Book Review: Development, Security And Unending War

Themes and Arguments

We live in a profoundly interconnected world, and any international instability is bound to send the effects even to the most distant places. It is the interconnectivity that demands higher stability in the different regions of the world. The world relies on both security and development. Mark Duffield in his book “Development, Security and Unending War: Governing the World of Peoples” (Duffield 2007, p.) questions the conventional wisdom and advocates the new wave of humanitarian and peace policies.  Duffield’s latest book makes essential contribution not only to discussions related to global expansion but also those regarding current conversions in global security, and politics (Voelkner 2010, p.210).

The paper makes a review of the books and focuses on the core themes, the central arguments and the evidence given. It would be interesting to know how is the book positioned amidst the more extensive literature and what are its strengths and limitation.

The main themes and arguments in the book focus on international insecurity. As a leading theorist, Duffield in his book develops the themes of his earlier works on inter-state wars and moves to the source of international insecurity. He argues that as human security and insecurity is like a permanent and never-ending war. International relations reflect the human security and interconnecting security and development concerns” (Duffield 2007, p. 118). Human insecurity can lead to problems of global instability and often, the West has to interfere and manage international relations and insecurity at the same time. The themes which recur throughout his book focus on the conservative comprehension of national fiscal development, examination of the biopolitical solutions, the worldwide inhibition of the developed and underdeveloped along with the possibilities of resistance (Kirkup. 2008, p. 1557). Duffield traces a lineage of the relations between development and by framing the human needs biopolitically. He emphasizes on the level of sovereignty as one crucial distinction and how independence relies on the state ‘effectiveness’. International financial institutions and donors work within the fragile state to combat poverty under the protection of shared partnership. The author argues that the resultant the integration of development and security is a diverse object from the postcolonial states where the sovereign rights carried the responsibility to lead the development.

Security and Unending War is positioned well concerning the broader literature. The author and his work and passages have been mentioned in other works and reviews. McCormack (2011, p. 235) discusses the idea of human security and how it presents a radical challenge. The author mentions how human security is understood as a regulatory power by Duffield and other authors (McCormack 2011, p. 242). Human security is an arena of power, growth and knowledge. Duffield aims to create self-managing and self-sustainable development and human security in the Third World. Kutz (2016, p.1), mentions in his book how we live in an era of democratic wars and violent conflicts take place in the name of peace. He examines the moral justifications behind the wars in his thought provocating book. Spear. & Williams (2012, p 7) too emphasize the nexus between security and development. There is a synergetic association that exists between security, stability, human security, and development.

Position in Literature

Duffield founds his arguments by criticizing the Western humanitarian interventionism that polices the international relations and securities rather than letting them develop sustainably. He offers case studies from Mozambique, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia as evidence when he examines the NGO movements and humanitarian intervention. He comments upon the Western interventions to be biopolitical, and there is nothing advanced in the biopolitical bordering of security. The development gap with the West and the lack of self-reliance keep the world in a flux of an unending war (Chandler 2008). There is a considerable national and international level literature on how to end violent conflicts. The developmental policies in conflict associated areas cannot dissociate from social, economic and political transformations (Justino, Brück & Verwimp 2013, p. 33). He provides evidence on the background of the shifting associations with NGOs and the demolition of culture in Mozambique. The opposing economic differentiation and re-emergence of social cohesion, war, and natural economy are discussed in his book. His study of development is case-study-rich and the study as liberal security allows him to develop a stimulating assessment of the development politics. From his viewpoint, liberal ideals hide the dogged will to accomplish the destabilizing effects related to poverty and underdevelopment. According to Duffield, the development manages undeveloped life in the deficiency of insurance-based wellbeing technologies. In practice, the re-modulation of sovereignty and development interventions only help maintain the non-insured life and do not overcome the gap between developed and undeveloped life (Voelkner 2010, p.210).

As the policy implications, Duffield suggests that the only alternative is to acknowledge that “we are all governed and therefore in solidarity’ (p. 232). Thus, he suggests that we are all victims of governing mentalism and rejects the modernized ambitions towards democracy.  Duffield discusses how neoliberal thinking has changed our outlook towards human security and sustainable development. Ideas of progress have been displaced with the notions of adjusting to international terrain and policies. The absurdity of the information age is that there is limited knowledge of the underdeveloped world and ignorance of the actual conditions (Theory Talks 2011). Inappropriate economic and foreign policies define humanitarian aid and international assistance.  Duffield assets that the ultimate aim is self-reliance based upon an open-minded framework for state-citizen relations that are empowered through social-political choices rather than disciplined externally (Daigle 2010, p. 34). Duffield makes an almost schematic intelligible study of capitalism and unending war, and his text is precise and dense (Complex Emergencies by David Keen Development 2009, p.579) He directs the attention of the reader towards his in-depth analysis on the functionality of war. He focuses on the subject of western peace interventionism and humanitarian during the post-Cold War era. Duffield offers a disturbing critique of development based on Foucault’s concept of ‘biopolitics’ (Complex Emergencies by David Keen Development 2009, p.594)

Evidence

What is most insightful about the book is how Duffield turns down the cosmopolitan vision of the world in his book which counterpoints the more optimistic and liberal internationalist approaches. He offers his views on the consequences of the liberation after the Cold War and challenges the conventional wisdom. He provides the consequences of liberal internationalism based on the case studies drawn from Mozambique, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia. He makes a critical analysis of humanitarian intervention, NGO movement, sustainable development, and the people-centered technology of the West. The book is indeed an eye-opener for the scholars of philanthropic intervention and safety studies. Duffield’s examination of modern development procedures in global politics points to the failure of the national/international dichotomy. The state organizations appear to be working as per the biopolitically knowledgeable political strategies to secure insured life externally (Voelkner 2010, p.212).

Duffield’s work criticizes the liberal society, and his engagement of Hannah Arendt and Giorgio Agamben provide the base for political and economic abstractions (Kirkup. 2008, p. 1557). Duffield’s research aims to bridge the theoretical gap between security and development. He explores new work while extending his prior work on Michel Foucault’s concept of biopolitics. He applies Foucault to question the global political economy and international relations (Kirkup. 2008, p. 1557).  Duffield’s foremost dispute is that development is not what it seems to be and in a globalized world, it operates to monitor the destabilizing effects of the underdevelopment (Kirkup. 2008, p. 1557). He makes a convincing explanation of the liberal dominion in the background of development. He distinguishes between sovereignty over life and sovereignty over the territory. He makes use of philosophies by Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben to understand sovereignty (Voelkner 2010, p.211).

Duffield’s widespread employment of Foucauldian terminology and biopolitics carries both positive and negative aspects. He is successful in introducing the Foucault’s approach and biopolitics. Foucault’s biopolitics offers a substantial conceptual outline to explain the nexus of development and security (Kirkup. 2008, p. 1558). On the drawbacks, Duffield has used Foucauldian exclusively in his language that leaves the readers wondering if he is more attentive to the particulars of biopolitics or in the development and security interconnections.
Conclusion

Mark Duffield’s researches on the relationship between security and development in his book” “Development, Security and Unending War: Governing the World of Peoples.” The author emphasizes how the biopolitical interventions form the West to reconstruct failing sites and support their populations creates a biopolitical partition between the developed and the underdeveloped. In the name of security, the world is getting divided, and the developing divisions and insecurities threaten to destabilize the world. Duffield traces the development during the ColdWar and the development NGOs. His views on the move from state safety to human uncertainty might carry differences with others, but his locus of assessment on the global solidarity and the growing global insecurity can be seen as an essential neoliberal attempt to control the bio-political order on the world in the post-colonial time. The overlapping sectors of negotiable state and non-state sovereignty is overruling the inside and outside divide.

Duffield, M. 2007, Development, Security and Unending War: Governing the World of Peoples. Polity, 11(11), pp. 1-266.

Kutz, C. 2016, On War and Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. [Online]  Available at:
https://lib-proxy.sunywcc.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1075248&site=eds-live (Accessed: 23 September 2018).

Kirkup, A. 2008, Development, Security and Unending War: Governing the World of Peoples, Routledge, Abingdon.

McCormack, T.2011. Human security and the separation of security and development. Security & Development, 11(2), pp. 235-260.

Chandler, D. 2008, Keeping Humanity Secure? spiked Ltd [Online] available from: https://www.spiked-online.com/review_of_books/article/4368#.W6eIZGgzaM8 [Accessed 23 Sep 2018].

Spear, J. & Williams, P.D. 2012, Security and Development in Global Politics: A Critical Comparison. Georgetown University Press, 1(1), pp. 1-352.

Justino, P., Brück, T. & Verwimp, P. 2013, A Micro-Level Perspective on the Dynamics of Conflict, Violence, and Development. Business & Economics, 1(1), p. 11-342.

Theory Talk, 2011, Mark Duffield on Human (In)security, Liberal Interventionism and Fortified Aid Compounds. Theory Talks [Online] available from: https://www.theory-talks.org/2011/07/theory-talk-41.html [Accessed 23 Sep 2018].

Daigle, M., 2010, Securitization, conditionality, accountability: Building Our. International Public Policy Review, 6(1), pp. 30-39.

‘Complex Emergencies by David Keen Development, Security and Unending War: Governing the World of Peoples by Mark Duffield’ ,2009, Development & Change, 40(3), pp. 593–595.

Voelkner, N. 2010, ‘A review of Development, Security and Unending War: Governing the World of Peoples’, King’s Law Journal, 21(1), pp. 210–212.