Call for Papers: EWIS 2023 / Global Entanglements of the Neoliberal Security State

We invite contributions to the workshop ‘Global Entanglements of the Neoliberal Security State’, which will be organised as part of the 10th European Workshops in International Studies at the University of Amsterdam, 12–14 July 2023.

Workshop Convenors: Rosa Maryon (University of the West of England / Cardiff University) & Cemal Burak Tansel (Newcastle University)

Submission Deadline: 5 February 2023

Neoliberalism, as an ever-mutating bundle of policy templates and ideas that undergird the management of contemporary capitalism, continues to shape the way states govern their populations. The roll back of the state in certain policy realms—associated with neoliberal restructurings—has long been coupled with the roll out of the state in other areas including, but not limited to, mass incarceration, repressive policing, and reinforced border regimes. Built on the recognition of this ever-present ‘penal fist’ of neoliberalism from its global ascendancy in the late 1970s, scholars of authoritarian neoliberalism have more recently called for a more extensive engagement with the question of how exactly states deploy their coercive power to insulate neoliberalism from contestation and repress social forces that do challenge its key precepts.

This workshop aims to bring together scholars interrogating the neoliberal security state from a diverse range of disciplinary perspective to empirically and theoretically map out the connections between neoliberalism and authoritarian state power. Breaking free of the methodological nationalist constraints that have characterised much of the work on neoliberalism in International Studies, this workshop aims to explore the global, interconnected mechanisms of coercion and control designed to insulate capitalist accumulation from contestation. Accordingly, we invite contributions that engage with the following questions and the list of topics provided at the end of the call:

How does global economic governance align with and/or actively support authoritarian state practices at national, regional, and international levels?
What role do international aid, security assistance and democracy promotion initiatives play in resisting or legitimising authoritarian state practices?

We are particularly interested in exploring the transnational linkages between security assistance and authoritarian neoliberalism as well as contributions focusing on the colonial and imperial constitution of aid and assistance programmes. Papers with an empirical focus on the Middle East and North Africa and global Southern contexts are particularly welcome.

Topics and themes we would like to particularly cover and feature in the workshop include:

Bordering
Migration and migrant solidarity
Social movements
Austerity
Policing
Carcerality
Surveillance and technology
Social welfare reforms

Please submit your abstracts via the EWIS electronic submission system and send a copy to the workshop convenors Rosa Maryon & Cemal Burak Tansel by 5 February 2023. Successful participants will be informed by 6 March 2023.

We strongly encourage our participants—especially those who are doctoral researchers, ECRs, precarious academics and working in the global South—to apply for funding provided by the EISA Mobility Fund.

For more information, please visit the EWIS 2023 website.

Updates

Workshop programme