Populism,ontological insecurity and Hindutva: Modi and the masculinization of Indian politics

Abstract

In an era increasingly defined by insecurity and populist politics, India has emerged as a forceful ontological security provider under the leadership of Marendra Modi. If ontological security is about finding a safe (imagined) haven, then ontological insecurity is about the lack of such a space in narrative terms. Drawing on Lacanian understandings of ‘the imaginary’ as something that can fill and naturalize this lack of space, the article is concerned with how memories, places and symbols of narrative identity constructions are used in populist discourse. More specifically, it attempts to understand the relationship between ontological insecurity and the imaginaries of populist politics in India. In so doing, it argues that the re-invention of ‘nationhood’, ‘religion’ and ‘Hindu masculinity’ along gendered lines has created a foundation for governing practices aimed at ‘healing’ a number of ontological insecurities manifest in Indian society. It specifically looks at how the Modi doctrine has formulated and expanded its foreign policy discourse into one that privileges populist narratives of nativism, nationalism and religion as forms of ontological security provision at home and abroad, but also how everyday practices can challenge such narratives, thus allowing different imaginaries of the Indian state.     

Shame,ontological insecurity and intercountry adoption

Romania and South Korea were once among the top sending countries for adoptive American families. In recent years, though, both have adopted significant restrictions on intercountry adoption. What leads countries to introduce such severe restrictions? This article argues that shame plays a significant, yet underappreciated, motivating factor for leading governments to change their laws on intercountry adoption. Political leaders seize on nationalist rhetoric to argue that intercountry adoption is shameful. The article explores the interaction between intercountry adoption and shame through brief case studies on Romania and South Korea. Finally, it examines the role of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Hague Adoption Convention) in ameliorating these feelings.     

Rethinking Kurdish geopolitical space: the politics of image,insecurity and gender

Global publics and local actors are increasingly saturated with variegated still and moving images. The important role played by images in world politics, however, remains understudied in the International Relations (IR) discipline. This article argues that the Kurdish geopolitical space is increasingly tied to a new regional and global imagination, which emanates from verbal–visual meaning-making strategies such as narrative reconstructions and pictorial representations (for example illustrations, pictograms, or photographs). The article’s investigation illustrates how the construction of new Kurdish geopolitical imagination became increasingly regionalized and internationalized during the war against the so-called Islamic State (IS), particularly after the Kobane siege in Syria in late 2014. It shows how the war between the Syrian Kurdish forces and the IS involved gendered and aesthetic signification for the global and regional audiences. Such strategies of meaning-making served as vital venues for gendering and making the threat of the IS and its “distant war” proximate, familiar and urgent for otherwise disinterested western audiences. These verbal–visual strategies vitally acted as a transmission belt between individual, state and systemic levels, turning the struggle against the IS into a globalized cultural-symbolic war. The article employs critical visual semiotics and critical discourse analysis to investigate the regional and global politics of image and offers three empirical cases to illustrate its argument: the narratives of the Kobane siege; the cartoon depicting a “Kurdish homeland” and globally circulated Kurdish female fighter photographs.     

The primacy of political security: contentious politics and insecurity in the Tunisian revolution

The removal of Ben Ali's regime in Tunisia signalled the start of the Arab Spring. The abrupt nature of the regime change raises questions about why it happened in the way it did. This article examines the contextual factors that precipitated the regime change through the lens of political security. The aim is to examine how political insecurity in society led to the emergence of opposition sufficiently organized to unseat Ben Ali. The paper develops a framework to consider how the loss of legitimacy by the regime opened the space for opposition. Attempts to restrict opposition failed to address underlying claims, leaving the way open for the opposition to unite following the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi.     

The normative threat of subtle subversion: the return of ‘Eastern Europe’ as an ontological insecurity trope

Abstract

A combination of undemocratic developments in Hungary and Poland as well as Eastern Europe’s reluctance to engage in solidary burden-sharing at the height of the refugee crisis in Europe has brought back familiar allusions of Eastern Europeans as troublemakers for European unity and peace. This article offers a discursive dissection of ‘Eastern Europe’ as a subtly subversive challenge to Europe’s security of ‘self’, entailing a fear of being overrun by an ‘other’ perceived as endangering one’s normative and cultural order. Proceeding from Ingrid Creppell’s (2011 Creppell, Ingrid (2011) ‘The concept of normative threat’, International Theory, 3:3, 450–487[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) notion of normative threat, this article argues that the reappearance of ‘Eastern Europe’ as an ontological insecurity trope is indicative of deeper anxieties within Europe, some of which are systemic (such as doubts about the efficacy of integration and the legitimacy of the European Union) and some of which are contingent (such as concerns about defending the European political order from populist upsurges amidst ‘resurgent nationalism’).     

Food riots as representations of insecurity: examining the relationship between contentious politics and human security

The 2007–08 global food crisis saw the eruption of a wave of contentious action across the developing world, represented most clearly by the food riot. Food riots are sudden, unexpected events, presenting a challenge to the state that moves beyond simple demands for food. The upheaval caused by a food riot can lead to lasting instability and violence as social and political structures are challenged. The aims of the article are to: (1) identify the character of contemporary food riots in relation to traditional forms; (2) determine the extent to which food riots can be seen to represent broader human insecurity; and (3) demonstrate the utility of contentious actions in demonstrating insecurity. This article examines the causes of the 2007–08 wave of food riots in relation to earlier manifestations. The findings show that the contemporary food riots have similar origins to their historical counterparts. The article also shows that food riots are a clear sign of insecurity, demonstrating the benefit of examining contentious politics in this context.     

Violence,politics and the state in Bangladesh

The politics and ideology of South Asia has been characterised by violence for a considerable time. Bangladesh is no exception, where violence is both widespread and multifaceted. It arises for political, economic, and socio-cultural reasons and is evidenced not only in the incidence of violence but also in the availability of small arms, in the evident political ties with violent organisations and criminal activities, in the prevalence of corruption and the effect which all this has on the forces of law and order. This poses enormous challenges for the state which urgently needs to introduce measures of reform in the judicial and police administration system. De-linking politics from the activities of criminals and terrorists is an important first step toward this goal.     

Enhancing rural learning,linkages, and institutions: the rice videos in Africa

Africa Rice Center (WARDA) facilitated the development and translation of 11 rice videos. From 2005 to 2009, WARDA partners translated them into more than 30 African languages. Open-air video presentations enhanced learning, experimentation, confidence, trust, and group cohesion among rural people. The videos strengthened capacities of more than 500 organisations and hundreds of thousands of farmers. WARDA's integrated rural learning approach also helped women to access new markets and credit. Learning videos allow for unsupervised learning; unleash local creativity and experimentation; facilitate institutional innovations; and improve social inclusion of the poor, youth, and women.     

Foreign policy begins at home: the local origin of support for US democracy promotion

ABSTRACT

Citizens hold opinions about what kinds of foreign policy their government should pursue. Because foreign policy often has geographically specific domestic consequences, we expect opinions to vary with the locality of its impact. In this article, we examine whether individual support for US foreign policy to promote democracy abroad depends on exactly where the policy’s domestic impact will occur. We expect individuals to favor policies that bestow local benefits while opposing those that impose local costs. Accordingly, we argue that support for proposed democracy aid grants will be higher when such aid benefits local firms and organizations. Conversely, we expect that opposition to proposed economic sanctions in the form of development aid cuts will be higher when the associated domestic costs stemming from lost jobs fall locally. Using the results from an original survey experiment, we find evidence that a positive local impact of aid increases support for and reduces opposition to democracy promotion, while a negative local impact of sanctions reduces indifference and increases opposition to punitive policy in the case of democratic backsliding.     

Control,soft information,and the politics of international organizations staffing

This article offers insights into the aggregate patterns of the geographical distribution of professional staff in some of the major international organizations (IOs). Building on the principal-agent framework, I argue that powerful member states seek dominant positions in IOs’ secretariats, in an effort to increase their ability to control them. At the same time, it is often the weakest low-income countries that are the IOs’ primary clients. Over-representation of the most powerful states is likely to lead to functional and legitimation problems for the IOs, in particular with regard to the IOs’ lack of access to ‘soft’ information about the countries in which they operate. Using a newly created dataset covering 19 major bodies of the United Nations family, I identify two aggregate patterns in the geographical distribution of their professional staff. First, the most powerful states dominate IOs’ secretariats. Second, however, many IOs systematically deviate in their staffing practices from this overall pattern, as well as from the existing rules that formalize it, and relatively over-represent also low-income countries. What results is a curvilinear (U-shaped) pattern where both powerful and very poor states are over-represented in many IOs’ professional staff.     

The formation of in-formation by the US military: articulation and enactment of infomanic threat imaginaries on the immaterial battlefield of perception

This article explores the role of perception management as a doctrinal concept in the construction and deconstruction of threats. Threat construction involves a continual, reciprocal and constitutive relationship between the attribution of meaning and practice. It takes place in an environment changed by the multiple forces of the so-called information revolution, in which discursive links are forged between technology and victory as well as between scientific progress and military superiority. Through articulation and enactment, information and information technology are represented as both threatening and threatened in three dimensions: dependency on information as data, possible loss of information superiority, and loss of control over information as image. The enemy ‘Other’ in these threat constructions is everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and is seen as being greatly empowered by the same tools that empower the United States military establishment. But while, for many military actors, regaining control in the information domain through technological innovation seems more or less straightforward, the immaterial battlefield of perception proves harder to master. We purport that military strategists do not seem to fully grasp the illusionary nature of the belief that the information space is a thing to be shaped at will and without restrictions.     

The revision of Russian military policy and the military industrial complex

The authority of the: Security Council under chapter VII of the UN Charter : legal limits and the role of the International Court of Justice / by David Schweigman. ‐ The Hague : Kluwer Law International, c2001. ‐ xviii, 354 p. ‐ (Studies and material on the settlement of international disputes ;‐ 8). ‐ISBN 90–411–11641–9

The Bush administration (1989–1993) and the development of a European security identity / Sophie Vanhoonacker. ‐ Aldershot: Ashgate, c2001. ‐ xiv, 269 p. ‐ ISBN 0–7546–1664–9

The Europeanisation of national foreign policy : Dutch, Danish and Irish foreign policy in the European Union / Ben Tonra.‐ Aldershot: Ashgate, c2001. ‐ viii, 305 p. ‐ ISBN 0–7546–1261–9

Germany as a civilian power? The foreign policy of the Berlin Republic / edited by Sebastian Harnisch and Hanns W. Maull. ‐ Manchester : Manchester University Press, c2001. ‐ xii, 179 p. ‐(Issues in German politics. ‐ ISBN 0–7190–6042–7 (pbk)

Hague yearbook of international law / Association of Attenders and Alumni of the Hague. Academy of International Law = Annuaire de La Haye de droit international / Association des auditeurs et anciens auditeurs de l'Academie de droit international de La Haye. ‐ The Hague : M. Nijhoff Publishers, c2001. ‐ xxii, 315 p. ‐ ISBN 90–411–1666–4

The international politics of East Africa / Robert Pinkney. ‐ Manchester : Manchester University Press, c2001. ‐ xii, 242 p. ‐ISBN 0–7190–5616–0 (pbk)

South Africa's multilateral diplomacy and global change : the limits of reformism / edited by Philip Nel, Ian Taylor, Janis Van der Westhuizen. ‐ Aldershot : Ashgate, c2001. ‐ xii, 155 p. ‐ (The international political economy of new regionalisms series). ‐ ISBN 0–7546–1653–3

The law of arms control international supervision and enforcement / Guido Den Dekker. ‐The Hague : Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, c2001. ‐ xviii, 404 p. ‐(Developments in international law ; 41).‐ISBN90–411–1624–9

The reform process of the United Nations peace operations debriefing and lessons : report of the 2001 Singapore Conference / The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR, The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) of Singapore and the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) ; prepared under the direction of Nassrine Azimi and Chang Lil Lin eds. ‐ The Hague : Kluwer Law International, c2001. ‐ ISBN 90–411–1699–0

Reforming the United Nations‐, the Quiet Revolution / edited by Joachim Müller. ‐The Hague : Kluwer, c2001. ‐ xxii, 946 p.‐ISBN 90–411–1644–3

Regulatory reforms in Italy : a case study of Europeanisation / Dieter Kerwer. ‐Aldershot : Ashgate, c2001. ‐ viii, 224 p.‐ISBN 0–7546–1690–8

Religious minorities, nation states and security: five cases from the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean / Mario Apostolov. ‐Aldershot.‐ Ashgate, c2001. ‐ x, 196 p. ‐ ISBN 0–7546–1677–0

Terrorism and democratic stability /Jennifer S. Holmes. ‐ Manchester : Manchester University Press, c2001. ‐ xiv, 241 p. ‐ (Perspectives on democratization). ‐ISBN 0–7190–5959–3

To prevail: an American strategy for the campaign against terrorism / Kurt M. Campbell and Michèle A. Flournoy. ‐Washington, D.C. : The CSIS Press, C2001. ‐ XIV, 399 p. ‐ ISBN 0–89206–407–2

United Nations sanctions and international law / edited by Vera Gowlland‐Debbas. ‐The Hague : Kluwer Law International, c2001. ‐ xiv, 408 p. ‐ (The Graduate Institute of International Studies ; 1). ‐ISBN 90–411–1603–6

United States economic sanctions: theory and practice / by Michael P. Malloy. ‐ The Hague : Kluwer Law International, c2001. ‐ xxvi, 738 p. ‐ ISBN 90–4118–861–4     

Poverty elimination,North-South research collaboration,and the politics of participatory development

This paper reflects critically on issues of North-South collaboration and participatory research arising from a project on participatory and sustainable local-level environmental management in the peri-urban area surrounding Kumasi, Ghana. Rapid immigration, uncoordinated conversion of farmland to housing, intensified resource exploitation, and declining water quality and availability are particularly pressing problems there. Collaborative research arrangements with local partners as well as sustained participatory relations with selected village communities were central to this project. More generally, the paper reflects on institutional issues relating to the dichotomy between research and development assistance projects, and their implications for project evaluations.