Volume 1 (No 1-2)

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Browsing Volume 1 (No 1-2) by Subject "authoritarianism"
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    The ‘mantra of stability’ versus human security in the post-Soviet space
    (Global Campus, 2017-12) Avetisyan, Sos ; Abrahamyan, Vahan ; Chobanyan, Marianna ; Lyabuk, Kostantyn ; Nabi, Walaga
    This article provides an understanding of current human security challenges in the post-Soviet space. Cognisant that such studies are rare, we hope to provide a stepping stone for further theoretical and empirical research. Drawing on comparative case studies of Armenia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, the article argues that while securitisation techniques deployed by authoritarian and/or semi-authoritarian regimes vary in scope, degree and targeting, they share two important commonalities with the overarching aim of ensuring regime endurance. First, the exogenous threats, whether real and/or willfully constructed by the ruling regimes, provide a convenient context in the Balzaquian sense to construct effective securitisation acts. Closely related to the first point, the external environment and internal deliberation by ruling elites fuel a specific narrative-constructing strategy of illiberal state-building ideology, which normalises anti-human rights policies in the specific countries. Concurrently, we problematise the traditionalist approach and treat the ‘audience’ as a monolithic and passive entity. Making use of Bourbeau and Vuori's work on resilience, we demonstrate that securitisation is not a straightforward bottom-up process, but also is filtered through societal resistance. Key words: human security; securitisation; democratisation; illiberal statebuilding
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    Securitisation versus citizenship in the Balkan states: Populist and authoritarian misuses of security threats and civic responses
    (Global Campus, 2017-12) Krasteva, Anna ; Vladisavljević, Nebojša
    The objective of this article is threefold: to identify the main security threats in the post-conflict and (post)-crisis Balkans; to analyse the emergence and strengthening of authoritarian and far-right tendencies as both a response and catalyst to securitarian policies and politics, as well as their variation across the region; and to examine the capacity of civil society to produce alternative discourses and mobilise resistance through various forms of civic activism and popular protest. The analysis is structured in three parts. The first part introduces three country cases – Bulgaria (mainstreaming of populist securitisation); Macedonia (ethnic securitisation in a deeply-divided society); and Serbia (democratic backsliding and populist authoritarianism). The three case studies reveal an important variation in the dynamics and outcomes of a broader populist and authoritarian trend that swept across the region. The three countries illustrate various types of civic resistance and contestatory citizenship. The two other parts are comparative: They enlarge the countries’ coverage and identify major regional trends from two perspectives: populist and authoritarian misuses of security threats and authoritarian trends; and emergence and diversification of forms of citizenship as expression of civic resilience. Nationalist, populist and authoritarian politics have moved from the periphery of the political scene to the mainstream. The trend takes a paradoxical form: on the one hand, a promotion of the EU agenda and regional co-operation; on the other hand, securitisation, construction of political opponents, ethnic, religious and cultural Others, and civic activists as threats to national security and national identity. The civic resistance and human rights responses to populist authoritarianism and mainstreamed securitisation are analysed through the theoretical lenses of citizenship. It expresses the transition from the engineering project of building civil society in post-communist countries to the emergence of new forms of civic agency. Three types of citizenship are studied comparatively – green, contestatory, and solidary. Key words: securitisation; authoritarianism; populism; citizenship; civic mobilisations; Bulgaria; Macedonia; Serbia; the Balkans; South-Eastern Europe
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    Selected developments in human rights and democratisation during 2015: Middle East
    (Global Campus, 2017-01) Lahoud Tatar, Carine
    This contribution aims at providing a synthetic analysis of the process of political changes which has been driving and continues to drive a wave of unrest across the Middle East. It presents a slightly different understanding of Arab uprisings by dividing the ongoing process into three different phases: During the first period, namely, in the pre-revolutionary context, a set of socio- economic and political factors mutually reinforcing Arab discontent will lead to mass mobilisation. Subsequently the revolutionary momentum will pave the way for a second phase, the instant outcomes of Arab upheaval, in particular the toppling of authoritarian regimes and the call for free elections won by Islamist groups. Finally, the third and last stage, namely, the demobilisation process, will lead to the current situation of disintegration and chaos that is prevailing in some countries, the exacerbation of the sectarian rift and the return of a new authoritarianism as a result of counter-