CANS 406 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Protection Racket, Collateral Damage, Socalled
22 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Rethinking Security
-States with high levels of gender equality display lower levels of aggression (less likely to resort
to force first)
-This pattern holds in internal and inter-state conflict
-The physical security of women strongly associated with:
-Peacefulness of the state
-Degree to which the state is of concern to the international community
-Quality of relations between the state and its neighbors (Hudson)
-Policy implications of this kind of work:
-Promoting equality to address peace and conflict concerns
-An “account of security that does not take into account gender-based violence is an
impoverished account of security…to both understand and promote national and international
security, scholars and policymakers cannot overlook the situation and treatment of women”
(Hudson)
-Peterson: World security impeded by system of state sovereignty (this is our traditional way of
looking at security)
-Claim of the state to have a monopoly over the legitimate use of force in a territory has erased
other ways of looking at political identities
-The pursuit of security on a global stage is impeded by state sovereignty discourse
-Peterson: national security is a contradiction in terms because states create a protection racket
(racketeering, creating conflict themselves)
-Women’s systematic insecurity is an internal and external dimension of the state system
-We can no longer assume the centrality of the state
-Peterson: states have become gendered and entrenched particular patterns of domination
-States facilitate the institutionalization of particular systems of legitimacy, justification,
authority
-Peterson: States have a lot of power in constituting power relations – between genders and
races, etc.
-Monopoly over violence gives them power to sustain these relations
-The centralized, primary organizer of gender power is the state
-Exerts legitimate violence, defines illegitimate power
-Institutionalizes and reproduces legitimation of social hierarchy
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
-Peterson draws on Charles Tilly, who defines a racketeer as someone who creates a threat and
then charges to reduce it
-Protection: “exchange of obedience/subordination for promises of security”
-The state is a pervasive source of insecurity for women and yet remains “so acceptable, so
apolitical, so natural”
-State promises to protect:
-Citizens from each other
-Privacy rights – but state creates a divide between private and the public
-Property rights
-Protecting citizens from external threats
-Justification of the state as provider of protection is very appealing because everyone needs
protection
-Racketeers create threats, and then charge to reduce it – state-making, war-making are
“quintessential protection rackets”
-This is part of how states conduct themselves – we have few options for security other than the
state
-The apparent gains can mask the actual costs:
-Systematic dependencies, perpetuation of structural violence (capitalism, environmental
destruction)
-Obscuring of collective interest in system transformation (citizens become preoccupied
with maintaining what they have, perpetuating the idea of competition for scarce
security)
-Entrenches non-participatory dynamics, non-accountability of protectees
-Protected/protector roles follow masculine/feminine roles
-Peterson: we have a lot to gain in terms of re-visioning security, and looking at security as
inter-dependency
-Morgenthau credited as one of the main founders of realism and the idea of making IR more of
a scientific discipline
-Tickner’s goal is to challenge the assumption that states are unitary actors in an anarchic
world – says Morgenthau’s conclusions are the result of a masculine perspective and is
incomplete
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
States with high levels of gender equality display lower levels of aggression (less likely to resort to force first) This pattern holds in internal and inter-state conflict. The physical security of women strongly associated with: Degree to which the state is of concern to the international community. Quality of relations between the state and its neighbors (hudson) Promoting equality to address peace and conflict concerns. An account of security that does not take into account gender-based violence is an impoverished account of security to both understand and promote national and international security, scholars and policymakers cannot overlook the situation and treatment of women (hudson) Peterson: world security impeded by system of state sovereignty (this is our traditional way of looking at security) Claim of the state to have a monopoly over the legitimate use of force in a territory has erased other ways of looking at political identities.
