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Militarism and its limits : Sociological insights on security assemblages in the Sahel

Title data

Frowd, Philippe M. ; Sandor, Adam:
Militarism and its limits : Sociological insights on security assemblages in the Sahel.
In: Security Dialogue. Vol. 49 (2018) Issue 1-2 . - pp. 70-82.
ISSN 1460-3640
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010617739534

Abstract in another language

This article assesses the concepts of militarism and militarization in relation to contemporary security interventions in the Sahel, a region increasingly understood through the prisms of violence, cross-border illicit flows, and limited statehood. This region is subject to security interventions that include French military action, EU-funded projects to prevent drug trafficking, and both bilateral and multilateral efforts against irregular migration. To many observers, it is experiencing an ongoing militarization. We argue that while the inextricable concepts of militarism and militarization go some way towards explaining interventions’ occasional use of military violence, they are limited in their grasp of the non-martial and symbolic violence in security practices. We instead propose a focus on assemblages of (in)security to show the heterogeneous mix of global and local actors, and often contradictory rationalities and practices that shape the logics of symbolic and martial violence in the region. Throughout, the article draws on the authors’ fieldwork in Mauritania, Senegal, and Niger, and includes two case studies on efforts against the Sahel’s ‘crime–terror nexus’ and to control irregular migration through the region. The article’s contribution is to better situate debates about militarism and militarization in relation to (in)security and to provide a more granular understanding of the Sahel’s security politics.

Further data

Item Type: Article in a journal
Refereed: Yes
Institutions of the University: Faculties
Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies
Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies > Chair Sociology of Africa
Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies > Chair Sociology of Africa > Chair Sociology of Africa - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jana Hönke
Result of work at the UBT: No
DDC Subjects: 300 Social sciences
300 Social sciences > 320 Political science
Date Deposited: 24 Nov 2022 10:26
Last Modified: 24 Nov 2022 10:26
URI: https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/72885