Haggerty - Klemme

Orientalism Kritik - Round 3 @ UNI

The aff constructs the “Arab Spring” in a profoundly orientalist manner – the belief that Western-style secular liberal democracy is the solution in the Middle East and North Africa depicts the region as something to be dominated by the West and is rooted in a deeply  essentialist narrative

Daily Kos 4/7 (user angry marmot, part of DKos's "Eyes on Egypt and the Region" which focuses on the pro-democracy movements in North Africa, the Middle East, and beyond, "Orientalism, Modernity, & the Arab Spring", http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/07/963252/-Orientalism,-Modernitythe-Arab-Spring)

Alternative and Framework – The roll of the ballot is to decide how to view the uprisings in the “Middle East” and whether or not to align with the resistance movements and protesters.  The “Arab Spring” represents the repudiation of the Orientalist myths and failure to reconsider how we construct the region precludes the advancement of a more cosmopolitan social science and makes policy failure inevitable

Giuseppe Caruso 2011 (post-doc researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Global Governance Research at the University of Helsinki, "For a Cosmopolitan Social Science: lessons from the 'Arab Spring,'" http://giuseppecaruso.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/for-a-cosmopolitan-social-science-lessons-from-the-%E2%80%9Carab-spring%E2%80%9D/)

Their rhetoric of Mid East security posits a top-down notions of security which denies the real human insecurities people face in the Mid East – this ensures the perpetuation of insecurity in the Mid East and the continuation of Orientalist depictions of the region.

Bilgin, ‘4(Assistant IR Prof -- Bilkentwww.arts.yorku.ca/politics/ncanefe/docs/readings%20for%20the%20curious%20mind/Pinar%20Bilgin%20on%20Whose%20Middle%20East.pdf)

The significance of conceiving the relationship between regions

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as voiced by myriad non-state actors.

The aff constructs a scarecrow threat of political Islamic groups as part of a strategy for American control of the Orient – the “Islamic threat” leads to the support of antidemocratic oppressive regimes and kills their agency

Mohammed Abu-Nimer 2011 (International Peace and Conflict Resolution Program @ American Univ, "The Arab world geographer," Vol 14 No 2, pg. 153-159)

For decades, authoritarian Arab regimes and dictators

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Christian protestors who protected each other while praying.

This outweighs and turns case – Orientalist discourse posits a false understanding of the region, recreating insecurities and causing extinction

Bilgin, '5 (Pinar, Dept of International Relations, Bilkent University, Ankara, Regional Security in the Middle East: A Critical Perspective, pg. 164-5)

Thinking about the future from a critical security

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complicit in perpetuating regional insecurity in the Middle East

Hollow Hope -- The aff constructs the “Arab Spring” as an event to be managed through anti-democratic Oriental policing by the United States -- only the alternative alone can solve

Alain Badiou 2011 (prof at EGS, “Tunisia, Egypt, The Universal Reach of Popular Uprisings” trans. by Antonio Cuccu, http://www.lacan.com/thesymptom/?page_id=1031)

The Wind of the East Carries Away the

AND

convince us were obsolete. And in particular ]

the principle that Marat never stopped recalling:

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new possibilities and thus their value is international.

2NC Epistemology

Their truth claims are suspect – the entire political reality they construct is rooted in a flawed, distorted, Orientalist view of the Middle East – their policy analysis produces a filtered view of reality that fabricates their harms and makes solvency impossible

Falk, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2005 (Richard, “Imperial Vibrations, 9/11, and the Ordeal of The Middle East” http://repositories.cdlib.org/gis/23)

While Khalidi presents political reality in the Middle

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geopolitics in the aftermath of 9/11.

International politics is a textual process – the way we construct the world through discourse is the key determinant in how policies are formed.

Shapiro, Hawaii political science prof, ’89 p. 12  (Michael, International/Intertextual Relations)

Given that our understanding of conflict, war

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within which understanding of global politics are forged.

And,  Representations are the root cause of policy failures and middle east conflict

Bilgin, '5 (Pinar, Dept of International Relations, Bilkent University, Ankara, Regional Security in the Middle East: A Critical Perspective, pg. 12-5)

Reflecting upon the history of US engagement with

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be sought in this part of the world.

The Aff constructs an image of uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa that fit within the political agenda of the United States.  This Orientalist narrative is centered on a belief that American intervention coupled with the spread of liberal democracy is an effective antidote to the region’s ills and that it is incumbent upon America to usher these backwards, reckless nations into the modern world.

2NC Framework

Our interpretation is that the ballot represents a choice as to how we construct the “Arab Spring”.  There is no “Arab Spring” for us to physically interact with in the round, only the one that is created by our discourse.

Democracy DA -- Failure to challenge hegemonic constructions of the region destroys agency, stifles democratic engagement and makes institutional failure inevitable.

Giroux ‘6prof, Cultural Studies, McMaster U (Henry, Higher Education Under Siege, http://www.nea.org/assets/img/PubThoughtAndAction/TAA_06_08.pdf)

In spite of their present embattled status and

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but to understand, interpret, and question it

The US isn’t realist in the Middle East

Mearsheimer and Walt, March, 2006 (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html)

For the past several decades, and especially

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this case, Israel – are essentially identical.

-- Not only does Realism fail to adequately represent reality but it impoverishes our political and ethical imagination in favor of a violent technologization of society -- their framework guarantees violence through genocidal wars that threaten our extinction.

Campbell & Dillon, ’92(International Politics Lecturer – Newcastle & Lancaster Politics Lecturer, The Political Subject of Violence, Ed. Campbell & Dillon)

Monopolistic control by modern political authorities has helped

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define the horizon of life in novel ways.

<Continues 2 paragraphs later>

Thereafter, deprived of its political, moral

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towards modern politics being technological rather than political.)

And, how we construct these uprisings outweighs any theoretical impact of the Aff – there is no “Arab Spring” present to work on, only their discursively created image of it – their false understanding of the region ensures policy failures and makes their impacts inevitable

Bilgin, 2006 (Pinar, Department of International Relations, Bilkent University, Turkey, “What future for Middle Eastern studies? Futures 38 581–582)

The emergence and prevalence of a restricted notion

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to areas’ [45, p. 17].