Critical Perspectives on Cybersecurity: Feminist and Postcolonial Interventions --Edited by Anwar Mhajne, Stonehill College and Alexis Henshaw, Troy University (Forthcoming With Oxford University Press 2024)
Traditional notions of national security have generally dominated cybersecurity debates, but the response to emerging cybersecurity issues should not merely focus on the militarization of cyberspace. Weaponizing a space heavily populated by civilians has enormous implications for human rights. Yet, cybersecurity studies in international relations have largely overlooked the impact of cybersecurity policies on individuals and communities—including the consequences of surveillance, data overcollection, cybercrime, and cyberbullying.
Critical Perspectives on Cybersecurity offers a new approach to understanding cybersecurity in international relations. As a counterpoint to existing work, which focuses largely on the security of states, private actors, and infrastructure, chapter authors examine how women and communities across the Global South understand “cybersecurity,” including what threats and forms of resistance are most important to them. They make the case that policies need to consider individual human rights by putting people’s empowerment and wellbeing at their center. Drawing on feminist and postcolonial theory, the chapters also cover issues that challenge conventional notions of cybersecurity, including disinformation, gender-based violence online, and technology as a neocolonial force. Bringing together contributions from a globally diverse range of authors, Anwar Mhajne and Alexis Henshaw provide a human security perspective on cybersecurity that pays attention to the interplay of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and other social hierarchies, especially regarding cybersecurity in the Global South.
Becoming Governing Bodies: Political Opportunity Structures and Strategic Choices of the Muslim Sisterhood in Egypt (being reviewed by Cambridge University Press).
Abstract: During the political transitions in Egypt between 2010 and 2019, the Muslim Sisters were involved in the resistance movement throughout and even served briefly in the elected government. Following the military coup in July 2013, more than 50,000 members of the Muslim Brotherhood movement were imprisoned, including the senior leadership. These vacancies pushed women activists in the movement to play a bigger role within the organization, building upon decades of political and organizing experiences that have been enriched by the movement's short-lived experience as a ruling political party - the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) - in Egypt in 2011-2012. The quick shift in the Egyptian Muslim Sisterhood’s engagement in politics and within the Muslim Brotherhood inspired the research questions answered in this book: How do political opportunity structures (POS), the broad factors that allow social movements to effectively mobilize for change, shape Islamist women’s political participation? How were political opportunity structures in turn shaped by Islamist women’s political organizing and framing strategies? To answer these questions, the book examines the Muslim Sisterhood’s organizing strategies in Egypt between 2010 and 2019, before, during, and after the Arab Spring uprisings.
Traditional notions of national security have generally dominated cybersecurity debates, but the response to emerging cybersecurity issues should not merely focus on the militarization of cyberspace. Weaponizing a space heavily populated by civilians has enormous implications for human rights. Yet, cybersecurity studies in international relations have largely overlooked the impact of cybersecurity policies on individuals and communities—including the consequences of surveillance, data overcollection, cybercrime, and cyberbullying.
Critical Perspectives on Cybersecurity offers a new approach to understanding cybersecurity in international relations. As a counterpoint to existing work, which focuses largely on the security of states, private actors, and infrastructure, chapter authors examine how women and communities across the Global South understand “cybersecurity,” including what threats and forms of resistance are most important to them. They make the case that policies need to consider individual human rights by putting people’s empowerment and wellbeing at their center. Drawing on feminist and postcolonial theory, the chapters also cover issues that challenge conventional notions of cybersecurity, including disinformation, gender-based violence online, and technology as a neocolonial force. Bringing together contributions from a globally diverse range of authors, Anwar Mhajne and Alexis Henshaw provide a human security perspective on cybersecurity that pays attention to the interplay of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and other social hierarchies, especially regarding cybersecurity in the Global South.
Becoming Governing Bodies: Political Opportunity Structures and Strategic Choices of the Muslim Sisterhood in Egypt (being reviewed by Cambridge University Press).
Abstract: During the political transitions in Egypt between 2010 and 2019, the Muslim Sisters were involved in the resistance movement throughout and even served briefly in the elected government. Following the military coup in July 2013, more than 50,000 members of the Muslim Brotherhood movement were imprisoned, including the senior leadership. These vacancies pushed women activists in the movement to play a bigger role within the organization, building upon decades of political and organizing experiences that have been enriched by the movement's short-lived experience as a ruling political party - the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) - in Egypt in 2011-2012. The quick shift in the Egyptian Muslim Sisterhood’s engagement in politics and within the Muslim Brotherhood inspired the research questions answered in this book: How do political opportunity structures (POS), the broad factors that allow social movements to effectively mobilize for change, shape Islamist women’s political participation? How were political opportunity structures in turn shaped by Islamist women’s political organizing and framing strategies? To answer these questions, the book examines the Muslim Sisterhood’s organizing strategies in Egypt between 2010 and 2019, before, during, and after the Arab Spring uprisings.
