We need to talk about silence: Re-examining silence in International Relations theory

The critique of silence in International Relations theory has been long-standing and sustained. However, despite the lasting popularity of the term, little effort has been made to unpack the implications of existing definitions and their uses, and of attempts to rid the worlds of theory and practice of silences. This article seeks to fill this vacuum by conducting a twofold exercise: a review and revision of the conceptualisation of silence current in the literature; and a review of the implications of attempts to eliminate silence from the worlds of theory and practice. Through the discussion, the article suggests that we deepen and broaden our understanding of silence while simultaneously accepting that a degree of silence will be a permanent feature of theory and practice in international politics. Finally, the conclusion illustrates the possibilities for analysis and theory opened by these arguments through an exploration of how they may be used to interpret and address recent events in Yemen

The Aden pivot? British counter-insurgency after Aden

This article argues that the Aden Insurgency was a pivotal moment in the history of British counter-insurgency. We argue that it was in Aden where the newfound strength of human rights discourse, embodied in Amnesty International, and of anti-colonial sentiment, expressed by the UN General Assembly, forced the British government to pay attention to public perceptions of colonial brutality. Using archival sources, we foreground three episodes in the history of the insurgency to support our argument and to illustrate that the changes witnessed were not the result of ‘learning’ but of a fundamental shift in the international environment

Conceptualising peace and its preconditions: the anti-Pelagian imagination and the critical turn in peace theory

This article examines the conceptualisation of peace and its preconditions manifested in the critical turn in peace theory: bottom-up approaches which begin with particular contexts and postulate diverse local actors as integral to the process of peace-building. This article argues that a turn is at an impasse and is unable to address the crucial charge that its conceptualization of peace is inconsistent. To explain the persistence of inconsistency and to move us forward, the article analyses, evaluates and responds to the turn through the lens of Nicholas Rengger’s work on the anti-Pelagian imagination in political theory. This is defined as a tendency to begin theorising from non-utopian, anti-perfectionist and sceptical assumptions. Through this examination the article argues that the critical turn is anti-Pelagian but not consistently so because it often gives way to perfectionism, adopts naïve readings of institutions and postulates demanding conceptions of political agency and practice. This inconsistency with its own philosophical premises makes the turn’s conceptualisation of peace and its preconditions incoherent. Finally, the article sketches an alternative account of peace which draws upon a number of anti-Pelagian scholars and mobilises Rengger’s particular defense of anti-Pelagianism. The suggested alternative, the article argues, provides us with a more coherent position and a way out of existing dead ends

Gender and security

This chapter examines issues of gender and security. It begins with an explanation of what we mean by gen-der and explains why issues of gender are central to understanding security. International Relations special-ists have over the last three decades explored and interpreted the ways in which men and women have re-sponded to the national and international policies which have governed conflict, terrorism, and war. The chapter demonstrates that through understanding and placing notions of gender at the centre of any debate on security we can unleash a series of interlocking understandings of the way men and women relate to in-security, violence, and war

Is the failed state thesis analytically useful? The case of Yemen

The failed state thesis has been a matter for discussion in the international relations academy for more than two decades. However, the soundness of this analytic framework has been questioned. This article critically engages this debate by examining the ability of the thesis to provide insight into the practice of statecraft in the case of Yemen. It argues that as a result of its rigid and Eurocentric approach, the failed state thesis is unable to recognise the strategies employed by states like Yemen to ensure their survival, which include the purposeful production of chaos

Silence, exit and the politics of piety: challenging logocentrism in political theory

This chapter rejects the reduction of the phenomenon of silence in political life to violence. I the first section of the chapter we trace the reductive conceptualisation and subsequent lack of theoreti-cal engagement with the phenomenon of silence, to the logocentric understanding of legitimacy de-veloped in Western political thought in response to the ontology of the unbound subject. The chap-ter juxtaposes works of feminist international political theory that provide problematic readings of silence, with the intentional practices of silence-as-exit, performed by Muslim women in the context of the resurgence of piety in Egypt, Turkey and beyond. In so doing, we aim to illustrate that the prevailing understanding of silence in political theory is bound by an equally particular hermeneutic horizon as that which informs Muslim women’s decision to exit the political. This allows us to highlight the importance of reconceptualising silence in general and silence-as-exit in particular, and to highlight the questions raised, specifically in relation to the issue of legitimacy and ethics, as a result

Silence, exit and the politics of piety: challenging logocentrism in political theory

This chapter rejects the reduction of the phenomenon of silence in political life to violence. I the first section of the chapter we trace the reductive conceptualisation and subsequent lack of theoreti-cal engagement with the phenomenon of silence, to the logocentric understanding of legitimacy de-veloped in Western political thought in response to the ontology of the unbound subject. The chap-ter juxtaposes works of feminist international political theory that provide problematic readings of silence, with the intentional practices of silence-as-exit, performed by Muslim women in the context of the resurgence of piety in Egypt, Turkey and beyond. In so doing, we aim to illustrate that the prevailing understanding of silence in political theory is bound by an equally particular hermeneutic horizon as that which informs Muslim women’s decision to exit the political. This allows us to highlight the importance of reconceptualising silence in general and silence-as-exit in particular, and to highlight the questions raised, specifically in relation to the issue of legitimacy and ethics, as a result

Gender and security

This chapter examines issues of gender and security. It begins with an explanation of what we mean by gen-der and explains why issues of gender are central to understanding security. International Relations special-ists have over the last three decades explored and interpreted the ways in which men and women have re-sponded to the national and international policies which have governed conflict, terrorism, and war. The chapter demonstrates that through understanding and placing notions of gender at the centre of any debate on security we can unleash a series of interlocking understandings of the way men and women relate to in-security, violence, and war

Political silences, an introduction

In 2018, numerous political silences loudly vy for our attention and response. From Emma Gonzales’s 3 minutes of silence as part of her address at the March for Our Lives to Trump’s attempts to silence the investigation into his campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia, along with the continuing revelations articulated by silence-breakers of sexual harassment strewn throughout, there are indeed multiple meanings and functions of political silence - all of which intersect at the nexus of power and agency. This introductory chapter sets out the volume’s conceptualisation of political silence(s) as productive expression(s) of agency, which it juxtaposes with existing works on the subject. The introduction also identifies the way in which the remaining chapters study political silence(s) and provides the reader with a roadmap to the volume which includes a diverse collection of interdisciplinary studies into the various ways silence, power and agency intersect in the realms of: environmental politics, diplomacy, digital privacy, radical politics, the politics of piety, commemoration, international organization and international law, among others

Political silences, an introduction

In 2018, numerous political silences loudly vy for our attention and response. From Emma Gonzales’s 3 minutes of silence as part of her address at the March for Our Lives to Trump’s attempts to silence the investigation into his campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia, along with the continuing revelations articulated by silence-breakers of sexual harassment strewn throughout, there are indeed multiple meanings and functions of political silence - all of which intersect at the nexus of power and agency. This introductory chapter sets out the volume’s conceptualisation of political silence(s) as productive expression(s) of agency, which it juxtaposes with existing works on the subject. The introduction also identifies the way in which the remaining chapters study political silence(s) and provides the reader with a roadmap to the volume which includes a diverse collection of interdisciplinary studies into the various ways silence, power and agency intersect in the realms of: environmental politics, diplomacy, digital privacy, radical politics, the politics of piety, commemoration, international organization and international law, among others