Finding the Right Translation for “Peace” in a Land of War

Francoise Vergès

doi:10.2298/FID2503653V

Authors

Francoise Vergès Sarah Parker Centre, UCL

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2298/FID2503653V

Keywords:

feminism, state, surveillance, decolonialism

Abstract

This article explores the capture of the notion of “protection” by the State and its institutions – police, army, and the law – and its weaponization by carceral feminism. It means first studying how the terms “war” and “peace” have been weaponized by imperialism and the State, then addressing antiracist, anti-patriarchal, anti-imperialist and feminist decolonial politics of protection. In other words, how discourses about war and peace, and their implementations, have been deployed to justify a protection that rests on the criminalization and incarceration of those who dissent, on military interventions, creation of armed militia, legitimation of police violence, militarization of public space, and surveillance.

References

AIDA. 2023. “Differential Treatment of Specific Nationalities in the Procedure.” https://asylumineurope.org/reports/country/poland/asylum-procedure/ differential-treatment-specific-nationalities-procedure/ (last accessed: November 18, 2024).

Davis, Angela. 2005. Abolition Democracy. Beyond Empire, Prisons and Torture. New York. Seven Stories Press.

Dorlin, Elsa. 2019. “Les féminicides sont l’expression ultime d’un continuum de pouvoir.” Les Inrocks. www.lesinrocks.com/2019/12/31/actualite/societe/2019- vue-par-la-philosophe-elsa-dorlin-les-femicides-sont-lexpression-ultime- dun-continuum-de-pouvoir/ (last accessed: November 18, 2024).

ECRE. February 17, 2023. “EU Eastern Borders: More Deaths at Poland Belarus Border as reports of Pushbacks, Detention and Crack-Down on Solidarity Continue.” https://ecre.org/eu-eastern-borders-more-deaths-at-poland- belarus-border-as-reports-of-pushbacks-detention-and-crack-down-on- solidarity-continue-council-of-europe-concerned-over-pushbacks-and-criminalisation-in-lat/ (last accessed: November 18, 2024).

Esposito, Addie. 2022. “The Limitations of Humanity : Differential Refugee Treatment in the EU.” Harvard International Review, https://hir.harvard.edu/ the-limitations-of-humanity-differential-refugee-treatment-in-the-eu/ (last accessed: November 18, 2024).

Euronews. July 7, 2022. “Poland completes 186-kilometers border wall with Belarus after migration-dispute.” https://www.euronews.com/2022/06/30/poland- completes-186-kilometre-border-wall-with-belarus-after-migration-dispute (last accessed: November 18, 2024).

Ghervas, Stella. 2023. “Le pouvoir de la paix en Europe,” Collège de France. https:// www.college-de-france.fr/fr/agenda/conferencier-invite/le-pouvoir-de-la-paix-en-europe (last accessed: November 18, 2024).

Human Rights Watch. June 7, 2022. “Violence and Pushbacks at Poland-Belarus border.” https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/07/violence-and-pushbacks-poland-belarus-border (last accessed: November 18, 2024).

Lacy, Rodrigo Bueno and Henk van Houtum. 2022. “The proximity trap: how geography is misused in the differential treatment of Ukrainian refugees to hide for the underlying global apartheid in the EUropean border regime.” ASILE Forums, https://www.asileproject.eu/the-proximity-trap-how-geography-is- misused-in-the-differential-treatment-of-ukrainian-refugees-to-hide-for-the- underlying-global-apartheid-in-the-european-border-regime/ (last accessed: November 18, 2024).

Limbong, Andrew. 2022. “Why Ukrainians are being treated differently than refugees from other countries.” https://www.npr.org/2022/02/28/1083580981/why- ukrainians-are-being-treated-differently-than-refugees-from-other-countries (last accessed: November 18, 2024).

Luxembourg, Rosa. 1911. “Peace Utopias,” work reprinted in a shorter form in Die Internationale, January 1926. A translation of the latter piece was made in The Labour Monthly, July 1926, pp.: 421–428. https://www.marxists.org/archive/ luxemburg/1911/05/11.html (last accessed: November 18, 2024).

Luxembourg, Rosa. 1915. “The Junius Pamphlet.” https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1915/junius/ch08.html (last accessed: November 18, 2024).

OECD. 2014. “Is migration really increasing?” https://www.oecd.org/berlin/Is- migration-really-increasing.pdf (last accessed: November 18, 2024).

Park, Jeanne. 2015. “Europe’s Migration Crisis,” Council on Foreign Relations, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/europes-migration-crisis (last accessed: November 18, 2024).

Ratecka, Anna. 2023. “Ukrainian Refugees in Poland: The Festival of Help and the Government’s Reluctance to Act.” Faculty of Law Blogs, University of Oxford, https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/ centreborder-criminologies/blog/2022/03/ukrainian (last accessed: November 18, 2024).

SciencesPo. 2023. “L’Europe fait-elle la paix? La paix fait-elle l’Europe? 1945-2023.” Round Table. https://www.sciencespo.fr/histoire/fr/actualites/leurope-fait- elle-la-paix-la-paix-fait-elle-leurope-1945-2023.html (last accessed: November 18, 2024).

Valcárcel, Amaya. June 2, 2022. “Out of Sight- Refugees and Migrants at the Belarus- Poland border.” Reliefweb, https://reliefweb.int/report/belarus/out-sight- refugees-and-migrants-belarus-poland-border (last accessed: November 18, 2024).