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ABSTRACT
This article has a twofold aim. First, it discusses the contributions to the scholarly field of conflict knowledge and expertise in this special issue on Knowledge production in/about conflict and intervention: finding ‘facts’, telling ‘truth’. Second, it suggests an alternative reading of the issue’s contributions. Starting from the assumption that prevalent ways of knowing are always influenced by wider material and ideological structures at specific times, the article traces the influence of contemporary neoliberalism on general knowledge production structures in Western societies, and more specifically in Western academia, before re-reading the special issue’s contributions through this prism. The main argument is that neoliberalism leaves limited space for independent critical knowledge, thereby negatively affecting what can be known about conflict and intervention. The article concludes with some tasks for reflexive scholarship in neoliberal times.
Acknowledgements
The contributions to this special issue were first presented at a conference under the title ‘Knowledge Production in Conflict and Intervention—the Art of Composing the Picture’ at Uppsala University on 1–2 June 2014, financed by the Swedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, and at a panel of the International Studies Association Annual Convention 2015 in New Orleans under the title ‘Battles of Ideas and Narratives: The Production of Knowledge in Conflict and Intervention’. We would like to thank all participants of these events for their engaged discussion and thoughtful critique. Finally, the authors wish to thank Florian Kühn for his comments and suggestions on the final draft of the paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Dr Berit Bliesemann de Guevara is a Reader in Peacebuilding, Post-war Reconstruction and Transitional Justice and the Director of the Centre for the International Politics of Knowledge at Aberystwyth University’s Department of International Politics. Her research explores ways and problems of knowing in conflict and intervention politics through projects on transnational think tanks, knowledge transfers between science, justice and politics, remote and local forms of conflict knowledge, urban legends of intervention, myths in international politics and politicians’ field visits. She has also published extensively on international statebuilding, armed conflicts and political charisma.
Dr Roland Kostić is an Associate Professor in Peace and Conflict Research and Senior Lecturer in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the Hugo Valentin Centre, Uppsala University. His current research interests include knowledge production in conflict and peacebuilding interventions, diversification and privatization of knowledge production by think tanks, experts, policymakers and diplomats, and transfer and shaping of intervention knowledge by means of formal and informal networks. His other research interests include transitional justice and reconciliation after mass violence.
Notes
1. Examples are the research group ‘Conflict Expertise: Competing Knowledges—Heterogeneous Experts’ convened by Anna Leander and Ole Waever (Copenhagen Business School), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) seminar series ‘From data to knowledge: understanding peace and conflict from afar’ led by Jonathan Fisher (Birmingham University), and the ‘Centre for the International Politics of Knowledge’ at Aberystwyth University’s Department of International Politics.
2. An example of this problem is the debate about foreign powers trying to influence the US elections through hacking and publishing emails of the members of Hillary Clinton’s team (Ashkens Citation2017).