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Peacekeeping, Emma Norman

Emma R. Norman

Reader’s Guide

This chapter introduces peacekeeping as one of the most urgent and crucial phases of conflict resolution and as a concept and a practice on which consensus is difficult to find. The disagreements start with how to define it, they permeate the soundness of its main principles and continue right up to what types of missions should be included, how many functions can be integrated into a mission and how to evaluate their success or failure. Acknowledging the disagreement and resulting confusion in all these areas, this chapter aims to develop a working command of some of the increasingly …

Superfluousness, Human Rights And The State: Applying Arendt To Questions Of Femicide, Narco Violence And Illegal Immigration In A Globalized World, Emma Norman

Emma R. Norman

This paper shows how Hannah Arendt’s disturbing notion of superfluousness and her critique of human rights are highly applicable to the problems globalization has brought to the U.S.-Mexico border region and beyond, with worrying consequences. In theory, ‘inalienable’ human rights form a safety net to catch those whose governments fail to afford them political rights. But, as Arendt pointed out, such minimum rights only function if one’s state is willing and able to guarantee them. For her, stateless persons are deprived of both a territory and of occupying a ‘niche in the framework of the general law.’ They are thus …

International Boggarts: Carl Schmitt, Harry Potter And The Transfiguration Of Identity, Emma R. Norman

Emma R. Norman

Of all the magical monsters in Harry Potter, boggarts are interesting both for the narrative function they perform, and for how they emphasize the complex relation between identity and violence in international politics. In this paper I show that the Potter series illuminates how globalization has transfigured our conceptions of collective identity and violence—to the point where conventionally accepted theories of international relations are having trouble dealing with them. Boggarts arouse our deepest fears, and amorphously shape-shift according to those fears. Consequently, no one knows what a boggart really looks like—adding to our insecurities. The parallels with contemporary international relations …

"Applying Carl Schmitt To Global Puzzles: Identity, Conflict And The Friend/Enemy Antithesis,", Emma R. Norman

Emma R. Norman

This paper demonstrates the broad appeal and usefulness of the political and legal thought of Carl Schmitt to scholars of international relations by applying his seminal friend-enemy antithesis to current global problems as well as to current IR theories used to negotiate them. I argue that Schmitt’s contemporary appeal lies, first, in his insistence that collective identity is necessarily formed through conflict (enmity); and second, that identity lies at the very base of what motivates behavior on the international stage (at the sub-national, national and transnational levels). By implication, Schmitt’s theories offer some fresh insights into the sources and nature …

Violence And Deprivation: Arendt And The Pervasiveness Of Superfluous Life, Emma Norman

Emma R. Norman

This paper emerges from, and engages with, the current proliferation of discussions concerning Arendt’s views on sovereignty, humanity, and superfluousness. Tracing some of the different strands of her notion of human superfluousness, I look at how the exclusion and deprivation inherent in the idea of superfluousness is reflected in, and illuminated by, contemporary questions surrounding stateless persons, and several key experiences of terrorism. I argue that the strong and radical connections this notion has with Arendt´s concept of violence deserve more emphasis than it has hitherto received. For the link between superfluousness and the biopolitical ‘administration of bare lives’ undertaken …

Justice And Justification In The War On Terrorism, Emma Norman

Emma R. Norman

This paper offers a few preliminary reflections on some ethical implications stemming from the disconnect between the moral rhetoric and the reality of the War on Terrorism. I suggest that the Bush Administration certainly shares a large part of the responsibility for constantly attempting to justify a war that, by the standards of traditional just war theory, is almost impossible to see as just. However, I also suggest that part of the responsibility lies with a public that demands high ethical standards of its public officials, but appears to be ultimately unprepared to face the full consequences of acting ethically …