This event examines the case of Mexico where a plethora of state and nonstate actors are historically and contemporarily involved in the daily production of violence.
Gema Kloppe-Santamaría (Assistant Professor of History and International Affairs, George Washington University; Global Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center) will begin by reflecting on the central role of violence in Mexico's state-building process during the early decades of the post-revolutionary period. She discusses how the presence of state authorities, considered disruptive, abusive, and illegitimate, often exacerbated extralegal forms of violence and intra-community conflicts. Her argument: Recognizing the generative role of violence in state formation and vice versa can help us reassess the country's current security crisis and our understanding of its causes, consequences, and potential solutions.
Alke Jenss (Research Fellow at ABI and Coordinator of the Contested Governance Cluster) takes a look at the present by examining security practices in Mexico (and Colombia) and analyzing the role of the state in relation to violence. To what extent and for whom do states produce order and disorder? Which social forces support and drive such state practices? Alke argues that one possibility to study these security practices is through the lens of the coloniality of state power—linking political economy and decolonial approaches. This way, she builds a theoretical lens to study state security practices.
The event will take place in a hybrid format at 6:00 PM (CET) at the Rockefeller Centre for Latin American Studies at Harvard University (12:00 PM local time).
For further information about the event and how to participate in the hybrid format, please click here.