Global Assemblages of Security Governance and Contemporary International Intervention

ABSTRACT

This article draws from the concept of assemblages in order to examine the component parts of contemporary international interventions. It argues that in contrast mainstream analyses of statebuilding and peacebuilding, as well as more critical treatments that tie interventions to the concept of 'international order', the concept of assemblages offers a more compelling vantage point from which to examine the disparate lines of forces that make up modern-day interventions. The article proposes an exploration of some of the component parts that sustain the current assemblage of governance, security, and international intervention and draws our attention to their self-sustaining rationalities.

KEYWORDS:

• global assemblages
• intervention
• statebuilding
• peacebuilding
• governance
• international order
• security

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers and the editors for their comments and suggestions. They have contributed to helping me clarifying my arguments. I would also like to thank Berit Bliesemann de Guevara for her thoughtful comments when the revised version of this paper was presented at the 56th International Studies Association (ISA) Convention in New Orleans, 18–21 February 2015. Any errors or omissions remain my own.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on Contributors

Marc G. Doucet is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Canada. His current research explores the police–security project of contemporary forms of international intervention. He is the co-editor of Security and Global Governmentality and his recent authored and co-authored publications have appeared in Salter and Mutlu, Research Methods in Critical Security Studies; Bachmann, Bell, and Holmqvist, War, Police and Assemblages of Intervention; Chandler and Hynek, Critical Perspectives on Human Security; International Studies Review; Review of Constitutional Studies; and Security Dialogue. ([email protected])

Notes

1. The first volume, published in 1972, was titled L’anti-œdipe: capitalisme et schizophrénie 1.

2. Expenditures for 2012 were down by 0.5 per cent from 2011, but this was the first annual drop since 1998. Figures for 2013 place global expenditures at US$1.75 trillion.