This post contains the introduction to Security in Context's 2024 Year in Review, written by Security in Context Director Omar Dahi. Scroll below to download the full PDF.
Introduction
By Omar Dahi
The past year has been incredibly productive for Security in Context. Launched in the midst of the Covid shutdown, our project turned to hosting online meetings and webinars along with starting our research and knowledge production projects. However our goal was always to create spaces for in-person meetings and workshops that can bring together our networks and advance our collaborative work. We are proud to have convened four major events in partnership with our fabulous network partners. Each of these events was truly incredible in terms of breadth of scholarly and activist expertise and range of ideas and possibilities generated.
- A major conference at UCSB Orfalea, that was really two events back to back "Mapping Urban (In)Securities in the Middle East and Reconceiving De-imperial Justice across the Global South & Cairo Securitized Book Launch" Feb. 20-24, convened by Paul Amar, Omar Mansour, Bashar Tarabieh and the rest of the Orfalea stellar team
- International workshops and panels at the University of Oklahoma that took place March 25th & 26th revolving around "China's Rise in the Global South"; "Authoritarianism and Neoliberalism in the Middle East"; and "Human Rights, Conflict and Elections". OU and CPD also sponsored and convened their annual Women's Peace Conference in Uganda that they do in close partnership with women's organizations in Northern Uganda in June 2024. All convened by Firat Demir and the CPD team at OU
- A two day conference at Northwestern University Qatar Institute for Advanced Study of the Global South titled "Multilateralism from the Margins: Mapping Challenges, Contestations and Prospects for Cooperation and Solidarity in Global Interactions" that took place October 6&7th including a special panel on Palestine that was organized and led by Mandy Turner and hosted by Sami Hermez and the NUQ IAS.
- Three day conference in Mexico City at UNAM "Sin Miedo: Autonomous Securities Across The Global South" November 25-27th that was co-sponsored by the Arab Council for the Social Sciences, Indiana University, and Antipode Journal and led by Roosbelinda Cardenas, Janaina Maldonado, George Fourlas in partnership and hosted by Diana Ojeda at Indiana University through their UNAM gateways program.
Coordinating and carrying out the logistics of all these types of events was a challenge for an initiative our size, but in addition to all our partners, I want to especially thank our own Program Director Elie Haddad and Project Manager Nick Bythrow whose diligent work behind the scenes to help make all of these possible and to Anita Fuentes our Media Director. I’d like to also thank our researchers and Media Roundup team Julia Cameron, Oshin Pandey, Tom Nicholson, Prisca Afantchao and Diego Winger.
Throughout this year we have been haunted at every turn with the unfolding genocidal actions of Israel in Gaza and traumatized by the seemingly unconditional support for Israel by the US and several Western governments. It is hard for many of us to ever recover from what we've seen, especially as institutions across the Western world have prioritized targeting those protesting the slaughter rather than those enabling it. All our events this past year have engaged with these through special panels and we've been heartened to see the immense solidarity from all over the world. As one example, the educational and activist efforts by Los Panchos, a radical autonomous community at the heart of Mexico City that we visited during the conference there. We have continuously updated our special page to cover the multiple dimensions of this horror with the latest update being an interview with Francesca Albanese conducted by Mandy Turner and Sonia Boulos and have convened several panels.
Moving forward, 2025 is going to be equally productive. Led by Samar Al-Bulushi, Mandy Turner, and Muneira Hoballah, we are heading full speed with our Africa centered global order initiative, which will convene 6 workshops and stakeholder meetings just next year alone! We are updating and expanding our International Organization Leadership database under the guidance of Kevin Young at UMass Amherst, continuing our work on participatory security with the Syrian Center for Policy Research in Vienna, and launching initiatives on South-South trade in arms and the politics, economics and security of small states led by Pete Moore and Sean Yom. Last but not least, we are very excited to launch our first Public Policy Institute, which will take place online starting mid-January 2025.
