The Security Archipelago

"The Security Archipelago is a singular book by a unique scholar. Paul Amar works in English, Arabic, and Portuguese, and he studies security regimes in a comparative framework encompassing the Middle East, North and South America, and Europe. Combining research that he has done in Brazil and Egypt on the emergence of new forms of security and new grammars of protest politics with the unfolding stories of an economic boom in Brazil and political change in Egypt, Amar has written an up-to-the-moment account of the 'human-security state' and its opponents."Jack Halberstam, author of The Queer Art of Failure "The Security Archipelago accomplishes several theoretical and methodological feats through his combination of archival, ethnographic, and fieldwork research.... The Security Archipelago is a necessary read for anthropologists interested in the Middle East, South America, transnational anthropology, urban studies, securitization studies, studies of the state, and, finally, feminist and queer theory." -- Maya Mikdashi * American Anthropologist * "This book is overwhelming in the best way possible, combining ethnography with theoretical finesse. His chapters draw upon and speak within and between the fields of political anthropology, comparative political studies, critical security studies, queer studies, urban development, political economy, peace studies, and feminist International Relations." -- Meghana Nayak * International Studies Review * "An extraordinary book that revolutionizes the way to think about security, undermines conventional wisdom, and offers us a wonderfully lucid study of an obscure subject-matter, including detailed inquiry into state/society relations in Egypt and Brazil. Among many contributions is the brilliant depiction of the evolving interface between state security (its visible and invisible apparatus) and people subject to its control, including a fascinating account of the sexualization of politics as an emergent dimension of both oppression and resistance. A must-read!"Richard Falk, coauthor of The Path to Zero: Dialogues on Nuclear Dangers Amars analysis of the politics and culture of the human-security state provides an alternative and declining history of neoliberalism. . . . He pushes critical security studies forward when he questions whether decisions to disregard the Global South contribute to the fields tendency to legitimate securitization. -- Jaime Madden * Powerlines * Amar traces the contradictory contours of state power, more interested in its own survival than that of its citizens. Especially for scholars of the changing global status of gender and sexuality, this is a book which expands the scope of the field. -- Constance G. Anthony * New Political Science * "The book puts forth numerous ground-breaking arguments that will enable its readers to rethink the very nature of contemporary neoliberal governance, humanitarianism, and the relation between the global North and global South. It speaks very clearly to contemporary political struggles surrounding state security logics, militarism, sexuality, and human trafficking, but in ways that are entirely unanticipated." -- Omnia El Shakry * GLQ * Through the lenses of the intensely overlapping realms of morality and urban politics, The Security Archipelago provides a new map that refigures how rule works and how it fails to work. Amar poses the labor of the activist as a form of theorization. Dissidents and revolutionaries are, after all, the social theorists whomthe experts must finally listen to, as Amar does so carefully and attentively in this work. -- Sherene Seikaly * Journal of Middle East Women's Studies * [T]his is an ambitious text, and one that offers much for scholars to work with and on which they may build. Amar has articulated a generative framework for thinking about the ways in which political formations develop an

Paul Amar is Associate Professor of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A political scientist and anthropologist, he has worked as a journalist in Egypt, a police reformer in Brazil, and a United Nations conflict resolution and economic development specialist.

Acknowledgments vii Introduction. The Archipelago of New Security-State Uprisings 1 1. Mooring a New Global Order between Cairo and Rio de Janeiro: World Summits and Human-Security Laboratories 39 2. Policing the Perversions of Globalization in Rio de Janeiro and Cairo: Emerging Parastatal Security Regimes Confront Queer Globalisms 65 3. Muhammad Atta's Urbanism: Rescuing Islam, Saving Humanity, and Securing Gender's Proper Place in Cairo 99 4. Saving the Cradle of Samba in Rio de Janeiro: Shadow-State Uprisings, Urban Infranationalisms, and the Racial Politics of Human Security 139 5. Operation Princess in Rio de Janeiro: Rescuing Sex Slaves, Challenging the Labor-Evangelical Alliance, and Defining the Sexuality Politics of an Emerging Human-Security Superpower 172 6. Feminist Insurrections and the Egyptian Revolution: Harassing Police, Recognizing Classphobias, and Everting the Logics of the Human-Security State in Tahrir Square 200 Conclusion. The End of Neoliberalism? 235 Notes 253 References 261 Index 297