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Revolutionary securitization: an anthropological extension of securitization theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2012

Martin Holbraad  and
Morten Axel Pedersen
Martin Holbraad*
Affiliation:
Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, UK Research Associate, Centre for Advanced Security Theory, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Morten Axel Pedersen
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Research Co-ordinator, Centre for Advanced Security Theory, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
*
E-mail: m.holbraad@ucl.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article proposes an anthropological extension of the so-called Copenhagen School theory of securitization in International Relations. In contrast to existing attempts to show how, suitably elaborated, this model can be ‘applied’ to various non-Western contexts, our anthropological strategy is to use the contingency of empirical materials (namely the Cuban Revolution and the political forms it instantiates) as a means for transforming the basic coordinates of the model itself. The argument involves two main steps. First we relativize the Copenhagen School model, showing the contingency of its premises. In its paradigmatic form, we argue, the model is liberal in that its abiding concern with states of emergency turns on an ontological distinction between political subjects (e.g. people) and political structures (e.g. state). By contrast, revolutionary politics in Cuba concertedly rescinds just this distinction, to bring about an alternative, non-liberal political ontology. We then go on to use the Cuban case to construct an alternative model of securitization, which we call revolutionary. On this model, the move of securitization pertains, not to a passage from ordinary politics into a realm of emergency, but to a deliberate ontological fusion of the two, such that rule and exception also become coterminous.

Keywords

anthropologysecuritization theoryCopenhagen schoolrevolutionCubapolitical ontology
Type
Original Papers
Information
International Theory , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , July 2012 , pp. 165 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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