Grenzziehungen von „Zivilisation“, Nationalstaat und Geschlecht. Militärische Aufstandsbekämpfung an Straßensperren in Südthailand

Abstract

Schlüsselwörter: Aufstandsbekämpfung, Geschlecht, postkoloniale Analyse, Südthailand

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Gendered Practices of Counterinsurgency at Checkpoints in Southern Thailand.

Abstract

The author uses the example of checkpoints to discuss the gendered  dynamics of counterinsurgency in southern Thailand. Conceptually, she argues for broadening the Foucauldian concept of ‘policing’ to include  postcolonial and feminist readings of the nation-state. She thereby  suggests that the productivity of counterinsurgency practices should be  comprehended as demarcating the gendered boundaries of nation-state  order, which also operates to differentiate the ‘civilised’ nation-state from ‘uncivilised’ insurgent violence. In her empirical discussion, she shows that soldiers, who are often themselves put in very vulnerable and ambiguous positions, use checkpoint controls to maintain gendered hierarchies that are historically grounded in the formation of the Thai nation-state vis-à-vis  its ‘Malay-Muslim’ provinces. In rationalising insurgent violence, soldiers thereby produce young Malay-Muslim men as ‘uncivilised’ and  effeminised victims of indoctrination, drug abuse, and poverty – a  construction that denies their political agency and legitimises the military mission as a ‘civilised’ endeavour. The author ends by proposing that a stronger focus on the politics of affect could be mobilised to further  conceive of military masculinities beyond stereotypical ‘martial’ forms.

Keywords: counterinsurgency, gender, postcolonial analysis, southern Thailand

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Bibliographie: Streicher, Ruth: Grenzziehungen von „Zivilisation“, Nationalstaat und Geschlecht. Militärische Aufstandsbekämpfung an Straßensperren in Südthailand, PERIPHERIE, 1-2014, S. 26-45.
https://doi.org/10.3224/peripherie.v34i133.22461