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SUMMARY:No Olympus without Ares: security expressions of first-class globa
 l citizenship - Daniel Bernhardt (University of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20100420T121000Z
DTEND:20100420T130000Z
UID:TALK24518@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Hilary Powell
DESCRIPTION:The Olympics have become a point of security exceptionalism\, 
 wherein perceptions of danger are greater than normal and so the normal me
 ans of public security provision are greatly expanded. In contrast to the 
 self-evidence with which the urgencies of Olympic threats are normally pre
 sented\, we seek to denaturalise the claim to exceptionalism and highlight
  some of the underlying social valuations that contribute to the state of 
 alarm that surrounds the Olympics. The disparity between an Olympic securi
 ty event and \nnormal security measures deployed against threats to equall
 y vulnerable assemblies of large numbers of people connotes an ‘Olympic 
 difference’: the social designation of the Olympic Games as a special ev
 ent that transcends the material parity of that event with other human sec
 urity vulnerabilities. We view the Games as a sui generis object of the cl
 aim to security to the extent \nthat they provide the state with an opport
 unity to affirm itself as one of the most modern and advanced nations in t
 he world. Security at the Games is not deployed to protect that affirmatio
 n but is entirely a part of it. Hosting the Olympics is one of several pat
 hways towards first-class citizenship in international society. We maintai
 n that membership in the club of Olympic hosts resembles many other élite
  clubs of nations\, including the nuclear club\, \nand we unpack some of t
 hese commonalities to further the argument that the urgency surrounding th
 e Games relates more to their symbolic importance to the host nation than 
 it does to concern about the safety of spectators or \ninfrastructure. 
LOCATION:Entertaining Room\, Darwin College
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