The Security Archipelago: Human-Security States, Sexuality Politics, and the End of Neoliberalism

by Paul Amar

In The Security Archipelago , Paul Amar provides an alternative historical and theoretical framing of the refashioning of free-market states and the rise of humanitarian security regimes in the Global South by examining the pivotal, trendsetting cases of Brazil and Egypt. Addressing gaps in the study of neoliberalism and biopolitics, Amar describes how coercive security operations and cultural rescue campaigns confronting waves of resistance have appropriated progressive, antimarket discourses around morality, sexuality, and labor. The products of these struggles—including powerful new police practices, religious politics, sexuality identifications, and gender normativities—have traveled across an archipelago, a metaphorical island chain of what the global security industry calls "hot spots." Homing in on Cairo and Rio de Janeiro, Amar reveals the innovative resistances and unexpected alliances that have coalesced in new polities emerging from the Arab Spring and South America's Pink Tide. These have generated a shared modern governance model that he terms the "human-security state."

Genres: Theory, Queer

328 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Sara Salem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read, especially the sections on gender.

[Brinlie Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really insightful.

[KM Rose · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is so disorganized, verbose and disjointed. Amar tries very hard to connect two independent cases together, Brazil and Egypt, and it just doesn't work. Also, he claims that his theory is a new revolutionary theory, the idea of a human security state and using sexuality politics, but this is age old and has been done throughout history. Further, his assertion that it is the end of neo-liberalism is an huge leap, and really without evidence.