Fighting for Liberal Peace in Mali? The Limits of International Military Intervention

Letter from the Editors: Taking the Hybridity Agenda Further

“…Theoretically, this observation has been adapted to liberal intervention contexts and enables us to either apprehend the interplay between international and local practices, norms and institutions (Richmond and Mitchell 2012, 1;Mac Ginty 2010), or to transcend universalizing theories to include the plurality of social orders (Boege et al 2009; see also Roberts 2008). In this context, studies about hybrid orders have revealed insights on spaces of interventions (Heathershaw andLambach 2008, Charbonneau andSears 2014), moving away from the unhelpful binaries of 'local' vs 'international', 'bottom-up' vs 'top-down', 'modern' vs 'traditional', 'internal' vs 'external', 'Western' vs 'non-Western' (see Bliesemann de Guevara 2010).…”

Intervention at Risk: The Vicious Cycle of Distance and Danger in Mali and Afghanistan

“…5 For the quote and more on the Mali attacks, see Associated Press (2015). 6 An extensive literature has by now emerged on the Mali conflict and its causes and consequences; for key events see Charbonneau and Sears (2014); for the backstory of failed international intervention see Bergamaschi (2014;see also Galy 2013). 7 For some detail on the behind-the-scenes pressures by France on Mali over intervention, see Jauvert and Halifa-Legrand (2013).…”

African security and global militarism

“…With regard to Mali, for example, the complementary logics of the French and UN stabilisation interventions have skewed and reconfigured local conflict dynamics in the central and northern areas of the country. 52 Distressingly, Operation Barkhane, the regional security organisation G5 Sahel, MINUSMA and other interveners enter into varying levels of negotiation with a selection of armed groups, in effect signalling that bearing arms and the recourse to martial practices are a requirement to achieve increased political influence, or constitute appropriate or legitimate means of addressing local marginalisation. 53 Furthermore, interventions in Mali incorporate counter-terrorism logics to varying degrees which means that Operation Barkhane and G5 Sahel operations further jeopardise the safety of MINUSMA forces, Malian troops, and local communities perceived as supporting foreigners.…”