Suchergebnisse

Peace as Government: The Will to Normalize Timor-Leste brings a problematization of post-conflict reconstruction processes by bridging two theoretical approaches that are often placed in diametrical opposite epistemic poles – the analytical tools developed by Michel Foucault and the English School. The author argues that peace operations have a very precise function in the international scenario – the fostering and the maintenance of a (neo)liberal order in the international society. He evinces that this particular function of peace operations is developed through the will to normalize post-conflict states and their populations. In order to advance his argument, the author analyses the United Nations' (UN) engagement with Timor-Leste, since no other country had the large number of peace operations, the wide range of spheres of engagement or the depth of involvement that the UN had in Timor-Leste. The author evinces that this will to normalize Timor-Leste is rendered operational though the mechanism of government, the conduct of conducts in a Foucauldian sense, functioning in two levels. At the international level, the government operates through discipline, rewarding and punishing the Timorese state seeking to shape its behaviors as an individual in the international society. At the national level, the government operates through biopolitics, which functions through the attempt of shaping the life-supporting processes of the Timorese population.

This paper brings a comprehensive analysis of the peacebuilding process conducted by the UN in Timor-Leste. Drawing on fieldwork, interviews, and secondary sources, the paper brings light to the main fragilities of this process. Firstly, the paper briefly outlines the scholarly debate around UN peacebuilding process. Then, the paper brings an overview of the UN missions deployed to Timor-Leste. Finally, the paper identifies the major limitations of such engagement. By highlighting the main flaws of this peacebuilding process, the paper opens the space for (re)thinking alternative ways of building peace in post-conflict scenarios.