The 'crisis' of liberal peace has generated considerable debate in International Relations. However, analysis is inhibited by a shared set of spatial, cultural and temporal assumptions that rest on and reproduce a pro... more abstractThe 'crisis' of liberal peace has generated considerable debate in International Relations. However, analysis is inhibited by a shared set of spatial, cultural and temporal assumptions that rest on and reproduce a problematic separation between self-evident 'liberal' and 'non-liberal' worlds, and locates the crisis in presentist terms of the latter's resistance to the former's expansion. By contrast, this article argues that efforts to advance liberal rule have always been interwoven with processes of alternative order-making, and in this way are actively integral, not external, to the generation of the subjectivities, contestations, violence and rival social orders that are then apprehended as self-evident obstacles and threats to liberal peace and as characteristic of its periphery. Making visible these intimate relations of co-constitution elided by representations of liberal peace and its crisis requires a long view and an analytical frame that encompasses both liberalism and its others in the world. The argument is developed using a Foucauldian governmentality framework and illustrated with reference to Sri Lanka.

International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies, International Security, Conflict, Security Studies, and 6 more

Journal Name: European Journal of International Relations

International Relations, International Relations Theory, Peace and Conflict Studies, Postcolonial Studies, International Security, and 7 more

This paper develops a historical overview of ethnonationalist conflict in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, arguing that violence and civil war in both these contexts have their roots in the gradual consolidation of hegemonic an... more abstractThis paper develops a historical overview of ethnonationalist conflict in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, arguing that violence and civil war in both these contexts have their roots in the gradual consolidation of hegemonic and hierarchic social orders centered around majoritarian Buddhist nationalist identity. The paper argues that the significance of ethnic and nationalist identity is not well understood within dualistic mainstream frameworks. Such approaches render these forms of identity cosmetic and epiphenomenal to other underlying structural, objective and material dynamics and processes, thereby neglecting the role of ethnic and nationalist identity in both dominant, territorialising social order and state formation dynamics and resistance to these processes from subordinated ‘minority’ communities.

Peace and Conflict Studies, Nationalism, Sri Lanka, Nationalism And State Building, Burma Studies, and 4 more

Through a case study of Sinhala nationalism and its impact on ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, this article explores the idea that the study of ethno-national conflict management as well as the wider field of nationalism... more abstractThrough a case study of Sinhala nationalism and its impact on ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, this article explores the idea that the study of ethno-national conflict management as well as the wider field of nationalism studies tend to render nationalism as epiphenomenal and explicable through other underlying political and socio-economic dynamics. The article contends that nationalism studies needs to take on board lessons learnt in the social sciences from ontological, post-Gramscian and Foucaultian studies of power that do not disqualify nationalism as a channel for political mobilisation. In the case of the literature on Sinhala nationalism in Sri Lanka, the predominant tendency has been to explain these dynamics as a consequence of elite instrumentality. In contrast, what is contended here is that it is the ‘deep hegemony’ of Sinhala nationalism, demonstrated in the mobilisation of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, that has impacted profoundly on the recurrence of ethnic conflict and the consistent failure of attempts to broker peace.

Peace and Conflict Studies, Postcolonial Studies, South Asian Studies, Conflict, Nationalism, and 7 more

Introduction This chapter focuses on the significance of socially diffuse ethnic and nationalist identity dynamics in Sri Lanka and Burma, arguing that the historical hegemonisation of variant forms of majoritarian Bu... more abstractIntroduction This chapter focuses on the significance of socially diffuse ethnic and nationalist identity dynamics in Sri Lanka and Burma, arguing that the historical hegemonisation of variant forms of majoritarian Buddhist nationalism in each of these contexts has played a major role in the reproduction of violent conflict dynamics, with crucial implications for the prospects for peace in these societies. It engages the way that these globally and locally generated identity dynamics are historically reproductive of governmental, territorializing social order building and state formation dynamics that have simultaneously energised deterritorialised resistance from insurgent movements seeking autonomy or secession on the basis of minority homeland claims. Key also to the chapter is an emphasis on the mainstream disqualification in the contemporary period of the significance of identity dynamics in conflict processes. This is a result of the overwhelming influence of dualist frameworks in the mainstream social sciences.

Peace and Conflict Studies, Social Identity, Conflict, Identity (Culture), State Formation, and 4 more

This chapter explores a new kind of interventionism in the post-Cold War era and challenges faced by global actors in the reconstruction of domestic political authority in the aftermath of conflict. The chapter reflec... more abstractThis chapter explores a new kind of interventionism in the post-Cold War era and challenges faced by global actors in the reconstruction of domestic political authority in the aftermath of conflict. The chapter reflects on the meanings and implications of different facets of comprehensive external involvement in state-building, nation-building and reconstruction, before addressing the theoretical framings of international intervention in terms of (post)liberal peace and its critique. What follows is a review and discussion of dilemmas and contradictions inherent in the outsiders’ project to pursue liberal peace-based interventions by focusing on: sovereignty, legitimacy, ownership and accountability. The chapter turns to hybridity as an alternative conceptualisation of international peacebuilding and concludes with the policy implications on rethinking wholesale reconstruction of state and society by external actors.

Liberal Peacebuilding, Peacebuilding, Statebuilding, Nationbuilding and Statebuilding, International Statebuilding, and 1 more

Nationalism, National Identity, Constitutional Theory, and Ethnicity and National Identity

Conflict, Race and Ethnicity, Nationalism, National Identity, Ethnic Conflict and Civil War, and 1 more

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the manner in which attempts by Sri Lankan political elites to forge ethnic accommodation, or establish frameworks for peace negotiations, have been undermined by recurring Si... more abstractThe purpose of this chapter is to explore the manner in which attempts by Sri Lankan political elites to forge ethnic accommodation, or establish frameworks for peace negotiations, have been undermined by recurring Sinhala nationalist mobilization. The contemporary context has also demonstrated the persistence of this pattern despite the fact that during the 1990s and immediate post-2000 period, both mainstream political parties, the UNP and SLFP, appeared to have gradually dropped the baton of overt and sustained Sinhala nationalist mobilization in the interests of securing a political solution to the ethnic conflict. This trend was itself reversed through the very recent political ascendancy of smaller Sinhala nationalist political actors in the form of the JHU and JVP and their impact on the rise of the Rajapakse-led UPFA coalition. These political actors have played a key role in swinging the political pendulum back in a Sinhala nationalist arc, such that the current Rajapakse regime represents the zenith of sustained nationalist mobilization with the reversal of the peace process, the return to a military solution, and resistance to international involvement in the peace process.

Peace and Conflict Studies, Nationalism, Sri Lanka, Ethnic Conflict and Civil War, and Peacebuilding

South Asian Studies, Nationalism, Poverty and Inequality, Poverty Studies, and Poverty Dynamics

David Rampton was commissioned to complete this review in April 2012 as an evaluation of the Home Office UK Border Agency Sri Lanka Country of Origin Information Report (7 March 2012) in order to examine the Report in... more abstractDavid Rampton was commissioned to complete this review in April 2012 as an evaluation of the Home Office UK Border Agency Sri Lanka Country of Origin Information Report (7 March 2012) in order to examine the Report in the light of sources used and in relation to other sources. This evaluation also seeks to check for accuracy, coherence, balance and emphasis in the use of sources as well as checking that the sources used are up-to-date and indicating where there are clear omissions of information and errors. It should be noted that the Author was also responsible for the writing of the April 2010 IAGCI evaluation and will also draw comparisons between the findings of that report and the current 2012 IAGCI evaluation to assess improvements or their lack in the current COI report.

Asylum Law, European Immigration and Asylum Law, Forced Migration, Asylum seekers, Refugees and Forced Migration Studies, and 3 more

David Rampton was commissioned to complete this report in April 2010 as an evaluation of the Home Office UK Border Agency Sri Lanka Country of Origin Information Report (18 February 2010) in order to examine the Repor... more abstractDavid Rampton was commissioned to complete this report in April 2010 as an evaluation of the Home Office UK Border Agency Sri Lanka Country of Origin Information Report (18 February 2010) in order to examine the Report in the light of sources used and in relation to other sources. This evaluation also seeks to check for accuracy, coherence, balance and emphasis in the use of sources as well as checking that the sources used are up-to-date and indicating where there are clear omissions of information and errors.

Human Rights, International Human Rights Law, Forced Migration, Refugees and Forced Migration Studies, Asylum and refugees studies, migration and integration, and 1 more

Peace and Conflict Studies, South Asian Studies, Conflict, Race and Ethnicity, Nationalism, and 3 more

Peace and Conflict Studies, South Asian Studies, Conflict, Nationalism, Sri Lanka, and 1 more

South Asian Studies, Migration, Forced Migration, and Migration Studies

This thesis contends that nationalism must be understood in relation to the emergence of a series of power defined as discipline, governmentality, and biopolitics. It is argued that these macrophysical and microphysic... more abstractThis thesis contends that nationalism must be understood in relation to the emergence of a series of power defined as discipline, governmentality, and biopolitics. It is argued that these macrophysical and microphysical tendrils of modern power targeted as they are on bodies, populations and the „life process‟ itself in an ever more pervasive manner are reproductive of discursive representations of the „social‟ and populations which can and do operate towards hierarchies of inclusion, exclusion and marginalization in terms of privileging access to citizenship, political participation and socio-economic resources. Focusing on the colonial and postcolonial sphere and specifically the development of Sinhala nationalism in Sri Lanka, this thesis argues that the colonial encounter produced a racialised and ethnicised social mapping of Sri Lanka, which interlocking with an ontological order that already demonstrated a nexus between political power and Sinhala Buddhist identity, has resulted in the fusing of disciplinary, governmental and biopolitical modes of power with the reproduction of a potent hierarchical Sinhala majoritarianism which has subordinated Sri Lanka‟s Muslim and Tamil communities. Furthermore, the thesis contends that whilst colonial power initiated these transmutations in community and identity, Sinhala nationalist movements have also furthered the logic of disciplinary, governmental and biopolitical power resulting in the hegemonisation of nationalist discourses in the postcolonial period. The thesis focuses on the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna as a case study in Sinhala nationalist mobilisation, arguing that the degree to which this radical subaltern movement is informed by and reproduces Sinhala nationalist discourses and practices demonstrates the extent to which nationalist discursive representations of the territory, political community and identity of Sri Lanka as fundamentally Sinhala Buddhist have become hegemonic and socially diffuse.

Peace and Conflict Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Race and Ethnicity, Nationalism, National Identity, and 4 more