New volume: Knowledge, peace and international intervention
Knowledge about violent conflict and international intervention is political. It involves power struggles over the objects of knowing (problematization/silencing), how they are known (epistemic practices), and what interpretations are taken into account in policymaking and implementation. This topic is explored in a recently published edited volume by Berit Bliesemann de Guevara and HVCs Roland Kostić, carrying the title Knowledge and Expertise in International Interventions: The Politics of Facts, Truth and Authenticity (Routledge).
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The book is divided into chapters covering a wide array of topics, such as the social construction of facts, truth and authenticity through studies of militia research in the DR Congo; on-site visits in intervention theatres by politicians in the Balkans and Afghanistan; and the epistemic practices of Human Rights Watch and comics journalism. Other aspects dealt with concern the strategic side of knowledge through case studies of diplomatic counterinsurgency in Bosnia and Herzegovina; the active role of African governments in the ‘bunkerization’ of international aid workers, and authoritarian peacebuilding as a challenge to the liberal power/knowledge regime in world politics.