The drug dispositif: ambivalent materiality and the addiction of the global drug prohibition regime

Eva Herschinger

doi:10.1177/0967010614552544

The drug dispositif: ambivalent materiality and the addiction of the global drug prohibition regime

Eva Herschinger

Politics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

International relations and critical security studies are increasingly including the role of materiality in the study of security practices, inquiring into how objects act as both threat and /or endangered referent. However, objects of ‘dual-use’ – that is, objects that are not only threatening or in need of protection but also beneficial or pleasurable to the human collective – figure less prominently. Drugs are such an ambivalent matter: beneficial in the context of medicine and at the same time threatening in the context of crime. Mobilizing the concept of the dispositif, this article questions how drugs and addiction materialize in the practices of the global drug prohibition regime. I argue that the ambivalence of the material object ‘drug’ is the condition of possibility of the regime. The regime as an epitome of the ‘drug dispositif’ illustrates how ambivalent objects give rise to expanding security practices and specific power relations, highlighting how (critical) security analyses could profit from greater awareness of ambivalent matters.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	183-201
Number of pages	19
Journal	Security Dialogue
Volume	46
Issue number	2
Early online date	8 Apr 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010614552544
Publication status	Published - Apr 2015

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
While writing this article, I have benefited enormously from many illuminating conversations with Claudia Aradau, Martin Coward, Owen Thomas and Nadine Voelkner, members of the ‘Discourse and Materialities Method-Cluster’ of the International Collaboratory on Critical Methods in Security Studies (ICCM), and from discussions with all other ICCM members at the different workshops of the Collaboratory. Information on the ICCM can be found at http://www8.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/iccm/. I would also like to thank Caroline Holmqvist and the attendees of the panel ‘Material Insecurities II: Securing Space and Place’ at the Millennium Annual Conference 2012 for their comments, the anonymous reviewers of Security Dialogue for their helpful
comments, and Frank Sauer for his generous intellectual engagement and instructive remarks on earlier versions of this article.

Funding
Parts of this research have been generously supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Keywords

critical security studies
dispositif
drugs
international relations
materiality
prohibition regime

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1177/0967010614552544Licence: Unspecified

Cite this

@article{24410f355f604e63b979a17efdf15577,

title = "The drug dispositif: ambivalent materiality and the addiction of the global drug prohibition regime",

abstract = "International relations and critical security studies are increasingly including the role of materiality in the study of security practices, inquiring into how objects act as both threat and /or endangered referent. However, objects of {\textquoteleft}dual-use{\textquoteright} – that is, objects that are not only threatening or in need of protection but also beneficial or pleasurable to the human collective – figure less prominently. Drugs are such an ambivalent matter: beneficial in the context of medicine and at the same time threatening in the context of crime. Mobilizing the concept of the dispositif, this article questions how drugs and addiction materialize in the practices of the global drug prohibition regime. I argue that the ambivalence of the material object {\textquoteleft}drug{\textquoteright} is the condition of possibility of the regime. The regime as an epitome of the {\textquoteleft}drug dispositif{\textquoteright} illustrates how ambivalent objects give rise to expanding security practices and specific power relations, highlighting how (critical) security analyses could profit from greater awareness of ambivalent matters.",

keywords = "critical security studies, dispositif , drugs, international relations , materiality, prohibition regime",

author = "Eva Herschinger",

note = "Acknowledgements While writing this article, I have benefited enormously from many illuminating conversations with Claudia Aradau, Martin Coward, Owen Thomas and Nadine Voelkner, members of the {\textquoteleft}Discourse and Materialities Method-Cluster{\textquoteright} of the International Collaboratory on Critical Methods in Security Studies (ICCM), and from discussions with all other ICCM members at the different workshops of the Collaboratory. Information on the ICCM can be found at http://www8.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/iccm/. I would also like to thank Caroline Holmqvist and the attendees of the panel {\textquoteleft}Material Insecurities II: Securing Space and Place{\textquoteright} at the Millennium Annual Conference 2012 for their comments, the anonymous reviewers of Security Dialogue for their helpful comments, and Frank Sauer for his generous intellectual engagement and instructive remarks on earlier versions of this article. Funding Parts of this research have been generously supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.",

year = "2015",

month = apr,

doi = "10.1177/0967010614552544",

language = "English",

volume = "46",

pages = "183--201",

journal = "Security Dialogue",

issn = "0967-0106",

publisher = "SAGE Publications Ltd",

number = "2",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - The drug dispositif

T2 - ambivalent materiality and the addiction of the global drug prohibition regime

AU - Herschinger, Eva

N1 - Acknowledgements While writing this article, I have benefited enormously from many illuminating conversations with Claudia Aradau, Martin Coward, Owen Thomas and Nadine Voelkner, members of the ‘Discourse and Materialities Method-Cluster’ of the International Collaboratory on Critical Methods in Security Studies (ICCM), and from discussions with all other ICCM members at the different workshops of the Collaboratory. Information on the ICCM can be found at http://www8.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/iccm/. I would also like to thank Caroline Holmqvist and the attendees of the panel ‘Material Insecurities II: Securing Space and Place’ at the Millennium Annual Conference 2012 for their comments, the anonymous reviewers of Security Dialogue for their helpful comments, and Frank Sauer for his generous intellectual engagement and instructive remarks on earlier versions of this article. Funding Parts of this research have been generously supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

PY - 2015/4

Y1 - 2015/4

N2 - International relations and critical security studies are increasingly including the role of materiality in the study of security practices, inquiring into how objects act as both threat and /or endangered referent. However, objects of ‘dual-use’ – that is, objects that are not only threatening or in need of protection but also beneficial or pleasurable to the human collective – figure less prominently. Drugs are such an ambivalent matter: beneficial in the context of medicine and at the same time threatening in the context of crime. Mobilizing the concept of the dispositif, this article questions how drugs and addiction materialize in the practices of the global drug prohibition regime. I argue that the ambivalence of the material object ‘drug’ is the condition of possibility of the regime. The regime as an epitome of the ‘drug dispositif’ illustrates how ambivalent objects give rise to expanding security practices and specific power relations, highlighting how (critical) security analyses could profit from greater awareness of ambivalent matters.

AB - International relations and critical security studies are increasingly including the role of materiality in the study of security practices, inquiring into how objects act as both threat and /or endangered referent. However, objects of ‘dual-use’ – that is, objects that are not only threatening or in need of protection but also beneficial or pleasurable to the human collective – figure less prominently. Drugs are such an ambivalent matter: beneficial in the context of medicine and at the same time threatening in the context of crime. Mobilizing the concept of the dispositif, this article questions how drugs and addiction materialize in the practices of the global drug prohibition regime. I argue that the ambivalence of the material object ‘drug’ is the condition of possibility of the regime. The regime as an epitome of the ‘drug dispositif’ illustrates how ambivalent objects give rise to expanding security practices and specific power relations, highlighting how (critical) security analyses could profit from greater awareness of ambivalent matters.

KW - critical security studies

KW - dispositif

KW - drugs

KW - international relations

KW - materiality

KW - prohibition regime

U2 - 10.1177/0967010614552544

DO - 10.1177/0967010614552544

M3 - Article

SN - 0967-0106

VL - 46

SP - 183

EP - 201

JO - Security Dialogue

JF - Security Dialogue

IS - 2

ER -

The drug dispositif: ambivalent materiality and the addiction of the global drug prohibition regime

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this