Search results

Cold war pasts of security thinking -- Cold war representations of the Middle East -- Practices of security during the Cold War -- Post-cold war presents of security thinking -- Post-cold war representations of the Middle East -- Practices of security in the post-Cold War era -- Conclusion : futures of the Middle East.

Karin Fierke situates Snapshots from Home at the intersection of two bodies of scholarship: one directed toward globalizing the study of world politics and the other drawing from quantum theory's insights to study the social world. The first body of scholarship has a long history. That it did not make a mark on the study of world politics until the mid-2010s has to do with the narrow notion of "science" that dominated the study of world politics, also known as disciplinary International Relations (IR). By way of showing the obsolescence of the narrow notion of "science" that IR has modeled itself on, the body of efforts that draw from quantum theory's insights has the potential to make more room for the first one. Fierke's book, by way of exploring the parallels between quantum physics and Asian philosophies, allows us to identify this potential. The contributors to this special forum each elaborate on different aspects of this potential.

In early 2016, a small town called Kilis on Turkey's southeast border became the target of unguided short-range rockets originating from an ISIS-controlled zone in Syria. Continuing over a five-month period, the attacks claimed 20+ lives, rendered hundreds of people homeless, and traumatised many more. Yet, the public in the rest of Turkey remained mostly unaware of the havoc caused by these attacks. This is not to say that appropriate steps to address the rocket attacks were not taken. Yet uttering 'security' was conspicuously absent from Ankara's response repertoire. The puzzle being: how was it possible for Ankara to limit politics in the face of local civil societal actors' and opposition MPs' attempts to politicise security? Through sacralisation, I suggest. What follows shows that in the first half of 2016, invoking 'sacred' cultural codes in framing the events helped Ankara to limit politics around security.

AbstractIn recent years, students of world politics have been shaken to the core by the ascent of post‐truth politics, which is a particular style of 'doing politics' by politicians and pundits – a style that strategically relies on misrepresentations at best, and at worst, lies. The so‐called post‐truth world has had consequences beyond those who are in the business of doing politics. The pervasiveness of presumed causal linkages between environmental degradation, violent conflict and human mobility has been utilized by policy makers and pundits to shape public opinion about the predicament of the Syrian refugees, the human tragedy of this decade in the Northern hemisphere. On the one hand, scholarly research shows that the relationship between environmental degradation, violent conflict and irregular mobility is far too complex to be understood in terms of causal linkages. On the other hand, in a post‐truth world, it is politicians and pundits who repeat falsehoods that have shaped public opinion about the Syrian refugees. It is in the spirit of engaging with post‐truth politics as such that I present what follows as a primer: how not to think about human mobility and the global environment.

While IR's Eurocentric limits are usually acknowledged, what those limits mean for theorizing about the international is seldom clarified. InThe Global Transformation, Buzan and Lawson offer a 'composite approach' that goes some way towards addressing IR's Eurocentrism, challenging existing myths about the emergence and evolution of the international system and society. This paper seeks to push the contribution made by Buzan and Lawson in two further directions: first, by underscoring the need to adopt a deeper understanding of Eurocentrism; and second, by highlighting how this understanding helps us recognize what is missing from IR theorizing – conceptions of the international by 'others' who also constitute the international. I illustrate this point by focussing on a landmark text on Ottoman history, Ortaylı'sThe Longest Century of the Empire.