AEGIS ECAS 2007 - View abstract

Panel	60. The challenge of uncertainty and order in African polities
Paper ID	492
Author(s)	Veit, Alex
Paper	View paper (PDF)
Abstract	In the wake of a civil conflict, the district of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has become an internationalised political space. It is the hotspot of a United Nations military intervention and a working terrain for various international organizations. At the same time, a multitude of local political actors such as administrative agencies, rebel militias, customary chiefs and businessmen, aim at expanding their chances to rule. The resulting mixture of sometimes complementary, but more often conflicting agendas makes Ituri a confusing place not only for researchers, but all the more for the international and local political actors involved. For an appropriate understanding, both the peace-building approaches of the “International Community” and local adaptations to these policies have to be placed into one analytical field. The paper aims to establish how internationalised and local rule compete and cohabit in the post-conflict space. Using the sociological concept of “figuration”, as invented by Norbert Elias, the relations between local and international actors are put centre stage. By conceptualising the power differentials in the figuration these forces established between each other, it is shown how power and domination have changed from the conflict to the post-conflict situation. Ituri’s present political landscape resembles a card-game, in which every player has different cards, and plays according to different rules. In the quest for favourable positions, the players are able to deceive and to trick. Accordingly, international agencies tend to doubt the truthfulness of their partners like the national army and administration, always expecting hidden agendas in their intermediaries’ actions. Leaders of non-state armed groups have with varying degrees of success attempted to negotiate their positions between national and foreign allies, local actors and constituencies, and the international agencies, all of which must be considered as unreliable. The result is a political landscape criss-crossed by multiple power relations, whose constantly changing shape leaves all actors uncertain about what the near future may bring. This uncertainty conditions the patterns of action employed by the actors and agencies involved. The more bureaucratic and resourceful agencies like the United Nations tend to stick to their agendas, while the more erratic and less strictly organized local actors try to rapidly adapt to the challenges of the day. To understand both cards and rules in that “game”, the paper analyses different behaviours, using Michel de Certeau’s definitions of “strategies” as the patterns of action thought suitable by the strong, and “tactics” as the art of improvisation employed by the less resourceful. The paper describes the changing faces of the power figuration in Ituri, examines some of the strategies and tactics used, and in a further step asks if some kind of legitimate rule over the local population has emerged. The analysis relies on empirical material gathered during six months of field research in the Congo, part of a PhD-project on relations between armed groups and the “International Community”.

Local Politics and International Military Intervention: Figurations of Uncertainty