41: Deborah Avant – Security in the Global Marketplace

Deborah Avant is the Sié Chéou-Kang Chair for International Security and Diplomacy at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver.  She is a distinguished scholar in the field of international relations, renowned for her expertise in global governance, security studies, and civil-military relations.  Her groundbreaking 2005 book, The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security earned her widespread acclaim and shone an important light on privatization of military services and its implications for global security.  Her current research uses network and pragmatic theory to understand how security and governance are actually conducted – both historically and in the contemporary world.

In this conversation, we reflect on the role of private military companies and the aftermath of the Iraq War. challenges and opportunities in security studies, the role of academia in addressing global crises, the importance of questioning conventional wisdom, and much more.

Deborah’s official profile can be found here. 

We discussed:

The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security, 2005.

Who Governs the Globe (with M. Finnemore and S. Sell), 2010.

The Ethics of Engaged Scholarship in a Complex World, 2024.

40: Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im – Decolonising Human Rights

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im joins us to talk about decolonising human rights as a project of moving from a state-centric to people-centred paradigm.