Compare and critically review the following three articles on militarism/militarisation.

Abrahamsen, Rita (2018), ‘Return of the generals? Global militarism in Africa from the Cold War to the present,’Security Dialogue 49(1-2): 19-31.

Frowd, Philippe M and Adam J Sandor (2018), ‘Militarism and its limits: Sociological insights on security assemblages in the Sahel,’Security Dialogue 49(1-2): 70-82.

Howell, Alison (2018), “Forget ‘militarization’: race, disability and the ‘martial politics’ of the police and of the university”, International Feminist Journal of Politics 20(2): 117-136.

Write a 2000 word review essay for an international relations journal. Review essays are not the same as a book review. They critically assess and engage with one or more texts and bring in other sources (for example to support a weakness identified or to place a piece in relation to a wider debate). They will also usually articulate what this text or group of texts contributes to a particular political or academic debate.  

A review essay needs to include the following:

  • A good summary of the articles and/or books under review, especially their key arguments.
  • What you learned from them that you think is important for readers to know, in particular contributions to your understanding of war and the specific topic discussed, and key political, conceptual, and/or policy issues that the authors introduce.
  • Shortcomings of or weaknesses in the analysis and/or the argument.
  • Overall evaluation of the contribution the articles and/or books make for our understanding of war and the specific topic.
  • You also need to consult at least two other academic sources (that are listed below) and include them substantively, i.e. supporting your review, in the essay. The module reading list is a great resource for this.

Additional sources:

Satia, Priya (2014), “Drones: A History from the British Middle East,” Humanity 5(1): 1-31

Barkawi, T (2006), Globalization and War, Lanham, MD: Rowan and Littlefield, chap. 2.

Black, J. (1998), War and the World: Military Power and the Fate of Continents: 1450-2000, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Holsti, K.J. (1991), Peace and War: Armed Conflicts and International Order, 1648-1989, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Howard, M. (1977), ‘The Wars of the Technologists’, in War in European History, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kennedy, P. (1988), The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, London: Fontana.

Sheehan, Michael, ‘The Evolution of Modern Warfare’, in Baylis, Strategy in the Contemporary World.

Barkawi, T. (2016), ‘Decolonising war’, European Journal of International Security 1(2): 199-214.

W.E.B. Du Bois (1915) ‘The African Roots of War’ The Atlantic May 1915.

Barkawi, T (2006), ‘Culture and Combat in the Colonies: The Indian Army in the Second World War’, Journal of Contemporary History 41(2): 325-355

Bayly C and T Harper (2005), Forgotten Armies: Britain’s Asian Empire and the War with Japan, London: Penguin.

Go, J (2013), ‘For a postcolonial sociology’, Theory and Society 42(1): 25-55.

Khalili, L. (2013), Time in the shadows: confinement in counterinsurgencies, Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Kilingray D (2010), Fighting for Britain: African Soldiers in the Second World War, Woodbridge: James Currey

Malešević, S. 2010, ‘The Social Geographies of Warfare’, in The Sociology of War and Violence, chap. 5. 

Porter, P. (2009), Military Orientalism: Eastern War through Western Eyes, London: Hurst.

Westad OA (2007), The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Douglas Porch (2011) ‘The dangerous myths and dubious promise of COIN’ Small Wars & Insurgencies 22(2): 239-257.

Emil Souleimanov (2015) ‘An ethnography of counterinsurgency: kadyrovtsy and Russia’s policy of Chechenization’ Post-Soviet Affairs 31(2): 91-114.

Tarak Barkawi and Shane Brighton (2011) ‘Powers of War: Fighting, Knowledge and Critique’ International Political Sociology  5(2): 126-143.

Tarak Barkawi and Mark Laffey (2006) ‘The Postcolonial Moment in Security Studies’ Review of International Studies 32 (4):329-352.

Roberto J. Gonzalez (2008) ‘Human terrain: Past, present and future applications’ Anthropology Today 24 (1):21-6.

Whitney Kassel (2015) ‘The army needs anthropologists’ In Foreign Policy. 25 July. http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/28/the-army-needs-anthropologists-iraq-afghanistanhuman-terrain/

Patricia Owens (2015) Economy of Force: Counterinsurgency and the Historical Rise of the Social Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nicola Perugini (2008) ‘Anthropologists at war: ethnographic intelligence and counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan’ International Political Anthropology 1 (2):213-27.

Tassadit Yacine (2004) ‘Pierre Bourdieu in Algeria at warNotes on the birth of an engaged ethnosociology’ Ethnography  5(4): 487-509.

Laleh Khalili (2010) ‘Gendered practices of counterinsurgency’ Review of International Studies 37(4): 1471-1491.

FURTHER READING:

Duncanson, C.  and R. Woodward (2016), ‘Regendering the military: Theorizing women’s military participation’, Security Dialogue 47(1): 3-21.

Elshtain, J.B. (1995), Women and War, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Enloe, C. (2000), Maneuvers, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Goldstein, J. (2001), War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hutchings, K. (2008), ‘Making Sense of Masculinity and War’, Men and Masculinities, 10(4): 389-404.

King, A. (2016), ‘The Female Combat Soldier’, European Journal of International Relations 22(1) 122-143.

Sjoberg, L. (2013), ‘Gendered Tactics’, Gendering global conflict: toward a feminist theory of war, Columbia University Press, New York, chap. 8.

Whitworth, S. (2007), Men, Militarism and UN Peacekeeping: a gendered analysis, Boulder CO.: Lynne Rienner.

Wibben, Annick TR (2018), “Why we need to study (US) militarism: A critical feminist lens,” Security Dialogue 49(1-2): 136-148.

Caren Kaplan (2016) ‘Mobility and War: The Cosmic View of US ‘Air Power’ Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 38(2): 395-407.

Chamayou, G. (2015), Drone Theory, trans. Janet Lloyd, London: Penguin, chaps. 6 and 18.

Cohen, ‘Technology and Warfare’, in Baylis, et al. (eds), Strategy in the Contemporary World.

Hirst, P. (2001), War and Power in the 21st Century, Cambridge: Polity Press, chap. 1.

Parker, G. (1988), The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500-1800, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Benjamin, M. (2013), Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control, London: Verso.

Gregory, D. (2011), ‘From a View to a Kill: Drones and Late Modern War’, Theory, Culture & Society 28(7-8): 188-215.

Krepinevich, Andrew F. (1994) ‘Cavalry to Computer: The Pattern of Military Revolutions’ The National Interest  37: 30-42.

Kreps, S and Kaag, J (2012), ‘The Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Contemporary Conflict: A Legal and Ethical Analysis’, Polity 44(2): 260-285.

Julian Go (2020) ‘The Imperial Origins of American Policing: Militarization and Imperial Feedback in the Early 20th Century’ American Journal of Sociology: Pp. 1193-1221

Camp, J. and Heatherton, C., eds. (2016) Policing the Planet. London: Verso.

Mbembe, Achille (2003), ‘Necropolitics’, Translated by Libby Meintjes, Public Inquiry 15(1): 11-40.

Neocleous, M. (2014) War Power Police Power. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Shaw, Ian. (2016) Predator Empire: Drone Warfare and Full Spectrum Dominance. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Singh, N.P. (2017) Race and America’s Long War. Oakland: University of California Press. Didier

Fassin (2007) ‘Humanitarianism as a Politics of Life’ Public Culture 19(3): 499-520.

Asad, Talal (2010) “Thinking about terrorism and just war,” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 23(1): 3-24.

Beerli, Monique (2018) ‘Saving the Saviours? Security Practices and Professional Struggles in the Humanitarian Space’ International Political Sociology  12(1): 70-87.

Carpenter, R.C. (2003), ‘Women and Children First: gender norms and humanitarian intervention in the Balkans 1991-1995’, International Organization 57(4): 661-694.

Hehir, A. (2010), Humanitarian Intervention: An Introduction, London: Routledge.

Hehir, A. (2013), ‘The Permanence of Inconsistency: Libya, The Security Council and the Responsibility to Protect’, International Security, vol. 38, no. 1: pp. 137-159.


ICISS, The Responsibility to Protect: Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (Ottawa: International Development Research Centre, 2001).

Morris, J. (2013), ‘Libya and Syria: R2P and the Spectre of the Swinging Pendulum’, International Affairs 89(5): 1265-1283.

Moses, J. (2013) ‘Sovereignty as Irresponsibility? A Realist Critique of the Responsibility to Protect’, Review of International Studies 39(1): 113-135.

Weizman, E. (2012), The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza, London: Verso.

Wheeler, N.J. (2000), Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Moses, J. (2013) ‘Sovereignty as Irresponsibility? A Realist Critique of the Responsibility to Protect’, Review of International Studies 39(1): 113-135.

Weizman, E. (2012), The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza, London: Verso.

Wheeler, N.J. (2000), Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Craig Jones (2016) ‘Lawfare and the juridification of late modern war’ Progress in Human Geography 40(2): 221-239. 

Shane Reeves (2019) Developing the Law of Armed Conflict 70 Years after the Geneva Conventions Lawfare 7 August

Arendt, Hannah (1972), ‘On Violence’, in Crises of the Republic, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.


Clausewitz, C. von (1976 [1832]), On War, ed. and trans. by Michael Howard and Peter Paret, abridged ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Fanon, F. (1965), The Wretched of the Earth, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Finlay, C.J. 2009, “Hannah Arendt’s Critique of Violence”, Thesis Eleven, vol. 97, no. 1, pp. 26-45. 


Gallie, W.B. (1978), Philosophers of Peace and War, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gat, A. (2001), A History of Military Thought, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Elspeth Guild, Didier Bigo, Mark Gibney (2018) Extraordinary Rendition: Addressing the Challenges of Accountability London: Roudledge.

Irani, Freya (2018), “’Lawfare’, US military discourse, and the colonial constitution of law and war,” European Journal of International Security 3(1): 113-133.

Jones, Craig A. (2015), ‘Frames of law: targeting advice and operational law in the Israeli military,’ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 33(4): 676-696.

Kennedy, David (2006) Of Law and War  Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Morris, ‘Law, Politics and the Use of Force’, in Baylis et al. (eds), Strategy in the Contemporary World.

Strachan, H. (2007), Clausewitz’s On War, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.

Mirko Palestrino (2012) ‘Inking Wartime: Military Tattoos and the Temporalities of the War Experience’ International Political Sociology 16(3): 226-245.

Basham VM (2016) Raising an Army: The Geopolitics of Militarizing the Lives of Working-Class Boys in an Age of Austerity. International Political Sociology 10(3): 258–274.

Berghahn VR (1984) Militarism: The History of an International Debate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Edgerton, D (1991) Liberal Militarism and the British State, New Left Review 185:138-169.

Mabee, Bryan and Srdjan Vucetic (2018), ‘Varieties of militarism: Towards a typology,”Security Dialogue 49(1-2): 96-108

Mabee, B and Vucetic, S (2017), Militarism in the Age of Trump, Parts I and II. The Disorder of Things. https://thedisorderofthings.com/2017/03/17/militarism-in-the-age-of-trump-part-i/

Mann M (1987) The roots and contradictions of militarism. New Left Review 162: 35-50.

Neocleous M (2014) War power, police power. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Stavrianakis A and Selby J (2012) Militarism and International Relations in the Twenty-first Century. In Stavrianakis A and Selby J (eds) Militarism and International Relations: Political Economy, Security, Theory. London: Routledge.

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