Local International: State-society relations and international-local interactions in post-war states
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bristol
Department Name: Politics
Abstract
This proposed project builds on the main contributions of my thesis, contending that in recent years in Sri Lanka and other post-war states, understandings of 'state', 'society', 'local' and 'international' have created perceptions that are inaccurate to the reality on the ground. The project approaches this problem by interrogating literatures around the state and sovereignty (Caporaso 2000; Gainsborough 2010; Scott 1998) and the postcolonial nation (Chatterjee 1993; Harris-White 2003; Jalal 2002) to form a robust critique of the post-war state generally, and the Sri Lankan state specifically. Sri Lanka was deeply divided by a war between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam between 1986 and 2009. My PhD analysed the resultant post-war context during three fieldwork periods, the last of which was in 2014.
For this PDF, I will conduct one further fieldwork period in March 2019, interviewing new and established contacts in civil society, the state and international donor organisations. With the new Government now in power and much more accepting of foreign researchers, I will have much greater access to state actors (the lack of access in 2014 being a limitation to my PhD that I overcame through documentary analysis). Therefore I will deepen and broaden my understanding of society-state and international-local interactions through this fieldwork period. The project unpacks ideas of civil society, particularly exploring the ideas of resilience (Duffield 2010: 459; Evans 2013: 39; Reid 2009). Employing interview material, the project analyses the human side of these ideas and the intricacies surrounding how resilience and exhaustion are experienced. This project asserts that the component parts of the state and society-and the individuals within them-must be analysed separately, as sweeping arguments based on the idea of 'the state' behaving in a certain way toward 'the society' are inaccurate to the Sri Lankan post-war context. The project argues that the difference between state and society actors depends much more on their individual backgrounds and objectives than on which sphere they 'belong' to. Thus, individuals belonging to NGOs perceived as 'anti-government' may well have close working and personal relationships with public servants (Evans 1996: 1122). Equally, employees of the state may hold highly critical views of that state (Stepan 1978: xiii). And while 'the state' as an effect may close-down civil society activities deemed to be anti-state, in Sri Lanka's case this has arguably only occurred where the activity in question clearly aimed to influence the electorate's views. These ideas are substantiated with interview material.
This project will interrogate the idea of there being a fixed 'international' in relation to a fixed 'local'. It will contend that the state is more an effect caused by an assemblage of practices and power relations-that the state is not a unitary physical entity but the projection of multiple physical entities (even though these individual departments or actors often disagree with each other). Mitchell terms this the effect of the state (1991: 94-95). It is further argued that similar projections occur for civil society, local actors and international actors alike, an oversimplification which has only served to confuse those analysing the post-war environment. Through this analysis, the project illuminates the detailed human interactions taking place often in contravention to these categorisations. This analysis is applicable to other states (including the UK), as it helps us to understand far more about why individuals who are members of externally-homogeneous organisations in fact have heterogeneous views. However, testing it on a range of post-war environments will pave the way for this to be developed into a much larger research study, the findings of which can be operationalised by civil society organisations, governments and international actors.
For this PDF, I will conduct one further fieldwork period in March 2019, interviewing new and established contacts in civil society, the state and international donor organisations. With the new Government now in power and much more accepting of foreign researchers, I will have much greater access to state actors (the lack of access in 2014 being a limitation to my PhD that I overcame through documentary analysis). Therefore I will deepen and broaden my understanding of society-state and international-local interactions through this fieldwork period. The project unpacks ideas of civil society, particularly exploring the ideas of resilience (Duffield 2010: 459; Evans 2013: 39; Reid 2009). Employing interview material, the project analyses the human side of these ideas and the intricacies surrounding how resilience and exhaustion are experienced. This project asserts that the component parts of the state and society-and the individuals within them-must be analysed separately, as sweeping arguments based on the idea of 'the state' behaving in a certain way toward 'the society' are inaccurate to the Sri Lankan post-war context. The project argues that the difference between state and society actors depends much more on their individual backgrounds and objectives than on which sphere they 'belong' to. Thus, individuals belonging to NGOs perceived as 'anti-government' may well have close working and personal relationships with public servants (Evans 1996: 1122). Equally, employees of the state may hold highly critical views of that state (Stepan 1978: xiii). And while 'the state' as an effect may close-down civil society activities deemed to be anti-state, in Sri Lanka's case this has arguably only occurred where the activity in question clearly aimed to influence the electorate's views. These ideas are substantiated with interview material.
This project will interrogate the idea of there being a fixed 'international' in relation to a fixed 'local'. It will contend that the state is more an effect caused by an assemblage of practices and power relations-that the state is not a unitary physical entity but the projection of multiple physical entities (even though these individual departments or actors often disagree with each other). Mitchell terms this the effect of the state (1991: 94-95). It is further argued that similar projections occur for civil society, local actors and international actors alike, an oversimplification which has only served to confuse those analysing the post-war environment. Through this analysis, the project illuminates the detailed human interactions taking place often in contravention to these categorisations. This analysis is applicable to other states (including the UK), as it helps us to understand far more about why individuals who are members of externally-homogeneous organisations in fact have heterogeneous views. However, testing it on a range of post-war environments will pave the way for this to be developed into a much larger research study, the findings of which can be operationalised by civil society organisations, governments and international actors.
People |
ORCID iD |
Gilberto Algar-Faria (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Christie R
(2020)
Timely interventions: Temporality and peacebuilding
in European Journal of International Security
Description | This project led to the creation of new knowledge on trust in state-society relations and local and international identities in post-war environments. Fieldwork was conducted in Sri Lanka (April 2019), Bosnia and Herzegovina (November 2019), Kosovo (November 2019) and Cambodia (December 2019). The most significant part of this new knowledge came in the finding that peace actors in a post-war environment are most likely to collaborate with each other on the basis of less-visible commonalities in their experiences and identities. For example, where two individuals went to the same school as children, they were much more likely to collaborate as adults even if the organisations they worked for had opposing objectives. Another element of the project unpacked the idea of what it is to be local to a country, and what it is to be international to a context. This part of the research found that, in a post-war environment, peace actors are much more likely to define themselves and those they appreciate working with on their worldview than they are on whether or not someone is born in a given country. This is important given the fact that donor policies toward post-war environments tend to prioritise 'local ownership' and 'local capacity building'. The research opened up important new research questions on the role of art in peacebuilding. This is a relatively underexplored area. Interviewees during the fieldwork periods identified that art was used to bring elements of the war that had been forgotten back into collective memory, to advocate for peace and to resist against human rights violations, as well as to articulate memories and sentiments from and to local communities that might otherwise be marginalised and forgotten. But on the other side, art was also used to overwrite the past, to garner nationalist sentiment against political opposition, and so on. Therefore, the role of art and artists in peacebuilding environments presents a new set of research questions for future studies. This award allowed for a range of research activities to take place, which have been detailed elsewhere in this submission. However, to summarise, this project led to the creation of new empirical data as well as the publication and dissemination of some of the findings. The four fieldwork periods mentioned above entailed a total of over 40 interviews being conducted during cumulatively two months of interviewing, thus producing rich empirical data in the form of interview transcripts. During the award, the fellow's research findings were delivered as part of a policy engagement workshop in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in April 2019. The fellow's research findings were also presented at the "British International Studies Association Annual Conference" in London, UK, and at the "CEEISA-ISA Joint International Conference" in Belgrade, Serbia, both in June 2019. This award led to the publication of one peer-reviewed journal article and one policy briefing. During the award, the fellow conducted additional work to refine his PhD thesis into a draft book proposal submission, and adapted one of his PhD chapters into a journal article draft. |
Exploitation Route | My research outcomes can be taken forward through the academic research of trust in post-war environments and how this links to peace actors' identities. The outcomes can also be taken forward in another direction through research of the role of art in peacebuilding that takes into account not only the liberal human rights promoting role art can occupy, but also the illiberal and nationalist role it can play. In terms of non-academic routes, my research outcomes will be particularly helpful for international actors (intergovernmental organisations, states, donor organisations and international non-governmental organisations) who hope to better understand how they might engage with a post-war environment in a way that promotes a sustainable and inclusive peace. In particular, the research outcomes might assist them in identifying what they mean when they aim to engage with 'local actors' for 'local ownership' and 'local capacity building', and in formulating the best solutions for simultaneously promoting trust and resilience, in a post-war environment. |
Sectors | Government, Democracy and Justice,Security and Diplomacy |
Description | Methods of NGO and civil society resilience in post-war Sri Lanka: A comparison of the Rajapaksa and Sirisena regimes |
Amount | $1,200 (USD) |
Organisation | International Studies Association (ISA) |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United States |
Start | 03/2020 |
End | 04/2020 |
Description | NGO and civil society resilience in post-war Sri Lanka |
Amount | £578 (GBP) |
Funding ID | Faculty of Law: RSF1920-44 |
Organisation | University of Oxford |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2020 |
End | 04/2020 |
Description | PolicyBristol (Support Scheme), "Peace and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka: Reflections 10 years after the end of the war" |
Amount | £1,096 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Bristol |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2019 |
End | 07/2019 |
Description | Widening Participation in the Cameroon Peacebuilding Process |
Amount | £24,635 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ESRC IAA: 2002-KEA-509 |
Organisation | University of Oxford |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2020 |
End | 03/2021 |
Description | Peace and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka: Reflections 10 years after the end of the war |
Organisation | Centre for Poverty Analysis |
Country | Sri Lanka |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | I contributed my expertise in peacebuilding and my facilitation skills. |
Collaborator Contribution | CEPA contributed their facilities, staff members and contacts. |
Impact | (1) A policy engagement event in Colombo, Sri Lanka, (2) A website containing relevant information, and (3) a policy briefing with PolicyBristol summarising key findings and informed by my research. |
Start Year | 2019 |