Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Relinquishing and Governing the Volatile: The Many Afghanistans and Critical Research Agendas of NATO's Governance

Savi?, Bojan (2013) Relinquishing and Governing the Volatile: The Many Afghanistans and Critical Research Agendas of NATO's Governance. Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs and Applied Contemporary Thought, 3 (1). pp. 136-143. ISSN 2043-7897. (doi:10.1080/23269995.2013.805579) (KAR id:50217)

Abstract

This article invites academics and policy analysts to examine the mechanisms and legacy of NATO's security and development governance of Afghan social spaces by using critical theory concepts. It argues that such scholarly endeavors are growing in importance as the United States and NATO gradually pull their troops out of Afghanistan. Thus, the article suggests a broad twofold research agenda. First, it points out that researching social spaces such as towns, villages, marketplaces, and neighborhoods beyond the realm of intergovernmental politics can lead to thick descriptions of how such places have been governed from within by agents external to them. Second, the study argues for a multifaceted examination of instruments, strategies, and institutions of security governance, its conduct and social effects by deploying critical and Foucauldian concepts such as the rationality and apparatuses of power relations. Thereby, it proposes an inquiry into Provincial Reconstruction Teams and Afghan National Security Forces as spatially and temporally specific apparatuses of surveillance and security.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1080/23269995.2013.805579
Uncontrolled keywords: NATO, security and development governance, critical theory, Provincial Reconstruction Teams, Herat
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation
J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
J Political Science > JZ International relations
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Politics and International Relations
Depositing User: Bojan Savic
Date Deposited: 19 Aug 2015 12:28 UTC
Last Modified: 21 Aug 2023 09:21 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/50217 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.