The Dilemma of Global South’s Contributions to Critical Security Studies: The African Case

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (8) ◽  
pp. 912-930
Author(s):  
Kingsley Emeka Ezemenaka ◽  
Chijioke Egwu Ekumaoko
Keyword(s):  
Global South ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Security Models ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

Most states in Africa, if not all, adopt the measures of security theorized, studied, and practiced by the West, yet conflict and insecurity abound. Over-dependency and over-reliance on Western security models culminate in the “one-size fits all” model of critical security studies produced by the West. However, in Africa, insecurity is growing. This paper argues that there is a need for security models that address African countries’ particular cultures, values, and realities, hence our advocacy of afro-democracy. This study introduces the concept of afro-democracy as a model that can facilitate security and development in Africa. It also argues that the field of critical security studies should welcome contributions from other parts of the world, namely the Global South.

Psychology from Egyptian, Arab, and Islamic Perspectives

1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 356-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fouad A-L.H. Abou-Hatab
Keyword(s):  
Professional Identity ◽  
21St Century ◽  
The West ◽  
Islamic Perspective ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Western Psychology ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

This paper presents the case of psychology from a perspective not widely recognized by the West, namely, the Egyptian, Arab, and Islamic perspective. It discusses the introduction and development of psychology in this part of the world. Whenever such efforts are evaluated, six problems become apparent: (1) the one-way interaction with Western psychology; (2) the intellectual dependency; (3) the remote relationship with national heritage; (4) its irrelevance to cultural and social realities; (5) the inhibition of creativity; and (6) the loss of professional identity. Nevertheless, some major achievements are emphasized, and a four-facet look into the 21st century is proposed.

Battlefields from Event to Heritage

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Carman ◽  
Patricia Carman
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
New Developments ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The World ◽  
War And Conflict ◽  
Modern War

What is—or makes a place—a ‘historic battlefield’? From one perspective the answer is a simple one—it is a place where large numbers of people came together in an organized manner to fight one another at some point in the past. But from another perspective it is far more difficult to identify. Quite why any such location is a place of battle—rather than any other kind of event—and why it is especially historic is more difficult to identify. This book sets out an answer to the question of what a historic battlefield is in the modern imagination, drawing upon examples from prehistory to the twentieth century. Considering battlefields through a series of different lenses, treating battles as events in the past and battlefields as places in the present, the book exposes the complexity of the concept of historic battlefield and how it forms part of a Western understanding of the world. Taking its lead from new developments in battlefield study—especially archaeological approaches—the book establishes a link to and a means by which these new approaches can contribute to more radical thinking about war and conflict, especially to Critical Military and Critical Security Studies. The book goes beyond the study of battles as separate and unique events to consider what they mean to us and why we need them to have particular characteristics. It will be of interest to archaeologists, historians, and students of modern war in all its forms.

scholarly journals Securitising Covid-19? The Politics of Global Health and the Limits of the Copenhagen School

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-257
Author(s):  
Daniel Edler Duarte ◽  
Marcelo M. Valença
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Scientific Controversies ◽  
Copenhagen School ◽  
State Surveillance ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
The One

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked controversies over health security strategies adopted in different countries. The urge to curb the spread of the virus has supported policies to restrict mobility and to build up state surveillance, which might induce authoritarian forms of government. In this context, the Copenhagen School has offered an analytical repertoire that informs many analyses in the fields of critical security studies and global health. Accordingly, the securitisation of COVID-19 might be necessary to deal with the crisis, but it risks unfolding discriminatory practices and undemocratic regimes, with potentially enduring effects. In this article, we look into controversies over pandemic-control strategies to discuss the political and analytical limitations of securitisation theory. On the one hand, we demonstrate that the focus on moments of rupture and exception conceals security practices that unfold in ongoing institutional disputes and over the construction of legitimate knowledge about public health. On the other hand, we point out that securitisation theory hinders a genealogy of modern apparatuses of control and neglects violent forms of government which are manifested not in major disruptive acts, but in the everyday dynamics of unequal societies. We conclude by suggesting that an analysis of the bureaucratic disputes and scientific controversies that constitute health security knowledges and practices enables critical approaches to engage with the multiple – and, at times, mundane – processes in which (in)security is produced, circulated, and contested.

scholarly journals The postcolonial moment in security studies

2006 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
TARAK BARKAWI ◽  
MARK LAFFEY
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Global South ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
Security Relations ◽  
Armed Resistance

In this article, we critique the Eurocentric character of security studies as it has developed since World War II. The taken-for-granted historical geographies that underpin security studies systematically misrepresent the role of the global South in security relations and lead to a distorted view of Europe and the West in world politics. Understanding security relations, past and present, requires acknowledging the mutual constitution of European and non-European worlds and their joint role in making history. The politics of Eurocentric security studies, those of the powerful, prevent adequate understanding of the nature or legitimacy of the armed resistance of the weak. Through analysis of the explanatory and political problems Eurocentrism generates, this article lays the groundwork for the development of a non-Eurocentric security studies.

scholarly journals Angola - an Oil Dependant Country in Sub-Saharan Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (35) ◽  
pp. 233-242
Author(s):  
Boris Baumgartner
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The One ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
Essential Problem

Abstract The Sub-Saharan Africa belongs to the most underdeveloped regions in the world economy. This region consists of forty nine countries but it’s world GDP share is only a small percentage. There are some very resource rich countries in this region. One of them is Angola. This former Portuguese colony has one of the largest inventories of oil among all African countries. Angola recorded one of the highest growth of GDP between 2004-2008 from all countries in the world economy and nowadays is the third biggest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria and South Africa. The essential problem of Angola is the one-way oriented economy on oil and general on natural resources. Angola will be forced to change their one-way oriented economy to be more diversified and competitive in the future.

Money and Emotion

Money Talks ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlie Hochschild
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Labor ◽  
The West ◽  
Emotional Detachment ◽  
Commercial Exchange ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cost

This chapter delves into the world of commercial surrogates' emotional labor. Using the case of surrogates outsourced from India by parents in the West, the chapter focuses on “win-lose” situations. It shows that the one-down party pays a sacrifice in emotional detachment from something of great value, such as a piece of ancestral land, a kidney, or in this case, a baby. It argues that we should count the cost of commercial exchange not simply in the value of coin but in the price it exacts in emotional detachment. The chapter thus introduces issues of power and inequality for understanding contested transactions. It is not that money necessarily taints the surrogacy exchange, but that the transaction is not among equals.

Populism and Worldwide Turbulence

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 152-164
Author(s):  
Roland Robertson ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Global South ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
Al Qaeda ◽  
Western World ◽  
The West ◽  
Central Aspect ◽  
The World ◽  
Entire World

This contribution consists in an attempt to make sense of one central aspect of the present worldwide turbulence, one which might well be called the contemporary, perfect, global storm. A pivotal problem that will be interrogated is the issue of the circumstances that have produced this phenomenon in most parts of the world, although it should be emphasized that the term populism is, more often than not, applied to the Western world rather than the East or, for the most part, the global South. However, this reservation does not amount to a severe caveat, since all the contemporary signs are that what is here called populism is sweeping across the entire world as a whole, even though it is not necessarily given this name in non-Western regions. To this generalization it should be added that there are, rather obviously, parallels to what has become known as populism in the West. Examples of this are anarchism in nineteenth century Russia and the movement known as the Long March under the leadership of Mao Zedong in the years 1934 and 1935 particularly, as well as al Qaeda and its various offshoots.

scholarly journals Physiotherapy education in Africa- The experience in Nigeria

1994 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 60-61
Author(s):  
Seyi L. Amosun
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Education Programme ◽  
West African ◽  
African Unity ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
African Nation ◽  
The World ◽  
Physiotherapy Education ◽  
World Confederation

The African Rehabilitation Institute, an arm of the Organisation of African Unity, recently designed a physiotherapy education programme for implementation in African countries.  The West African sub-region, having one of the oldest physiotherapy education programmes in the continent, was not directly involved in the formulation of the programme.  A review of physiotherapy education in Nigeria, the first  African nation after South-Africa to be admitted into the membership of the World Confederation for Physical Therapy, shows that the programme recommended by the African Rehabilitation Institute is highly commendable.

scholarly journals The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche: Nikolai Berdyaev’s reception and interpretation

2021 ◽  
pp. 166-178
Author(s):  
Andrey V. Shumskoy ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Friedrich Nietzsche ◽  
Russian Philosophy ◽  
Religious Philosophy ◽  
The West ◽  
Will To Power ◽  
Christian Anthropology ◽  
The World ◽  
German Philosopher ◽  
The Will ◽  
The One

The article deals with the problem of Nikolai Berdyaev’s reception and interpretation of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. We attempt to reconstruct Berdyaev’s attitude to the creative heritage of the great German philosopher. The phenomenon of Nietzsche was mainly perceived by the Russian philosophy of the early 20th century in a religious context. For Berdyaev himself, the personality of Nietzsche became one of the starting points for comprehending the existential dialectic of human destiny in the world historical process. In Nietzsche’s works, Berdyaev was first of all captivated by the eschatological theme the philosopher addressed, his striving for the end and the limit. Berdyaev called Nietzsche the greatest phenomenon of modern history, dialectically completing the humanistic anthropology of the West. The Russian philosopher viewed Nietzsche as the forerunner of a new religious anthropology, a religious prophet of the West, making a return to the old European humanism no longer possible. Berdyaev was convinced of the need to overcome and internalize the spiritual experience of Nietzsche. The latter opens up the prospect of transition to a new anthropological era, in which human existence must be justified by creativity. Berdyaev viewed creativity as a new religious revelation of Christianity, not manifested in patristic tradition and historical Christianity. In creative acts, man overcomes objectification as a fallen state of the world. The article examines the key ideas of Nietzsche’s philosophy through the prism of religious existentialism and personalism of Berdyaev. Berdyaev’s attitude to Nietzsche was ambivalent: on the one hand, he highly appreciated how radically the German philosopher formulated the problem of a person’s creativity; on the other hand, he viewed the anti-Christian concept of the superman, leading to human godhood, as absolutely unacceptable for Russian religious philosophy and Christianity. Berdyaev assessed the new revelation of Nietzsche about the superman and the will to power as false and demonic, radically contradicting the foundations of Christian anthropology about man and the religious ethics of creativity.

scholarly journals Neoliberal Capitalism's Bureaucracies of 'governance'

2020 ◽  
Vol 100 (100) ◽  
pp. 60-76
Author(s):  
Oliver Davis
Keyword(s):  
Critical Criminology ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Vicious Circle ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
The World ◽  
Governmental Management ◽  
The Ideal

The account of bureaucracy under neoliberal capitalism which I present in this article under the innocuous heading it prefers to use to describe itself ('governance') draws together recent critical work by David Graeber, Wendy Brown, William Davies and Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval, which it repositions in relation to Jacques Rancière's conception of the 'police order'. The key claims of the new critique of bureaucracy thus delineated are: (i) that neoliberal capitalism's 'stealth revolution' (Brown) is primarily effected by way of a proliferation of bureaucracies; (ii) that these bureaucracies reconstruct the world as an array of 'overlapping competitions' (Davies); (iii) that competitive hierarchisation ('ranking') is the key bureaucratic form, or process, in each of these administrative fiefdoms. To this new critique I add a Derridean reflection on the longstanding mystical or metaphysical appeal of hierarchy and also argue that bureaucratic organisation is the mundane way in which an anti-democratic commitment to hierarchy becomes naturalised. To understand the continuity between the administrative and coercive dimensions of the police order of governance I draw on work in critical criminology on 'the new punitiveness' and scholarship from critical security studies which views security professionals as experts in the governmental management of '(in)security'. I suggest that the massive production of insecurity by proliferating bureaucracies which structure neoliberalism's project of competitive hierarchisation creates the ideal conditions for a vicious circle of securitarian inflation.

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