The question of development and the rise of the development industry in the second half of the twentieth century present a major focus of interest for the study of security. These links may be ongoing and discreet – as in the perpetuation of food crises or the emergent concerns over access to water – or they may be acute – drawn together around particular events and culminating in civil wars and international intervention. Examining the geo-political economy of organized violence in relation to development concerns will include consideration of the ‘local’ causes of war and how these interact with wider processes of development (including issues of resource competition, state formation and processes of democratisation). It will examine how these local causes are connected to wider international processes such as the geo-political interests of state and non-state actors. It will also involve considering how discourses of security may often enact a violence of their own and how this violence may be geographically uneven.

Staff in this area

Dodge, Kiely, Mabee, Owens, Saraswati, Saull, Reid-Henry