Research Article

Safe Area Theory and Practice: Security for Civilians or Creating New States of Exception during Humanitarian Crises?

Volume: 52 December 27, 2021
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Safe Area Theory and Practice: Security for Civilians or Creating New States of Exception during Humanitarian Crises?

Abstract

Drawing on the notion of “safe area” not only as a geographical but also a social construct, this article argues that the efforts of aiding civilians at risk through confining them to bordered areas increase the insecurities experienced both inside and outside of these areas by multiple actors. Exemplifying four cases – Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Syria – it revokes Agamben’s concept of homo sacer to display how the civilians are reduced to bare lives who are excluded from the political sphere and whose killing has been excluded from political and judicial scrutiny. A comparative study on the four situations indicates widening and deepening insecurities for the civilian populations who lose their manoeuvre capacity to respond to security threats and who become dependent particularly on external aid to survive. While revisiting the main causes of failure to protect civilians at risk during armed conflicts, the article suggests that safe areas should be treated as spatial domains with multiple actors holding competing concerns and interests, and encourages reconsideration of the implications of constructing confined spaces during humanitarian crises without full political and military commitment and liability.

Keywords

References

  1. Agamben, Giorgio, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1998.
  2. Agamben, Giorgio The State of Exception, Chicago, Chicago University Press, 2005.
  3. Akonor, Kwame, UN Peacekeeping in Africa: A Critical Examination and Recommendations for Improvement, Cham, Springer, 2017.
  4. Bellamy, Alex J., Williams, Paul D. and Griffin, Stuart, Understanding Peacekeeping, Cambridge, Polity, 2010.
  5. Bellamy, Alex J., Massacres and Morality: Mass Atrocities in an Age of Civilian Immunity, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012.
  6. Cook, David Noble, Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492-1650, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998.
  7. Curran, David, “More than Fighting for Peace”, Conflict Resolution, UN Peacekeeping, and the Role of Training Military Personnel, Cham, Springer, 2017.
  8. Çetinkaya, Lokman B., Safe Zone: A Response to Large-Scale Refugee Outflows and Human Suffering, Cham, Springer, 2017.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Political Science

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

December 27, 2021

Submission Date

October 3, 2021

Acceptance Date

October 20, 2021

Published in Issue

Year 2021 Volume: 52

APA
Turan, G. (2021). Safe Area Theory and Practice: Security for Civilians or Creating New States of Exception during Humanitarian Crises? The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations, 52, 37-60. https://izlik.org/JA45XC35XS
AMA
1.Turan G. Safe Area Theory and Practice: Security for Civilians or Creating New States of Exception during Humanitarian Crises? The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations. 2021;52:37-60. https://izlik.org/JA45XC35XS
Chicago
Turan, Gözde. 2021. “Safe Area Theory and Practice: Security for Civilians or Creating New States of Exception During Humanitarian Crises?”. The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations 52 (December): 37-60. https://izlik.org/JA45XC35XS.
EndNote
Turan G (December 1, 2021) Safe Area Theory and Practice: Security for Civilians or Creating New States of Exception during Humanitarian Crises? The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations 52 37–60.
IEEE
[1]G. Turan, “Safe Area Theory and Practice: Security for Civilians or Creating New States of Exception during Humanitarian Crises?”, The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations, vol. 52, pp. 37–60, Dec. 2021, [Online]. Available: https://izlik.org/JA45XC35XS
ISNAD
Turan, Gözde. “Safe Area Theory and Practice: Security for Civilians or Creating New States of Exception During Humanitarian Crises?”. The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations 52 (December 1, 2021): 37-60. https://izlik.org/JA45XC35XS.
JAMA
1.Turan G. Safe Area Theory and Practice: Security for Civilians or Creating New States of Exception during Humanitarian Crises? The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations. 2021;52:37–60.
MLA
Turan, Gözde. “Safe Area Theory and Practice: Security for Civilians or Creating New States of Exception During Humanitarian Crises?”. The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations, vol. 52, Dec. 2021, pp. 37-60, https://izlik.org/JA45XC35XS.
Vancouver
1.Gözde Turan. Safe Area Theory and Practice: Security for Civilians or Creating New States of Exception during Humanitarian Crises? The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations [Internet]. 2021 Dec. 1;52:37-60. Available from: https://izlik.org/JA45XC35XS