Alexandra Gheciu

Securing distant places? Practices of protection in contemporary peace-support operations

This article explores the dynamics and implications of practices of protection enacted within the framework of the UN-sponsored International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. It examines the ways in which those practices challenge established categories in the field of security, and discusses the problems and dilemmas they generate. The article demonstrates that the role played by North Atlantic Treaty Organization – as the lead actor in ISAF – reflects the Alliances reconceptualisation of the relevant space of security. An analysis of security practices employed by ISAF in Afghanistan reveals that, in spite of statements that stress the unique situation of stabilisation and reconstruction in Afghanistan, ISAFs dual emphasis on inclusion/exclusion (i.e. defeating radical Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters while also winning the hearts and minds of the other Afghans) echoes in interesting ways of colonial practices of counter-insurgency. Conceptually, one of the most interesting features of ISAFs security practices has been a blurring of multiple boundaries that have long been at the heart of thinking about international politics: domestic/international, military/policing and public/private actors. By shedding light on that process of blurring boundaries, this article provides further evidence in support of the claim made in this special issue: that we are now living in a world in which many of the distinctions that once appeared to be clearly defined and fairly rigid are fast breaking down.

Transcending old divisions? NATO and Russia after the Cold War

L’elargissement de l’OTAN a l’est a ete une des dimensions les plus importantes de la redefinition de l’Alliance apres la Guerre froide. Cet objectif visait a etendre l’aire de securite atlantique tout en contribuant a la stabilite de l’ancien bloc communiste. Si ce processus a beneficie du soutien d’une large part des elites politiques en Europe de l’Est, il a dans le meme temps suscite une profonde mefiance en Russie. Apres bien des annees de tensions, la periode recente semble propice a l’emergence d’un vrai partenariat avec la Russie. Cependant, comme le suggere cet article, un tel rapprochement parait plus difficile que ce que peuvent en dire certains experts. La cooperation avec la Russie est sans doute possible, et necessaire, sur des points bien precis, mais elle n’efface pas pour autant les differences substantielles entre l’OTAN et la Russie, qui ne peuvent que persister.