This month, I step into the role of host for our third ever podcast, on the topic of the arms trade, ways of thinking about it, and the various forms of opposition to it. Helping us make sense of all that are Chris Rossdale of the University of Warwick and Anna Stavrianakis of the University of Sussex. Chris is a participant observer of anti-militarist social movements and the author of numerous pieces on the politics of protest, as well as this post for us on political solidarity. Anna is the author of many pieces on the arms trade and militarism, including Taking Aim at the Arms Trade: NGOs, Global Civil Society, and the World Military Order (Zed, 2010).

The immediate context for our discussion is a whole series of protests against the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) Exhibit, due to take place next week in London. One part of that was an academic ‘Conference at the Gates’ earlier today at the ExCeL Centre, and it is on the notion of activist academia that we begin the conversation.

As ever, consume, cogitate, share, discuss and share again. You can also follow past and future casts on soundcloud.

Further resources, including articles discussed in the podcast:

• Stop the Arms Fair
• Lara Montesinos Coleman (2015) ‘Ethnography, Commitment, and Critique: Departing from Activist Scholarship’, International Political Sociology, 9(3)
• Richard Perkins and Eric Neumayer (2010) ‘The Organized Hypocrisy of Ethical Foreign Policy: Human Rights, Democracy and Western Arms Sales’, Geoforum, 41(2)
• Susanne Therese Hansen and Nicholas Marsh (2015) ‘Normative Power and Organised Hypocrisy: European Union Member States’ Arms Exports to Libya’, European Security, 24(2)
• Emma Mayhew (2005) ‘A Dead Giveaway: A Critical Analysis of New Labour’s Rationales for Supporting Military Exports’, Contemporary Security Policy, 26(1)
• Anna Stavrianakis (2006) ‘Call to Arms: The University as a Site of Militarised Capitalism and a Site of Struggle’, Millennium, 35(1)