David Keen
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 137431 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | David Keen |
| NOMBRES | David |
| APELLIDO | Keen |
| FIRMA | KEEN D |
| AFILIACIONES | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7218-8378 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 32 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 362 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 32 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1984 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 9 |
Response to Rochelle Terman’s Review of Shame
Wreckonomics
Wreckonomics examines the Cold War, the “war on terror,” the “fight against illegal migration,” and the “war on drugs and crime” through political systems analysis. The book argues that these various “wars” and “fights” have frequently been damaging and even counterproductive—not least because they have been extensively “gamed” by those with varied purposes in mind. It also considers the costs of “laissez faire” and “lockdown” during the COVID-19…
Shame
Does democracy protect? The United Kingdom, the United States, and Covid-19
The Covid-19 crises in the United Kingdom and the United States show how democracies may struggle to confront disasters that are increasingly impinging on the Global North. This paper highlights the extent to which disasters are now 'coming home' to Western democracies and it looks at some of the principal reasons why democracy has not been especially protective, at least in the case of the UK and the US. These include: reconceptualising disaster…
Algorithm Blues
Mark Duffield, Post-humanitarianism: Governing Precarity in the Digital World. London: Polity Press, 2019. 224 pp. £17.45 paperback. Mark Duffield was prompted to write Post-humanitarianism: Governing Precarity in the Digital World when he discovered a number of related facts about international responses to the human rights catastrophe in Darfur from 2003. He learned, for example, that advocacy groups were using satellite pictures of burnt build…
Double games
This paper compares the security paradigms for combating terrorism, drugs and irregular migration and argues that while these have largely failed on their own terms, they have also proven rather successful for the actors shaping them. Through a spatial political economy analysis of systems of intervention, the paper shows how vested interests have helped perpetuate counterproductive approaches, while risks (including that of human suffering) have…
The camp' and 'the lesser evil
This article examines the 2009 humanitarian disaster in Sri Lanka through fieldwork conducted at the time and through theoretical lenses supplied by Arendt, Foucault and Agamben. The article suggests that this catastrophe represents a salutary example of the consequences of promoting a ‘lesser evil’ in the context of a government-fuelled human rights disaster. In line with Arendt's critique of the ‘lesser evil’, the case illustrates the limits to…
Useful Enemies
Useful enemies
Greed and grievance in civil war
While economic agendas have been shown to be an important factor in shaping civil wars, there are several problems with prominent explanations centring on rebel ‘greed’, notably those put forward by Paul Collier. Among these are: the way proxies for ‘greed’ and ‘grievance’ have been used; the lack of attention to links between ‘greed’ and ‘grievance’; and the lack of attention to ‘greed’ among elements associated with counter-insurgencies. Why ha…
From Site to Landscape
This article discusses the potential value of geoarchaeological and paleoenvironmental data for the contextualization of human activity at the site of Domuztepe, southeast Turkey. The data come from cores excavated on a series of transects centered on the höyük and from samples collected for paleoenvironmental assessment and radiocarbon dating. The results indicate that the site is situated on an alluvial plain of some stratigraphic complexity. D…
A tale of two wars
This article compares two very different wars—the civil war in Sierra Leone and the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq—and finds some significant similarities. It notes that both wars can be seen as systems which promise (and deliver) benefits for relatively privileged actors and promise (but do not deliver) benefits for ordinary combatants. The article also examines the extent to which the recruitment of Sierra Leoneans and the recruitment o…
Civil War is Not a Stupid Thing
Conflict, trade and the medium-term future of food security in Sudan
Recent economic growth and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) have both been seen as grounds for optimism about the future of food security in Sudan. However, solving the North- South conflict (if indeed it is solved) does not resolve conflicts within either the North or the South and may even encourage a variety of conflicts. The classic neoliberal prescription of peace, growth and foreign investment may deepen (and obscure) the needs and g…
L’abri sous-roche du Rozel (France, Manche)
Situé sur la côte ouest du Cotentin (Manche), le site du Rozel a livré un complexe de deux niveaux d’occupations anthropiques. L’abri sousroche conservait les vestiges d’un habitat comportant des structures de combustion, du mobilier lithique et fait exceptionnel dans le Cotentin des restes osseux. L’ensemble s’inscrit dans une formation dunaire sus-jacente à une plage ancienne. Initialement attribué à un Périgordien ancien, le site a fait l’obje…
Excavations at the Lower Palaeolithic site at Elveden, Suffolk, UK
The Lower Palaeolithic site at Elveden, Suffolk, was the subject of new excavations from 1995–1999. Excavations around the edge and in the centre of the former clay-pit revealed sediments infilling a lake basin that had formed in Lowestoft till, overlying Chalk, the till being attributed to the Anglian glaciation (MIS 12). The lake sediments contain pollen that can be assigned to pollen zones HoI and HoIIa of the early Hoxnian (MIS 11). Overlying…
Liberalization and Conflict
Externally encouraged policies of liberalization in Sierra Leone in the 1970s and 1980s fed into civil war in the 1990s; yet such policies are now being revived. This article analyzes the impact of liberalization on the war in Sierra Leone, suggesting that it affected the conflict in four ways: first, by encouraging inflation, extreme devaluation, and private oligopolies; second, by reducing key state services such as education and health; third,…
Incentives and Disincentives for Violence
Those who wish to facilitate peace will be well advised to understand the nature of war. Yet the label war is one that often conceals as much as it reveals. We think we know what a war is, but this in itself is a source of difficulty: Throwing a label at the problem of conflict may further obscure its origins and functions; and the label, moreover, may be very useful for those who wish to promote certain kinds of violence. The idea of war can con…
Sierra Leone
This chapter attempts to explain the conflict in Sierra Leone by analysing the actions and goals of those orchestrating and carrying out acts of violence. This includes not only rebel violence but more particularly the largely neglected area of government violence. The discussion emphasizes the importance of local and individual goals during the conflict, and stresses the need to look at the process by which civilians became fighters. It argues t…
Greed and Grievance
Current scholarship on civil wars and transitions from war to peace has made significant progress in understanding the political dimensions of internal conflict, but the economic motivations spurring political violence have been comparatively neglected. This pathbreaking volume identifies the economic and social factors underlying the perpetuation of civil wars, exploring as well the economic incentives and disincentives available to internationa…
War and peace
At one level, the question posed in the title of this contribution can be quickly dispensed with: war is violent and peace is, well, peaceful; in other words, peace is the antithesis of war. This is certainly the common-sense view, and it is one usually reinforced by the media. Journalists, after all, are interested in change: theirs is a world of news (what is new), of events, discontinuities and drama. What could be more dramatic than the chang…
Aid and Violence, with Special Reference to Sierra Leone
This paper looks at how departures from humanitarian principles can be accommodated, legitimised and obscured within the international humanitarian system. It looks particularly at the case of Sierra Leone between 1991 and 1995. It analyses how misinformation about the causes and dynamics of violence and regarding the aid system contribute to the erosion of humanitarian principles
Violence and Economic Agendas in Civil Wars
A rational kind of madness
The paper argues against the notion that wars, whether international or civil in nature, are essentially irrational and "imposed" on societies. Rather they should be regarded as emerging from political and economic processes taking place within such societies-particularly when "peace" involves violent processes as the corollary of economic development and political consolidation. The paper examines the rational nature of warfare, turning to histo…
Requiem for the Sudan
Greed and Grievance
Current scholarship on civil wars and transitions from war to peace has made significant progress in understanding the political dimensions of internal conflict, but the economic motivations spurring political violence have been comparatively neglected. This pathbreaking volume identifies the economic and social factors underlying the perpetuation of civil wars, exploring as well the economic incentives and disincentives available to internationa…
Excavations at the Lower Palaeolithic site at Elveden, Suffolk, UK
The Lower Palaeolithic site at Elveden, Suffolk, was the subject of new excavations from 1995–1999. Excavations around the edge and in the centre of the former clay-pit revealed sediments infilling a lake basin that had formed in Lowestoft till, overlying Chalk, the till being attributed to the Anglian glaciation (MIS 12). The lake sediments contain pollen that can be assigned to pollen zones HoI and HoIIa of the early Hoxnian (MIS 11). Overlying…
Violence and Economic Agendas in Civil Wars
War and peace
At one level, the question posed in the title of this contribution can be quickly dispensed with: war is violent and peace is, well, peaceful; in other words, peace is the antithesis of war. This is certainly the common-sense view, and it is one usually reinforced by the media. Journalists, after all, are interested in change: theirs is a world of news (what is new), of events, discontinuities and drama. What could be more dramatic than the chang…
A rational kind of madness
The paper argues against the notion that wars, whether international or civil in nature, are essentially irrational and "imposed" on societies. Rather they should be regarded as emerging from political and economic processes taking place within such societies-particularly when "peace" involves violent processes as the corollary of economic development and political consolidation. The paper examines the rational nature of warfare, turning to histo…
Polarization reversal in the state of São Paulo, Brazil
Townroe P. M. and Keen D. (1984) Polarization reversal in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, Reg. Studies 18, 45–54. The concept of polarization reversal refers to the turning point from relative concentration to relative deconcentration in the spatial pattern of urban growth in a city region or nation. The paper argues that this important notion has been treated with some ambiguity in the literature. Alternative definitions and measures are illustr…
Greed and grievance in civil war
While economic agendas have been shown to be an important factor in shaping civil wars, there are several problems with prominent explanations centring on rebel ‘greed’, notably those put forward by Paul Collier. Among these are: the way proxies for ‘greed’ and ‘grievance’ have been used; the lack of attention to links between ‘greed’ and ‘grievance’; and the lack of attention to ‘greed’ among elements associated with counter-insurgencies. Why ha…
Liberalization and Conflict
Externally encouraged policies of liberalization in Sierra Leone in the 1970s and 1980s fed into civil war in the 1990s; yet such policies are now being revived. This article analyzes the impact of liberalization on the war in Sierra Leone, suggesting that it affected the conflict in four ways: first, by encouraging inflation, extreme devaluation, and private oligopolies; second, by reducing key state services such as education and health; third,…
III A Disaster for Whom
The 1985-88 famine amongst the Dinka is described and shown to have been rooted in the long term exploitation of the south by northern Sudanese and international interests. This process of exploitation served, and continues to serve, important functions for particular groups. Some of the ways in which the 1985-88 famine was functional - for the central government, the army and merchants - are outlined and the implications for relief operations co…
Aid and Violence, with Special Reference to Sierra Leone
This paper looks at how departures from humanitarian principles can be accommodated, legitimised and obscured within the international humanitarian system. It looks particularly at the case of Sierra Leone between 1991 and 1995. It analyses how misinformation about the causes and dynamics of violence and regarding the aid system contribute to the erosion of humanitarian principles
War
To judge from the accounts of the majority of journalists, aid staff and even academics, war is essentially confusing and pointless. One framework of analysis portrays war - whether international or civil war - as a contest between two sides. Those operating within this framework, when they are confronted by a war, are like an outsider arriving at a sporting event whose first question is: 'Who's it between?' Such analysts may be quickly reassured…
The camp' and 'the lesser evil
This article examines the 2009 humanitarian disaster in Sri Lanka through fieldwork conducted at the time and through theoretical lenses supplied by Arendt, Foucault and Agamben. The article suggests that this catastrophe represents a salutary example of the consequences of promoting a ‘lesser evil’ in the context of a government-fuelled human rights disaster. In line with Arendt's critique of the ‘lesser evil’, the case illustrates the limits to…
L’abri sous-roche du Rozel (France, Manche)
Situé sur la côte ouest du Cotentin (Manche), le site du Rozel a livré un complexe de deux niveaux d’occupations anthropiques. L’abri sousroche conservait les vestiges d’un habitat comportant des structures de combustion, du mobilier lithique et fait exceptionnel dans le Cotentin des restes osseux. L’ensemble s’inscrit dans une formation dunaire sus-jacente à une plage ancienne. Initialement attribué à un Périgordien ancien, le site a fait l’obje…
Conflict, trade and the medium-term future of food security in Sudan
Recent economic growth and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) have both been seen as grounds for optimism about the future of food security in Sudan. However, solving the North- South conflict (if indeed it is solved) does not resolve conflicts within either the North or the South and may even encourage a variety of conflicts. The classic neoliberal prescription of peace, growth and foreign investment may deepen (and obscure) the needs and g…
Double games
This paper compares the security paradigms for combating terrorism, drugs and irregular migration and argues that while these have largely failed on their own terms, they have also proven rather successful for the actors shaping them. Through a spatial political economy analysis of systems of intervention, the paper shows how vested interests have helped perpetuate counterproductive approaches, while risks (including that of human suffering) have…
The Benefits of Famine
Journal Article The Benefits of Famine: A Political Economy of Famine and Relief in Southwestern Sudan, 1983-1989. Get access The Benefits of Famine: A Political Economy of Famine and Relief in Southwestern Sudan, 1983-1989. By Keen (David). (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994. Pp. xvi + 289. £30.00 hardback, US$47.00 hardback. ISBN 0 691 03423 0)) Chris Bramall Chris Bramall University of Cambridge Search for other works by this aut…
From Site to Landscape
This article discusses the potential value of geoarchaeological and paleoenvironmental data for the contextualization of human activity at the site of Domuztepe, southeast Turkey. The data come from cores excavated on a series of transects centered on the höyük and from samples collected for paleoenvironmental assessment and radiocarbon dating. The results indicate that the site is situated on an alluvial plain of some stratigraphic complexity. D…
A tale of two wars
This article compares two very different wars—the civil war in Sierra Leone and the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq—and finds some significant similarities. It notes that both wars can be seen as systems which promise (and deliver) benefits for relatively privileged actors and promise (but do not deliver) benefits for ordinary combatants. The article also examines the extent to which the recruitment of Sierra Leoneans and the recruitment o…
Polarization reversal in the state of São Paulo, Brazil
Townroe P. M. and Keen D. (1984) Polarization reversal in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, Reg. Studies 18, 45–54. The concept of polarization reversal refers to the turning point from relative concentration to relative deconcentration in the spatial pattern of urban growth in a city region or nation. The paper argues that this important notion has been treated with some ambiguity in the literature. Alternative definitions and measures are illustr…
III A Disaster for Whom
The 1985-88 famine amongst the Dinka is described and shown to have been rooted in the long term exploitation of the south by northern Sudanese and international interests. This process of exploitation served, and continues to serve, important functions for particular groups. Some of the ways in which the 1985-88 famine was functional - for the central government, the army and merchants - are outlined and the implications for relief operations co…
Books reviewed
Richard Werbner, Tears of the Dead: the Social Biography of an African Family (Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, 1991), xi, 211pp, £30 Norma J. Kriger, Zimbabwe's Guerrilla War: Peasant Voices (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1992), x, 303pp, £35 K. Spink, Black Sash: the Beginning of a Bridge in South Africa (Methuen: London, 1991), xvi, 336pp, £14.99 Vernon February, The Afrikaners of South Africa (Kegan Paul International: London a…
Resettlement and Famine in Ethiopia
Journal Article Resettlement and Famine in Ethiopia: The villagers' experience Get access Resettlement and Famine in Ethiopia: The villagers' experience, by Alula Pankhurst. Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 1992. xiii + 290pp. £35 hardback. ISBN 0 7190 3537 6. DAVID KEEN DAVID KEEN Oxford Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 92, Issue 367, April 1993, Pages 313–314, …
The Benefits of Famine
Journal Article The Benefits of Famine: A Political Economy of Famine and Relief in Southwestern Sudan, 1983-1989. Get access The Benefits of Famine: A Political Economy of Famine and Relief in Southwestern Sudan, 1983-1989. By Keen (David). (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994. Pp. xvi + 289. £30.00 hardback, US$47.00 hardback. ISBN 0 691 03423 0)) Chris Bramall Chris Bramall University of Cambridge Search for other works by this aut…
War
To judge from the accounts of the majority of journalists, aid staff and even academics, war is essentially confusing and pointless. One framework of analysis portrays war - whether international or civil war - as a contest between two sides. Those operating within this framework, when they are confronted by a war, are like an outsider arriving at a sporting event whose first question is: 'Who's it between?' Such analysts may be quickly reassured…
The Benefits of Famine
Violence and Economic Agendas in Civil Wars
A rational kind of madness
The paper argues against the notion that wars, whether international or civil in nature, are essentially irrational and "imposed" on societies. Rather they should be regarded as emerging from political and economic processes taking place within such societies-particularly when "peace" involves violent processes as the corollary of economic development and political consolidation. The paper examines the rational nature of warfare, turning to histo…
Requiem for the Sudan
Aid and Violence, with Special Reference to Sierra Leone
This paper looks at how departures from humanitarian principles can be accommodated, legitimised and obscured within the international humanitarian system. It looks particularly at the case of Sierra Leone between 1991 and 1995. It analyses how misinformation about the causes and dynamics of violence and regarding the aid system contribute to the erosion of humanitarian principles
Incentives and Disincentives for Violence
Those who wish to facilitate peace will be well advised to understand the nature of war. Yet the label war is one that often conceals as much as it reveals. We think we know what a war is, but this in itself is a source of difficulty: Throwing a label at the problem of conflict may further obscure its origins and functions; and the label, moreover, may be very useful for those who wish to promote certain kinds of violence. The idea of war can con…
Sierra Leone
This chapter attempts to explain the conflict in Sierra Leone by analysing the actions and goals of those orchestrating and carrying out acts of violence. This includes not only rebel violence but more particularly the largely neglected area of government violence. The discussion emphasizes the importance of local and individual goals during the conflict, and stresses the need to look at the process by which civilians became fighters. It argues t…
Greed and Grievance
Current scholarship on civil wars and transitions from war to peace has made significant progress in understanding the political dimensions of internal conflict, but the economic motivations spurring political violence have been comparatively neglected. This pathbreaking volume identifies the economic and social factors underlying the perpetuation of civil wars, exploring as well the economic incentives and disincentives available to internationa…
War and peace
At one level, the question posed in the title of this contribution can be quickly dispensed with: war is violent and peace is, well, peaceful; in other words, peace is the antithesis of war. This is certainly the common-sense view, and it is one usually reinforced by the media. Journalists, after all, are interested in change: theirs is a world of news (what is new), of events, discontinuities and drama. What could be more dramatic than the chang…
Excavations at the Lower Palaeolithic site at Elveden, Suffolk, UK
The Lower Palaeolithic site at Elveden, Suffolk, was the subject of new excavations from 1995–1999. Excavations around the edge and in the centre of the former clay-pit revealed sediments infilling a lake basin that had formed in Lowestoft till, overlying Chalk, the till being attributed to the Anglian glaciation (MIS 12). The lake sediments contain pollen that can be assigned to pollen zones HoI and HoIIa of the early Hoxnian (MIS 11). Overlying…
Liberalization and Conflict
Externally encouraged policies of liberalization in Sierra Leone in the 1970s and 1980s fed into civil war in the 1990s; yet such policies are now being revived. This article analyzes the impact of liberalization on the war in Sierra Leone, suggesting that it affected the conflict in four ways: first, by encouraging inflation, extreme devaluation, and private oligopolies; second, by reducing key state services such as education and health; third,…
L’abri sous-roche du Rozel (France, Manche)
Situé sur la côte ouest du Cotentin (Manche), le site du Rozel a livré un complexe de deux niveaux d’occupations anthropiques. L’abri sousroche conservait les vestiges d’un habitat comportant des structures de combustion, du mobilier lithique et fait exceptionnel dans le Cotentin des restes osseux. L’ensemble s’inscrit dans une formation dunaire sus-jacente à une plage ancienne. Initialement attribué à un Périgordien ancien, le site a fait l’obje…
Conflict, trade and the medium-term future of food security in Sudan
Recent economic growth and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) have both been seen as grounds for optimism about the future of food security in Sudan. However, solving the North- South conflict (if indeed it is solved) does not resolve conflicts within either the North or the South and may even encourage a variety of conflicts. The classic neoliberal prescription of peace, growth and foreign investment may deepen (and obscure) the needs and g…
Civil War is Not a Stupid Thing
A tale of two wars
This article compares two very different wars—the civil war in Sierra Leone and the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq—and finds some significant similarities. It notes that both wars can be seen as systems which promise (and deliver) benefits for relatively privileged actors and promise (but do not deliver) benefits for ordinary combatants. The article also examines the extent to which the recruitment of Sierra Leoneans and the recruitment o…
From Site to Landscape
This article discusses the potential value of geoarchaeological and paleoenvironmental data for the contextualization of human activity at the site of Domuztepe, southeast Turkey. The data come from cores excavated on a series of transects centered on the höyük and from samples collected for paleoenvironmental assessment and radiocarbon dating. The results indicate that the site is situated on an alluvial plain of some stratigraphic complexity. D…
Useful Enemies
Useful enemies
Greed and grievance in civil war
While economic agendas have been shown to be an important factor in shaping civil wars, there are several problems with prominent explanations centring on rebel ‘greed’, notably those put forward by Paul Collier. Among these are: the way proxies for ‘greed’ and ‘grievance’ have been used; the lack of attention to links between ‘greed’ and ‘grievance’; and the lack of attention to ‘greed’ among elements associated with counter-insurgencies. Why ha…
Political science (23 obras) · Law (15 obras) · Sociology (14 obras) · Economics (11 obras) · Political economy (11 obras) · Politics (10 obras) · Law (8 obras) · Geography (7 obras) · History (7 obras) · Development economics (6 obras)