Recipes for Intervention: Western Policy Papers Imagine the Congo

Abstract

This article investigates how influential policy advice constructs a stable Congo image and upholds the belief in intervention benefits. By investigating analytical blind spots and the way counter evidence is dealt with, this article shows that current policy papers imagine the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)'s economy, politics and society in a reductionist way. The economy is seen as criminal, illegal and unproductive. The state is portrayed as weak, despite obvious examples of its influence. Finally, society is seen as dominated by sexual violence. This ‘functional pathologization’ allows for self-referential reasoning about Western interventions, security sector reform for example, and serves as a recipe to perpetuate them.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to Sanja Boehler, David Chandler, Klaus Schlichte, Alex Veit, Oliver Read and Zingi Mkefa for challenging suggestions on earlier drafts of the article. I also wish to thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their recommendations and criticism. I am indebted to the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation in Berlin for generously funding my research.

Notes

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ‘Democratic Republic of Congo: A Multi-Faceted Humanitarian Crisis’, Apr. 2012 (at: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/map_2054.pdf).

Roland Paris shows that the indirect influence of academic and think-tank ideas on intervention practice is considerable. Paris, ‘Ordering the World: Academic Research and Policymaking on Fragile States’, International Studies Review, Vol.13, No.1, 2011, pp.58–71.

For this article over 50 policy papers were analysed by way of grounded theory, a methodology explained by Anselm L Strauss, Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. I analysed in detail eight reports by the International Crisis Group, seven by the UN group of experts, five by the International Peace Information Service, five by International Alert, four by Global Witness, three each by Human Rights Watch and the Enough Project, two each by the World Bank, the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael and the Institut Français des Relations Internationales, and one each by the International Peace Institute, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, KfW Entwicklungsbank, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Amnesty International, Resource Consulting Services, Communities and Artisanal & Small-scale Mining Initiative, and a UN-commissioned report on the protection of civilians, the South African Institute for Security Studies and the Congolese Pole Institute.

James Ferguson, ‘The Anti-Politics Machine: Development’, in Ferguson (ed.), Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.

Caroline Hughes and Vanessa Pupavac, ‘Framing Post-Conflict Societies: International Pathologisation of Cambodia and the Post-Yugoslav States’, Third World Quarterly, Vol.26, No.6, 2005, pp.873–89.

Kai Koddenbrock, ‘The International Self and the Humanitarianization of Politics: A Case Study of Goma, DR Congo’, in Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (ed.), Statebuilding and State-Formation: The Political Sociology of Intervention, London: Routledge, 2012, pp.214–29.

Séverine Autesserre, ‘Hobbes and the Congo – Frames, Local Violence, and International Intervention’, International Organization, Vol.63, Spring 2009, pp.249–80; Autesserre, The Trouble with the Congo – Local Violence and the Failure of International Peacebuilding, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Jason Stearns, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa, New York: Public Affairs, 2011, p.336.

Alex Veit, ‘Figurations of Uncertainty: Armed Groups and Humanitarian Military Intervention in Ituri (DR Congo)’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Vol.2, No.3, 2008, pp.291–307.

Alex Veit, Intervention as Indirect Rule: The Politics of Civil War and State-building in Ituri, Frankfurt: Campus-Verl., 2010.

Stearns (see n.8 above), p.336.

Autesserre, ‘Hobbes and the Congo’ (see n.7 above), p. 276.

Veit (see n.10 above), p.258.

The UN is not simply a Western organization. Its regular budget, however, and Secretariat operations like humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping are predominantly financed by Western states. Many consultants and experts used to draft UN reports or key advisers to the Secretary-General are also from or work in the West. See UN General Assembly Resolution 64/248 (at: www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/64/248); Michael Pugh, ‘Reflections on Aggressive Peace’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.19, No.4, 2012, pp.410–25 (at note 54).

See, for example: World Bank, ‘Democratic Republic of Congo Growth with Governance In the Mining Sector’, Washington DC: World Bank, 2008; World Bank, ‘World Development Report 2011: Background Case Study Democratic Republic of Congo’, Washington DC: World Bank, 2011; Institut Français des Relations Internationales, ‘Candide au Congo: L’échec annoncé de la réforme du secteur de sécurité' [Candide in the Congo: Setback Announced in Security Sector Reform], Paris: Institut Français des Relations Internationales, 2008; Global Witness, ‘“Faced with a Gun, What Can you Do?”, War and the Militarization of Mining in Eastern Congo’, London: Global Witness, 2009; Global Witness, ‘Congo's Minerals Trade in the Balance: Opportunities and Obstacles to Militarization’, London: Global Witness, 2011.

International Peace Information Service, ‘Mapping Conflict Motives: Eastern DRC’, Fatal Transactions, Antwerp: IPIS, 2008; UN, ‘Interim Report of the Group of Experts in the DR Congo’, New York: United Nations, 2011.

See Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What can be Done About it, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007; Macartan Humphreys, Jeffrey Sachs and Joseph E. Stiglitz (eds), Escaping the Resource Curse, New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.

Global Witness, ‘Congo's Minerals Trade in the Balance’ (see n.15 above), p.4.

International Peace Information Service (see n.16 above), p.26.

KfW Entwicklungsbank & Bundesamt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, ‘Les Ressources Naturelles en République Démocratique du Congo – Un Potentiel de Développement’ [Natural Resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo – A Development Potential], Frankfurt am Main: KfW Entwicklungsbank & Bundesamt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, 2007, pp.15ff.

Global Witness, ‘Congo's Minerals Trade in the Balance’ (see n.15 above), p.8.

Ibid., p.16. See, Pole Institute, ‘The North Kivu Mining Sector: Report on the Reopening of the Mines’, Goma: Pole Institute, 2011; Communities and Artisanal & Small-scale Mining Initiative (CASM), ‘Walikale: Artisanal Cassiterite Mining and Trade in North Kivu Implications for Poverty Reduction and Security’, Washington DC: CASM, 2008. These papers also contend that the Bisie mine contributes 70 to 80 per cent of cassiterite exports from North Kivu, but do not explain what share of overall exports or even tax revenues this corresponds to.

International Alert and IPIS, ‘The Role of Natural Resource Exploitation in a Context of State Fragility: The Case of Eastern Congo’, London: International Alert/IPIS, 2010.

World Bank, ‘Democratic Republic of Congo Growth with Governance’ (see n.15 above), p.8.

International Peace Information Service, ‘Accompanying Note on the Interactive Map of Militarised Mining Areas in the Kivus’, Antwerp: IPIS, 2009, p.11.

UN (see n.16 above), p.17; Enough Project, ‘A Comprehensive Approach to Congo's Minerals’, Washington DC: Enough Project, 2009; Global Witness, ‘Congo's Minerals Trade in the Balance’ (see n.15 above), p.6.

See for example CASM (see n.22 above); Global Witness, ‘The Hill Belongs to Them: The Need for International Action on Congo's Conflict Minerals Trade’, London: Global Witness, 2010; Enough Project (see n.26 above).

Global Witness, ‘Congo's Minerals Trade in the Balance’ (see n.15 above), p. 26.

Ibid.

World Bank, ‘World Development Report 2011’ (see n.15 above), p.18. The best report on the link between Western companies and natural resources in the Congo continues to be: Patrick Martineau, ‘La Route Commerciale du Coltan’ [The Coltan Commerce Route], 2003 (at: www.ieim.uqam.ca/IMG/pdf/Martineau_coltan.pdf).

Maria Eriksson Baaz provides a fascinating analysis of ‘illegal’ police behaviour in the DRC in which she shows how the level of profits made along the chain of barely paid officers is codified. Eriksson-Baaz and Ola Olsson, ‘Feeding the Horse: Unofficial Economic Activities within the Police Force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, African Security, Vol.4, No.4, 2011, pp.223–41.

Among others: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1993–2003’, New York: OHCHR, 2010; International Crisis Group, ‘Congo: Five Priorities for a Peacebuilding Strategy’, Nairobi/Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2009; International Crisis Group, ‘Congo: No Stability in Kivu despite Raprochement with Rwanda’, Nairobi/Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2010. The UN's first panel of expert's mandate was to investigate the ‘illegal exploitation of natural resources’ starting in 2000, underlining the importance of the issue and probably contributing to a path-dependency in thinking about the DRC.

International Alert, ‘The Role of the Exploitation of Natural Resources in Fuelling and Prolonging Crises in Eastern DRC’, London: International Alert, 2010.

Ibid., p.25.

CASM (see n.22 above) p.12.

Ibid., pp.12–3.

International Alert (see n.33 above), p.57.

Ibid., p.58.

CASM (see n.22 above), p.2; Pole Institute, ‘The North Kivu Mining Sector: Report on the Reopening of the Mines’, Goma: Pole Institute, 2011, p.16.

International Alert (see n.33 above), p.31.

Ibid., p.59.

International Peace Institute, ‘Renewing MONUSCO's Mandate: What Role Beyond the Elections?’, New York: International Peace Institute, 2011; Institut Français des Relations Internationales, ‘How to Reform Peacemaking in the Democratic Republic of Congo: When Peace Processes become International Systems of Organized Action’, Paris: Institut Français des Relations Internationales, 2009; Institut Français des Relations Internationales (see n.15 above); International Crisis Group, ‘Congo: No Stability in Kivu’ (see n.32 above), p.6.

The author's research investigates how international staff deal with insecurities of analysis and abstractions such as state, economy and society. Cf. Kai Koddenbrock, ‘Producing and Questioning the State – International Intervention and the Legacy of the State in DR Congo’, paper at the ISA Annual Convention, San Diego, 2 Apr. 2012.

Victoria Holt and Glyn Taylor, ‘Protecting Civilians in the Context of UN Peacekeeping Operations Successes, Setbacks and Remaining Challenges’, Geneva: United Nations, 2009.

There is a growing literature on government and governance in so-called failed states which belies the image of ‘nothingness’, e.g., Kristof Titeca and Tom de Herdt show convincingly how the state partakes in the provision of education in the DRC, but has out-sourced important parts of its former portfolio to private actors such as churches and parents. Cf. Kristof Titeca and Tom de Herdt, ‘Real Governance Beyond the Failed State: Negotiating Education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, African Affairs, Vol.110, No.439, 2009, pp.213–31.

UN, ‘Interim Report of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo’, Geneva: UN, 2009.

UN, ‘Final Report of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo’, New York: UN, 2010.

Global Witness, ‘Congo's Minerals Trade in the Balance’ (see n.15 above), p.8.

UN (see n.16 above), p.21.

International Alert and IPIS (see n.23 above), p.70.

International Crisis Group, ‘Congo: Five Priorities’ (see n.32 above), p.i.

Ibid., pp.32–3.

Ibid., p.i.

Human Rights Watch, ‘Always on the Run: The Vicious Cycle of Displacement in Eastern Congo’, New York: Human Rights Watch, 2010.

The author was present in Goma during these events.

International Rescue Committee, ‘Mortality in the Congo: An Ongoing Crisis’, New York: International Rescue Committee, 2007; Human Security Report Project, Human Security Report 2009/2010: The Causes of Peace and the Shrinking Costs of War, New York: Oxford University Press, 2011; Human Rights Watch (see n.54 above); World Bank, ‘World Development Report 2011’ (see n.15 above), pp.30ff.

Human Rights Watch, ‘The War within the War: Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls in Eastern Congo’, New York: Human Rights Watch, 2002.

Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, ‘“Now the World is Without Me” – An Investigation of Sexual Violence in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, 2010; Eve Ensler, ‘Women Left for Dead—and the Man Who's Saving Them’, Glamour Magazine, 1 Aug. 2007.

Françoise Duroch, ‘Le Viol, Arme de Guerre: L'humanitaire en désarroi’ [Rape, Weapon of War: Humanity in Disarray], Les Temps Modernes, Vol.59, No.627, 2004, pp.138–47; Cf. Koddenbrock (see n.6 above) on the humanitarianization of politics and the sense of urgency deployed in it.

Enough Project, ‘Certification: The Path to Conflict-Free Minerals from Congo’, Washington DC: Enough Project, 2011, p.1.

A notable exception is a report by the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, ‘Increasing Security in the DR Congo: Gender-Responsive Strategies for Combating Sexual Violence’, The Hague: Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, 2011.

Gaelle Breton-Le Goff, ‘Ending Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, The Fletcher Forum for World Affairs, Vol.24, No.1, 2010, pp.13–40.

Holt and Taylor (see n.44 above), pp.242–3.

Jeffrey Gettleman, ‘Rape Epidemic Raises Trauma of Congo War’, New York Times, 7 Oct. 2007.

Maria Eriksson Baaz and Maria Stern, ‘The Complexity of Violence: A Critical Analysis of Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’, Stockholm: Swedish International Development Agency, 2010.

Andrew Hudson, ‘Democratic Republic of Congo: Taking a Stand on Security Sector Reform’, 2012 (at: www.oenz.de/fileadmin/users/oenz/PDF/DRC_SSR-Report_2012.pdf).

Dennis Tull, Schwache Staaten, erfolgreiche Eliten: Außenpolitische Strategien afrikanischer Krisenländer [Weak States and Successful Elites Extraversion Strategies in Africa], Berlin: Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, 2011.

See World Bank web site (at: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/CONGODEMOCRATICEXTN/0,,contentMDK:23169309~menuPK:349485~pagePK:2865066~piPK:2865079~theSitePK:349466,00.html). Net official development assistance amounted to US$ 1.76 billion in 2008 and US$ 3.41 billion in 2010, OECD web site (at: www.oecd.org/dataoecd/18/31/1901167.gif).

Institut Français des Relations Internationales, ‘How to Reform Peacemaking in the Democratic Republic of Congo’ (see n.42 above), p.15.

Klaus Schlichte, ‘With the State against the State? The Formation of Armed Groups’, Contemporary Security Policy, Vol.30, No.2, 2009, pp.246–64.

Catherine Gegout, ‘The West, Realism and Intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo (1996-2006)’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.16, No.2, 2009, pp. 231–44; Renner Onana and Hannah Taylor, ‘MONUC and SSR in the Democratic Republic of Congo’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.15, No.4, 2008, pp.501–16.

Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (see n.67 above); Institut Français des Relations Internationales (see n.15 above). A similar argument is made by Stein Eriksen, ‘The Liberal Peace Is Neither: Peacebuilding, State building and the Reproduction of Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.16, No.5, 2009, pp.652–66.

Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, ‘Supporting SSR in the DRC: Between a Rock and a hard Place’, The Hague: Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, 2010.

Ferguson (see n.4 above), p.256.

Hughes and Pupavac (see n.5 above), p.887.