Militarism and security: Dialogue, possibilities and limits

Abstract

While attention to security has grown exponentially over the last few decades, militarism – the preparation for and normalization and legitimation of war – has not received the widespread and sustained focus it warrants in mainstream or critical circles. Rather than stake a claim for one concept over the other, however, this article – and the special issue to which it serves as an introduction – asks how we are to understand the relationship between security and militarism, both as analytical tools and as objects of analysis. We examine, first, what analytical and political work militarism and security do as concepts, and how they can be mobilized methodologically; second, what the possibilities are of fruitful exchange between knowledges produced about these concepts or practices; and, third, what the limits are of militarism and security. In the process, we address the shifts in the world that international relations and its related subfields study; shifts in the institutional framing and materiality of fields and subfields of research; and shifts in how international relations studies the world. Read together, the contributions to the special issue make the case for a reinvigorated focus on the mutual co-constitution of militarism and security.

La (re)militarización de la política latinoamericana Origen y consecuencias para las democracias de la región

“…Incluso los Estudios Críticos de Seguridad (ECS), subdisciplina que ha abierto la reflexión para pensar en la seguridad de forma crítica y reflexiva, han puesto menos atención a la cuestión del militarismo, lo que hizo aflorar otras subdisciplinas como los Estudios Críticos de Guerra o los Estudios Críticos de Militarismo (CWS y CMS, respectivamente, por sus siglas en inglés) (Stavrianakis y Stern, 2018). Como señalan Mabee y Vucetic (2018), si no fuera por las teóricas feministas y la teoría de la securitización, uno estaría tentado a concluir que el estudio del militarismo es un ámbito de sociólogos y geógrafos.…”

“…El compromiso con una aproximación ampliada y las prácticas del militarismo puede beneficiar a los ECS al poner atención en el marco histórico y social en el que la seguridad se produce. Militarismo y producción de seguridad son co-constitutivos (Stavrianakis y Stern, 2018;Mabee y Vucetic, 2018). En ese sentido, como se expondrá, las nociones de militarismo/militarización se pueden beneficiar de los debates sobre el concepto de seguridad, y las aportaciones de la noción de securitización.…”

Understanding militarism after the end of the Cold War: History, international relations, and media studies ask new questions

“…Importantly, at the end of the Cold War IR shifted from a focus on ‘militarism’ and military security to ‘security’ more generally, marking a pivot in IR to situate military aggression ‘under the mantle of security’, with shrinking attention being paid to war whether as a cause or an effect of insecurity (Stavrianakis & Stern, : 5). With critical approaches bringing in other threats such as economic, societal, environmental and political fields (e.g., Buzan, and 1991), militarism was treated as passé and states were substituted for the individual as the referent object.…”

“…While the field remained state‐centric for some critics of mainstream IR (Shaw, ), generally lacking in the mainstream IR literature was a real debate over why militarism should be abandoned as a concept when security is broadened and/or the state‐centric view is abandoned (Stavrianakis & Stern, ). Feminist IR scholarship has been especially well‐equipped to cultivate a multi‐security, multi‐level understanding of international politics, while also including scrutiny of militarization and militarism.…”

African security and global militarism

“…This Special Issue was motivated by the calls for reinvigorated exchange between the concepts and practices of militarism and security. 4 These calls have intensified as part of several recent cross-disciplinary examinations, notably those co-ordinated by Victoria Basham, Anna Stavrianakis and Maria Stern. 5 There is a rich and growing body of scholarship on aspects of the use of military force in Africa (for example on military interventions/assistance, uneasy partnerships in the fight against violent extremism, counter-insurgency efforts and older examinations of African military establishments).…”