Contemporary epistemologies of militarization in the Global South: Palimpsests and accumulative processes in Lampedusa and Lebanon

Abstract

We propose that contemporary militarization be understood as part of the continued legacy and consequence of colonial practices and (neo-)imperial logics. We reveal how, in spaces characterized by the palimpsestic legacies and consequences of colonialism and militarization, the latter functions as an accumulative process that glosses over, silences, and normalizes past and present practices of violence and control. Accordingly, the process of demilitarization begins by deconstructing these multiple layers, especially in countries with very recent histories of coloniality. Lampedusa and Lebanon both serve as case studies of contemporary epistemologies of militarization within and beyond the fluid contours of today’s Global South. They are deeply contested sites whose dense imperial, colonial, and militarized histories are embodied in generations of inhabitants, the consequences of which resonate in real-time. The future of these sites and their populaces are open-ended, and how individuals and collectives will remember and represent them remains, in many ways, contingent on current events.