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Disrupting Western and Neo-Liberal Policing of the Global and the Local

Module description

In this module you will explore the ways in which Western states have attempted to maintain their hegemonic neo-liberal control over ‘marginalised’ groups within their own their own borders through the use of increasingly militarised police forces as well as over foreign ‘subaltern’ populations through the use of the military in order to either hold onto to their colonial possessions or, following decolonisation, to ‘modernise’, ‘stabilise’ and ‘develop’ such populations through neo-imperial practices often in the guise of counterinsurgency, nation-building, counter-terrorism and other forms of military intervention with the Global South.

Please note that this module is not about military strategy or military history, but rather about developing knowledge and understanding that challenges and disrupts from both a Critical Military Studies and Post-Colonial perspective the logics of socio-economic and racial hierarchies that enable and legitimise the use of violence against populations considered to be marginalised and/or subaltern by Western Neo-Liberal democratic governments.

Module aims - intentions of the module

In this module you will investigate how gender, race, and neo-liberal logics and particularly how racial hierarchies are constructed in a way that enable and legitimise militarism and the use of violence to discipline both domestic marginalised communities and subaltern populations abroad.

You will examine how militarised and racialised logics of violence that embody and perpetuate violence and conflict at the local and global level enable Western governments to discipline domestic and foreign populations that are deemed respectively by such governments as criminal or in need of modernisation and development.

More crucially, this module challenges the function of police and military interventions in producing and preserving racial hierarchies that are utilised to legitimise violence, militarism and militarisation within domestic society and within international relations.

There are no pre-requisites for the module. It is suitable for both specialist and non-specialist students and recommended for those studying Politics/International Relations, as well as those on interdisciplinary pathways who have a particular interest in developing strong theoretical capabilities to critique the use of police and military violence to uphold racial and socio-economic hierarchies at home and in the Global South.

This module will provide you with:

• a strong theoretical and empirical understanding of the key concepts, theories and debates surrounding the role that race, but also gender and economics, play in legitimising violence to maintain racial and socio-economic inequalities within states, and hegemonic and Neo-Liberal control over the Global South;
• knowledge and understanding of both historical and contemporary case studies of various Western military interventions, whether direct or by proxy, in the Global South;
• knowledge and understanding of the classic theories of insurgency and counterinsurgency and how these have been employed both in historical and more recent military interventions;
• knowledge and understanding of the ways in which policing has become increasingly militarised and employed to enforce racial and social hierarchies within society.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. demonstrate critical knowledge and understanding of key theories and concepts employed by the Critical Military Studies and Post-Colonial Studies literature;
• 2. demonstrate critically the different ways in which ideas and practices of race are constructed within and carried out through practices of policing and military interventions;

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. employ theoretical arguments to examine empirical case studies;
• 4. critically question the mainstream rationales underpinning counterinsurgency and other forms of military intervention through the use Critical Military Studies and Post-Colonial perspectives;

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. synthesize challenging literature and effectively articulate complex ideas in written form;
• 6. study independently and manage time and assessment deadlines effectively;
• 7. communicate effectively in speech and writing;
• 8. demonstrate proficiency in the use of the internet, online journal databases and other IT resources for the purposes of tutorial and assessment preparation.

Syllabus plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Introduction to Critical Military Studies;
• Introduction to Post-Colonial Studies;
• Militarism and militarization;
• Definitions of irregular warfare, insurgency and terrorism;
• Classic theories of insurgency/guerrilla war;
• Classic theories of counterinsurgency;
• Various classic as well as contemporary counter-insurgency case studies
• US interventionism in Central America: Panama and El Salvador
• Revolution, Drugs & Paramilitarism: Columbia and the FARC
• Revolution, Drugs & Paramilitarism and the US War on Drugs.
• The militarisation of urban spaces – North America (USA): the politics of race/racism and police brutality.
• The militarisation of urban spaces – South America (Brazil): poverty, social marginality, and the counter-narcotics war in the favelas.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to redo the assessment(s) as defined above. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Dyvik, Synne L. Gendering counterinsurgency: performativity, experience and embodiment in the Afghan 'theatre of war' (London: Routledge, 2017).
• Gandhi L. Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022).
• Graham, S. Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism (London: Verso, 2010).
• Higate, P. R. (ed.) Military Masculinities: Identity and the State. (London: Praeger, 2003).
• Hinderliter B. and Peraza, S. (eds.) More than our pain: affect and emotion in the era of Black Lives Matter (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2021).
• Larkins, E.R. The spectacular favela: violence in modern Brazil (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2015).
• Nolan, T. Perilous policing: criminal justice in marginalized communities (New York, NY: Routledge, 2019).
• Penglase, R.B. Living with insecurity in a Brazilian favela: urban violence and daily life (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2014).
• Porter, P. Military Orientalism: Eastern War through Western Eyes (Hurst, 2009).
• Wacquant, L. Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality (Cambridge: Polity, 2007).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – Faculty to provide hyperlink to appropriate pages

Key words search

Critical military studies; postcolonialism; neo-liberalism; Global South; Race; Policing; Counterinsurgency; military intervention