FEB 14. Grace Easterly “From Imperial Port City to Logistics Hub: The Production of Strategic Space in Djibouti (1859-Present)” (Link to Reading)
Grace Easterly is the Program Assistant for the South Asia Program at the Stimson Center, a security think tank in Washington, DC. She graduated summa cum laude from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a BA in International Political Economy, Geography, and Security and a minor in French. Her senior thesis focused on the strategic history of Djibouti and the broader Western Indian Ocean region. While at NYU, she was an Africa House Fellow for research in Ethiopia and Djibouti and a recipient of the Gallatin Dean’s Award for Summer Research, the Horn Fund for Environmental Research, and the Dean’s Award for Graduating Seniors.
Abstract: This paper examines what I call the production of strategic space, or the process in which this place, the Republic of Djibouti and its capital, the port city of Djibouti, became strategically valuable to different states–including the French Empire, the United States, and China–over time. Throughout the period from 1859 to the present, the strategic value of Djibouti fluctuated as states reacted to global events, political economic contexts, and discursive shifts in the global system. These events constantly shifted state interests, re-configuring their conceptions of the importance of Djibouti’s territory. As a result of this process, spaces within Djibouti became strategic relative to other spaces. The port, for example, was more important to French authorities than the desert hinterland, which was considered primarily a useless wasteland. Authorities organized space within Djibouti to reflect these government priorities, which had a profound impact on Djibouti’s inhabitants’ mobilities, economic opportunities, and political freedoms. The ordering of space within Djibouti reflected state interests, exposing the relationship between geography and power, strategy and spatial organization.
February 14, 2020
Presenter: Grace Easterly