On assessing risk assessments and situating security advice : the unsettling quest for 'security expertise'

Scholars conducting ethnographic research in zones with ongoing violent conflict are inevitably faced with the continuous challenge of finding, processing and assessing “security knowledge”. They are confronted with questions such as: who do they consider to be “security experts”? How do these “experts” produce knowledge on “the security situation”? And how to cope with contradictory or incredible risk assessments? During the first stages of field research on the microdynamics of civilian- military interaction in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, I frequently consulted foreign security personnel, including UN peacekeepers and other military. This allowed me to discover that those we are socialized into seeing as “security experts” had superficial and at times erroneous readings of security dynamics. Consequently, my understanding of who was a “security expert” and what counts as “security expertise” started to shift. Although initially unsettling, these shifts ultimately enhanced my awareness of how one’s positionality and related biases shape readings of “the security situation”, and how these readings feed into the construction of “security knowledge”.