Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world

Past Event
Seminar

Securing the State in Post-Soviet Eurasia: Power, Discourses of Danger, and Non-State Entities

Open to the Public

Ondrej Ditrych's presentation will examine recurring themes in discourses of danger disseminated by governments in post-Soviet Eurasia. It will be assumed that the dominant role played by non-state entities (separatists, terrorists, bandits) in those discourses results primarily from incumbent elites' attempts to legitimize expanding political power and perpetuating "state of exception" to effect a "normal state" — e.g. of sovereignty over territory as delimited in dominant historical narratives — by eradicating these non-state others.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

Date: Time: - Location: Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369
Georgian soldiers check a car crossing at a check point on the road to Georgia's breakaway province South Ossetia, Nov. 10, 2006.

About

Ondrej Ditrych's presentation will examine recurring themes in discourses of danger disseminated by governments in post-Soviet Eurasia. It will be assumed that the dominant role played by non-state entities (separatists, terrorists, bandits) in those discourses results primarily from incumbent elites' attempts to legitimize expanding political power and perpetuating "state of exception" to effect a "normal state" — e.g. of sovereignty over territory as delimited in dominant historical narratives — by eradicating these non-state others. Manipulation in representation of their identities, e.g. rendering separatists as "terrorists", is a frequent feature of these narratives, as is the deliberate confusion between the state and the government. Building on the tenets of critical theory and Foucault's analysis of discourse, the paper presented employs a modified securitization theory to analyze security narratives in Republic of Georgia disseminated by successive governments by Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Eduard Shevardnadze, and Mikhail Saakashvili.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.