The Library
Forgetting ISIS : enmity, drive and repetition in security discourse
Tools
Tools
Tools
Heath-Kelly, Charlotte (2018) Forgetting ISIS : enmity, drive and repetition in security discourse. Critical Studies on Security, 6 (1). pp. 85-99. doi:10.1080/21624887.2017.1407595 ISSN 2162-4887.
|
PDF
WRAP-forgetting-ISIS-enmity-drive-security-Heath-Kelly-2017.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (760Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21624887.2017.1407595
Abstract
This paper explores the reconstitution and repetition of threat imaginaries in security discourse, with particular focus on the War on Terror era. Upon vanquishing the enemy (whether an individual militant or militant group) no tangible increase in ‘security’ is claimed by securitising actors. Instead, the security apparatus turns away and reconstructs the figuration of insecurity elsewhere. Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and ISIS replace each other as signifiers for the most profound threat to international order. The article positions this compulsive refiguration of enemies within an aversion to attaining a state of ‘security’. The paper uses psychoanalytic concepts of drive and jouissance to argue that security imaginaries play out fantasies of insecurity to suture the symbiotic relationship between subjectivity and power. If enmity was permanently ended or victory attained, society would need to confront the continued experience of ‘lack’ (ontological insecurity) – something promised to disappear upon the resolution of hostilities. The fantasy of interpellation would collapse at this point. The article contributes to Critical Security Studies by explicitly addressing the repetitive constitution of terrorist threats. It goes beyond constructivist understandings of othering to explain why the resolution of insecurity is disavowed and why enmity is continually restaged
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare J Political Science > JA Political science (General) J Political Science > JX International law U Military Science > U Military Science (General) K Law [Moys] > KC International Law |
||||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Terrorism, National security, Communication in politics, Fear--Political aspects., Communication--Political aspects, Hostility (Psychology) | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Critical Studies on Security | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Routledge | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 2162-4887 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | 2018 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
|
||||||||
| Volume: | 6 | ||||||||
| Number: | 1 | ||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 85-99 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1080/21624887.2017.1407595 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 26 October 2017 | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 22 November 2018 | ||||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
|
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year
