Other News

Chris Browning and James Brassett have been selected as part of the new ‘Editor’s Choice’ collection for the European Journal of International Relations (EJIR). The Editors Choice articles are ‘specially selected to highlight the journal’s most noteworthy manuscripts’.

EJIR is a Top Ten (ISI) ranked journal in International Relations (IR) and it marks a testament to the research strength of PAIS to have two articles included in the ‘Critical Security Studies’ and ‘Global Political Economy’ sections, respectively. The article titles, abstracts and links are included below.

'The Future of Critical Security Studies: Ethics and the Politics of Security’, by Dr Chris Browning, Warwick and Dr Matt McDonald, Queensland.

Abstract

‘Critical security studies’ has come to occupy a prominent place within the lexicon of International Relations and security studies over the past two decades. While disagreement exists about the boundaries of this sub-discipline or indeed some of its central commitments, in this article we argue that we can indeed talk about a ‘critical security studies’ project orienting around three central themes. The first is a fundamental critique of traditional (realist) approaches to security; the second is a concern with the politics of security — the question of what security does politically; while the third is with the ethics of security — the question of what progressive practices look like regarding security. We suggest that it is the latter two of these concerns with the politics and ethics of security that ultimately define the ‘critical security studies’ project. Taking the so-called Welsh School and Copenhagen School frameworks as archetypal examples of ‘critical security studies’ (and its limits), in this article we argue that despite its promises, scholarship in this tradition has generally fallen short of providing us with a sophisticated, convincing account of either the politics or the ethics of security. At stake in the failure to provide such an account is the fundamental question of whether we need a ‘critical security studies’ at all.

Global Political Economy Collection: ‘British Comedy, Global Resistance: Russell Brand, Charlie Brooker, and Stewart Lee’, by Dr James Brassett, Warwick.

Abstract

The article provides a critical analysis of the possibilities and limits of comedy as a form of political resistance. Taking a cue from recent critiques of mainstream satire — that it profits from a cynical and easy criticism of political leaders — the article questions how comedy animates wider debates about political resistance in International Political Economy. The case is made for developing an everyday and cultural International Political Economy that treats resistance in performative terms, asking: what does it do? What possibilities and limits does it constitute? This approach is then read through a historical narrative of British comedy as a vernacular form of resistance that can (but does not necessarily) negotiate and contest hierarchies and exclusions in ‘particular’ and ‘particularly’ imaginative terms. In this vein, the work of Brand, Brooker and Lee is engaged as an important and challenging set of resistances to dominant forms of market subjectivity. Such comedy highlights the importance and ambiguity of affect, self-critique and ‘meaning’ in the politics of contemporary global markets.