Requiem for Risk SRO.pdf (785.36 kB)
Requiem for risk: non-knowledge and domination in the governance of weapons circulation
Analyses of risk in international political sociology and critical security studies have unpicked its operation as a preventive and pre-emptive political technology. This article examines the counter-case of the governance of weapons circulation, in which risk has been mobilised as a permissive technology. Examining UK arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the war in Yemen, I demonstrate how risk assessment constitutes a regime of recklessness in which risk is made not to matter in three main ways: systematic not-knowing about international humanitarian law violations; unintentional harm and practices of reputation management; and future-proofing the inherent temporality of risk. I argue that risk has served to facilitate arms exports despite the potential for harm: it has been mobilised as a mode of domination. This does not suggest a failure of risk as a governance strategy or a contradiction in its operation, however. Rather, it illustrates the generative character of risk as a regulatory technology in contexts marked by asymmetrical power dynamics. If the potential for domination is built in to the operation of risk, we need a requiem for risk and a search for alternative grounds of repoliticisation that can generate more adequate modes of regulation and accountability.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
International Political SociologyISSN
1749-5679Publisher
Oxford University PressExternal DOI
Department affiliated with
- International Development Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Sussex Centre for Conflict and Security Research Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2019-11-25First Open Access (FOA) Date
2021-12-21First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2019-12-05Usage metrics
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