The Securitisation of Sri Lankan Tourism in the Absence of Peace

Jennifer Hyndman

doi:10.5334/sta.fa

Abstract

The military conflict in Sri Lanka may be over officially, but conflict continues as a ‘war without sound’ (community informant, Mullaitivu 2013), or as war by other means (Dahlman 2011). In the absence of peace and reconciliation, but the presence of economic growth, development by stealth proceeds. Much has been written about the militarisation of civilian life in Sri Lanka (Kadirgamar 2013; David 2013), but this paper focuses specifically on how militarisation has proceeded with little public protest or pushback. The political work accomplished by ‘securitisation’ is used to gain consent and create new space and capacity for state security measures and militarisation. This paper recasts the connections between security, peace, and development in post-war Sri Lanka, drawing on fieldwork in one area that connects all of these projects: tourism. An analysis of ‘war tourism’ in Sri Lanka shows how it reproduces threats to Sri Lanka’s security at the same time that it celebrates military victory and might. Tourism encapsulates economic, security, and development agendas in very specific ways. Tourist sites mobilise fear of potential terrorism and return to the rule of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), if vigilance and militarisation are not maintained. In such a context of risk, development is best done by the military. Within this logic of securitisation, militarisation becomes a common sense approach. How is this common sense produced? The securitisation of development is vivid in the post-war context of Sri Lanka, inextricably tied to neoliberal imperatives to convey a democratic, stable country that is open to and good for business.

Highlights

Security, development, and its financing, have all become inseparable in post-war Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan state is performative in two ways: it performs prosperity through its carpet roads, new shopping arcades, and other visible markers of newfound prosperity apparent to many if not available to all, but it produces threats of terrorism and a possible return to war, employing such risk to militarise formerly civilian spaces, like universities (Kadirgamar 2013), as preventative measures to push back against such risks
Art. 14, page 12 of 16 Hyndman: The Securitisation of Sri Lankan Tourism in the Absence of Peace buses plying the Colombo-Jaffna A9 route on the smooth ‘carpet roads,’ courtesy of the Asian Development Bank, and the new trains that test the new rails that runs parallel to it, thanks to the Indian Government

Summary

Introduction

Development, and its financing, have all become inseparable in post-war Sri Lanka. Securitisation: Producing Risk to Militarise Development in Post-War Sri Lanka Fear is both a legitimate emotion and a powerful political resource.

Results

Conclusion