November 2022 Monthly Digest - Eleventh digest of 2022
The Monthly Digest is a resource provided by Security in Context that provides a list of recent publications, calls, conferences and other items relevant to the critical global, security, and international political economy studies audience. In addition to new items, our digest may contain relatively recent entries, so please double check dates on any calls or conferences. All descriptions taken from their original sources unless otherwise indicated. If we’ve missed something, or you have items you’d like to contribute for future digests, please email us at: submissions@securityincontext.org
Books
Kurds in Dark Times
New Perspectives on Violence and Resistance in Turkey
Edited by Ayça Alemdaroglu, Fatma Müge Göçek
https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/5217/kurds-in-dark-times/
With an estimated population of 35 million, Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without an independent state of their own. Kurds constitute about 20 percent of Turkey, the largest Kurdish population in the region. The history of the Kurds in Turkey is marked by state violence against them and decades of conflict between the Turkish military and Kurdish fighters. Although the continuous struggle of the Kurdish people is well known, and the political actors involved in the conflict have received much attention, an increasing wave of scholarship is being written from the vantage point of the Kurds themselves.
Alemdaroğlu and Göçek’s volume develops a fresh approach by moving away from top-down Turkish nationalist macroanalyses to a microanalysis of how Kurds and Kurdistan as historical and ethnic categories were constructed from the bottom up. Contributors look beyond the politics of state actors to examine how Kurdish workers, women, youth, and political prisoners experience and resist marginalization, exclusion, and violence. Kurds in Dark Times opens an essential window into the lives of Kurds by generating meaningful insights into the formal and informal ways of negotiating their power and place in Turkey; and therefore, it provides crucial perspectives for any endeavor to create peace and reconciliation in the country.
The Dragon Roars Back
Transformational Leaders and Dynamics of Chinese Foreign Policy
SUISHENG ZHAO
https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=34666
China is unique in modern world history. No other rising power has experienced China's turbulent history in its relations with neighbors and Western countries. Its sheer size dominates the region. With leader Xi Jinping's political authority unmatched, Xi's sense of mission to restore what he believes is China's natural position as a great power drives the current course of the nation's foreign policy. When China was weak, it was subordinated to others. Now, China is strong, and it wants others to subordinate, at least on the issues involving what it regards as core national interests.
What are the primary forces and how have these forces driven China's reemergence to global power? This book weaves together complex events, processes, and players to provide a historically in-depth, conceptually comprehensive, and up-to-date analysis of Chinese foreign policy transition since the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC), arguing that transformational leaders with new visions and political wisdom to make their visions prevail are the game changers. Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Xi Jinping are transformational leaders who have charted unique courses of Chinese foreign policy in the quest for security, prosperity, and power. With the ultimate decision-making authority on national security and strategic policies, these leaders have made political use of ideational forces, tailoring bureaucratic institutions, exploiting the international power distribution, and responding strategically to the international norms and rules to advance their foreign policy agendas in the path of China's ascendance.
Argentina in the Global Middle East
LILY PEARL BALLOFFET
https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=31491
Argentina lies at the heart of the American hemisphere's history of global migration booms of the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century: by 1910, one of every three Argentine residents was an immigrant—twice the demographic impact that the United States experienced in the boom period. In this context, some one hundred and forty thousand Ottoman Syrians came to Argentina prior to World War I, and over the following decades Middle Eastern communities, institutions, and businesses dotted the landscape of Argentina from bustling Buenos Aires to Argentina's most remote frontiers.
Argentina in the Global Middle East connects modern Latin American and Middle Eastern history through their shared links to global migration systems. By following the mobile lives of individuals with roots in the Levantine Middle East, Lily Pearl Balloffet sheds light on the intersections of ethnicity, migrant–homeland ties, and international relations. Ranging from the nineteenth century boom in transoceanic migration to twenty-first century dynamics of large-scale migration and displacement in the Arabic-speaking Eastern Mediterranean, this book considers key themes such as cultural production, philanthropy, anti-imperial activism, and financial networks over the course of several generations of this diasporic community. Balloffet's study situates this transregional history of Argentina and the Middle East within a larger story of South-South alliances, solidarities, and exchanges.
Killing Contention
Demobilization in Morocco during the Arab Spring
Sammy Zeyad Badran
https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/5172/killing-contention/
Like other countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Moroccans were inspired by the events in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011. Nine days after the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, thousands of Moroccans began protesting in the capital of Rabat on February 20. However, unlike other countries, Moroccans did not call for the overthrow of the king or the regime. Instead, Moroccan protesters initially demanded reforms to the constitution, and, specifically, a transition from an executive monarchy to a democratic parliamentary monarchy.
Drawing upon narratives from the primary activists involved in protests, Badran examines the Moroccan movement to understand why it failed to escalate in the same way that others in the region did. He finds that the state’s strategy of offering a series of reforms along with limited repression eventually ended the protest movement. Badran develops a framework to analyze how internal social movement dynamics along with regime strategies and regional events led to successful, and relatively peaceful, demobilization. Based on nine months of fieldwork, Killing Contention deepens our understanding of modern political movements and the complicated factors that lead to their demise.
Lectures & Webinars
The Untold Story of the Golan Heights: Occupation, Colonization and Jawlani Resistance
Wednesday 23 November 2022 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Hosted by the Middle East Centre
https://www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-centre/events/2022/untold-story-golan-heights
This event will be the launch of The Untold Story of the Golan Heights: Occupation, Colonization and Jawlani Resistance edited by Muna Dajani, Munir Fakher Eldin and Michael Mason. Copies of the book will be available to buy during the event.
This landmark volume is the first academic study in English of Arab politics and culture in the occupied Golan Heights. It focuses on an indigenous community, known as the Jawlanis, and their experience of everyday colonisation and resistance to settler colonisation. Chapters cover how governance is carried out in the Golan, from Israel's use of the education system and collective memory, to its development of large-scale wind turbines which are now a symbol of Israeli encroachment.
To illustrate the ways in which the current regime of Israeli rule has been contested, there are chapters on the six-month strike of 1982, youth mobilisation in the occupied Golan, Palestinian solidarity movements, and the creation of Jawlani art and writing as an act of resistance.
Rich in ethnographic detail and with chapters from diverse disciplines, the book brings together Jawlani, Palestinian and UK researchers. The innovative format also includes shorter 'reflections' from young Arab researchers, activists and lawyers that respond to more traditional academic chapters.
Journal Articles / Papers
AFGHANISTAN BEFORE AND AFTER 20 YEARS OF WAR (2001-2021)
Costs of War Project (2022) - WATSON INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/Afghanistanbeforeandafter20yearsofwar
Examining data before the U.S. war in Afghanistan and after the U.S. withdrawal, this infographic displays indicators of poverty, food insecurity, child malnutrition, women's rights, U.S. spending, and more.
Reassurance and Deterrence in Asia
Oriana Skylar Mastro
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09636412.2022.2140598
US defense strategy has long been predicated on the view that military activities, maneuvers, and deployments are credible conveyers of information to both adversaries and partners about US willingness to fight in specific circumstances. Brian Blankenship and Erik Lin-Greenberg's article, "Trivial Tripwires? Military Capabilities and Alliance Reassurance," makes an important contribution by demonstrating that not all military activities are created equal when it comes to reassuring allies and partners. Blankenship and Lin-Greenberg rightfully capture reassurance as a product of resolve and capability-thus a "reassuring" state can provide differing acts of reassurance depending on the degree of resolve it wishes to demonstrate and the capabilities it possesses. The authors evaluate four types of reassurance, which vary according to their strength of signaling resolve and capability: (1) tripwires; (2) fighting forces; (3) transient demonstrations; and (4) offshore presences. Relying largely on surveys of defense experts in the Baltics and Central Europe, they argue that a commitment of fighting forces-such as a permanent overseas base or a large in-country ground deployment-makes countries feel safest.
The big question that comes to mind is whether these findings are valid in other theaters, such as the Indo-Pacific. The rise of China presents the greatest challenge to the security and interests of the United States and its allies since the Cold War. As China's military capabilities have grown, so too has its aggressiveness in pushing territorial issues in the South China Sea, East China Sea, along the Sino-Indian border, and regarding Taiwan.
Qualifying deportation: How police translation of ‘dangerous foreign criminals’ led to expansive deportation practices in Spain
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09670106221118798
In 2009, in a move to improve the situation regarding the deportability of illegalized migrants in Spain, a left-wing government led by the Socialist Workers’ Party drafted a new policy aimed at focusing police efforts exclusively on the deportation of ‘foreign criminals’. Ethnographically tracing the enforcement of deportation by a central police unit in Madrid, this article shows how the practical implementation of a policy that seemingly sought to limit the use of deportation in fact allowed for continuous and even reinvigorated deportation practices aimed at all categories of illegalized migrants. Operating under the idea that they were now fighting ‘dangerous criminals’, many police agents felt increasingly motivated about carrying out deportations and reassured about the morality of doing so. Rather than focusing on illegalized migrants who had been indicted for serious crimes, most police agents considered anyone with a police record to fit their target group. As a result of the specific police interpretation of the new policy, the deportability of illegalized migrants in Spain was not only increased but also left to be enforced according to the racialized and racist ideas of police agents. The article argues for the need to scrutinize all new deportation policies within Western liberal states in terms of their effect on deportability by highlighting entrenched and institutionalized forms of racism against illegalized migrants within the police force.
‘The state killed my child’: security, justice and affective sociality in the European periphery
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21624887.2022.2147328?src=
When the small gatherings of concerned citizens started at the main Krajina square in Banja Luka, following the disappearance of the 21-year-old electrical engineering student, David Dragiéevié, on 18 March 2018, nobody could have predicted that they would evolve into large-scale and the longest-lasting protests in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bi) with the Justice for David (]FD) and Justice for Dienan movements crossing BiH's administrative and ethnic borders. David's case, allegedly at the hand of some of the Republika Srpska police members, was brought into connection with another unresolved murder case, the one of the 22 year-old Dienan Memié who died in February 2016 in Sarajevo under suspicious circumstances, allegedly at the hand of people close to the ruling Party of Democratic Action (SDA)." Both cases faced attempted silencing, tampering with evidence and altogether lacked proper police investigation or prosecution by the judiciary for months on end, spurring the social protests against the current state structures.
As the constitutional design plays a crucial role within the ongoing crisis of the country, it is important to give the contours of BiH setup. After the 1992-1995 war, the country has been divided into the two entities and Brèko district and has since Dayton Peace Agreement (Dayton) been ruled by ethnonationalist political elites, most notably the SDA and the SNSD.? The two fathers organising the protests, Davor Dragicevié and Muriz Memié, blamed the dominant political parties in the two entities, SDA in the Federation of BiH and SNSD in the Republika Srpska (RS), including the entity police and judiciary for what
happened to their children. Amidst negligence and lack of due procedure necessary to resolve the cases, citizens of Banja Luka and Sarajevo joined the protests, symbolically and organically uniting Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bi) for the first time. These two cases also forged new relationships and forms of affective sociality within which security-related stakes and concerns rearticulated security as care but also the meaning social justice in this European periphery.
Job Openings/ Fellowships
University of Virginia, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture
Postdoctoral Fellow, Humanities & Interpretive Social Sciences
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=64593
The Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture (IASC) at the University of Virginia invites applications for two-year postdoctoral fellowships. The Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture is an interdisciplinary research center and intellectual community based in the interpretive social sciences committed to understanding contemporary and historical cultural change and its individual and social consequences, training young scholars, and providing intellectual leadership in service to the common good. In its twenty-six-year history, the Institute has cultivated projects on, for example, political culture and democracy, social theories of modernity and critical theory, moral philosophy and the public sphere, philosophical anthropology and religious experience, and human development and the making of the modern self in education.
Fellowships are open to qualified candidates with US citizenship or who can obtain the appropriate visa through another institution. All fellows must be in residence at IASC in Charlottesville, VA for the duration of the award period. Institute fellows are expected to participate in IASC events, to be an active member in its the seminars and reading groups, and to refrain from teaching or other forms of employment during their fellowship.
The fellowship term begins September 1, 2023, and, if fellows satisfy the program requirements and remain in good standing, ends May 31, 2025. The fellowship carries an annual stipend between $46,573 - $50,760 plus individual health insurance.
To apply, submit in one email with the subject “IASC Postdoctoral Application” to iascfellowsinfo@virginia.edu the following items: 1) a cover letter; 2) a curriculum vitae; 3) a 5–7 page project abstract, including a statement that positions your project within the scope of the Institute’s vision and one of our colloquies or labs; and 4) a writing sample no longer than 50 pages. (Letters of reference may be requested of candidates after an initial screening.)
All application materials must be received no later than December 1, 2022. Applicants will be notified of final decisions on or about January 30, 2023.
Nazareth College - Rochester, History, Politics and Law
Assistant Professor - International, Comparative, or Global Politics
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=64707
The History, Politics, and Law Department at Nazareth College invites applications for a full-time tenure-track appointment in International, Comparative, or Global Politics to begin in August 2023.
The successful applicant will teach international relations, global studies, and comparative politics courses and direct the International and Global Studies Program. Area of expertise is open, but preference will be given to candidates with a background in the Global South or international law. In addition, preference will be given to candidates with the ability to contribute to our programs in Legal Studies, Women and Gender Studies, Global Sustainability, and other interdisciplinary programs focused on global issues and cultures. The standard teaching load is four courses per semester.
Ph.D. in political science is expected at the time of employment. However, ABD candidates may be considered if they anticipate a successful defense of their dissertation by May 2023.
Review of applications begins January 9, 2023.
Podcast
Global Activism and the Particulars of Combating Police Violence – An Interview with Dr. Jean Beaman:
Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies
Professor Jean Beaman’s extensive fieldwork and research on immigration, racism, citizenship, and police violence in Paris, France combined with her own experiences of growing up, living in, and eventually working and teaching in the United States has given depth to her analyses of global structural violence. In this episode, she tells us about some of the most inspiring moments in her ethnographic fieldwork, about her views on the links between activism and scholarship, and elaborates on her analyses of the global connections between racism, but also between anti-racist mobilization.
Lectures/Webinars
The Landscapes of Insecurity
the inaugural Security in Context conference titled Landscapes of Insecurity that was held September 16th & 17th at the University of Oklahoma Norman in collaboration with the Center for Peace and Development.
Heidi Peltier - Arms Tanks and Munitions: The Relationship Between Profits and Monopoly Conditions
Heidi Peltier discusses her working paper, "Arms, Tanks, and Munitions: The Relationship Between Profits and Monopoly Conditions" in the session on "Financialization and War Economies"
Joshua Landis - Increased US Intervention and Global Insecurity
Joshua Landis presents his study on US intervention's relationship with global insecurity, in the session on "Insecurity in MENA"
Eric Lob - Changes & Continuities in Iran-Africa Trade: A Case Study of South-South Dependency?
Eric Lob presents on Iran-Africa trade in the Session on "Multipolarity and the New South-South Relations"
Rabie Nasser - A Transformative Participatory Approach to Addressing the Syrian Conflict
Rabie Nasser's presentation about finding a participatory approach to the Syrian Conflict, in the session on "Insecurity in MENA"
Fernando Brancoli - Sovereignty, China and the Amazon
Fernando Brancoli presents his study, Sovereignty, China and the Amazon, in the session on "Cross-Regional Experiences with Insecurity"
Jacob Mundy - Oil and In/Security
Jacob Mundy discusses three global case studies in a presentation about oil security in the session on "Financialization and War Economies"
