Lecturer: Swati Parashar

Both traditional and critical security studies have been criticized for assuming, and reproducing, a European-centric (Eurocentric) view of the world and its security issues. During this lecture, we will examine the postcolonial perspective on security. What structures and power relations make postcolonial perspectives visible, and how can they help us deepen our understanding of security and of war? How can we move beyond the mainstream, and stop taking the Anglo-Saxon/Anglo-American departure point as the departure point of security and understanding of war, thus reproducing Eurocentrism – albeit in a different manner? What are the dangers of not attending to the agency of global south security actors, processes and institutions?

zoom link:

https://gu-se.zoom.us/j/5705787061

Study questions

According to Barkawi and Laffey (2006), what are the key elements of the ‘postcolonial moment’ in security studies?
How do various postcolonial IR/security scholarship make visible the forgotten and neglected IR subjects and highlight how these may offer alternative ways of thinking and understanding the world?
What changes do Eriksson Baaz and Parashar prescribe to make postcolonial approaches within IR and Security Studies more inclusive and responsive to contemporary global politics?

Mandatory Reading:

Barkawi, Tarak & Mark Laffey (2006) The postcolonial moment in security studies. Review of International Studies, 32(2): 329-352.
Eriksson Baaz, M., Parashar, S. 'The master’s ‘outlook’ shall never dismantle the master’s house'. Int Polit Rev 9, 286–291 (2021)
Parashar, Swati. "Discursive (in)securities and postcolonial anxiety: Enabling excessive militarism in India."Security Dialogue 49 (1-2): 123-135.

Reccomended Reading:

Laffey, Mark & Jutta Weldes (2008) Decolonizing the Cuban Missile Crisis. International Studies Quarterly52 (3): 555-577.
Abboud, S., Dahi, O.S., Hazbun, W., Grove, N.S., Pison Hindawi, C., Mouawad, J. and Hermez, S., 2018. Towards a Beirut School of critical security studies. Critical Studies on Security, 6(3), pp.273-295.
Ayoob, Mohammed (2002). Inequality and theorising in international relations: the case for subaltern realism, International Studies Review, 4 (3), 27–48.
Hönke, Jana & Markus Michael Mueller (2012). Governing (in)Security in a Postcolonial World, Special Issue Security Dialogue, 43 (5).
Howell, A. and Richter-Montpetit, M., 2018. Racism in Foucauldian security studies: biopolitics, liberal war, and the whitewashing of colonial and racial violence. International Political Sociology, 13(1), pp.2-19.
Shilliam, R., 2013. Intervention and colonial-modernity: decolonising the Italy/Ethiopia conflict through Psalms 68: 31. Review of International Studies, 39(5), pp.1131-1147.
Wilkinson, Claire (2007) The Copenhagen School on Tour in Kyrgyzstan: Is Securitization Theory Useable Outside of Europe?, Security Dialogue 38(1): 5-25.