Critical Security Studies in the Global South – serie

This book is the first attempt to comprehensively introduce Japanese geopolitics. Europe’s role in disseminating knowledge globally to shape the world according to its standards is an unchallenged premise in world politics. In this story, Japan is regarded as an enthusiastic importer of the knowledge. The book challenges this ground by examining how European geopolitics, the theory of the modern state, traveled to Japan in the first half of the last century, and demonstrates that the same theory can invoke diverged imaginations of the world by examining a range of historical, political, and literary texts. Focusing on the transformation of power, knowledge, and subjectivity in time and space, Watanabe provides a detailed account to reconsider the formation of contemporary world order of the modern territorial states.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of border and boundary enactments in post-war and “deeply divided” societies. By exploring everyday places in post-conflict societies, it critically examines official narratives of how ethno-national divisions arise and are sustained. It challenges traditional accounts regarding the role that international intervention has in producing and/or weakening boundaries in such societies, while questioning clear-cut distinctions between the local and the international.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of border and boundary enactments in post-war and “deeply divided” societies. By exploring everyday places in post-conflict societies, it critically examines official narratives of how ethno-national divisions arise and are sustained. It challenges traditional accounts regarding the role that international intervention has in producing and/or weakening boundaries in such societies, while questioning clear-cut distinctions between the local and the international.

This book introduces a new approach to understanding security in the Mediterranean and explores current challenges at the European Union (EU) Mediterranean borders. It investigates the intertwined area at the South of the EU that we call the ‘Mediterranean Global South’ where common actions and strategies are required to face common security challenges. The book critically addresses the EU's capacity to manage its expanding borders and analyses the actors involved in providing security in the Mediterranean Global South. Specific attention is devoted to South to North migration, one of the most critical security issues of current times, deploying its effects well beyond states’ borders.

This book introduces a new approach to understanding security in the Mediterranean and explores current challenges at the European Union (EU) Mediterranean borders. It investigates the intertwined area at the South of the EU that we call the ‘Mediterranean Global South’ where common actions and strategies are required to face common security challenges. The book critically addresses the EU's capacity to manage its expanding borders and analyses the actors involved in providing security in the Mediterranean Global South. Specific attention is devoted to South to North migration, one of the most critical security issues of current times, deploying its effects well beyond states’ borders.

By challenging more common analyses that point to the existence of a "post-conflict scenario" in Colombia and those that resist the narrative of "success", both of which operate within the logic of presence/absence of violence, this book proposes instead that we think of "post-conflict" in terms of the transformation of the rules on the use of violence. The analysis unfolds in two parts: the first explores the conditions of possibility of the Colombian “success story” and the web of criteria legitimizing the “success”, as well as the silencing mechanisms allowing for Colombia to circulate internationally as a formula to be replicated in other parts of the world; the second, focuses on the historicization of the mechanisms through which new rules are transmitted among the professionals of the public force, specifically the transformations of military schools and training centers in Colombia from times of “war” to “peace”. The author argues that key to this transformation is a unique discursive articulation around the “military professional” which slides from “citizen-soldier” to “expert-soldier”.

By challenging more common analyses that point to the existence of a "post-conflict scenario" in Colombia and those that resist the narrative of "success", both of which operate within the logic of presence/absence of violence, this book proposes instead that we think of "post-conflict" in terms of the transformation of the rules on the use of violence. The analysis unfolds in two parts: the first explores the conditions of possibility of the Colombian “success story” and the web of criteria legitimizing the “success”, as well as the silencing mechanisms allowing for Colombia to circulate internationally as a formula to be replicated in other parts of the world; the second, focuses on the historicization of the mechanisms through which new rules are transmitted among the professionals of the public force, specifically the transformations of military schools and training centers in Colombia from times of “war” to “peace”. The author argues that key to this transformation is a unique discursive articulation around the “military professional” which slides from “citizen-soldier” to “expert-soldier”.

This book is about transformation of the state and an incomplete state-building. It defies the transitology assumption of continuity, linearity and dichotomy of formal and informal in the transformation of the state. Contrary to the conventional approaches, it claims that any social order or its political scaffolding, the state, is always incomplete and we need to develop cognitive maps to better understand that incompleteness. It reflects on the social practices, processes and patterns that evolve as a non-linear result of three sets of factors: those that are historical, external, and elite-driven. Three Central Asian states - Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan - are examined here comparatively as case studies, as Central Asia represents an interesting terrain to challenge conventional understanding of the state. Specifically, the book captures a paradox at hand: how come three states, which made different political, economic, cultural, and social choices at the outset of their independence in the 1990s, have ended up as so-called “weak states” in the 2000s and onwards? This puzzle can be better understood through looking at the relationship among three main sets of factors that shape state-building processes, such as history, external actors, and local elites. This book applies an interdisciplinary approach, combining political anthropology, political economy, sociology, and political science. It helps conceptualize and understand social and political order beyond the “failed state” paradigm

This book is about transformation of the state and an incomplete state-building. It defies the transitology assumption of continuity, linearity and dichotomy of formal and informal in the transformation of the state. Contrary to the conventional approaches, it claims that any social order or its political scaffolding, the state, is always incomplete and we need to develop cognitive maps to better understand that incompleteness. It reflects on the social practices, processes and patterns that evolve as a non-linear result of three sets of factors: those that are historical, external, and elite-driven. Three Central Asian states - Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan - are examined here comparatively as case studies, as Central Asia represents an interesting terrain to challenge conventional understanding of the state. Specifically, the book captures a paradox at hand: how come three states, which made different political, economic, cultural, and social choices at the outset of their independence in the 1990s, have ended up as so-called “weak states” in the 2000s and onwards? This puzzle can be better understood through looking at the relationship among three main sets of factors that shape state-building processes, such as history, external actors, and local elites. This book applies an interdisciplinary approach, combining political anthropology, political economy, sociology, and political science. It helps conceptualize and understand social and political order beyond the “failed state” paradigm

In this book we propose to tackle militarization trends in Latin America which include the presence of the military organizations in some vital national economic activities, the ethics and aesthetics of the ‘military’ in popular forms of entertainment, the active engagement of military personnel in criminal activities, the Armed Forces intervention in electoral processes, the Armed Forces engagement in the cybersphere and cyberwarfare, their participation in civil defense operations, their emulation by militias, gangs and other armed non-state actors. We shall consider militarization on multiple scales from the individual body and subjectification processes to international politics from the everyday experiences and practices to the development of national strategies in Latin America and we shall avoid the dichotomy between a militarized moment and space and a demilitarized moment and space.