Merje Kuus

Associate Professor
Department of Geography
1984 West Mall, Room 235
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada
Tel. (604) 822-3443
E-mail: merje.kuus@geog.ubc.ca
Curriculum Vitae

Research Themes

Geopolitics

Geopolitics is a tricky term that many rightly associate with the violent inter-state power politics of the previous two centuries. In my work, as in much of contemporary human geography, to study geopolitics is to analyze and deconstruct the geographical assumptions and definitions that underpin international politics today. In broad terms, I investigate how political practices, especially on the international arena, are underpinned by spatial assumptions—by geographically defined categories like center and margin, inside and outside, Self and Other. These assumptions are not a rhetorical nuance—an icing on the cake—but an integral part of the very fabric of politics—the cake itself. They are central to the processes by which complex political issues come to be defined and managed in a particular manner.

Security, surveillance, and the state

Security is a key political dynamic today, as an ever wider range of social issues, such as environment, health, or minority rights, are increasingly framed in terms of national security in many countries. Such security threats are not simply external to the community which they allegedly endanger. Rather, threats from the 'outside' are necessary components of maintaining and consolidating that community's identity 'inside'. Inscription of threats is therefore a key part of political struggles. Focusing empirically on Europe, I examine how particular foreign and domestic policies are justified by invoking national security, and with what effects. In so doing, I illuminate the transformations of state power in the context of growing immigration pressures, cross-border cooperation, and the current 'war on terror'.

Policy processes

Policy impinges on all aspects of self and society. It shapes not just societal outcomes but, more importantly, the processes that produce these outcomes. To study policy is to investigate not a ready-made blueprint but a dynamic and unpredictable process. In geography as well as other social sciences, there is today a growing recognition of the need for close-up studies of policy processes. My work is a part of that effort to understand the fields of power that operate within policy-making bureaucracies.

European Union

Madeleine Albright is said to have quipped that in order to understand the EU, one has to be a genius, or French. Yet the EU is too important to be left to those two groups of people. The Union is a key power center in today’s world: the world’s largest trade block and a model of regulatory standards in all spheres of social life. Any attempt to understand the diffuse operation of power in the international sphere must closely consider the EU in all of its irresolvable ambiguities.

Boundaries and identity in contemporary Europe

Many of the geographical and territorial concepts that we take for granted today, such as those of nation and state, originate in Europe and were first applied there. By studying Europe, we can better understand their historical emergence and transformation, their mass appeal, and their societal effects. Today too, mainstream understandings of civilization, borders, and historical memory are closely bound up with geographical understandings of identity and belonging. Unraveling this inherently spatial operation of culture and politics in Europe therefore tells us a great deal about that continent, and others.