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This paper considers a new technology for mine action in Cambodia: the mine detection rat. Used successfully in Africa for mine detection since 2003, the rats were implemented for the first time in 2015 in Cambodia by the international NGO, APOPO. APOPO entered a small-scale partnership with the state mine action organization, Cambodian Mine Action Centre. The partnership revealed a tension between APOPO’s aspiration to ‘demilitarize’ mine action and the highly militarized nature of mine action under the state. The rats were unique among militaristic structures and experiences and allowed the international NGO to promote an ideal of what demilitarized mine action should look like. But the rats also condition the possibilities for the demilitarization of mine action through their own biological and historical attributes. This paper will use observations from over 14 months of fieldwork among this partnership with mine detection rats, showing tensions between local militarized methods for disarmament and an NGO’s aspirations for global humanitarianism.
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Darcie DeAngelo (2018) studied this question.
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