Papers by Eva Magdalena Stambøl
Aalborg Universitetsforlag, 2020
Chapter 3. Theoretical perspectives on power in north-south export of crime control .
Trends in Organized Crime
Africa has long been portrayed in international policy discourse as an epicentre of security prob... more Africa has long been portrayed in international policy discourse as an epicentre of security problems, which increasingly include that of transnational organized crime (hereafter: TOC) such as drug trafficking or migrant smuggling (Duffield 2013). According to this view, security and development in Africa are undermined by the conflict and violence fuelled by organized crime. Consequently, the imperative invoked by UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.4. to "combat all forms of organized crime" is understood to contribute to peace, security and development throughout the Global South (Blaustein et al. 2018). As straightforward and intuitive as this may seem, empirical studies from around the world have called this imperative and its basic assumption into question. It has been well-documented that 'wars on crime' are mostly ineffective and often harmful to local communities, economies and everexpanding prison populations (Bowling 2011; Felbab-Brown 2009; Franz 2016), while illicit economies do not have a straight causal arrow to violence and conflict but can even have stabilizing and developmental effects in conflict and high-level violence contexts (Bhatia 2021; Vigh 2012; Raineri and Strazzari, this issue). Some of this documentation regarding the problematic repercussions of orthodox anti-TOC policies that ostensibly fight 'the bad' is decades old yet seems to have little effect on the direction of international policy reformulation. The 60 years long global war on drugs is a case in point. Against this background, this special issue contributes towards a more critical understanding of TOC and the fight against it. The special issue's primary analytical focus is the sociology, politics and economy of the production of data, categories, narratives and discourses as well as policies and measures concerning TOC in the African context. The papers unpack, discuss and problematise the accuracy of the data used by official agencies (International Organisations, states) on which the fight
The chapter investigates how the historical intertwinement between colonialism, corporate interes... more The chapter investigates how the historical intertwinement between colonialism, corporate interests and policing is mirrored in the current ways that Europe attempts to control migration from West Africa. It first considers the role of public-private relationships and surveillance during and in the aftermath of French colonization. It then goes on to explore the case of Civipol, an agency specializing in the capacity-building of African countries' internal security co-owned by the French state and major European security companies, which has gained a prominent role as a main implementing partner of EU funds to control migration. Looking especially at Civipol's engagement in the building of national civil registries, it is argued that colonial continuities can be traced in present mobility policing, and that corporate interests coshape the securitization of Europe's relations with Africa.
Theoretical criminology, 2021
Outside of criminology, dominant conceptions of postcolonial statehood in the Global South as 'fr... more Outside of criminology, dominant conceptions of postcolonial statehood in the Global South as 'fragile' or 'failed' have long been criticized. In criminology, however, the theoretical outcomes of this critique have been scarce. In this article we therefore ask how ideals and practices of transnational criminal justice are informed by and productive of specific (Global North) conceptions of statehood. Exploring encounters between transnational and local criminal justice in the context of international state-building in Mali and Liberia, we observe frictions in which statehood divergences and global hierarchies become apparent. Through penal aid, we argue, a particular kind of penal statehood is produced wherein the options of how to perform penality are increasingly limited by the embeddedness in global power asymmetries.
Narkotika i de colombianske fredsforhandlingene
Projecting European Penal Power Beyond Europe: Humanitarian War on Migrant Smuggling in West Africa
Borders as penal transplants: Control of territory, mobility and illegality in West Africa
Theoretical Criminology
This article explores an increasingly significant trend in crime and mobility control that has re... more This article explores an increasingly significant trend in crime and mobility control that has received scant criminological attention: border externalization, specifically scrutinizing land border security-building by international actors in West Africa. Going beyond the usual focus on migration in border studies, it develops a criminologically grounded theorization of the border as a political technology of crime control and its relationship to the state. This is done by arguing that borders, theorized as ‘penal transplants’ embodying specific (western) visions of state, political power, social control/order and territoriality, are transformed and often distorted when performed in ‘heterarchical’ contexts in the global South. Further, empirically based concepts from ‘the periphery’ are suggested to enrich border criminology, broadening its geographical scope and spatial awareness.
Review of International Studies, 2021
The article constitutes the first comprehensive review of the EU's export of crime control polici... more The article constitutes the first comprehensive review of the EU's export of crime control policies and 'aid to internal security' across regions over the last 15 years. Drawing on both International Relations and criminology, it develops an analytical framework to identify the political rationalities and technologies of crime control that the EU attempts to transfer across the Eastern and Southern (extended) neighbourhoods. By scrutinising 216 projects aimed at combating transnational crime beyond Europe's borders, spanning law enforcement, border security, criminal justice, and the penitentiary sector, the empirical analysis is geared towards detecting and systematising the ways of thinking and doing crime control that the EU seeks to promote and export. Moreover, it investigates the 'action at a distance' whereby it does so. It is argued that in shaping third countries' ability to criminalise, police, indict, convict, and punish, the EU is simultaneously defining its own security actorness, specifically consolidating its role as a 'global crime fighter'.
Punishment & Society, 2021
The article explores the relevance of neo-colonial theory for criminology, and its contribution t... more The article explores the relevance of neo-colonial theory for criminology, and its contribution to understanding why and how penal policy and models travel from the global North to the global South. An empirical example is employed to review arguments for and against 'penal neo-colonialism' and to tease out the theory's strengths and limitations; namely the European Union's 'penal aid' to shape West African countries' penal policies and practices to stop illicit flows and irregular mobility to Europe. The article further discusses neo-colonial theory's concepts of agency, power and sovereignty by comparing them to similar poststructuralist perspectives on the 'contingent sovereignty' of 'governance states'. Moreover, by drawing on a theoretical discussion on statehood in African studies, it looks at how the sovereignty of African states has been conceptualized as hollowed out 'from above' as well as 'from below'. In doing so, the article contributes to a recent criminological debate that has problematized the relationship between (travelling) penal power and state sovereignty.
Theoretical Criminology, 2021
Outside of criminology, dominant conceptions of postcolonial statehood in the Global South as 'fr... more Outside of criminology, dominant conceptions of postcolonial statehood in the Global South as 'fragile' or 'failed' have long been criticized. In criminology, however, the theoretical outcomes of this critique have been scarce. In this article we therefore ask how ideals and practices of transnational criminal justice are informed by and productive of specific (Global North) conceptions of statehood. Exploring encounters between transnational and local criminal justice in the context of international state-building in Mali and Liberia, we observe frictions in which statehood divergences and global hierarchies become apparent. Through penal aid, we argue, a particular kind of penal statehood is produced wherein the options of how to perform penality are increasingly limited by the embeddedness in global power asymmetries.
European Foreign Affairs Review , 2019
This article explores the incremental role of criminalization and crime control in European Union... more This article explores the incremental role of criminalization and crime control in European Union (EU) foreign policy and external action. Protecting Europe from dangerous or unwanted mobility has come to drive the EU's relations with Africa. Consequently, the EU's liberal state-building agenda (promoting peace, democracy and human rights) seems to be increasingly accompanied or even sometimes supplanted by illiberal practices (criminalization, policing, surveillance, border security and militarization). Based on fieldwork in Niger, Mali and Senegal, the article investigates how West African countries' internal security apparatuses and borders are increasingly becoming a main target sector for European assistance. Yet scrutinizing policy implementation reveals that some European crime definitions and control models are locally resisted and contribute to greater insecurity by upsetting fragile micro-political stability. As such, the article problematizes the compatibility of European and African security, and argues for a collaborative engagement between Criminology and International Relations (IR) in analysing the EU's emerging global crime-fighting role.
While broad scholarly attention has been devoted to the securitization of migration in the ′EU's ... more While broad scholarly attention has been devoted to the securitization of migration in the ′EU's relations with neighboring countries, less attention has been given to the ways in which the EU is partnering with third countries to fight other central ′'unconventional security threats′' , such as terrorism and drug trafficking. This article traces the evolution of EU cooperation on these two issues with countries along the cocaine trafficking routes to Europe, i.e. Latin America and the Caribbean and West Africa. A mapping of EU initiatives and cooperation reveals that not only can a securitization of EU cooperation be observed in both regions, but various ′'unconventional security threats′' , perceived in geopolitical terms, seem increasingly to serve as drivers for EU external action. The modalities of EU support -through international and regional organizations as well as third countries' own counter-crime and counter-terrorism capabilities -suggest that the Union is fighting drug trafficking and terrorism ′'by proxy′' . The article discusses whether the ′'indirect′' EU approach is a strategy of efficient engagement, or rather a way of avoiding commitment while portraying itself as a ′'global crime fighter′' . Lastly, more analytical attention to third country interests, agency, and opposition is suggested in order for analyses to transcend the one-directional understanding of power seemingly underpinning the proxy concept.
IES Policy Brief, 2019
The pursuit of internal security objectives has become increasingly important in EU foreign polic... more The pursuit of internal security objectives has become increasingly important in EU foreign policy and external relations. The EU now invests a growing number of efforts towards fighting ‘security threats’ and transnational crime in the (extended) neighbourhood. This is particularly evident in the Sahel region of West Africa, where initiatives focusing on bolstering internal security apparatuses and borders are mushrooming. The question is whether the EU’s emerging role as a ‘global crime fighter’ contributes to fostering human security or satisfying the internal security priorities of the member states, and whether the two are at all compatible. A closer look at EU policies in the Sahel suggests that solutions based on criminalisation and repression can have harmful unintended consequences which can even destabilise the region.
The EU’s concern with the fragile states of Sahel is not new. This became evident already in 2011... more The EU’s concern with the fragile states of Sahel is not new. This became evident already in 2011 through the EU Strategy for Security and Development in the Sahel (EU 2011). The conflict that erupted in Mali in 2012 pushed the issue of the Sahel even higher on the agenda, and the migration crises of 2014/15 made the Sahel a concern of ‘high politics’ for Europe. As a result, the EU and other international stakeholders are increasingly involved on the ground in Mali and several other Sahel countries through Operational Serval and now Barkhane (France), MINUSMA (the United Nations) and the deployment of two EU police and military training missions. It is the latter two missions that constitute the main case studies in this report. They are the EU Capacity Building Mission (EUCAP Sahel Mali) and the EU Training Mission to Mali (EUTM). Despite the efforts of these international interventions, security in Mali is deteriorating, and the conflict has spread to the centre of the country. Central Mali is currently gripped by escalating insecurity, due to an increase in inter-communal conflicts, the proliferation of self-defence groups and non-state actors including violent extremist ‘jihadist’ groups and bandits. Consequently, 2017 has been the most violent year since the French intervention in 2013 (see Ba and Bøås 2017).
This paper offers a critical review of the EUTM and EUCAP in Mali, arguing that this is another example of international interventions that may be well-intended, but that end up producing very mixed results on the ground. One reason for this is the gaps between intentions and implementation and between implementation and local reception/perceptions. Whereas the first gap points to mismatches between EU policy intentions and what effect the implementation of these policies actually have (see for example Hill 1993), the latter gap reveals the inability of an international actor to both understand how key concepts such as ‘security sector reform’ and ‘border management’ are understood on the ground as well as translating its own policies and Brussels’ developed mandate into policies that makes sense for people on the ground (Cissé, Bøås, Kvamme and Dakouo 2017).
This paper will therefore assess the opportunities, limits and consequences of EU crisis response on the ground by studying the match or mismatch between the mandates and the practices in the field. The crisis responses examined are the EUTM, EUCAP as well as the
border management policies within the EU Trust Fund (EUTF). In doing so, we will investigate and evaluate the EU’s practices of ‘conflict sensitivity’ and their bottom–up considerations by describing its practices in engaging local actors (elites as much as affected communities) and evaluating the presence or absence of local ownership and the latter’s significance for the impact-effectiveness of EU policies.
This paper is based on review of documents and detailed fieldwork in Mali. Most of the interviews and meetings that forms the background for this work was conducted when most authors of this report were in the field in October and November 2017.
While broad scholarly attention has been devoted to the securitization of migration in the ′EU’s ... more While broad scholarly attention has been devoted to the securitization of migration in the ′EU’s relations with neighboring countries, less attention has been given to the ways in which the EU is partnering with third countries to fight other central ′‘unconventional security threats′’, such as terrorism and drug trafficking. This article traces the evolution of EU cooperation on these two issues with countries along the cocaine trafficking routes to Europe, i.e. Latin America and the Caribbean and West Africa. A mapping of EU initiatives and cooperation reveals that not only can a securitization of EU cooperation be observed in both regions, but various ′‘unconventional security threats′’, perceived in geopolitical terms, seem increasingly to serve as drivers for EU external action. The modalities of EU support – through international and regional organizations as well as third countries’ own counter-crime and counter-terrorism capabilities – suggest that the Union is fighting drug trafficking and terrorism ′‘by proxy′’. The article discusses whether the ′‘indirect′’ EU approach is a strategy of efficient engagement, or rather a way of avoiding commitment while portraying itself as a ′‘global crime fighter′’. Lastly, more analytical attention to third country interests, agency, and opposition is suggested in order for analyses to transcend the one-directional understanding of power seemingly underpinning the proxy concept.
Nothing about the recent Paris or Copenhagen terrorist attacks
was totally unexpected. Indeed, th... more Nothing about the recent Paris or Copenhagen terrorist attacks
was totally unexpected. Indeed, they were the sort of
thing that security apparatuses in Europe had been preparing
to have to deal with. Although security responses to terrorism
are traditionally considered a quintessential national
sovereignty prerogative, in the past ten to fifteen years the
recognition that highly asymmetric security threats respect
no borders has heightened the EU’s role as a coordinator in
this policy domain. Some claim that counter-terrorism has
changed the role and functioning of the EU itself towards
a more operational character in security matters. Both old
and new security responses to terrorism have (re-)emerged
on the agenda of the EU and its member states in the ‘post-
Paris attacks’ phase.
European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 2015
The logics of the European Union's policy and practices against narcotic drugs in Latin America a... more The logics of the European Union's policy and practices against narcotic drugs in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have undergone a substantial shift the past decade: from development to security. Based on an empirical mapping of the EU's drug-related projects in LAC, this article argues that an 'integrated and balanced' approach to drugs policy is being replaced by a bifurcation between the broader domains of development policy and security policy. Questions are raised as to how the EU's projects on development and security might counteract one another, and how the Union's programme aimed at dismantling transnational organized crime along the cocaine trafficking routes to Europe might have unintended consequences. While keeping in mind the shifting tectonics of the international drug prohibition consensus, the article goes on to analyze the increasingly salient security rationale in EU external drugs policy against the backdrop of the EU's emerging role as a global security actor. In doing so, it touches upon the intrinsic tensions between human rights and (supra) national security.
A quick overview of the past ten to fifteen years´ developments
in drugs policies in Europe revea... more A quick overview of the past ten to fifteen years´ developments
in drugs policies in Europe reveals two diverging
trends: a public health and social policy track on the one
hand, and a security policy track on the other. While as the
future of drugs policy as a political field in its own right is
being questioned in the European context, the EU has explicitly
stated its objective of a greater involvement and role
in international drugs policy. Apart from continuity in harm
reduction and research promotion – i.e., EU’s key contributions
to global drugs policy – EU support to larger and
deeper reconfigurations of the global drug prohibition regime
remains highly unlikely.
Menneskerettigheter og narkotikakontroll har lenge fungert som to separate og isolerte spor i FN-... more Menneskerettigheter og narkotikakontroll har lenge fungert som to separate og isolerte spor i FN-systemet. De siste årene har imidlertid dette skillet blitt kraftig kritisert av en stadig mer profesjonell, innflytelsesrik og verdensomspennende narkotikapolitisk reformbevegelse. Bevegelsen hevder at strukturene som blir iverksatt gjennom repressiv narkotikalovgivning- og politikk på internasjonalt nivå i praksis genererer menneskerettighetsbrudd. Kritikken har tvunget FN til å granske sin egen narkotikapolitikk i lys av menneskerettighetene, og de senere år har tydelige endringer funnet sted.
Articles & Chapters by Eva Magdalena Stambøl
Postcoloniality and Forced Migration. Mobility, Agency, Control, 2022
This introductory chapter explains how the book draws on postcolonial and decoloniality studies t... more This introductory chapter explains how the book draws on postcolonial and decoloniality studies to challenge exceptionalist narratives and Eurocentric epistemologies that underly the fields of refugee and forced migration studies. Scholarship from disciplines such as international relations, sociology, criminology, and political science often reveals a curious silence on the continuities of colonialism and historical legacies that inform contemporary refugee phenomena. Postcolonial and decolonial critiques, however, offer ways to move beyond certain dominating analytics of Western thinking and geographies about displacement – the nation-state, border control and humanitarianism. This chapter surveys several productive critiques from postcolonial scholarly engagement with the field of refugee and forced migration policy. Using postcolonial theoretical approaches, the volume as a whole interrogates how the control, securitization, policing and surveillance of mobility follows racialized and geopolitical patterns with colonial and historical roots. Contributors represent a variety of disciplines and employ a creative array of methodological and theoretical tools. Their work requires careful assemblage of social and political theory, historical archival research, and careful analysis to link those histories to the present. The Introduction ends with a brief synopsis of each of the book’s chapters.
Uploads
Papers by Eva Magdalena Stambøl
This paper offers a critical review of the EUTM and EUCAP in Mali, arguing that this is another example of international interventions that may be well-intended, but that end up producing very mixed results on the ground. One reason for this is the gaps between intentions and implementation and between implementation and local reception/perceptions. Whereas the first gap points to mismatches between EU policy intentions and what effect the implementation of these policies actually have (see for example Hill 1993), the latter gap reveals the inability of an international actor to both understand how key concepts such as ‘security sector reform’ and ‘border management’ are understood on the ground as well as translating its own policies and Brussels’ developed mandate into policies that makes sense for people on the ground (Cissé, Bøås, Kvamme and Dakouo 2017).
This paper will therefore assess the opportunities, limits and consequences of EU crisis response on the ground by studying the match or mismatch between the mandates and the practices in the field. The crisis responses examined are the EUTM, EUCAP as well as the
border management policies within the EU Trust Fund (EUTF). In doing so, we will investigate and evaluate the EU’s practices of ‘conflict sensitivity’ and their bottom–up considerations by describing its practices in engaging local actors (elites as much as affected communities) and evaluating the presence or absence of local ownership and the latter’s significance for the impact-effectiveness of EU policies.
This paper is based on review of documents and detailed fieldwork in Mali. Most of the interviews and meetings that forms the background for this work was conducted when most authors of this report were in the field in October and November 2017.
was totally unexpected. Indeed, they were the sort of
thing that security apparatuses in Europe had been preparing
to have to deal with. Although security responses to terrorism
are traditionally considered a quintessential national
sovereignty prerogative, in the past ten to fifteen years the
recognition that highly asymmetric security threats respect
no borders has heightened the EU’s role as a coordinator in
this policy domain. Some claim that counter-terrorism has
changed the role and functioning of the EU itself towards
a more operational character in security matters. Both old
and new security responses to terrorism have (re-)emerged
on the agenda of the EU and its member states in the ‘post-
Paris attacks’ phase.
in drugs policies in Europe reveals two diverging
trends: a public health and social policy track on the one
hand, and a security policy track on the other. While as the
future of drugs policy as a political field in its own right is
being questioned in the European context, the EU has explicitly
stated its objective of a greater involvement and role
in international drugs policy. Apart from continuity in harm
reduction and research promotion – i.e., EU’s key contributions
to global drugs policy – EU support to larger and
deeper reconfigurations of the global drug prohibition regime
remains highly unlikely.
Articles & Chapters by Eva Magdalena Stambøl