In this research project, I explored how the United States (U.S.) has redefined the concept of ‘imminent threat’ to relax the rules for anticipatory use of armed force against insurgent groups. In particular, two new definitions of imminent threat have changed the conduct of specific combat activities: drone strikes and ground combat operations. In the first part of the… Read more »
Category: Author’s Blog
The Past Shall not Begin – Frozen Seeds, Extended Presents, and the Politics of Reversibility
In 2008, the first global seed bank—the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV)—went into operation. Even before its opening, the SGSV had already attracted media attention and provoked all kinds of theological and eschatological parables. The SGSV quickly received the nickname ‘Doomsday Vault’ while some commentators spoke of a ‘Noah’s Ark’ for plants. In fact, the… Read more »
Armed Mothers in Militant Visuals
In Hamas’ 2004 poster of suicide bomber Reem al-Riyashi, she poses for the camera holding a rifle her in left hand and her son in the other. al-Riyashi killed four Israelis and herself in a joint Hamas and al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades bombing on the Gaza-Israel border. Over twenty years earlier, and nearly 5,000 miles away,… Read more »
From the politics of secrecy to the politics of knowledge
One of the grounding assumptions of liberal democratic politics is that the open flow of information—including exposure of state secrets where necessary—enables people to hold states accountable for their actions. At the current moment, however, the effectiveness of exposure, as well as the broader politics of truth, have become a site of intense concern on… Read more »
Plasma donation at the border: Feminist technoscience, bodies and race
The US-Mexico border occupies a central place in American politics. In our conversations about international security, the continued importance of race, violence, and ‘othering’ in the borderlands has only heightened in the light of events such as the El Paso shootings, racist anti-Mexican rhetoric from the Trump administration, and a surge in anti-Latin@ hate crimes… Read more »
Reframing Agency in Complexity-sensitive peacebuilding
How do relations affect the behaviour of those agents entangled in them? With the metaphor of modern Western dating practices in mind, the early days of relationships are marked by drinks, cosy dinners and outdoor journeys. As the relationship progresses, the existence of one person becomes articulated around its entanglement to the existence of the… Read more »
Strategies of inclusion in peacemaking: Beyond box-ticking and photo opportunities?
“Inclusion” is becoming an increasingly prominent term in debates about peace, yet the term often remains vague. Hearing calls for an inclusive peace process begs the questions: Whom are we asked to include, how, and why? The idea for this article resulted from our engagement in research-policy transfer in the field of peace-process design and… Read more »
Nuclear Governmentality: Governing Nuclear Security and Radiation Risk in Post-Fukushima Japan
The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan was classified as a level-7 international nuclear event. The disaster disrupted lives and livelihoods; yet, it is but one of many predicted to occur based on the frequency of past nuclear failures. [i] [ii] However, despite its fundamental riskiness, nuclear energy remains tied to national security and… Read more »
Freezing time, preparing for the future: The stockpile as a temporal matter of security
My paper on stockpiling, published in Security Dialogue, began with party conversations. When I told people that I work on catastrophe preparedness, the conversation inevitably shifted towards stockpiling. Concerned friends would ask how much food, water, and candles you have to store to be safe during an emergency. The gentrification critic would remark that we… Read more »
Who are the Civilians in South Sudan?
Why are local communities so often targeted in South Sudan’s civil wars? How do their attackers justify violence against people defined as civilians in international law? In our article in the current issue of Security Dialogue, we answer these questions by placing recent brutalities within a longer history of conflict logics and practices in South… Read more »