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In recent times, the Blue Berets have become markers of peace and security around the globe. Yet, the iconoclastic symbol of both the Blue Beret and the Blue Helmet continue to engage the international political imagination in ways that downplay the inconsistent effects of peacekeeping missions on the security of local people.In this book, Paul Higate and Marsha Henry develop critical perspectives on UN and NATO peacekeeping, arguing that these forms of international intervention are framed by the exercise of power. Their analysis of peacekeeping, based on fieldwork conducted in Haiti, Liberia and Kosovo, suggests that peacekeeping reconfigures former conflict zones in ways that shape perceptions of security. This reconfiguration of space is enacted by peacekeeping personnel who ''perform'' security through their daily professional and personal practices, sometimes with unanticipated effects.Insecure Spaces'' interdisciplinary analysis sheds great light on the contradictory mix of security and insecurity that peace operations create.>
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Acronyms & Abbreviations
Introduction
1. From Conflict to Peacekeeping: Haiti, Kosovo & Liberia
2. Space, Power and Peace
3. Zones and Enclaves
4. Free to Move?
5. Contesting and Consuming: Space and Success in Liberia
6. Performing Spaces of Security
7. Stereotyping Performance: Peacekeeping and Imagined Identities
8. Women, Men and Gender Space
Conclusion - Locating Power in Peacekeeping: Unintended Consequences and Beyond
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Paul Higate is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Bristol. Prior to that, he spent eight years in the Royal Air Force, before becoming involved in critical military sociology. Since then, his academic research has focused on various aspects of the gendered culture of the military. In his future work he plans to look at how the militarization of military sociology in recent years means that it has lost its critical edge.
Marsha Henry is a Lecturer in the Politics Department at the University of Bristol. Her research has looked at various aspects of gender in South Asia, focusing on connections between the 'developed' and 'developing' worlds. Her recent research examines gender relations and perceptions of security in peacekeeping missions.
