Beyond International Intervention: Politics of Improvement in Serbia
Beyond International Intervention: Politics of Improvement in Serbia
by Katarina Kušic
University of Michigan Press, 2025
ISBNs
Cloth: 978-0-472-07735-9
Paper: 978-0-472-05735-1
eISBN: 978-0-472-90495-2 (OA)
About the Book
Studies of statebuilding and peacebuilding have been criticized for their disregard of people living the consequences of intervention projects. Beyond International Intervention takes on the task of engaging with spaces and peoples not usually present in IR scholarship to rethink the very concept of “intervention” by paying close attention to how people actually experience and make sense of those efforts. In particular, the book offers a detailed engagement with ethnographic fieldwork in two policy areas in Serbia—agricultural policy and non-formal youth education.
By engaging with subjects, the book not only enhances our understanding of intervention, but also uncovers the limitations of the concept. Katarina Kušić argues that the concept limits what we can observe and theorize, and it prevents researchers from engaging with the people living in spaces of intervention as coeval political subjects. As an alternative, she proposes to foreground improvement over “intervention.” This reorientation enables researchers to trace hierarchies beyond the local/international dichotomy, expands fields of visibility beyond those prescribed by interventions themselves, and seriously considers the contradictions at the heart of liberalism.
By engaging with subjects, the book not only enhances our understanding of intervention, but also uncovers the limitations of the concept. Katarina Kušić argues that the concept limits what we can observe and theorize, and it prevents researchers from engaging with the people living in spaces of intervention as coeval political subjects. As an alternative, she proposes to foreground improvement over “intervention.” This reorientation enables researchers to trace hierarchies beyond the local/international dichotomy, expands fields of visibility beyond those prescribed by interventions themselves, and seriously considers the contradictions at the heart of liberalism.
About the Author
Katarina Kušić is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Vienna.
Reviews
“This book investigates the local turn in a manner that every book should. It is written by the scholar who truly understands local palimpsest and examines local actors not merely as objects of international interventions but as individuals with the agency to govern their lives in the face of these interventions. The book goes beyond ‘usual suspects’ and focuses on the case of Serbia which is most often overlooked in peace and conflict studies literature. Whether you are a newcomer or an experienced peace researcher, Kušić’s book is a go-to read for understanding how international interventions have shaped present-day Serbia and the Balkans.”— Nemanja Džuverovic, University of Belgrade
“This outstanding book is an eye-opening and compelling read for all scholars of international relations, not only those interested in intervention. By innovatively breaking down the analytic walls that we construct around ‘intervention’, Kušić’s narrative tells a far more interesting story about the political order of ‘improvement’ in Serbia and its international entanglements. Kušić’s sharp theoretical and methodological interventions also make the book essential reading for all interested in the theorisation and study of the ‘international’ in all its guises.”— Meera Sabaratnam, University of Oxford
Tags
Configurations: Critical Studies Of World Politics, Nation-building, Humanitarian intervention, Improvement, Peace, International Relations, Politics, World, European, Political Science
Open Access Information
Label: Economic and Social Research Council (UK)
License: CC BY
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