Between emergency and routine – securitisation of military security in Iran and Indonesia

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explain the internal conditions of military security in a non-European context. It utilises securitisation as the theoretical perspective and investigates Iranian and Indonesian case studies to explore how the perception of internal threats and vulnerabilities determines the approaches to military security. It begins with a reiteration of securitisation theory assumptions, followed by clarifying the understanding of security in non-Western contexts. The case studies focus on the conditions which facilitate securitisation, including the nature of securitising actors, assumed concepts of security, and securitisation processes and their outcomes. The analysis indicates a necessity for several alterations in securitisation theory to realise its full potential. Civil–military relations in Asian states differ from those in the West, as both Iran and Indonesia show a high degree of military involvement in political affairs. Military security also becomes securitised as a result of internal political rivalries. The perception of threats is a tool in the struggle to extend the capabilities of security agencies or retain influences.     

阿以伊三角关系评析

以色列和阿塞拜疆的关系虽不事张扬但内涵丰富,属战略盟友关系。伊朗与阿塞拜疆这两个毗邻的国家,虽然具有共同的历史、相同的宗教、相似的种族,但没有促进反而阻碍了两国间的信任,两国在政治制度、里海划界、对外关系等方面均有显著的矛盾。进入21世纪以来,伊朗与以色列日益成为中东地区的直接竞争对手,加之两国政治制度上的差异、以色列所处的地理位置及伊朗核活动的持续,两国关系的敌对性愈益强烈。因此,近年来伊朗与阿塞拜疆之间进行的与以色列相关的一系列相互指责显然是事出有因的。在以色列对抗伊朗的过程中,阿塞拜疆一直并将继续扮演特殊角色。     

Accented voices: Iranian–Norwegian readings of media texts on Iran and Iranianness

This study focuses on Iranian–Norwegian individuals' perceptions concerning representation of Iran and Iranianness within the Norwegian media. Twenty Iranian–Norwegians are included in the study. The aim was to demonstrate the Iranian–Norwegians accented voices; that Iranian–Norwegian reading is seen in relation to the wider socio-cultural context of these individuals in Norway and Iran. In so doing, the focus is on the television programme World Cup Studio (Norwegian: VM-studio) broadcast by TV2, a major Norwegian television channel, during the 2006 football World Cup, with Iran as one of the participants of the games. By analysing the Iranian–Norwegian' reading of this particular programme, the study concludes that informants' readings of discursive representation of Iran and Iranianness indicate an opposition to what they consider to be an essentialised view of their identity and position in the Norwegian context, as well as the context of the homeland under the current socio-cultural, and political condition.     

Humanitarian impacts of economic sanctions on Iran and Syria

International sanctions against Iran and Syria have been tightened to unprecedented levels since 2012, particularly in the case of the European Union's (EU's) restrictions on the countries' energy and finance sectors. Marking a departure from the EU's carefully targeted sanctions policies of recent decades, they represent de facto comprehensive measures widely associated with negative humanitarian impacts. This paper analyses semi-structured interviews, official discourse and case studies to explore early reports of negative impacts on the health of ordinary citizens in Iran and Syria and examines associated policy responses, particularly in the EU context. The author outlines why a shift towards broader-based sanctions could be problematic for the EU and outlines constraints currently preventing more efficient risk mitigation. This paper suggests ways that sanctions, representing an increasingly vital, albeit contested, tool of EU foreign and security policy, could be used in a more prudent manner if a worsening humanitarian situation is to be avoided.     

Embracing death: the Western left and the Iranian revolution, 1978–83

The Iranian revolution of 1978–83 was a disaster for Iranian leftists, who, having worked for the overthrow of the Shah, soon found themselves being persecuted by the hard-line followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini. This paper looks at the response of Western leftists to the unfolding of the revolution, considering, first, to what extent Marxist and class-based analyses helped explain the revolution and, second, why so many Western leftist groups and individuals defended the Khomeini faction even as it moved against secular leftists and liberals. It concludes that an uncritical identification with Khomeini's declared ‘anti-imperialism’ distorted the views of those who would ordinarily have opposed his regime on class grounds, and that such a misreading was aided by an inadequate distinction between bourgeois democracy and dictatorship.     

Islamic reformation discourses: popular sovereignty and religious secularisation in Iran

Disputes over the outcome of the June 2009 presidential election in Iran rapidly developed into a contest about the legitimacy of the Islamic state. Far from being a dispute between religious and non-religious forces, the main protagonists in the conflict represented divergent articulations of state–religion relations within an Islamic context. In contrast to the authoritarian legitimisation of an Islamic state, the Islamic reformation discourse is based on secular-democratic articulations of state–religion relations. This article focuses on the ideas of four leading Iranian religious scholars who advocate a secular-democratic conceptualisation of state authority. Disputing the religious validity of divine sovereignty, they promote the principle of popular sovereignty based on Islamic sources and methods. This reformist conceptualisation is rooted in the notion that Islam and the secular-democratic state are complementary.     

Fifteen minutes of glory: A Burkean analysis of press coverage of Oliver north's testimony

Public esteem for Lt. Col. Oliver North prior to his testimony before the Iran‐contra Committee was low. As he testified, his popularity and support soared, and then tailed off after he left the witness stand. This analysis suggests that these dramatic shifts in audience response to the drama of Oliver North are attributable to the evocation of different audience values before, during, and after his testimony by press coverage of his story which placed differential emphasis on the elements of Kenneth Burke's dramatistical pentad. The differential impacts of print and electronic media to these audience effects are assessed through content analysis. Implications for political processes in general in our media society are discussed.     

U.S. International Broadcasting: The Case of Iran

This article is an examination of the current state of U.S. broadcasting to Iran. It also gives an overview of the structure of U.S. international broadcasting. The author illustrates how under the Bush administration, Radio Farda and Voice of America Persian TV were held accountable for helping to destabilize the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, critics, including those in the Pentagon and a number of congressional members, doubted the capacity of Radio Farda, in particular, to carry out such a purpose because of its entertainment focus. Contrary to self-professed declarations of independence and free and objective journalism, the author argues that the U.S. government uses strict editorial control to restrict its broadcasting entities within the boundaries of its foreign policy objectives.     

The council of expediency: crisis and statecraft in Iran and beyond

Abstract

Giorgio Agamben argues that in contemporary governance the use of ‘emergency’ is no longer provisional, but ‘constitutes a permanent technology of government’ and has produced the extrajudicial notion of crisis. The engendering of ‘zones of indistinction’ between the law and its practice is what Agamben defines as a ‘state of exception’. This article adopts the notion enunciated by Agamben and revisits it in the Islamic Republic of Iran. There, the category of crisis has been given, firstly, a juridical status through the institution of maslahat, ‘expediency’, interpreted in a secular encounter between Shi^ca theological exegesis and modern statecraft. Secondly, crisis has not led to the production of a ‘state of exception’ as Agamben argues. Instead, since the late 1980s, a sui generis institution, the Expediency Council, has presided and decided over matters of crisis. Instead of leaving blind spots in the production of legislative power, the Expediency Council takes charge of those spheres of ambiguity where the ‘normal’ – and normative – means of the law would have otherwise failed to deliver. This is a first study of this peculiar institution, which invites further engagement with political phenomena through the deconstruction and theorization of crisis politics.