Event overview
Tarak Barkawi discusses the global politics of “small wars” as an entry point to the event series Understanding Armed Resistance at the Centre for Postcolonial Studies.
Prof Tarak Barkawi (LSE) will discuss how so-called “small wars” entangle the histories of metropolitan and peripheral societies in explosive and unpredictable ways.
The identity of the West is curiously invested in particular visions of the weak, the colonized and the under-developed, against which a rational, powerful, humane and world-leading West is defined. These investments can go violently astray when the “weak” take up arms effectively. Orientalist framings misperceive such conflicts, contributing to flawed strategies leading to military reverse. When defeat occurs, even a small war can upend Western identity relations, generating energies for cultural and political challenge and change at home and abroad.
Tarak Barkawi is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics. He is a prominent postcolonial theorists and historian of war and empire. His scholarship uses interdisciplinary approaches to imperial and military archives to re-imagine relations between war, armed forces and society in modern times. His last book, Soldiers of Empire, examined the multicultural armies of British Asia in the Second World War, reconceiving Indian and British soldiers in cosmopolitan rather than national terms.
Prof Barkawi’s lecture will provide for a critical entry point for developing a postcolonial approach to the study of armed resistance in the Global South as part of a wider public lecture and discussion series on Understanding Armed Resistance at the Centre for Postcolonial Studies.
Dates & times
Date | Time | Add to calendar |
---|---|---|
29 Jan 2019 | 5:30pm - 7:00pm |
Accessibility
If you are attending an event and need the College to help with any mobility requirements you may have, please contact the event organiser in advance to ensure we can accommodate your needs.