Abstract
This chapter will, on the one hand, show that in their problematization of individual and collective autonomy, Western rationalities and practices of counter-insurgency can be read as symptomatic of a post-liberal paradigm of intervention. Yet, on the other hand, this contribution will also problematize the supposed break between liberal and post-liberal rationalities and practices of intervention. In fact, liberal political thought has always problematized autonomy. Moreover, a supposed incapacity for responsible individual and collective self-governance has always been a major catalyst for liberal intervention both at home and abroad. This is brought into stark relief by the colonial genealogy of counter-insurgency. Just like the colonial small-wars tradition, from which it descends, contemporary Western counter-insurgency points up the illiberalism of liberalism’s problematization of autonomy. The problematization of autonomy opens up a field for outside intervention, and the more irresponsible and excessive local autonomy is deemed to be, the more coercive and violent are the chosen instruments of intervention.
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Kienscherf, M. (2017). ‘A Struggle for Control and Influence’: Western Counterinsurgency and the Problematic of Autonomy. In: Moe, L., Müller, MM. (eds) Reconfiguring Intervention. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58877-7_2
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