Christian Olsson

Critical Approaches to Security in Europe : a networked manifesto

In the last decade, critical approaches have substantially reshaped the theoretical landscape of security studies in Europe. Yet, despite an impressive body of literature, there remains fundamental disagreement as to what counts as critical in this context. Scholars are still arguing in terms of ‘schools’, while there has been an increasing and sustained cross-fertilization among critical approaches. Finally, the boundaries between critical and traditional approaches to security remain blurred. The aim of this article is therefore to assess the evolution of critical views of approaches to security studies in Europe, discuss their theoretical premises, investigate their intellectual ramifications, and examine how they coalesce around different issues (such as a state of exception). The article then assesses the political implications of critical approaches. This is done mainly by analysing processes by which critical approaches to security percolate through a growing number of subjects (such as development, peace research, risk management). Finally, ethical and research implications are explored.In the last decade, critical approaches have substantially reshaped the theoretical landscape of security studies in Europe. Yet, despite an impressive body of literature, there remains fundamental disagreement as to what counts as critical in this context. Scholars are still arguing in terms of ‘schools’, while there has been an increasing and sustained cross-fertilization among critical approaches. Finally, the boundaries between critical and traditional approaches to security remain blurred. The aim of this article is therefore to assess the evolution of critical views of approaches to security studies in Europe, discuss their theoretical premises, investigate their intellectual ramifications, and examine how they coalesce around different issues (such as a state of exception). The article then assesses the political implications of critical approaches. This is done mainly by analysing processes by which critical approaches to security percolate through a growing number of subjects (such as development, peace research, risk management). Finally, ethical and research implications are explored.

Interventionism as Practice: On ‘Ordinary Transgressions’ and their Routinization

In this article, the aim is to bridge the gap in the international relations (IR) literature on contemporary interventionism between a strand of research mainly focusing on the concepts of intervention, sovereignty and their meanings, and a strand more interested in the particular practices bound up with the phenomenon described as ‘intervention. This is done by exploring how the literature on the so-called ‘practice-turn might allow light to be shed on both dimensions. Such an approach might prove fruitful provided attention is paid both to the material and discursive practices of interventionism; both to the transgressive practices constitutive of interventionism and their routinization. Finally, this piece also introduces each of this special sections contributions by showing how they illustrate and expand on the different problématiques here outlined.

Interventionism as Practice: (editor of the special issue of the journal)

In this article, the aim is to bridge the gap in the international relations (IR) literature on contemporary interventionism between a strand of research mainly focusing on the concepts of intervention, sovereignty and their meanings, and a strand more interested in the particular practices bound up with the phenomenon described as ‘intervention. This is done by exploring how the literature on the so-called ‘practice-turn might allow light to be shed on both dimensions. Such an approach might prove fruitful provided attention is paid both to the material and discursive practices of interventionism; both to the transgressive practices constitutive of interventionism and their routinization. Finally, this piece also introduces each of this special sections contributions by showing how they illustrate and expand on the different problématiques here outlined.

Europe, Knowledge, Politics — Engaging with the Limits: The c.a.s.e. collective Responds

HAVING ONE’S WORK closely read and critically debated is a rare pleasure. It was thus with great joy that we saw that our collective article ‘Critical Approaches to Security in Europe: A Networked Manifesto’ (c.a.s.e. collective, 2006) provoked several thoughtful responses to nthe theoretical premises of the manifesto and its intellectual and political ramifications. The replies to the manifesto created a new space of selfinterrogation in which the c.a.s.e. collective grappled with some of the limits that our critics addressed. Before we address some of these more directly, it may be useful to restate the original objective of the collective manifesto. nFirst, the authors that were part of the collective had a desire to push critical innovations in security studies beyond the framing of critical security studies nin terms of schools. The aim of working and writing as a collective, as a network of scholars who do not agree on everything yet share a common perspective, was based on a desire to break with the competitive dynamics of nindividualist research agendas. Alluding to the emancipatory connotations of the word ‘manifesto’, nthe aim of the article was to carve out and open up nan intellectual space for critical thinking – both in the disciplinary sense of formulating an alternative space to mainstream security studies and in the political sense of thinking through the ethico-political implications of nsecurity and securitizationHAVING ONE’S WORK closely read and critically debated is a rare pleasure. It was thus with great joy that we saw that our collective article ‘Critical Approaches to Security in Europe: A Networked Manifesto’ (c.a.s.e. collective, 2006) provoked several thoughtful responses to the theoretical premises of the manifesto and its intellectual and political ramifications. The replies to the manifesto created a new space of selfinterrogation in which the c.a.s.e. collective grappled with some of the limits that our critics addressed. Before we address some of these more directly, it may be useful to restate the original objective of the collective manifesto. First, the authors that were part of the collective had a desire to push critical innovations in security studies beyond the framing of critical security studies in terms of schools. The aim of working and writing as a collective, as a network of scholars who do not agree on everything yet share a common perspective, was based on a desire to break with the competitive dynamics of individualist research agendas. Alluding to the emancipatory connotations of the word ‘manifesto’,1 the aim of the article was to carve out and open up an intellectual space for critical thinking – both in the disciplinary sense of formulating an alternative space to mainstream security studies and in the political sense of thinking through the ethico-political implications of security and securitization. If, in this sense, the article can be read as a manifesto (with, we should note, the important prefix ‘networked’), we did not assert, as Andreas Behnke Rejoinder

« ‘Legitimate Violence’ in the Prose of Counterinsurgency : an Impossible Necessity?”,

Drawing on a critical engagement with the claims made by (and interpretations of) the 2006 US army and marine corps field manual on “Counterinsurgency,” this article engages some of its underlying concerns with the problematic relation between violence, legitimacy, and political order. Since this manual draws heavily on many commonplaces of contemporary political science, the analysis explores their problematic presuppositions and the ways in which they play out in contemporary warfare. The primary conclusion is that while the encounter of legitimacy and violence is claimed by the doctrine to produce and maintain political order, its framing of this encounter is deeply rooted in a specific political order, that of the modern state, which severely constrains the conditions under which this encounter can take place. These constraints cast serious doubts on many of the doctrine’s assertions, especially as they have shaped recent wars in Afghanistan and, until recently, in Iraq.

Becoming International: On Symbolic Capital, Conversion and Privilege

The ‘international’ can be conceived of as a highly sought after symbolic capital. People seek to internationalise their curriculum vitae or resumes, study international subjects, get international diplomas, travel internationally, obtain international jobs. As symbolic capital the ‘international’ can be converted into ‘profit’ complementing other forms of capital (economic, cultural and social capital), deployed in struggles for social domination. It is used as a strategy of social positioning and social domination quasi-globally, but it is not recognised everywhere in the same way. We are particularly interested in the unequal distribution of this symbolic capital, the way differential conversion rates and social boundaries operate in the generation of social inequalities. For this, we will work with and against Bourdieu, in analysing the ‘international’ as a source of a highly contextual form of symbolic power, deployed in a variety of social group formations, but with uneven, differential effects, a naturalised and disguised form of domination. Ultimately, this article problematises how claims to ‘internationality’ operate in social relations and power-struggles and provides an analytical framework hereof.

Wars among Nation-States: Patterns and Causes

Abstract This article tries to reframe the question of the conceptual unity and sociological diversity of interstate war while highlighting patterns and causes. The challenge is indeed to be able to account for transformation and heterogeneity without falling into the trap of an all-encompassing definition that would make all mutations a priori consistent with its premises. This will be done by highlighting how the question of the state, war, and the ‘interstate’ sheds light on the contemporary patterns of interstate war (first section). It is only subsequently that this article can raise the question of the causal pathways and motivating factors associated with past and present interstate wars (second section).

Between Transition and Transnationalism: The Spatial and Temporal Ramifications of Contemporary Armed Conflicts

Since Ted Gurrs seminal work on the model of ‘civil strife’ developed at the end of the 1960s, quantitative studies on civil wars have developed considerably, moving in particular since the 1980s ...

Contre-insurrection et « responsabilité de protéger » : panacée ou supercherie ?

La nomination du general Stanley McChrystal a la tete de l’ISAF en Afghanistan en juin 2009 a coincide avec un recentrage du discours officiel de l’OTAN sur l’idee que sa mission premiere y serait de « proteger les populations afghanes ». A l’instar de la strategie pretendument « population-centree » de la coalition en Irak au moment ou le general David Petraeus en prenait le commandement en fevrier 2007, l’argument de McChrystal ne consiste pas tant a affirmer que la « protection des populations locales » viendrait desormais se surajouter a l’objectif de « vaincre » les Taleban, qu’a postuler que cette premiere constituerait le moyen le plus efficace pour atteindre le second. Le pari de cet article est de prendre ce discours sur la « protection des populations locales » au mot pour nous interesser a la question des conditions de possibilite de sa mise en application : qui proteger ? Contre quoi ? Comment ?

Los nuevos desafíos a la seguridad: perspectivas críticas en el debate sobre la legitimación de las prácticas contemporáneas de coerción militar para-privada ante los derechos humanos

Sumario: I. INTRODUCCION.— II. LA ESTRUCTURA DEL FALSO DEBATE EN TORNO A LAS EMPRESAS DE COERCION (PARA)PRIVADAS.— III. LA NECESIDAD DE REDEFINIR LA IDENTIDAD DE LAS EMPRESAS DE COERCION (PARA)PRIVADAS.— IV. ?PRIVATE PEACE ENFORCERS O PROVOCADORES DE GUERRA?— V. ?ES NECESARIO CONTROLAR A LOS EMPRESARIOS MILITARES PARA PODER CONTENER MEJOR SUS ACCIONES?— VI. LOS EFECTOS ESTRUCTURALES DE LA INSTITUCIONALIZACION DE UN MERCADO DE LA SEGU-