Securitizing images: The female body and the war in Afghanistan

Heck, Axel; Schlag, Gabi

doi:10.1177/1354066111433896

Cited by 113 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…This is not to suggest that the processes of the 2000s were unique ruptures that represent their own urgency. 2 Rather, our suggestion is that many of the universalist discourses of the 2000s may have led to a counter--reactive interest in both a broader 'new materialism' (Srnicek, Foutou, and Arghand, 2013) as well as a specific set of (albeit varied) interests in the 'body', emotions, and everyday practices in IR (Heck and Schlag, 2013;Hutchison and Bleiker, 2014). In this respect, Shapiro's investigation of what he titles the 'micropolitics of justice' includes an 'embodied sensibility', one that focuses on the 'interrelationships among law, bodies, discourse and space ' (2011: 467).…”

Section: Every Macro--theory Presupposes Whether Implicitly or Explimentioning

confidence: 99%

Micro-moves in International Relations theory

Solomon

Steele

2016

European Journal of International Relations

158

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This article posits empirical and political reasons for recent 'micro--moves' in several contemporary debates, and seeks to further develop them in future International Relations studies. As evidenced by growing trends in studies of practices, emotions, and the everyday, there is continuing broad dissatisfaction with grand or structural theory's value without 'going down' to 'lower levels' of analysis where structures are enacted and contested. We suggest that empirics of the last fifteen years -including the war on terror and the Arab Spring -have pushed scholars into increasingly micropolitical positions and analytical frameworks. Drawing upon insights from Gilles Deleuze, William Connolly, and Henri Lefebvre, among others, we argue that attention to three issues -affect, space, and time -hold promise to further develop micropolitical perspectives on and in IR, particularly on issues of power, identity, and change. (Routledge, 2008). He is currently working on a project investigating restraint in global politics, an edited volume on methods and constructivism, and two journal symposia on the politics of constructivism. He is also the co--editor of three books and one handbook, and has published articles in a number of international studies journals. 2 Every macro--theory presupposes, whether implicitly or explicitly, a micro--theory to back up its explanations--Steven Lukes, Introduction to Emile Durkheim's The Rules of Sociological Method, (1982: 16) The balance one strikes between the macro and micro is a tension that has characterized social theory since at least Durkheim's time. Whether it is titled a level--of--analysis (Singer, 1961) or agent--structure (Wendt, 1987) 'problem', International Relations (IR) has faced its own related quandaries over which level(s) should be regarded theoretical, methodological, and even normative primacy. Since Kenneth Waltz's (1959) critique of the first and second images as inadequate to capture the most important dynamics of world politics, IR has at times focused within a grand theory mode that too--often eschews the myriad of sub--system and sub--state phenomena. Attention to anarchy and its inescapable pressures on nation--states were said to offer the most reliable insights into the 'small number of big and important things' of which IR should mostly concern itself (Waltz, 1986: 329). While a recent and persuasive 2013 special issue of European Journal of International Relations considered whether we were at the 'End of IR theory', there continues to be a default admonition to scholars, and students, to re--embrace grand theory (Snyder, 2013; Harrison and Mitchell, 2014). A 15 December 2011 post by Professor Brian Rathbun on the popular blog 'Duck of Minerva' provides ample illustration of this move --an exaltation to all IR scholars to find the 'big' theoretical argument that will make them famous. The post asks graduate students (especially) whether the empirical studies that 3 seem to have permeated IR as of late 'will make you the next Robert Keohane? Or Ale...

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Section: Every Macro--theory Presupposes Whether Implicitly or Explimentioning

confidence: 99%

Micro-moves in International Relations theory

Solomon

Steele

2016

European Journal of International Relations

158

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“…It focuses on visual and textual representations as data for analysing these practices and has been extensively debated and discussed (e.g., Balzacq 2005;Balzacq et al 2015;Buzan and Waever 1997;Eriksson 1999;Hansen 2000;Jensen 2013;Karyotis 2007;Lisle 2013;Roe 2012;Taureck 2006;Williams 2003). Hansen (2011Hansen ( , 2015, and Heck and Schlag (2012) discuss visual securitisation or securitisation of images. 3.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interrogating representations of “militants” and “terrorists” in the United States’ Militant Imagery Project and the Counterterrorism Calendar

Dixit

2016

Critical Studies on Terrorism

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This article adopts a post-colonial approach to analyse representations of "militants" and "terrorists" in the United States' Militant Imagery Project (MIP) and the Counterterrorism Calendar. It argues that sites such as the MIP and the Calendar produce meanings of "militant" and "terrorist," wherein Muslims/Arabs are linked with violence. At the same time, similar violence committed by rightwing extremists, gun owners, and so on are ignored. There is also a related assumption about an uncritical, homogeneous audience gazing at these images. All of these serve to continually securitise Muslims and Arabs in the United States. This article aims to dismantle this racialised meaning by illustrating processes through which sites such as the MIP and the Calendar link "militant" and "terrorist" violence with Muslims and Islam. In doing so, they erase Western-led and state-sanctioned violence from representations of "terrorism." By outlining these erasures and silences, this article questions the meanings of "militants" and "terrorists" produced and communicated by the MIP and the Counterterrorism Calendar. It also directs attention to the socio-political and ethical implications of selectively labelling only some violence and violent actors as "terrorist." ARTICLE HISTORY

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“…Masters (2009) exposes how a state uses individual women in order to escape responsibility and argues that representations of particular women such as Jessica Lynch have been utilized in such a way as to obscure ethical questions of responsibility. Heck and Gabi (2013) problematize the securitizing power of images in claiming that a female body is a threatened referent-object and someone's responsibility. A few scholars also call attention to the lack of clarity as to who is responsible for 'non-traditional' referent objects such as health and women (Davies, 2010;Stuvøy, 2010).…”

Section: 'Sharing Responsibility'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the ‘RtoP’: Responsibility as doing, being and sharing

Wagnsson

2015

Int Polit Rev

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| This review article exposes that the scholarly interest in the notion of 'responsibility' in the field of security studies goes far beyond the 'Responsibility to Protect' and the debate on emerging 'responsible stakeholders' in Asia. It is argued that the significant scholarly attention to 'responsibility' reflects political concerns with transnational threats and humanitarian issues, but it also mirrors a quest for status and power in a post-hegemonic security milieu as well as a need to distribute responsibilities among powers in an effective way. The article reviews approximately 160 peer-reviewed articles to expose strengths and weaknesses in the scholarly production of knowledge on responsibility in the field of security studies. The article suggests a new way to categorize works on responsibility in terms of 'doing', 'being' or 'sharing'; focusing on one or several of these three aspects is an effective way to capture key contemporary problems in international security.

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Securitizing images: The female body and the war in Afghanistan

Cited by 113 publications

References 70 publications

Micro-moves in International Relations theory

Micro-moves in International Relations theory

Interrogating representations of “militants” and “terrorists” in the United States’ Militant Imagery Project and the Counterterrorism Calendar

Beyond the ‘RtoP’: Responsibility as doing, being and sharing

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