Workshop on Aid, Security and Civil Society in the Post-911 Context

AID, SECURITY AND CIVIL SOCIETYIN THE POST-911 CONTEXT

Announcement of an international workshop to be held from June 28-29th,2007,

at Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Square, London

Political leaders around the world have introduced a swathe of counter-terrorist legislation and measures in the wake of the declaration by President Bush of the ‘global war on terror’. Often hastily rushed in, these laws and measures are often riddled with ambiguity and have fuelled a climate of fear and suspicion of `the other’. The circulation of a global discourse of terrorism has demonised certain sections of society, particularly Muslims, as somehow associated by default of their religion with the acts of a few individuals. In the field of development the global war on terror has highlighted the strategic relevance of foreign aid to both national interests and global security at a time when its ideological rationale in the post-Cold War era had almost disappeared.Though there has rightly been considerable concern expressed about the effects of such rushed and extra-ordinary legislation and measures on civil liberties and citizen rights, their effects on the spaces, organisations and actors of civil society have received much less attention.

This two-day workshop will explore how the increasing convergence of security and development objectives since 911 affects civil societies across a range of political contexts.Confirmed speakers at the workshop include:

• Mark Sidel, University of Iowa: Resistance, compliance, alliance and self-regulation: non-profit sectorresponses to counter-terrorism law and policy in the US
• Nancy Billica, Urgent Action Fund: Philanthropy and post-911 policy five years out: a changing reality for global civil society activism
• Pat Noxolo, Coventry University: Riding, re-focusing, challenging: UK-based NGOs and the politics of security around immigration and asylum post 9/11
• Alex Colas, Birbeck College: An exceptional response? Security and civil society in Spanish policy after 11-M
• Jonathan Benthall, University College London: The current crisis for Islamic charities
• Jude Howell and Jeremy Lind, London School of Economics: Aid, security and civil society in Afghanistan
• Stuart Gordon, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst: Abandoning the Human Security Agenda? Counting the Cost in Iraq and Afghanistan?
• Jeremy Keenan, University of Bristol: How to play the counter-terrorism card without terrorism
• Sarah Lischer, Wake Forest University: Armed social work in the Horn of Africa
• Jeremy Lind and Jude Howell, London School of Economics: Security and subterfuge: aid, civil society and the state in Kenya
• Masooda Bano, University of Oxford: Madrassas in Pakistan and the war on terror

Interested participants are kindly requested to indicate their interest in attending by May 25th 2007 to . Spaces are limited to one participant per institution.

Support from Atlantic Philanthropies as well as the Economic and Social Research Council through the Non-Governmental Public Action research programme is gratefully acknowledged.