Jan Bachmann
About Jan Bachmann
I am a Senior Lecturer in peace and development research and international relations. I hold a PhD in Politics from the University of Bristol, UK and an M.A. in political science from the University of Leipzig, Germany.
Areas of interest Drawing on critical approaches within international relations, political geography, as well as Science and Technology Studies, my research focuses on questions related to political aspects of technology, infrastructure and logistics. In my ongoing work I investigate controversies that emerge around large technical systems, infrastructure projects and practices of extraction in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Current research I am currently involved in two research projects:
Controversial corridor – studying social, environmental and security dynamics along the Lamu-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor (Lapsset)
(2017-2021 with Per Knutsson, SGS and Hussein Mahmoud, Technical University Mombasa)
In this project we aim at studying the environmental, social and security dynamics at strategic sites along the proposed Lamu Port-South Sudan- Ethiopia corridor. Combining perspectives within environmental social science and security studies, we identify and follow controversies in relation to land, livelihoods and belonging in Turkana, Isiolo and Lamu.
Our research article on the temporalities of infrastructure is available here.
Our piece on the launch of the port in Lamu is accessible here.
Shifting grounds - The politics of sand in East Africa
(2021-2024 with Per Knutsson, SGS)
Engaging with the world's most used solid resource, this project explores contestations emerging along the nexus of extraction and trade of sand in East Africa. The project’s point of departure is that political contestations not only emerge during exploitation but also in the wider national and international logistics of sand. The project sets out to reach its objective by integrating a horizontal exploration of issues at sites of extraction— including issues of access- and user rights, political brokerage, and implications for livelihoods and the environment— and a vertical interrogation of frictions surfacing in the trading,transport and processing of this critical resource. Taking its cues from the scholarship on the politics of supply chains as well on the political ecology of extractives , this project will generate important knowledge about political dynamics related to sand. The project is guided by two interrelated research questions: How are controversies surfacing in the extraction and logistics of sand in East Africa negotiated? How do the outcomes of such negotiations reconfigure existing socio-political relations?
Teaching and tutoring
I teach on various aspects within international relations, critical security studies, political geography as well as Science and Technology Studies. On the undergraduate level I am involved in courses on war, peace and security. On the graduate level I am convening the course "Global Security and Democracy" as well as "Technology, Politics, Society."
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Kenya: Behind disputed election, signs of growing democratic
resilience
Jan Bachmann, Benard Kilaka
Nordic Africa Institute Blog - 2022 -
The longue durée of short-lived infrastructure – Roads and state authority in South
Sudan
Jan Bachmann, Naomi Ruth Pendle, Leben Moro
Geoforum - 2022 -
The Making and Unmaking of a Megaproject: Contesting Temporalities along the LAPSSET Corridor in
Kenya
Johannes Theodor Aalders, Jan Bachmann, Per Knutsson, Benard Kilaka
Antipode - 2021 -
Introduction–Peacebuilding Amidst
Violence
Joakim Öjendal, Jan Bachmann, Maria Stern, Hanna Leonardsson
Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding - 2021 -
Peacebuilding Amidst
Violence
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Kenya launches Lamu Port. But its value remains an open
question
Jan Bachmann, Benard Kilaka
The Conversation - 2021 -
Buffering State-making: Geopolitics in the Sudd Marshlands of South
Sudan
Peer Schouten, Jan Bachmann
Geopolitics - 2020 -
Östtysk identitet bearbetas fortfarande - 30 år efter murens
fall
Jan Bachmann
Göteborgs Posten - 2019 -
States of circulation: Logistics off the beaten
path
Jan Bachmann, Peer Schouten, Finn Stepputat
Environment & Planning. D, Society and Space - 2019 -
Concrete approaches to peace: infrastructure as
peacebuilding
Jan Bachmann, Peer Schouten
International Affairs - 2018 -
Whose hearts and minds? A gift perspective on the US military's aid projects in Eastern
Africa
Jan Bachmann
Political Geography - 2017 -
Militarization going places? US forces, aid delivery and memories of military coercion in Uganda and
Kenya
Jan Bachmann
Critical Military Studies - 2017 -
Roads to Peace?: The role of infrastructure in fragile and conflict-affected states. A DIIS/UNOPS REPORT
January
2017
Peer Schouten, Jan Bachmann
2017 -
Technopolitics of
Intervention
Jan Bachmann, Peer Schouten
Paper given at the 3rd Nordic Development Conference. Gothenburg, 5-6 November 2015. - 2015 -
Political Engineering- the imbrications of infrastructure, security and political order in contemporary western
statebuilding.
Jan Bachmann, Peer Schouten
Paper presented at the International Studies Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, 18-21 February 2015 - 2015 -
10 Shades of Infrastructural
Politics
Jan Bachmann, Peer Schouten
Paper presented at the European International Studies Conference, Giardini-Naxos, 24-26 September 2015. - 2015 -
We need to know who you are. Exploring AFRICOM’s development projects in Eastern
Africa.
Jan Bachmann
Paper presented at the European International Studies Conference, Giardini-Naxos, 24-26 September 2015. - 2015 -
Counterinsurgency Going Places? Exploring the US Military’s Development Practices in Eastern
Africa
Jan Bachmann
Paper presented at the International Studies Association Conference, New Orleans, 18-21 February 2015 - 2015 -
War, Police and Assemblages of
Intervention
Jan Bachmann, Colleen Bell, Caroline Holmqvist
2014 -
Assemblages of War:Police – An
Introduction
Jan Bachmann, Colleen Bell, Caroline Holmqvist
War, Police and Assemblages of Intervention - 2014 -
Policing Africa: The US Military and Visions of Crafting ‘Good
Order’
Jan Bachmann
Security Dialogue - 2014 -
The African Union and the protection of civilians: mediating ownership and
sovereignty
Linnéa Gelot, Jan Bachmann
Globalization and development : rethinking interventions and governance / edited by Arne Bigsten - 2013 -
Governmentality and counterterrorism – Appropriating international security projects in
Kenya
Jan Bachmann
Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding - 2012 -
Between Protection and Stabilization? Addressing the Tensions of Contemporary Western Interventions in Africa: An
Introduction
Jan Bachmann, Linnéa Gelot
African Security - 2012 -
Kenya and International Security: Enabling Globalisation, Stabilising ‘Stateness’, and Deploying
Enforcement
Jan Bachmann
Global South to the Rescue: Emerging Humanitarian Superpowers and Globalizing Rescue Industries - 2012 -
Kenya and International Security: Enabling Globalisation, Stabilising ‘Stateness’, and Deploying
Enforcement
Jan Bachmann
Globalizations - 2012 -
‘Mediating Ownership, Sovereignty and State Stabilization – The AU and the
R2P’
Linnéa Gelot, Jan Bachmann
GCGD Conference 22-23 Nov 2011 ‘Globalization and Development: Rethinking interventions and governance’ - 2011 -
Das US-Militärkommando AFRICOM und der neue Interventionismus zwischen Aufstandsbekämpfung, Stabilisierung und
Entwicklung
Jan Bachmann
Peripherie - 2011 -
Kick Down the Door, Clean up the Mess, and Rebuild the House” - The Africa Command and Transformation of the US
Military
Jan Bachmann
Geopolitics - 2010 -
Peace and Security as Counterterrorism? The political effects of liberal interventions in Kenya (with Jana
Hönke)
Jan Bachmann
African Affairs - 2010 -
Securitisation, Appropriation, Transformation? The adaptability of international counterterrorism discourse and practices in
Kenya
Jan Bachmann
2010 -
“Laboratory AFRICOM. The Role of the military in security/development
missions”
Jan Bachmann
Paper presented at the workshop “Reducing insecurity in Africa Roles and Responsibilities of the U.S. Military, U.S. Government and Non-Governmental Communities”; Monterey/CA, 1-3 December 2010. - 2010 -
“Grow not give, them not us – the naturalisation of the US Africa
Command”
Jan Bachmann
Paper presented at the Political Studies Association Convention, Edinburgh, 29 March – 1 April 2010 - 2010 -
The Danger of Ungoverned Spaces – The ‘War on Terror’ and its Effects in the Sahel
Region
Jan Bachmann
The Social Life of Anti-Terrorism Laws. The War on Terror and the Classifications of the ‘Dangerous Other’, edited by Julia Eckert - 2008