Why locals can't own international interventions: evidence from civilian EU missions in Somalia, Kosovo and the Palestinian Territories

Why locals can't own international interventions: evidence from civilian EU missions in Somalia, Kosovo and the Palestinian Territories

Wednesday, 7 June 2017 - 12:30pm
Venue: 
Seminar Room E, 2nd Floor, DPIR, Manor Road Building
Speaker(s): 
Filip Ejdus (University of Bristol)
Chair: 
Adis Merdzanovic (St Antony's College, Oxford)
Discussant: 
Richard Caplan (Linacre College, Oxford), Vjosa Musliu (Free University of Brussels)
Series: 
European Studies Seminar

Local ownership principle is based on the political rationality of interveners and operationalised as a responsibilisation of locals for externally designed objectives. This gives rise to various forms of local resistance that ultimately undermine international efforts to achieve the local buy-in. I illustrate my arguments with examples from the EU Regional Maritime Capacity Building Mission in the Horn of Africa (EUCAP Nestor) and the EU Police Mission in the Palestinian Territories (EUPOL Copps).

Filip Ejdus is a Marie Curie Fellow at the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol and an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade.  He is currently working on a project entitled Local Ownership in Security Sector Reform Activities Within CSDP Operations of the EU.

Light lunch provided.

In association with CIS, DPIR