Security policies and the production of insecurity

On December 3rd, the first meeting of the Working Group " Security Policies and Production of Insecurity " was held virtually. This group seeks to analyze, from a comparative, critical, historical, situated, and geopolitical perspective, the security policies and the production of insecurity in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Arab World.

The formation of the Group is promoted by the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), the Arab Council of Social Sciences (ACSS), the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) and Security In Context (SiC) and is made up of researchers from both regions linked to the four institutions.

This joint Working Group aims to comparatively analyze the development, implementation, and impact of security policies in both regions, starting from the consolidation of neoliberalism as the hegemonic economic, social, and political model. In this sense, it is assumed that geopolitical positioning has led these policies to promote the current escalation of violence and conflict, often fueled by authoritarian or regressive governments. To this end, the social, cultural, political, and territorial dimensions in which the impacts of policies that "promote insecurity" manifest themselves in both regions will be analyzed.

The proposal is that the research work should have an impact on the specific realities of both regions. To achieve this, efforts will focus on promoting localized alternatives to security policies, aimed at fostering peace and social justice, while also strengthening South-South cooperation and dialogue.

At the meeting held on December 3, 2020, it was also highlighted that the formation of this working space is a long-term project whose central objectives are to carry out bibliographic productions, workshops and joint public activities that promote and enhance inter and transdisciplinary work for a multidimensional and comprehensive approach to the subject.

During the CLACSO 2021 Conference to be held in Mexico in November 2021, the first productions of this Group will be presented.

The following individuals participated in the first constitutive meeting of this Group: Omar Dahi (Security in Context), Alejandro Velasco (NACLA), Pablo Vommaro (CLACSO), Jana Chammaa (ACSS), Pablo E. Angarita (University of Antioquia, CLACSO), Agustina Sol Sanchez (CLACSO), Fernando Camacho Padilla (Autonomous University of Madrid, Contemporary History), Amal Eqeiq (Williams College), Andrea Vizcaíno (Colegio de México, CLACSO), José Vicente Tavares dos Santos (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, CLACSO), Leandro Gamallo (University of Buenos Aires, CLACSO), Omar Imseeh Tesdell (Birzeit University), Seteney Shami (ACSS), Shimaa Seihat Hatab (Cairo University), and Jonathan Jones (SiC). As the meeting was multilingual, Marina Pou and Claudia Baffy served as interpreters.