in mountainous terrains of Pakistan and Afghanistan. These mountainous terrains, social ties among inhabitants and religious motivations against communist and American occupiers became the structural launching pad of Mujahedeen movement of 1980s, Taliban movement of 1990s and Haqqani Network led Taliban 2.0. These social realities have not only resulted to the departure of Red Army from Afghanistan on May 15, 1988. But these also perpetrated 9/11 and initiated GWoT, and departure of American and NATO alliance on August 15, 2021. Thus, modern human history has already witnessed the rise and glory of jihadism and Taliban movement as the masters of Kabul in 1996 and 2021. However, apart from global politics and a clandestine alliance of great powers (particularly USA) against communism in Afghanistan and American led war on terrorism for international security and peace. This closing chapter of the cold war also branded jihadi wars as the source of identity politics, inspired by so-called holy warriors (Jihadis) and a global jihadi movement and its global network of charities and religious organisations. To understand these dynamic in IR, military strategy, international security and international politics, this study aims to understand the evolution of global jihadi movement (or jihadism) as an outcome of colonialism, cold war and GWoT, its expansion and structural positioning in Muslims communities and jihadism as an evolving and global security threat. The present study in its scope and objectives examines Pakistan as a case study and bring forth evidence of jihadis as co-creators of proxies that are involved in a war of ideas and hybrid in nature. My field work in Pakistan on jihadism and theoretical frame of New Wars and Hybrid warfare suggest that jihadism and resulting jihadi wars are hybrid security challenge. It is a new avenue of warfare in which enemy is mobile, information sensitive and active learner. Thus, posing hybrid security threats to not only international security and its thinking but it is also a serious and complex challenge for the national security. The paper concludes by presenting the nature of hybrid jihadi threat and hybrid countering strategies for military warfare to understand and neutralise the threat.
Author: Mudassir Farooqi (Forman Christian College (A Chartered University), Pakistan) -
Shifts in the balance of power are of profound importance in international politics, yet their causes are insufficiently understood. This article demonstrates that variation in economic globalization is a key driver of such shifts’ occurrence, as well as accounting for their size and speed, thereby filling a major explanatory gap. Expansions of three vectors integral to economic globalization—trade, financial flows, and technology/labor diffusion—enable follower economies to grow faster than leading economies. Such differential growth, in turn, enables less-developed followers’ levels of per-capita development and total economic output—which together underpin national material capabilities—to converge on those of leading economies, shifting the international balance of power. This process is elucidated empirically with reference to the impact of international economic flows on power balances in three illustrative cases: the arc of Dutch power after 1581, follower economies’ convergence on UK productivity levels over 1871-1914, and the divergent growth trajectories of the early and late Cold War. The article’s findings carry implications for realist theories that link power shifts to conflict, liberal theories that link economic interdependence to international stability, and analyses of the causes and potential consequences of the rise of non-Western great powers today.
Author: David Blagden (University of Exeter) -
Since 2014 there has been wide-ranging discussion about Russia’s ‘new way of war’, with labels such as hybrid warfare, grey-zone operations and the Gerasimov doctrine dominating Western analyses, but there has been far less analysis of Russian perspectives. The common understanding of war, set out by a number of Russian military theorists, highlights the lack of value in the term ‘hybrid warfare’ vis-à-vis the Russian approach. This paper will explore the influence of Liddell-Hart’s work on contemporary Russian military thought, particularly the strategy of indirect actions, intended to undermine an adversary’s will to resist. Often described as a Western way of war, it appears that indirect action has been adapted to become the Russian way of war in the 21st century after years of observation and emulation of the West.
Author: Tracey German (King's College London) -
This paper examines recent activity and hybrid warfare strategies used by Russia in the Arctic and how they might benefit from these operations. In the aftermath of the Cold War, the region lay dormant, but in recent years, growing temperatures have prompted Russia and other Arctic members to devise offensive and defensive strategies to compete with one another. The approaches in action and discussed make use of nuclear submarine and missile technology, terraforming, oil drilling, mineral extraction, challenging disputed areas with no defined boundaries, and a combination of traditional hard power tactics. It is also explained why the Arctic is so important to Russia and why other powers such as the USA are concerned with their renewed military and monetary interests. The outcome of these actions, not only by what Russia is doing, but also in how they and other states would respond to perceived threats could have grave environmental, economic, and geopolitical consequences. Information from several recent sources is gathered, all within the last five years. Since little has been reported about hybrid warfare in the Arctic region, the information may provide an early guide for future research on the subject and a possible framework to build upon.
Author: Joseph D'Aquisto (Tallinn University)
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177
Panel / International Institutions and Organisations: Complexity, Bureaucracy, and Funding Bewick, Civic CentreSponsor: International Law and Politics Working GroupConvener: Ueli Staeger (Research and Teaching Fellow, University of Geneva)Chair: Sarah von Billerbeck (University of Readign)
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Most issue areas in world politics today are governed by “hybrid institutional complexes” (HICs) composed of heterogeneous interstate, infra-state, public-private and private institutions. This paper focuses on how HICs enable governance responses to crises, such as the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which many observers see as outstripping the capacity of multilateral institutions. We posit that the institutional diversity of HICs produces strong functional differentiation and informal hierarchy among their component institutions. Those structural features give HICs systematic advantages in crisis response: substantive fit for multi-faceted and rapidly evolving issues; political fit for the participation and preferences of diverse actors; and adaptability, flexibility and rapid response capacity for the uncertainty and urgency of crisis situations. Empirically, the paper scrutinizes the role of HICs in responding to the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 public health crisis. Both situations have been addressed through diverse institutional forms, including formal interstate organizations (such as the WHO), informal intergovernmental organizations (such as the G20), transgovernmental networks (such as the Financial Stability Board), and multi-stakeholder institutions (such as GAVI). Our analysis demonstrates that HICs with different institutional mixes are needed to respond to the varied characteristics of specific challenges.
Authors: Faude Benjamin (Newcastle University) , Kenneth Abbott (Arizona State University)* -
Institutional proliferation and overlap are defining features of contemporary global governance. Yet there is significant variation in the basic structure and evolutionary trajectories of global governance complexes (GGCs), including in the extent to which new institutions are either ‘nested’ within, ‘layered’ on top of, or established in parallel—or opposition—to existing ones. This paper explores how GGCs evolve over time, and how past institutional design choices influence present outcomes through temporal processes of positive reinforcement, institutional layering, and other path-dependent mechanisms which lead to different emergent systemic properties of GGCs and condition their ability to respond to crises. I examine how cooperation on nuclear non-proliferation has evolved from being centred around a strong “focal” institution—the NPT—flanked by a small number of other institutions that were tightly integrated with the NPT, to become a sprawling complex of overlapping and competing rulesets. This fragmentation of existing legal frameworks is largely a product of the institutional architecture of the GGC and hence endogenous to cooperative frameworks. I link this fragmented structure to recent failures to tackle proliferation crises. I contrast this trajectory with the GGC for cooperation on chemical weapons proliferation in which the separate institutions have remained more tightly integrated, functionally differentiated, and hierarchically ordered, resulting in greater problem-solving capacity.
Author: Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni (University of Cambridge) -
Over the past decade, donor governments have increasingly restricted their contributions to international organizations to specific recipient countries, themes, or sectors. Having increased tenfold during 2000-19, this ‘earmarked funding’ now amounts to over USD 25 billion per year and supports the bulk of activities in most UN entities. This has sparked a heated debate. While advocates pinpoint potential efficiency gains and greater accountability afforded by tailored reporting on earmarked funds, critics believe this funding diminishes organizational capacities to respond to emergent challenges and thus undermines aid effectiveness. Drawing on stakeholder interviews, aid evaluation reports, and official documents, this paper will conduct structured-focused comparisons of the three key organizations in the food and agricultural development complex, which includes the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Program (WFP), to examine how earmarked funding affects organizational performance and aid effectiveness. The results will contribute to research by identifying funding structures as an overlooked determinant of the effectiveness of international organizations while at the same offering new insights into an important policy issue.
Author: Bernhard Reinsberg (University of Glasgow) -
The UN field-based peacekeeping bureaucracy – civilian officials working in UN peacekeeping missions – is the world’s third-largest international civil service surpassed only by the European Commission and the World Bank Group. Civilian specialists in political affairs, human rights, gender, child protection, electoral support, security sector reform, strategic communications, and information analysis units make a significant contribution to the implementation of multidimensional peacekeeping mandates. However, the governance of UN peacekeeping is disjoined: the UN Security Council authorises peacekeeping missions and defines their tasks, the UN General Assembly apportions funding, and the UN Secretariat manages missions without a formal mechanism for influencing their mandates or budgets. Civilian UN officials at headquarters and in the field are often held responsible for failures to implement ambitious mandates, even if the tasks are numerous and the resources are limited. Does the UN General Assembly approve sufficient civilian posts in UN peacekeeping operations for the implementation of Security Council mandates? We answer this question on the basis of two novel datasets: the Peacekeeping Mandates (PEMA) Dataset, which codes Security Council’s instructions to peacekeeping missions, and the UNCiPPO (UN Civilian Posts in Peacekeeping Operations) Dataset, which maps budgeted civilian posts in peacekeeping missions by type, rank, and unit.
Authors: Kseniya Oksamytna (City, University of London / King's College London) , Katharina Coleman (The University of British Columbia)* , Jessica Di Salvatore (University of Warwick)* , Sabine Otto (Uppsala University)* -
The link between money and power in international organizations (IOs) is undisputed but elusive. While IOs are designed for longevity and resilience, they have seen dramatic shifts from assessed contributions to new actors and modalities. This article is particularly interested in the effects on the secretariat of IOs. It asks: Why and how does the diversification of resource mobilization affect an IO secretariat’s agency? The theoretical framework to address this question conceives of diversified resource mobilization as a principal-agent phenomenon at two levels of analysis. The group-level captures the effects of the number of principals and the collective complexity of their contract design.The dyadic level unpacks the effects of specific funders on the agenda and capacity of the secretariat. Empirically, the paper offers a rich plausibility probe through the case of the African Union. Based on elite interviews (N=130), participant observation and document analysis, the case study demonstrates how the AU Commission is resilient against attempts to influence its agenda and bureaucratic capacity. The AU, however, is also the victim of its success with diversification, as numerous small partnerships lead to agency-diminishing effects.
Author: Ueli Staeger (Research and Teaching Fellow, University of Geneva)
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Panel / Material Politics and the Circuits of Colonial Relations Parson, Civic CentreSponsor: Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working GroupConvener: Sharri Plonski (Queen Mary University of London)Chair: Patrick Vernon (University of Birmingham)
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The current global political moment can be characterised as a crisis of culture wars, identity-based social conflict, massive economic inequality and environmental destruction, all of which are driven by factors such as misinformation, excessive capital accumulation and racial/sexual normativities. Given that many of these conditions are traceable back to early European colonialism, insufficient attention continues to be paid to the epistemic frameworks that underpin global politics. In response, this paper takes humanitarian intervention as a strategic object of study, in order to draw attention to the ongoing coloniality of the Western state. Focusing on House of Commons debates on humanitarian intervention from 2011 to 2018, it explores the extent to which racism and heteronormativity, rooted in colonial understandings of temporality, are enacted through the UK’s responses, or non-responses, to atrocity crimes. This paper clearly does not provide a resolution to our current global crisis. Rather, it aims to draw attention to some of the deeply problematic logics that continue to inform Western foreign policy, in the belief that their endurance is likely to worsen the global crisis we are currently experiencing.
Author: Patrick Vernon (University of Birmingham) -
Constituting approximately 25% of the “non-lethal” weapons market (Flanagan 2020), tear gas has become a popular tool for disciplining populations and enforcing political authority. While chemical weapons were banned under the Geneva Protocol and Chemical Weapons Convention, state powers continue to exploit the vague regulations surrounding domestic riot control. Despite the significant role tear gas plays in managing certain groups of people and atmospheric governance, there has not been adequate emphasis on the centrality of race and colonialism within the literature, which is vital to understanding the way tear gas has been weaponized within a contemporary context. Exploring how the state’s use of tear gas as a mechanism of control against circumscribed “othered” populations is facilitated, legitimized, and normalized, this paper draws upon a postcolonial framework. By providing a critical analysis of the ways tear gas has enabled neocolonial practices that reinforce structural power and hierarchies, a new model of organizing state-sanctioned violence is revealed. As tear gas, far from a benign technological development, has and will continue to change modes of governance through atmospheric violence, an analysis of its imperialistic employment is imperative.
Author: Shala Cachelin (University of Westminster) -
This paper aims to explore the politics dimensions curating material memory digitally. It explores the ways in which an internet-enabled cyberspace as a medium of display alters our understanding of a museum space through a close study of the Museum of Material Memory (MMM). Founded in 2017, MMM is an electronic museum that is fully based on social media and a website. The museum defines itself as a ‘digital repository of material culture of the Indian subcontinent’ that aims to flesh out family and social histories of ordinary South Asians. This completely crowdsourced initiative relies on contributions from the public which are then displayed on social media and their website through images and a write-up. It uses the internet to narrate family histories and anecdotes through histories of seemingly banal objects – such as utensils, heirlooms and books –thereby seeking to democratise history. The paper examines the ways in which the virtual platform has enabled MMM to be at once different from, and similar to conventional, physical museums on issues like ownership and possession of objects, categorisation of exhibits, etc. The paper then demonstrates how the very medium that makes the museum participatory and inclusive (internet) could simultaneously hinder its inclusivity. In today’s age where museums are trying to appeal to different constituencies, the paper explores the extent to which this model of display – crowdsourced exhibits through a virtual interface, becomes viable.
Authors: Sridhar Krishnan (South Asian University, New Delhi) , Mumitha Madhu (South Asian University) -
"‘We are just like you!’ Obscuring German colonialism through transiting Indigenous bodies"
Author: Doerthe Rosenow (Oxford Brookes University)
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Panel / Participation and Protection in Security Kate Adie, Student UnionSponsor: European Journal of International SecurityConvener: Jason Ralph (University of Leeds and EJIS)Chair: Laura Considine (University of Leeds)Discussant: Jason Ralph (University of Leeds and EJIS)
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Over twenty years on, the capacity of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda to challenge gender-blind peacekeeping and security practices remains limited. This article explores the practice of ‘mainstreaming a gender perspective’ in EU civilian Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions as a way to connect the WPS agenda with existing security practices. Meshing practice theory and feminist institutionalism, I first critically examine what a gender perspective means in the context of EU CSDP missions. Then, drawing on interviews with gender specialists, I explore everyday interactions, training and reporting as sites where the integration of a gender perspective is operationalised. A gender perspective tends to frame WPS as a set of depoliticised tools and skills. Yet, engaging with it as a practice can foster space to reflect on and deconstruct peacekeeping practices, in ways which convey some awareness of feminist principles. Overall, I argue that the deployment of a gender perspective reproduces problematic understandings of WPS while creating opportunities to redefine peacekeeping and security practices. The article contributes to literature on the articulation of the WPS agenda in security organisations and to debates in security studies on whether security practices can meaningfully change in line with feminist aspirations.
Author: Marion Greziller (University of Manchester) -
How does China execute normative contestation towards liberal principles of human protection? Most studies focus on China’s discourses on the institutionalisation of liberal principles but overlook China’s practices to delegitimise liberal principles when these principles are implemented in real-world scenes. To address this gap, this paper examines China’s approach to atrocity prevention and argues that rather than explicitly voicing its disapproval, China tends to let its action do the talking and prefers subtle ways of behaviourally contesting liberal principles in the implementation process, with an aim of reducing reputational costs and projecting a positive international image.
Three ways of China’s contestation on atrocity prevention are distinguished based on elite interviews with Chinese diplomats and UN officials in New York and Geneva. First, China links atrocity prevention to related but distinct normative agendas that are favoured by the country, including conflict prevention and state-centric, development-focused peacebuilding. Second, China contests the measures of atrocity prevention by implementing peaceful means of direct and structural prevention. Third, China contests atrocity prevention through strategic non-implementation, namely its reluctance to adopt implementation mechanisms to prevent atrocities. Compared with mere rhetoric, through behavioral contestation, China is more competent in promoting Chinese interpretations of what constitutes good practices of atrocity prevention.Author: Qiaochu Zhang -
Foreign fighter literature often assumes that foreign fighters are a problem for the armed groups that they join. Foreign fighters have been credited with radicalizing conflicts, killing civilians, and, as is the focus of this paper, causing issues for group cohesion. This paper reassesses this relationship between group cohesion and foreign fighters by tracing veteran foreign fighters from the Soviet-Afghan War across space and time. Importantly, this paper distinguishes between the impact of foreign fighters that fight abroad and returnee foreign fighters on domestic armed groups, as well as the embeddedness of fighters within organizational structures. Drawing on relational and network theory, this paper argues that while foreign fighters rarely contribute to actual group fragmentation while overseas, foreign fighter returnees are often embedded into new network structures that are at odds with their domestic groups. As a result of this network and shared experience of conflict, these fighters are likely to splinter from their domestic armed groups on return.
Author: Nicola Mathieson (Australian National University) -
Since taking office in 2019, Jair Bolsonaro nominated an unprecedented number of military officials to strategic posts with high paying salaries across ministries. We analyse military political participation during the Bolsonaro administration and argue that military participation has been an essential means through which the president has remained in office despite numerous crises and possible crimes. Three complementary points are made. First, the Armed Forces has acted as Bolsonaro’s ‘unofficial party’ instead of the relatively new Social Liberal Party with which he was affiliated during the campaign but left after taking office. Second, incorporating many military officials into his administration has allowed Bolsonaro to reinforce his military persona and, simultaneously, capitalise on the military’s supposed ‘technical’ aptitudes to counter critiques of more controversial appointments accused of being ‘ideological’ choices. Third, widespread military political participation has introduced into the federal government military logics of hierarchy and obedience that are typical of military landscapes which has allowed the Bolsonaro administration to enact many of its most controversial policies. The assessment is based on an exploration of the ways and extent to which the Armed Forces legitimises Bolsonaro in conjunction with data on the militarisation of three ministries: Health, Environment, and
Defence.Authors: Ricardo Barbosa (University of Brasilia) , Cortinhas Juliano (University of Brasilia)*
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Panel / Procuring Together, Procuring More Efficiently? European States and Defence Procurement in the 21st Century History Room, Student UnionSponsor: European Security Working GroupConveners: Locatelli Andrea (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart Milan, Italy) , Lorenzo Cladi (University of Plymouth)Chair: Nele Marianne Ewers-Peters
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This project will look at the effects of EU membership on the denationalization of critical security infrastructure. Specifically, it will focus on sat-nav, a military asset generally considered to be critical for the execution of modern military operations. It should consist of three case studies, one baseline case to represent standard national behavior, and two European cases which will illustrate divergent behavior. European states, instead of independently developing this capacity and keeping it under national control, developed sat-nav supranationally in the form of Galileo. They then gave control of the asset to the European Union, a fact which Brexit has laid bare quite strongly.
On EU membership, it should look at identity and heuristics within the minds of decisionmakers attempting to document how framing works within the European context. It’s expected we will see that a distinct European identity tied to a specific problem-solving heuristic in the minds of decisionmakers which caused European states to forgo normal international relations behavior (understood in a realist sense). The implications of this are of course many for European Strategic Autonomy and the development of a distinct European security apparatus.Author: Nettles Adam (University of Milan, Italy) -
Defence-industrial cooperation has emerged as a top priority for the EU. In the last few years, EU member states and institutions have launched several initiatives with the objective of reducing the fragmentation of the defence market and promoting the joint development of military equipment. However, European countries remain critically divided when it comes to developing new and ambitious cutting-edge technological arms programmes. At the moment, two important and competing initiatives are unfolding in Europe. On the one hand, France, Germany and Spain have agreed to develop a sixth-generation European fighter jet – the Future Combat Air System. On the other hand, the UK has launched a similar project - the Tempest - with Italy and Sweden having joined this programme. Why, despite the new EU defence initiatives explicitly aim to promote joint development of defence arms programmes, are European states developing two different and competing fighter jets?
To answer this empirical puzzle, the article distinguishes between two different modes of European defence-industrial cooperation with different distributional implications. The first mode of cooperation is related to the creation of armaments institutions and organizations and entails low distributional implications for EU member states and industries, given that they are less concerned about intra-European competition. The situation is different when it comes to develop collaborative armaments programmes. In this second mode of cooperation, there are higher distributional implications, linked to three main factors: security of supply, influence, and intra-industrial rivalries. This explains why European countries often manage to agree on the first mode of cooperation, but they struggle to overcome distributional implications when it comes to develop collaborative arms programmes.Author: Antonio Calcara (University of Antwerp) -
Despite the EU’s efforts to promote cooperation in defence issues, collaborative procurement still represents a tiny fraction of overall procurement efforts in Europe. Moreover, European states sometimes cooperate in military affairs, but beyond the EU framework. In fact, as noted by a recent strand of literature, EU states resort to different types of procurement strategies simultaneously. This raises a puzzle: what motivations explain such a behaviour? Mainstream IR theories offer handy answers by resorting to well-known concepts, like alliance politics, varieties of capitalism, and strategic culture. However, we argue that all these accounts have limits, as they neglect the impact of military technology on procurement choices. Our argument, in a nutshell, is that the features of military technology underlying a given weapon system ultimately determine the type of procurement policy – i.e. collaborative or not, with ad-hoc partners, or in a multilateral framework.
Authors: Lorenzo Cladi (University of Plymouth) , Andrea Locatelli (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy)
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181
Panel / Remembrance, War and Peace: Critical Approaches to Violence and Militarism Armstrong, Civic CentreSponsor: Post-Structural Politics Working GroupConveners: Jeffrey Whyte (University of Manchester) , Uygar Baspehlivan (University of Bristol) , Henrique Tavares Furtado (University of the West of England)Chair: Henrique Tavares Furtado (University of the West of England)
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Rio de Janeiro is home to various museums preserving the experiences of living in favelas and of the political struggles over safe and secure housing. O Museu da Maré, O Museo da Favela, O Museu do Horto, O Museu das Remoções, O Museu de Ontem: each memorialises histories and practices of struggles for housing in different ways. How do these museums preserve the skills, experiences, and practices of building houses in contested spaces? The first research question will take the notion of “the production of space” from the perspective of the collections presented in each museum. Different museums will prioritise different aspects of “production”, according to the experiences they seek to preserve; for example, O Museu das Romoções focuses on the political struggles against the removal of residents of Vila Autodromo or O Museu de Ontem focuses on the erasure of the history of the zone from the built environment. A second question engages the aesthetic dimension of the museums by considering the different modes of instituting memory – thus, where the Museu da Maré occupies a building in the favela, the Museo do Horto is a walking tour organised by residents: how do these different forms of representation afford different practices of producing space? A third question considers how, or whether, the specific practices of building the structures – organising the work, acquiring materials, access to tools and skills – are represented in the collections. The representation of the building of the favelas may be more or less explicit in different museums, inviting a specifically political question about what is revealed and what is set aside in these representations of space, and the difference it might make to acknowledge production relations in the production of space.
Authors: Matt Davies (Newcastle University) , Renata Summa (International Relations Institute, PUC-Rio)* -
Recent literature has identified a new avenue for approaching peace in the post-conflict sphere: agonistic peace. Drawing on Chantal Mouffe’s vision of radical democratic theory, scholars have identified an emerging alternative to liberal peacebuilding practices (Strömbom, Murphy and Walsh). While much of the nascent scholarship on agonistic peace includes mentions of gender, the link between agonistic peace and gender has yet to be clarified. This paper fills this gap in the literature in three critical ways. First, it clarifies the points of theoretical overlap between certain strands of feminist theory and agonistic theory and explores the goals shared by proponents of each tradition. Second, it explores the justification of the application of agonistic theory to the post-conflict sphere and argues that this same logic justifies the inclusion of gender as a focus for agonistic peacebuilding praxis. Finally, it demonstrates the ways in which a post-conflict examination of gender can serve as a tool for identifying agonistic peace practices in empirical cases.
Author: Emma Murphy (University College Dublin) -
Boeing records around 75 billion dollars in sales each year, including a successful commercial airline strand and approximately 29 billion dollars in arms. This paper examines Boeing’s social media response to the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crash, in which 149 people died. Boeing tweeted consistently until the crash occurred, after which their tweets became infrequent and perform apology, grief, and “taking responsibility”. We contrast the inherent tension between profits Boeing makes from arms and their deadly effects – a “public secret” which is understood but often unarticulated – with public expressions of apology and sorrow following the crash. In doing so, we build upon two disparate bodies of literature: 1) public secrecy, which investigates how lack of public acknowledgement operates to obscure everyday security arrangements and 2) political apology, which pays significant attention to the (in)ability of institutions to feel and perform remorse, but mostly overlooks private actors. This paper is concerned with the political work of secrecy and public apology, arguing that Boeing’s social media apologies for this crash are not simply face-saving measures. Rather, they function as ambivalent ‘breaks’ in the frame of the public secret which acknowledge the loss of some lives, whilst obscuring the loss of others.
Authors: Natalie Jester (University of Gloucestershire) , Emma Dolan (University of Limerick) -
Discourse is an integral component in determining the political. Its capacity to limit and enable what actions are politically possible make it a fundamental aspect of international relations. The role of discourses in influencing the conditions of political possibility of military interventions has attracted a considerable amount of academic attention to date. But, the majority of these attentions have been narrow in their focus, isolating and analyzing a single site of discursive production. This paper would connect to, and build upon, the body of research dedicated to the study of discourse and political possibility through an investigation of the 2003 military intervention in Iraq. Using the 2003 US invasion of Iraq as a case study this paper will demonstrate the representational processes which impact the construction of a dominant discourse, subsequently influencing the production of policy. In doing so it sets out to demonstrate the variety of meaningful sites of production for our political realities while also demonstrating positions of privilege and power and how these shifts between sites over the duration of a conflict. To account for the manner in which these sites interact with one another a model is produced which provides a conceptualization of the processes and mechanisms at play which contribute to the construction of a dominant discourse, its sustenance, contestation, and eventual decline. A discursive helix is proposed as a model to interpret the processes and mechanisms at play in the construction of a dominant discourse between the political elite, media, and popular culture. By brining to light the how multiple sites of production interact with one another to produce a dominant discourse, subsequently influencing the conditions of possibility, this paper sets out to more fully demonstrate the consequence of these interactions for the justifiability and acceptance of military interventions.
Author: Ryan O'Connor (BCU) -
The challenge of overlapping regionalism, whereby states hold simultaneous membership of different organisations, often reflecting functional or ideological priorities and regional faultlines, has increasingly been exposed by the global pandemic. This has consolidated the view that regionalism is less capable of addressing the most pressing issues collectively. However, such assessments tend to depart from incomplete and Eurocentric representations, which subsequently reproduce depoliticised and technocratic assumptions of regionalism, namely regional governance being divorced from domestic political contexts. This problematically obscures underlying political struggles which give rise to alternative forms of regional identity and representation. In answering recent calls in the regionalism scholarship for more eclectic theoretical engagement, this paper offers a novel understanding of regionalism as an ontologically ‘unfinished’ process whereby far from being static or homogenous, regionalism and its respective organisations are underpinned by conditions of liminality and an ever-shifting quest for ontological security. Drawing from the agonistic thought of Mouffe (1994), Aggestam (2015) & Rumelili (2021), this paper proposes a theoretical framework which mobilises the three concepts of liminality, ontological security and agonism as part of a continuum to situate the interconnected subjectivities of regional organisations and envision alternatives to transcend conventional practices of regional governance, thus re-politicising regionalism.
Author: Antony Horne (University of Portsmouth)
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Panel / Rethinking Research Practices in IR Stephenson, Civic CentreSponsor: International Relations as a Social Science Working GroupConveners: Matthieu Grandpierron (ICES) , Rafael Alexandre Mello (University of Brasilia) , Nino Kemoklidze (University of Chichester)Chair: Cerwyn Moore (University of Birmingham)
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Military theatre has in recent years become a popular form of communicating war stories to a receptive public audience, with examples including the Royal British Legion’s award winning The Two Worlds of Charlie F, Lee Hart’s Boots at the Door, and the annual appearance of Army@TheFringe at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. These kinds of military performance projects, like other cultural forms (see Woodward & Jenkings 2012 on military memoirs), often continue to follow the trend among popular engagements with war that prioritise images of heroic masculine soldierhood enacted in spatially ‘far away’ wars (see Purnell & Danilova 2018). Drawing on our theatre-based research with military partners across the UK, we consider how a feminist and participatory approach to military theatre can instead allow the geographies of war to emerge differently by making the familiar strange and centring intimate spaces of the home. We argue that theatre and performance can help destabilise masculinised narratives around the sites, spaces, and bodies of war, and shed new light on the domestic impacts of military participation. We conclude by asking; what does theatre-as-method make visible that would otherwise go unseen? And, what does this mean for theatre-based research as a feminist political intervention?
Authors: Alice Cree (Newcastle University) , Hannah West (Newcastle University) -
The renewed interest in international relations (IR) as a coherent discipline has raised important questions about creative research methods and their application to enduring puzzles in global politics. This article deals with discovery, asking how it can be integrated into IR through a reconsideration of case-based research. The first part of the paper addresses the aims and assumptions of social research methods, and methodology, within IR. The argument then turns to discovery as an essential component of applied interpretivism. A central theoretical and methodological problem stems from the disregard of discovery for research and inquiry in IR. A corollary of this neglect is the marginalisation both of case study research and case-based methods. The article concludes by setting out the features of case study research as a central feature of global politics.
Author: Cerwyn Moore (University of Birmingham) -
Social science research studying people—sometimes called “human subjects”—has grappled with how to ensure ethical research practice. Arguably universally, social science scholars have adopted the same ethical principles established to guide ethical practice in biomedical research: respect for persons, justice, and beneficence. Increasingly, around the world, these principles are applied through the practice of prospective review by a committee, typically called an “Institutional Review Board” (IRB) or “Research Ethics Committee” (REC). Despite this increasingly coherent institutional practice, research ethics in the social sciences continues to lack any substantive core. This means that scholars may hold fundamentally irreconcilable views as to what constitutes ethical practice that our existing ethical principles cannot resolve. These issues are further pronounced for research that occurs across borders and on politically sensitive subjects. Focusing on the principle of beneficence, this article examines several ethical “scandals” in the social sciences as key moments when scholars articulate and justify ethical principles within their scholarly community. Examining these debates reveals that the principle of beneficence is fundamentally indeterminate, such that there is no stable basis upon which to determine whether research achieves principled ethical aspiration. Instead, in the face of an empty principle, scholars continue to rely on background principles, norms and processes to litigate ethics.
Author: Rebecca Tapscott
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16:30
Break with tea and coffee: SPONSORED BY REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
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Panel / Global Governance, International Organization, and Emerging Technologies Council Chamber, Civic CentreSponsor: International Studies and Emerging Technologies Working GroupConveners: Odilile Ayodele , Asaf Alibegovic (Heidelberg University) , Mabda Haerunnisa Fajrilla (The London School of Economics and Political Science)Chair: Theo Westphal (University of Sheffield)
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The emergence of a new age of digitisation is in full swing in the context of security and military technology, according to a dominant narrative. The political-public debate strongly promotes the message of the inevitable rise of algorithms, machine learning, and robotics as decisive technologies in the future of warfare. But this narrative and connected imaginaries of artificial intelligence (AI) as an overarching theme are rarely deconstructed. The paper seeks to analyse the construction of “AI” as a powerful driver of militarisation strategies and weapons development. The paper focusses on the US discourse about the putative essentiality of pursuing and pushing forward the AI turn in weapon systems. The perception of an AI arms race underpins this discourse and provides the discursive base for the ways in which the US outlines and accepts definitions of human agency and control in the debate about regulating, inter alia, autonomous weapons systems. In investigating the US case as the country claiming the technological and political leadership in this field, the paper also critically unpacks the notion of expertise and how their “expert” position enables major tech companies with a vital interest in upholding the “military AI as inevitable” narrative to influence US policy discourse.
Author: Hendrik Huelss (University of Southern Denmark) -
In Medieval Europe, the introduction of the stirrup is credited with the creation of mounted knights as the supreme combat unit of its time. One invention thus changed the course of human warfare in that epoch. Similarly, the invention of systems to enable the remote and autonomous operation of armed and unarmed vehicles is having a comparable effect on modern warfare. This paper explores the strategic challenges and opportunities created by the proliferation of remote and autonomous weapon systems in EU and NATO militaries. The significance of these developments in military technology are contrasted with the casualty averse motivations of national governments and defensive alliances. The political landscape of mutual cooperation and defence has been complicated immensely by the impact of Brexit on NATO and EU agreements and interactivity. Six strategic challenges and opportunities have been identified as being particularly salient for the future of European militaries, including that of the United Kingdom. Understanding how to adapt to and counter these potentials is of critical importance to maintaining security in the wider region. Governments with an aversion to friendly casualties are more likely to develop remote and autonomous weapon systems to reduce the risk to their militaries. But in doing so, proliferate this technology among both peers and competitors, resulting in a higher risk of more frequent conflicts in the near future.
Author: Isaac Bennett (University College Dublin) -
Regional institutions and initiatives have expanded their engagements beyond conventional issues, as demonstrated by the different forms of regional cybersecurity cooperation. While the virtual feature of cyberspace necessitates actors to think beyond the confines of physical borders and territories, regional frameworks on cybersecurity cooperation are pursuing deeper and more comprehensive engagements. Among the growing literature on regional cooperation on cybersecurity, there is a lack of attempt to critically juxtapose geopolitical constructs with the potential changes brought by the virtual features of cyberspace. This article questions how cybersecurity cooperation frameworks are formed with recourse to their geopolitical constructs as regions. This article will discuss how cyberspace changes our understanding of geopolitics and how this discussion has fared in locating the changes brought to debates on regionalism. Due to their robust cybersecurity cooperation processes, lessons from the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will be drawn. This empirical survey will reflect how they refer to their respective understandings on regional constructs to motivate the need to cooperate on cybersecurity issues. Moreover, it will also reflect on how regional constructs might be transformed by cybersecurity cooperation.
Author: Mabda Haerunnisa Fajrilla Sidiq (The London School of Economics and Political Science)
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184
Panel / International Approaches to Peace and Conflict Carloil, Civic CentreSponsor: Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Working GroupConvener: PKPBG Working groupChair: PKPBG Working group
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Contemporary peacebuilding and conflict prevention strategies are in a state of remarkable flux. Recent years have seen a marked downscaling of ambitions, with donors moving away from a transformative liberal peacebuilding agenda, towards a more pragmatic approach cohering around the mandate of stabilisation. While these broad shifts have been well documented in the emerging academic literature (Karlsrud 2019, Curran & Hunt 2020), little existing work has examined in detail how these trends have played out in practice from the perspective of a single donor agency. This paper uses a detailed case study of the UK government’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund since 2015, to explore how shifting domestic and international priorities have shaped the UK’s evolving approach to peacebuilding and the perceived relationship between security and development. Drawing on discourse analysis of policy documents and key informant interviews, the paper highlights growing tensions between the government’s waning commitment to development spending and its proposed commitment to a more integrated and comprehensive approach to conflict response. It also highlights more long-standing failures to institutionalise structural conflict prevention and take seriously the challenge of developing a comprehensive and long-term strategy for responding to conflict. The paper closes with some reflections on the future prospects for the security-development nexus, extending David Chandler’s (2007) claim that the nexus reflects a ‘retreat from strategic policy making’ by arguing that, in the UK case, this retreat has accelerated over time.
Authors: Oliver Walton (University of Bath) , Andrew Johnstone (University of Bath)* -
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has been engaging in a mediation process aimed at finding a resolution to the violent conflict in South Sudan since 2013. IGAD’s involvement in South Sudan is anchored on its founding principle of peaceful settlement of regional conflicts and the principle of subsidiarity under the Africa Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). It is puzzling that violence continued unabated even as parties to the conflict in South Sudan sat around the negotiation table and signed numerous agreements which they violated in near-equal measure. The parties to conflict seem unwilling to implement the 2018 IGAD-brokered peace agreement, with some experts arguing that the agreement is un-implementable and others claiming that IGAD mediators were privy to this situation all along. This raises a question as to why IGAD would continue engaging in a mediation process that neither ends violence nor offers a promise of a peaceful conflict resolution? Drawing out on qualitative data obtained through interviews and document reviews, this article argues that IGAD’s organisational structure and functionality are key to understanding and explaining the South Sudan phenomenon within broader discourses on peace and security regionalism in Africa. The article makes a case for the need to pay close attention to regional power dynamics as key to rethinking and reorienting structural and functional aspects of Regional Economic Communities (RECs), such is IGAD, within the APSA in view of the continent’s evolving peace and security agenda in pursuit of ‘African solutions to African problems.’
Author: Ibrahim Magara (Loughborough University) -
In the context of new international security threats and domestic institutional change (I.e. creation of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) this paper sheds light on the bureaucratic structures, incentives and interests that determine UK development aid funding decisions in conflict-affected states. Driven by domestic security considerations, UK development policy states that development aid should be used to create democratic, inclusive, well-governed societies in order to establish peace in conflict-affected states. However, actual funding decisions in these states often favour shorter term humanitarian aid and conflict prevention and security projects, rather than democratization projects. It is this gap between stated policy and the actual funding of projects that this paper analyses. Given that aid commitments that divert from policy may prolong or exacerbate conflict, impact UK security through the movement of people, terrorism and transnational crime, and waste tax payers’ money, this is an urgent area for research. Using new interview data from semi-structured face-to-face interviews with key decision makers at the UK’s newly created Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, this paper identifies how aid donors actually make the decision to divert from stated policy when distributing aid and constructs a theoretical framework through which to analyse and understand the gap between policy and actual aid commitments.
Author: Melita Lazell (University of Portsmouth)
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Panel / Politics of International Law Armstrong, Civic CentreSponsor: International Law and Politics Working GroupConvener: Andrea Birdsall (University of Edinburgh)Chair: James Gow (King's College )
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Do ordinary people care about international law? The question is important because many mainstream IR theories of why states comply with international law assume that citizens, specifically in democracies, prefer compliance with international law. Existing studies have investigated this question by priming respondents with the information that a policy violates international law. This underestimates the role of international law as those respondents most likely to care about international law are also the mostly likely to already know the legal status of a policy. Moreover, we know next to nothing about why international law might affect respondents’ preferences. Taking inspiration from jurisprudential theories of why people should obey the law, we articulate five potential mechanisms through which international law can influence the preferences of ordinary citizens by changing their moral and/or instrumental considerations about a policy. We employ a novel design in which we manipulate these considerations once with reference to international law and once without mentioning international law. This will reveal how international law affects preferences. It will also afford a better understanding of the counter-factual importance of international law in preference formation.
Authors: Janina Dill (University of Oxford) , Benjamin Valentino (Dartmouth College )* -
Today’s authoritarians pursue illiberal ends using rule of law compliant means. Much of the research on this topic has been based on comparatively highly capacitated authoritarian states, such as Russia and China, or Hungary and Poland. The findings illustrate how these states seek to extend their control and enact illiberal political agendas, both domestically—for instance using law to narrow the space for political opposition and bolster the advantage of incumbency, and internationally—for instance by strengthening sovereign claims and undermining human rights norms. This article examines how authoritarians use law in lower-capacity states to make an empirical and analytic contribution to this emerging scholarship. Lower-capacity states may lack the ability to pursue authoritarian interests directly. As a result, they adopt strategies that indirectly weaken the rule of law. For instance, in addition to weakening institutions by subverting law, some authoritarians destabilize jurisdictional claims, thereby making it uncertain when a given institution will be the relevant legal authority. By identifying several ways that lower-capacity authoritarian states strategically use law, this article offers an initial approach to typologizing authoritarian regime types and varieties of legal authoritarianism, with important implications for understanding variation in authoritarian states and their engagement with the international order.
Author: Rebecca Tapscott -
Throughout the 1990s, both Russian domestic policies, as well as foreign policies, went through an upheaval. When Russia declared itself a legal and political successor to all USSR’s obligations, the global configuration of powers had already shifted, so it had to reconfigure. This paper provides an overview of the dynamics of how Russia took its position in relating to its usage of references to international law/international standards and arguments of international law in terms of its foreign policymaking. In particular, this paper addresses the issue of how internal political fluctuations in Russia during the 1990s and 2000s affected its foreign ventures. Specifically, this paper looks into how, when, and if international laws established in the post-1990 period were used or abused in terms of forwarding Russia’s own foreign policy activities and whether this maneuvering triggered any changes to the global political game in any respect.
Author: Natalia Piskunova (Moscow State University) -
The international norm of the protection of minority rights has been formally recognized by the international community through the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1992. Despite this, the minority rights norm is still highly contested to date not only because it impinges on state sovereignty, but also because the international community is yet to find a coherent and common stance on it.
China’s ethnic minority policy has vacillated between pluralism and assimilationism since 1949. The former recognizes ethnic minority rights and identities whereas the latter enjoins Chinese rulers to forge a single Chinese national identity. However, China under Xi Jinping decided in 2020-2021 to pursue in an ever-more open manner an ‘aggressive cultural assimilation’ to ‘fuse’ various ethnic groups into a single Chinese nation.
This paper uses a constructivist perspective to examine how China legitimizes this policy change by contesting the international minority rights norm. By focusing on the study of the Turkic Muslim Uyghurs/Uighurs, the paper seeks to understand how the Chinese government contests the international minority rights norm and how its discursive contestation has changed over time. It examines how China describes and justifies discursively its ‘aggressive cultural assimilation’ policy to both domestic and international audiences. Ultimately, it explores if the international minority rights norm is resilient enough in this norm contestation, in light of the allegations and accusations of China’s mass interment of, and ‘cultural genocide’ against, the minorities.Authors: Cecilia Ducci (University of Bologna) , Pak Lee (University of Kent)
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Panel / Practices of Violence and Control in the Middle East Swan, Civic CentreSponsor: BISAConvener: Lewis Turner (Newcastle University)Chair: Lewis Turner (Newcastle University)
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Psychic Force of Security: Analogue Surveillance, Informant Activities, and the Psychological Warfare in Security States
Author: Deniz Yonucu (Newcastle University) -
On life support or supporting life? Counter wounding and care-as-politics in the Gaza Strip
Author: Craig Jones (Newcastle University) -
Relations of Care Amidst Military Bombings and COVID-19: Making and unmaking bonds of care in Gaza
Authors: Silvia Pasquetti (Newcastle University) , Jemima Repo (Newcastle University) , Hala Shoman (Newcastle University) -
The deferred violence of aerial assaults on Gaza
Author: Mark Griffiths (Newcastle University)
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Panel / Practising Peacekeeping: Experiences of Peacekeepers and Beyond Daniel Wood, Student UnionSponsor: Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Working GroupConveners: Anne Flaspöler (Durham University) , Jutta Bakonyi (Durham University)Chair: Anne Flaspöler (Durham University)Discussant: Marco Jowell (FCDO)
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Quantum Leap: Ireland’s evolutionary role in Peacekeeping Operations at the Cusp of the 21st Century
Some sixty years ago on 28th June 1958, barely three years after Ireland gained membership of the United Nations, the first Irish Peacekeepers took up duty on the Lebanese Syrian Border. Since then, not a day has passed without an Irish soldier manning his or her post in numerous Peace Support Operations (PSOs) throughout the world; be it standing guard, manning an observation post, or patrolling a zone of separation somewhere within the world’s most dangerous and volatile locations. Former Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces (DF) Vice Admiral Mark Mellett noted in 2018 “The Irish DF has over 650 personnel serving overseas in 13 missions in 13 countries and on one sea.” This paper will examine three key overseas missions as a clustered case study, Kosovo, Liberia and Chad which saw significant deployments of Irish troops. These missions were a ‘Quantum Leap” in the evolution and development of Ireland’s role in PSOs that was significantly different in a number of key aspects of previous UN missions; particularly in respect of operational deployment, doctrine and logistical support. Indeed, these three historical examples also indicated potential dilemmas that not just Irish, but UN troops may face on the ground in future PSOs. Through an examination of key literature in this sphere morphed with interviewing practitioners from within the DF with a vast reservoir of ‘lived’ UN missions it will be demonstrated how Ireland has in effect played a significant role in the evolution and development of these “Third Generation” PSOs. From a lesson learned perspective a potential ‘portal’ will emerge as to how such missions can be assessed from a mission accomplishment barometer and how this in turn may inform the success or indeed failure of future PSOs undertaken by the UN.
Author: Rory Finegan (Maynooth University ) -
Africa has been the site of some of the largest and longest-running peace operations in the world and Africans have been pivotal actors in peacekeeping on the continent. Some of the leading personnel contributors to UN peacekeeping operations are African, while the largest contemporary peace operation – the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) – is African-led. Indeed, peacekeeping has increasingly become a key dimension of foreign policy for some African states, and even an aspect of domestic politics. Drawing on a forthcoming book, this paper will explore, discuss and interrogate this changing character of African peacekeeping – understood as contributions to peacekeeping, within and beyond Africa, by African actors, as well as African actors’ influence on peacekeeping debates and policies. Key questions to be addressed include: what is the relationship between African peacekeeping, foreign and national policy and state-building? To what extent has the character of African peacekeeping changed in recent years – and how far do different regime types approach the phenomenon differently? What determines whether African states participate in UN- versus AU-/regional organisation-led operations, and how significant is domestic opinion in explaining different African approaches to peacekeeping?
Authors: Jonathan Fisher (University of Birmingham) , Nine Wilén (Lund University) -
As the global political landscape is in transformation, so are the roles, mandates and practices of the UN. Recently, the apparent ‘robust turn’ in United Nations peacekeeping has been a source of controversy. Some observers consider the rise of robust mandates necessary for maintaining the ‘relevance’ of the UN, others emphasise the negative unintended consequences of the deepening entanglement of peacekeeping with stabilization and counterterrorism. The frictions this transformation produces within the UN itself have also received some attention. Yet, focus remains primarily on the formal institutional architecture and to some extent on member state divergences concerning the question of ‘robust use of force’. This paper focusses on the comparatively understudied issue of how this transformation of peacekeeping is negotiated by different UN and non-UN peacekeeping actors on the ground. How do their everyday practices - and related networks and resources - shape doctrine? We understand these practices as contributing to changing principles and practices that feed into reports and evaluations - and ultimately have policy outcomes. The paper will zoom in on these contestations in Mali and Somalia where mandate delivery, in particular the priority mandate of Protection of Civilians, has to be defended, redefined or evaded in these everyday negotiations of the robust turn. This outlook helps convey overlooked agency of peacekeepers at a time when the very notion of peacekeeping echoes distressingly little with multi-actor mission realities.
Author: Louise Wiuff Moe (University of Southern Denmark)
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Panel / Rethinking Emancipation Bewick, Civic CentreSponsor: International Relations as a Social Science Working GroupConveners: Giorgio Shani (International Christian University) , Hartmut Behr (Newcastle University)Chair: Hartmut Behr (Newcastle University)
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There has been frequent reference to the concept of an emancipatory peace in the critical academic literature on peace and conflict studies, much of it rather naive. It has developed an ecosystem of its own within debates on peace without drawing on wider disciplinary de-bates. Terms such as ‘emancipation’ and its relative, ‘social justice’, are widely used in criti-cal theoretical literature and were common parlance in previous ideological eras. It was clear what such terms meant in the context of feudalism, slavery, imperialism, discrimina-tion, a class system, nuclear weapons, and racism over the previous two centuries. Now it is less clear in the context of changing peace praxis. This paper addresses this gap in the liter-ature.
Author: Oliver Richmond (University of Manchester) -
Speaking to a journalist in 2004, the Wu-Tang Clan's Ol’ Dirty Bastard remarked of the book Behold a Pale Horse by Milton William Cooper: “Everybody gets f... ." William Cooper tells you who’s f... you ... when you’re someone like me, that’s valuable information.” Published in 1991, Behold a Pale Horse is a classic of conspiracy culture, weaving together everything from UFOs and the JFK assassination to the Illuminati and a coming ice age. An influential text for the US militia movement, the book would be easy to label as a white su-premacist tract. However, it has also been influential on Black American culture, such as with the Wu-Tang Clan. Conspiracy theories of this sort promise to pull back the veil, shine a light into the shadows, and to reveal "who's f... you." In this much, they promise eman-cipation—if not from the omnipotent forces themselves then at least from the deceit in which mainstream culture cloaks the real workings of power. Conspiracism is thus analo-gous to critique. However, these modes of thought also differ in crucial ways. This paper will explore these differences, particularly reflecting upon the possibility of distinguishing 'genu-ine' emancipation from the pseudo-emancipatory promise of conspiracism.
Author: Philip Conway (Durham Univserity) -
This paper seeks to reconceptualise emancipation in critically theorising International Rela-tions (IR) by developing ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ versions of normativity and applying them as condi-tions for a pluriversal dialogue between different cosmologies. We start with the premise that ‘critical IR’ is both Eurocentric and a-normative, and argue that a normative engage-ment with critical discourses both inside and outside the West is necessary to recapture its emancipatory promise. Drawing on the work of Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse and Jacques Derrida, we develop ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ versions of normativity. The former, we argue, operates as a critical corrective of thick normative positions, reclaiming their openness to difference, while not making substantive moral or political claims itself. We then apply these versions of normativity to examine the possibility of a global pluriversal dialogue be-tween different cosmologies. Cosmologies, we argue, refer to sets of ontological and epis-temological claims about the human condition that are inherently normative. ‘Thin’ norma-tivity applied to the ‘thick’ claims of cosmologies prevents the essentialisation and hierarchi-sation of cosmological difference(s) by revealing and de-constructing the latter’s potentially discriminatory, exclusionary, and violent tendencies. In so doing, it facilitates a global inter-cosmological dialogue which we regard as the objective of a post-western, critical IR.
Author: Hartmut Behr (Newcastle University)
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Panel / The Diverse Politics of Secession Parson, Civic CentreSponsor: Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working GroupConvener: Naosuke Mukoyama (University of Cambridge)Chair: Monika Brusenbauch Meislová (Masaryk University)
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Between 2016–2021, in response to repeated calls for a second Scottish independence popular referendum, two British Prime Ministers – Theresa May and Boris Johnson – adopted a holding position in order to postpone the second plebiscite sine die and thus neutralise this contested issue. Having adopted the general orientation of the discourse historical approach to discourse analysis, and working with a qualitative dataset of May’s and Johnson’s public utterances on the second Scottish referendum in the 2016–2021 period, the contribution investigates how exactly the second Scottish independence referendum was discursively constructed in the prime ministerial rhetoric. By doing so, it provides an insight into how May and Johnson made sense of the polarising question of Scottish independence and legitimised, through language, their perspectives thereof.
Author: Monika Brusenbauch Meislová (Masaryk University) -
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the benefits of full international recognition for policymaking, ranging from border management to vaccine procurement. For aspiring states lacking such recognition, practical drawbacks can be even more painful than the lack of United Nations membership. This paper develops the growing body of literature arguing that goals other than legal recognition (unlikely in most cases) are the immediate target for these liminal entities. While some have argued that such states seek material benefits (such as investment) and physical security, I draw on Janis Grzybowski’s work to argue that they are also driven by the need for fundamental ontological security. Their precarious status breeds anxiety related not only to their unclear role in the international system but their very identity as states. The ability to claim territory and, in some cases, receive some international validation reaffirm their identities as “normal”, territorially delimited states, even if they do not result in tangible gains. I undertake an exploratory probe of the argument through an empirical study of Western Sahara, developed out of extensive journalistic fieldwork undertaken in Saharawi refugee camps. I process trace Western Sahara’s lawsuits in the European Court of Justice that sought to confirm its claims to the territory currently occupied by Morocco, and contextualise the document analysis through fieldwork observation from 2014 and 2016.
Author: Dominik Sipinski (Central European University)
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Roundtable / The Ethics and Politics of 'Harm' Martin Luther King, Student Union
This roundtable critically evaluates the possibilities and limitations of the concept of harm as a foundation for responsibility, accountability and liability in global ethics. Rationalist approaches to global ethics (Hutchings, 2018) such as consequentialism and deontology treat harm as an objective foundation: as something that can be measured, or as the content of a moral imperative. Contributors will be invited to consider but think past this, by building on Linklater's (2006) more intersubjective interpretation of harm as an 'essentially contested concept' (Gallie, 1956; see also Hoseason 2018, Karp 2020). This will be connected to substantive areas including business and human rights, migration policy, international criminal justice, racial/colonial capitalism, and hate speech. The roundtable begins a conservation between scholars ranging from established academics to PhD researchers. It fosters a discussion about how each contributor's research and professional experience in this area, as well as future research plans, can help to construct a larger collaborative research agenda about the ethics and politics of harm in IR.
Sponsor: Ethics and World Politics Working GroupChair: James Pattison (University of Manchester)Participants: Owen Thomas (University of Exeter) , David J. Karp (University of Sussex) , Alex Hoseason (Aston University) , Lara Montesinos Coleman (University of Sussex) , Eric Heinze (Queen Mary) -
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Panel / The Power of Narratives: Russia’s Strategic Narratives of Identity and Crises Kate Adie, Student UnionSponsor: Russian and Eurasian Security Working GroupConvener: Valentina Feklyunina (Newcastle University)Chair: Benjamin Faude (Newcastle University)
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Russian leadership uses state-sponsored news media outlets to project ‘antagonistic strategic narratives’ into international audiences of targeted societies. Destabilising cognitive and emotional responses of these narratives are often discussed, but there is little causal evidence demonstrating these effects. This work-in-progress study will use survey experiments to find evidence of such responses. It will test a transdisciplinary framework that fuses a framework of narrative strategies adopted by Russian media with pertinent social psychological theory about threat perceptions. To build on earlier content analyses of Russian narration about the Netherlands and Sweden, we will show Dutch or Swedish participants an article about their own country that is demonstrative of a particular narrative strategy. The participants will then indicate their short-term responses on an array trust and emotional variables. This study will provide initial insights into potential causal relationships between Russian state-sponsored narratives and specific cognitive or emotional responses. The study therefore lays the foundations for future research into more long-term cognitive or emotional effects of Russian antagonistic narration, and later, for research that may develop possible interventions against Russian hostile information influence.
Author: Aiden Hoyle (University of Amsterdam) -
States rely on domestic mass media to cultivate sentiments of national belonging among citizens. If certain groups engage less with domestic media than with foreign or transnational alternatives, this can prompt concern about societal cohesion and unwanted foreign influence. Such concern is evident in Ukraine, where Russian influence via the media is regarded as a particularly significant security threat. This paper uses original, regionally representative survey data to explain variation in the level of attention that Ukrainian citizens pay to local, national and cross-border news media. It considers both supply-side factors (such as ease of access) and demand-side factors (including language preferences and political interest) in a comparative study that includes three diverse peripheral locations – Odesa, Sumy and Zakarpattia regions – as well as the political centre, Kyiv. The paper then studies how different news diets and levels of engagement with foreign sources affect support for democracy and norms of good citizenship, as well as belief in disinformation. The paper aims to prompt deeper reflection about the relationship between media use and national security, in a world where citizens increasingly inhabit ‘borderless’ digital media environments.
Author: Joanna Szostek (Glasgow University) -
This paper presents detailed empirical evidence from two years’ worth of content analysis of RT International news broadcasts in order to assess the frequent claim that the network (formerly Russia Today) weaponizes disinformation. The results of the study suggest that although fake news is aired around issues of Russian national interest, this is not routine. Usually, RT curates (generally factual) news in terms of topics covered; expertise platformed; and resultant framings. The outcome is news coverage strongly shaped by populist communication postures which set ‘us’ - the people - against ‘them’ - the elite. Within this framework, opinion and perspective are privileged in analysis and stylistic informality, humour and sarcasm are all used as a performative fight-back against the mainstream. All manner of breaking news events can be fitted into this template, in which a corrupt Western corporate-political-media elite is the main threat to life and liberty, whilst genuine physical threats associated with Russia can be skirted over and laughed off.
Author: Precious Chatterje-Doody (Open University) -
The British Intelligence and Security Committee 2020 ‘Russia Report’ has accused RT UK of being a part of a wider Russian campaign aiming to influence democratic processes in Britain. This presents a stereotypical view on the dangers Kremlin-sponsored informational actors pose for social cohesion and democratic institutions in the West. A case study of the mediation of a major political event by the Russian channel RT in the UK may help to assess the validity of such concerns. Relying on the live media ethnography method, I investigate a set of outputs produced by RT UK across its traditional and new media platforms in the period immediately preceding the 2019 UK General Election. The goal of my paper is to identify and understand the key messages, and the modes of informing and connecting to the audience exhibited in RT’s coverage of these elections. I also assess whether RT UK uniformly and noticeably agitate its viewers to favour some candidates whilst discrediting others across its media channels and different outputs. Finally, I trace what kind of technologies, formats, and themes were used in the coverage and how impactful were RT’s approaches. Ultimately, I analyse the extent to which RT UK’s work may have impacted the election outcomes and suggest that the perceived dangers may have been overestimated. In the process, I discuss the interrelationship between RT UK and its sister networks, the British media regulators, political establishment, and audiences.
Author: Vitaly Kazakov (Manchester University) -
Following the withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan in 2021, the Russian leadership has pursued a cautious policy of engaging with the Taliban while at the same time attempting to position Russia as a key mediator between the Taliban and the US. This paper will develop a novel argument about the sources of Russia’s foreign policy towards Afghanistan and the US. We will build on the rapidly developing literature on autobiographical narratives and ontological security to develop a concept of a status charter – a set of strategic historical narratives that work together to imagine the state’s ‘rightful’ status and a normative map to achieving this status. It will then apply the concept of the status charter to the analysis of Russia’s approaches to Afghanistan by tracing the changing strategic narratives of Russia’s past victories and defeats (as articulated by the Russian President), and by examining the impact of these narratives on how the Russian authorities interpret Russia’s ‘rightful’ international role in the region.
Author: Valentina Feklyunina (Newcastle University)
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Roundtable / The Academic-Practitioner Nexus: What Can We Learn? Collingwood, Civic Centre
The engagement of academia with practitioners and the development of policy is not new. Think-tanks such as Chatham House and journals such as International Affairs were created as mechanisms for bringing different groups together in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. Today's REF also gives a significant emphasis to impact. This roundtable brings together a number of academics with varying experiences of policy engagement to reflect on their experiences and the lessons that they would pass on to ECRs and so forth.
Sponsor: Learning and Teaching Working GroupChair: Andrew Dorman (International Affairs)Participants: Tracey German (King's College London) , Jasmine Gani (University of St Andrews) , Andrew Dorman (International Affairs) -
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Panel / Understanding Transnational Violent and Non-violent Activism and its Challenges Stephenson, Civic CentreSponsor: Political Violence, Conflict and Transnational ActivismConveners: Mark Youngman (University of Portsmouth) , Annamaria Kiss (King's Russia Institute, King's College London)Chair: Mark Youngman (University of Portsmouth)Discussant: Cerwyn Moore (University of Birmingham)
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This paper makes the case for the utility of complexity theory for understanding resistance in contexts of armed conflict and state violence. Concepts within complexity theory such as emergence, self-organisation, decentralisation, feedback loops, and adaption, form a framework that can help to describe and explain how a society faced with constant, violent threats, such as Myanmar, adapts to its environment through acts and patterns of mitigation and resistance. While complexity theory has been applied to sub-fields of international studies such as terrorism, peacebuilding, and conflict, applying this to resistance studies is a novel undertaking. I draw on a data corpus consisting of documentation of human rights violations and mitigation strategies in conflict-affected southeast Myanmar between 2012 and 2018, a period of political and economic changes in the country. In my analysis I argue that the more quotidian, dispersed, indeed, everyday acts of resistance, form patterns that have the properties of a complex adaptive system which is durable in times of violence and flux.
Author: Alex Moodie (Durham University) -
Why would one join someone else’s civil war? Renewed interest in ’foreign fighters’ (FFs) as a form of transnational high-risk activism takes place in compartmentalised academic disciplines like contentious politics, civil war or terrorism studies, with few cross-references. Conceptual definitions are often based on the assumed motivations of the FFs, further contributing to this disconnect. Importantly, the policies of their home countries do not feature prominently. Yet, actors taking up arms and leaving to fight in somebody else’s civil war can be affected by the state policies both directly and indirectly. Using the case-study of Russian FFs leaving to fight in Syria and Iraq (not to be confused with PMCs or mercenaries), this project aims to understand this particular mobilisation and the Russian perception of this phenomenon. Thus, Annamaria’s thesis applies a Social Movement Theory framework to understand high-risk transnational activism and the state’s perceptions. Her research combines interviews, open source biographical data, legal documents, and ethnographic fieldwork.
Author: Annamaria Kiss (King's Russia Institute, King's College London) -
The present article aims to examine the participation of Georgian Azerbaijanis in the Syrian and Iraqi conflicts. More precisely, the paper aims to explore the reasons for the unsuccessful jihadi mobilisation among Georgian Azerbaijanis. The research draws on the concept of transnational diffusion and analyses the factors that prevented the spread of jihadi narratives and mobilisation of transnational insurgents from the particular ethnoreligious community or geographic area. The first part of the paper will discuss the conceptual and methodological aspects of the research. It will be followed by the contextual section, providing a piece of background information on the previous encounter of Georgian Azerbaijanis with Salafism and jihadi groups. It will overview the existing Salafi groups among this ethnic group, as well as the impact of transnational Islamist movements of North Caucasus or neighbouring Azerbaijan. The final part will discuss the chief constraints that prevented the mass mobilisation, bringing together the findings and discussing the issues of ineffective mobilisation.
Author: Aleksandre Kvakhadze (University of Birmingham) -
The article assesses the gendered violences of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019, the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, the National Register of Citizens (Assam and pan-India), and the National Population Register. It reviews narratives of resistance and contentious politics from August 2019 to August 2020 in India, and argues for the need to acknowledge, identify, and roadmap responses to overt mechanisms of invisibilization of gendered and religious minorities; it holds that such characterization of abject non-citizenship is critical to the consolidation of ethnonationalist identity. The argument is presented by broadly addressing three questions regarding three stages (authentication, exclusion, and detention) to understand: i) the direct and indirect exclusions of trans- and GNC individuals by the TPA-CAA-NRC-NPR; ii) detention and its (infra)structural risks of gendered violence; iii) the suppression of queer visibility under a monolithic double-bind of 'normality' and 'perversity', identity erasure, and its sociolegal consequences for trans people in India. It reviews narratives of transnational activism and reviews lessons learned, to roadmap nonviolent resistance in global IR discourse.
Author: Q Manivannan (PhD Candidate, University of St Andrews)
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