War and Peace: Is Militarisation the New Norm?

Abstract

In the early years of the twenty-first century we have seen any illusion that we live in times of consensus, social order and peace well and truly shattered. The fallout from the ill-advised invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq now dominate our international news coverage and the threat of ‘home-grown terrorism’ is a constant national political refrain. At the same time, in the UK (following similar patterns in the US) the social institutions and orderings which were built up in a progressive post-war moment are being either savagely attacked or slowly whittled away while our attention is diverted by feelings of fear, insecurity and risk to look for individualised solutions to economic and political crisis. Within the discipline of criminology, attention has recently turned to the ways in which the ‘security’ agenda has begun to leak into government of the mundane and everyday and is leading to an increasing militarisation of criminal justice ‘solutions’ (Stenson and Lea in Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 22, 2:9–27, 2007, Lea in Criminology and war: Transgressing the borders. London, Routledge, 2015), made easier by the fear-mongering of the state. This chapter explores the extent to which military/militarised ideologies and responses are normalised, routinised and mundane aspects of the everyday in societies which are, after all, steeped in conflict. And if war is the new norm then what of peace? When the politics of populism would have us believe that understanding and tolerance are considered problematic, to speak out against militarism conveys a dangerous radicalisation and to declare allegiance to certain religions is considered antithetical to the values of liberty and democracy then we have to rethink the nature of social censure and its impact.