Dear Colleagues,
Please find attached and below the call for papers for the upcoming
workshop at the University of Oxford in March 2020, ”Western Intervention
in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings.”
I hope it may be of interest, and I would appreciate if you could circulate
the call widely.
Thank you.
All the best,
Susann
--
Dr Susann Kassem
Postdoctoral Research Officer, St Antony’s College
Middle East Studies
Oxford School of Global and Area Studies
University of Oxford
*Call for Papers*
Western Intervention in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings: Political
Containment, Neoliberalism, and Imperial Legacies
Workshop, University of Oxford, Oxford School of Global and Area Studies
March 10–11, 2020
In the present as in the past, the Arab world remains a central target of
international military, humanitarian and development interventions. From
the First World War and the imposition of the League of Nations mandates,
to the United Nations partition of Palestine, through the Cold War efforts
to contain Arab anticolonialism, the War on Terror, and the post-2011 chain
of uprisings, civil wars, and military interventions, Western policy is a
basic factor in shaping Arab polities.
Following 9/11, Western-led interventions were linked to global concerns
over terrorism and security. Whether pursued through government policy or
international organizations, they increasingly intermingled civilian
practices of economic, civic, and cultural engagement with military
intervention in an attempt to implement an idealized, neoliberal political
order in the former colonial world. The full repercussions of the link
between development and security remain to be seen. Furthermore, as
numerous scholars have demonstrated, contemporary humanitarian and military
interventions in the Arab world often draw on colonial strategies and
narratives to influence events and to project knowledge about managing
populations.
More recently, waves of uprisings in the Arab world have shifted the frame
and shaped new variations on past interventionist discourses and policies.
The wars in Syria, Libya, and Yemen—to name a few—and the resulting refugee
crises arguably have shaped new humanitarian, development and peacebuilding
approaches, which emphasize resilience, participation and self-reliance.
Again, these policies are often more attuned to the security interests of
the European and Western donor states, as well as local elites, rather than
the interests of the many people directly affected by them.
There is a dearth of studies that critically engage the merging of civilian
with military practices while maintaining a critical distance from
interventionist frameworks. What is the meaning of the recent redefinitions
of development, humanitarian and military interventions? How have crises in
the Arab world shaped interventionist discourses? How have recent Western
policy changes been met by the concerned populations? What are the
possible consequences and meanings for the Arab world? This workshop aims
to address these and other questions. It aims to situate current military
and development interventions into a larger context and debate about
(neo)colonialism, governance, the state, sovereignty, and to encourage a
systematic treatment of the historical continuities and ruptures between
the present and the explicitly imperial political contexts of the early
twentieth century.
We seek papers discussing examples from throughout the Arab world that
address, but are not limited to, the following themes:
1. Developments in Western humanitarianism and interventionism in the wake
of the Arab uprisings
How have recent crises, such as the wars in Syria, Yemen, and Libya,
influenced humanitarian ideology? How are practices of intervention
reinvented? How do local and regional actors influence and interact with
these Western discourses and policies? How have changes in US and European
domestic politics affected their foreign policies?
2. The merging of development, humanitarianism and military intervention
How can civilian-military strategies as currently applied by international
military and humanitarian interventions be compared to previous imperial
policies in the region? How can we make sense of such (dis)continuities of
colonial strategies? What can we learn from similar situations outside of
the Middle Eastern context?
3. Ethnographic approaches to global discourses and policies
How are externally produced theories of peace, development and
humanitarianism implemented locally in the Arab World? How does practice
differ from theory and what conclusions can we draw from this?
4. Strategies of control, neoliberal reforms and popular discontent
How have the post-2011 uprisings and popular mobilizations challenging
authoritarian rule and/or neoliberal policies influenced local and
international strategies of containment? Have such strategies led to
weakening or strengthening state or government legitimacy? What effects
will current reform policies have? How have strategies of containment,
whether through local authorities or foreign interventions, affected social
change?
How to Apply:
Applicants must submit an abstract of 300–400 words as well as a 100 word
bio, and two page CV to [log in to unmask] by November 24,
2019.
Partial funding is available for accommodation and/or travel expenses.
Funding priority will be assigned to assist participants who have limited
support from their institutions, and/or to those who will not be able to
attend the workshop without assistance. Please indicate in your application
if you wish to be considered for accommodation/travel expenses, and include
a short justification for this support. Participants will be informed about
the amount of reimbursement available for these costs when abstract is
approved.
Conveners: Dr Susann Kassem ([log in to unmask]) and Dr Shun
Watanabe ([log in to unmask])
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