Resilience und Fragilität: Ein konzeptioneller Wandel im entwicklungspolitischen Verständnis von Sicherheit?

Resilience and fragility: A conceptual change in the developmental understanding of security? Since 2008, the term „resilience“ has been used in the concept papers of the OECD-DAC and by several other development actors that deal with problems concerning the development-security nexus. In particular, the concept was recently discussed and applied in discussions on possible developmental responses to so-called „fragile states“ or „fragile situations“. Going beyond the problem of „fragility“, the term „resilience“ offers a radical perspective on the development-security nexus itself. It represents the expansion of development policy into a truly global enterprise, linked with global and cross-acting threats; it highlights interconnectedness and, at the same time, the separate threats and responsibilities of all. Moreover, the concept expresses a specific post-liberal rationality. „Resilience“, in this sense, can be seen as the overcoming of the liberal contradiction between security and freedom, which dissolves the autonomy of individuals in the necessity of continuous threat-driven adaptation. In turn, „resilience“ could become a positive sounding description of what is actually a post-liberal safety phenomenon. It could become a substitute for the possibility of freedom in the global context.