Intervention at risk: the vicious cycle of distance and danger in Mali and Afghanistan

Ruben Andersson and Florian Weigand

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: In crisis-hit countries, intensive risk management increasingly characterizes the presence of international interveners, with measures ranging from fortified compounds to ‘remote programming’. This article investigates the global drive for ‘security’ from an ethnographic perspective, focusing on Afghanistan and Mali. By deploying the concepts of distance and proximity, the article shows how frontline ‘outsourcing’ and bunkering have generated an unequal ‘risk economy’ while distancing interveners from local society in a trend that itself generates novel risks. To conclude, the article asks whether alternative forms of proximity may help to break the vicious cycle of danger and distance at work in today’s crisis zones.

Keywords: international intervention; security; risk management; remote management; bunkerization; peacekeeping; international organizations; Afghanistan; Mali (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J01 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-07-30
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 30, July, 2015, 9(4), pp. 519-541. ISSN: 1750-2977

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:62160

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