Concept of Soft Violence in Critical Security Studies

On September 16, 2021, Professor Candyce Kelshall and Ms. Natalie Archutowski presented on the Concept of Soft Violence in Critical Security Studies at the 2021 CASIS Vancouver Defence and Security Advisory Network online forum. Primary topics included: evaluating violence as soft in nature, how and where soft violence might fit in the realm of critical security studies, violent transnational social movements (VTSMs), sharp power, and soft power.

The Interface of Nation-State Building and Transnationalism

This chapter discusses how separate nation-states crystallized, turning Latin America into a multistate region subject to persistent transnational trends. The story of Latin America as a multistate region is one of contested territorial boundaries and a tension-ridden consolidation of separate collective identities out of a tapestry of transnational interaction. The chapter traces how states were constructed and narrated national formation; how transnational visions continued to reverberate; how transnational events such as wars were framed as national; and how transnational social movements promoted interstate connections, sometimes trying to recreate the lost unity of earlier times and the transnational visions of some of the founding fathers of independence. The textual discussion addresses cases of the Southern Andean and Río de la Plata expanses, namely Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, and Brazil, as well as Central America, including primarily El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. The chapter also embeds references to the Latin American countries.

Reimagining the Medieval: The Utility of Ethnonational Symbols for Reactionary Transnational Social Movements

Scholars have explored the rise of far-right reactionary political parties in Europe over the last decade. However, social movements reflecting similar political orientations have rarely been conceptualized as “reactionary.” To better understand the political orientations of reactionary transnational social movements such as the Identitarians and the Defence Leagues, we explore how and why ethnonational symbols derived from the medieval period are utilized by adherents. This interdisciplinary investigation argues that, through processes of mediated political medievalism, ethnonational symbols are used as strategic framing devices to reimagine an idealized “golden age” of distinct European nations, to assign blame for the erosion of ethnonational identity through multiculturalism, immigration and “Islamization,” to establish an intergenerational struggle against the supposed incursion of Islam in Europe, and to proscribe and justify the use of violence as a means of re-establishing the primacy of European nations.

Soft Violence, Social Radicalisation, and Violent Transnational Social Movements (VTSMs)

On November 25, 2020, Candyce Kelshall presented on the topic of Soft Violence, Social Radicalisation, and Violent Transnational Social Movements (VTSMs), at the 2020 CASIS West Coast Security Conference. Primary discussion topics included the distinction between terrorists and violent extremists, weapons used by violent extremists, social radicalisation and self actualisation (SRSA), the production of lone actors, and the intersectionality of violent extremist actors. This presentation was followed by a group panel for questions and answers, whereby conference attendees were provided with an opportunity to engage in discussion with Professor Kelshall and the other presenters.

Conclusion

The concluding chapter critiques current scholarly trends to discuss crimes against humanity based on the feelings of horror they create and argues that an analysis of the power politics waged through their discursive mobilization requires analytical scrutiny. The conclusion therefore appraises the difference between hegemonic and counterhegemonic deployments of crimes against humanity in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The twenty-first-century deployments comprise the designation of slavery and apartheid as crimes against humanity (a designation that resulted from international political activities by actors from the Global South) as well as the denunciation of the 2003 US-led military campaign in Iraq as a crime against humanity (by transnational social movements). The chapter closes with a critique of debates on the Anthropocene that posit humanity as an undifferentiated, totalizing geological force and argues that, once again, scrutiny of the concrete, differential power positions structuring humanity is imperative for assessing the social causes of climate devastation.

Extremist Propaganda and the "Politics of the Internet"

In this paper, I review some of the discussions about the politics of the internet and relate them to our most recent understanding of rapidly evolving Violent Transnational Social Movements (VTSMs). I frame the analysis in terms of the key actors involved in shaping and governing the internet, organised as a triumvirate of citizen, state and internet service provider (ISP). I conclude that the internet may not be as powerful a force in shaping democracy as we may think, although further research and experience of a rapidly evolving situation will be critical. I also suggest that the state has more power to shape the situation to its interests than we might suppose, and this has a major bearing on the formulation of counter-extremism policy and strategy.

Transnational Memory and the Fukushima Disaster: Memories of Japan in Australian Anti-nuclear Activism

This paper argues for the importance of transnational memories in framing Australian anti-nuclear activism after the Fukushima disaster. Japan has loomed large in the transnational nuclear imaginary in Australia. Commemorating Hiroshima as the site of the first wartime use of nuclear weapons has been a long-standing practice in the Australian anti-nuclear movement and the day has been linked to a variety of issues including weapons and uranium mining. As Australia began exporting uranium to Japan in the 1970s, Australia-Japan relations took on a new meaning for the Indigenous traditional owners from whose land uranium was extracted. After Fukushima, these complex transnational memories formed the basis for an orientation towards Japan by Indigenous land rights activists and for the anti-nuclear movement as a whole. This paper argues that despite the tenuousness of direct organisational links between the two countries, transnational memories drove Australian anti-nuclear activists to seek connections with Japan after the Fukushima disaster. The mobilisation of these collective memories helps us to understand how transnational social movements evolve and how they construct globalisation from below in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Exemplary in Transnational Social Movements: The Legacies of the Alterglobalization Movement

Revolutionary theorists have pointed to the “exemplary” in revolutions as the main aspect explaining the power of these phenomena to shape the international system. As a result of their internationalist commitment and their capacity to set revolutionary models, revolutions have a long-term impact not anticipated by even the revolutionaries themselves. Even though they might be overthrown or socialized, the ideas and the internationalist practice exercised by revolutionary movements continue affecting subsequent dynamics of contestation and thus defining world politics. In this article, I argue that the impact of Transnational Social Movements (TSM) can be analyzed in this light. To the extent that they aim to transform the international order, TSMs’ interaction with the international might be deeper than is normally assumed. In order to illustrate this, the article focuses on the Alterglobalization Movement (AGM) as a case study. This approach allows an assessment of the potential of the AGM to shape international politics beyond more immediate victories at the beginning of the millennium.