Campus News

Authors examine how countries prioritize national security

In the current political climate, many countries are prioritizing their national security. This can mean different things for different countries, and in “Transecting Securityscapes,” authors Till F. Paasche and James Derrick Sidaway analyze these differences.

Through the examination of dispatches from Cambodia, Iraq and Mozambique, Paasche and Sidaway take a contextual approach to security that compares aerial, big-pictures views with the views of geopolitical scholars.

By using political geography, urban studies, international relations and ethnographic approaches, “Transecting Securityscapes” makes a grounded argument for the methods, similarities and differences between the three countries and their political conflicts. The book also offers a critique of abstract research in political conflict and security and argues that context and culture are essential for comparative reflection on diversity and commonality.

Paasche and Sidiway are both professors of political geography, teaching in Iraq and Singapore, respectively.