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Public Planet Books
Powerless by Design: The Age of the International Community
In Powerless by Design Michel Feher addresses Western officials’ responses to post–Cold War conflicts and analyzes the reactions of the Left to their governments’ positions. Sometime in the early 1990s, Feher argues, U.S. and European leaders began portraying themselves as the representatives of a new international community. In that capacity, they developed a doctrine that was not only at odds with the rhetoric of the Cold War but also a far cry from the “new world order” announced at the outset of the decade. Whereas their predecessors had invested every regional conflict with an ideological stake, explains Feher, the representatives of this international community claimed that the crises they confronted did not call for partisan involvement.
Exemplary of this new approach were Western responses to ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia and genocide in Rwanda. In order to avoid costly interventions, U.S. and European leaders traced these crimes to ancient tribal enmities and professed that the role of the international community should be limited to a humanitarian, impartial, and conciliatory engagement with all the warring parties. They thus managed to appear righteous but powerless, at least until NATO’s intervention in Kosovo. Faced with this doctrine, both the liberal and radical wings of the Western Left found themselves in an uneasy position. Liberals, while lured by their leaders’ humanitarianism were nonetheless disturbed by the dismal results of the policies carried out in the name of the international community. Conversely, anti-imperialist militants were quick to mock the hypocrisy of their governments’ helpless indignation, yet certainly not prepared to demand that Western powers resort to force.
Are we still in this “age of the international community”? Feher shows that with NATO’s intervention in Kosovo, both liberal and radical activists suddenly found their the former welcomed the newfound resolve of their governments, while the latter condemned it as the return of the imperialist “new world order.” For Western leaders, however, the war against Serbia proved an accident rather than a turning point. Indeed, less than a year later, their indifference to the destruction of Chechnya by Russian troops suggested that the discursive strategy exposed in Powerless by Design might remain with us for quite some time.
Exemplary of this new approach were Western responses to ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia and genocide in Rwanda. In order to avoid costly interventions, U.S. and European leaders traced these crimes to ancient tribal enmities and professed that the role of the international community should be limited to a humanitarian, impartial, and conciliatory engagement with all the warring parties. They thus managed to appear righteous but powerless, at least until NATO’s intervention in Kosovo. Faced with this doctrine, both the liberal and radical wings of the Western Left found themselves in an uneasy position. Liberals, while lured by their leaders’ humanitarianism were nonetheless disturbed by the dismal results of the policies carried out in the name of the international community. Conversely, anti-imperialist militants were quick to mock the hypocrisy of their governments’ helpless indignation, yet certainly not prepared to demand that Western powers resort to force.
Are we still in this “age of the international community”? Feher shows that with NATO’s intervention in Kosovo, both liberal and radical activists suddenly found their the former welcomed the newfound resolve of their governments, while the latter condemned it as the return of the imperialist “new world order.” For Western leaders, however, the war against Serbia proved an accident rather than a turning point. Indeed, less than a year later, their indifference to the destruction of Chechnya by Russian troops suggested that the discursive strategy exposed in Powerless by Design might remain with us for quite some time.
184 pages, Hardcover
First published September 4, 2000
19 people want to read
About the author
Michel Feher
21 books14 followersMichel Feher, a Belgian philosopher, is the author of Powerless by Design: The Age of the International Community and the editor of Nongovernmental Politics and Europe at a Crossroads, among other titles. Founder of Cette France-là, a monitoring group on French immigration policy, Feher is also a founding editor of Zone Books.
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April 8, 2011
I expected this book, published 2000, to suffer the fate of many books of its kind. namely, that it was published before that fabled september morning that "changed everything."
it is a testament to feher's analytical rigor that it does not. that, or perhaps the events of the "arab spring" and the NATO 'intervention' in libya put paid to that always ridiculous notion that 9/11 changed everything. maybe for those that werent paying attention, but i digress.
reading this book during the aforementioned uprisings, was an interesting and illuminating exercise in cognitive frission. situations and terminology detonate like air-to-surface missiles in this new theatre of operations of the mind, shaping new configurations that reveal that the old and busted is once again the new hotness when it comes to the realpolitik machinations of the "international community".
but where the book really comes through is in its clear-eyed and fair critique of the oppositional response the praxis of power. both the liberal anti-war left and the radical anti-imperialist fractions are taken to task for their limpid response to the end of the cold war and their inability to adapt to the new conditions.
indeed, although it is now 10+ years old, the last chapter is an excellent jumping off point for all the ballers and brawlers that want to be shot-callers in the internationalist thunderdome.
it is a testament to feher's analytical rigor that it does not. that, or perhaps the events of the "arab spring" and the NATO 'intervention' in libya put paid to that always ridiculous notion that 9/11 changed everything. maybe for those that werent paying attention, but i digress.
reading this book during the aforementioned uprisings, was an interesting and illuminating exercise in cognitive frission. situations and terminology detonate like air-to-surface missiles in this new theatre of operations of the mind, shaping new configurations that reveal that the old and busted is once again the new hotness when it comes to the realpolitik machinations of the "international community".
but where the book really comes through is in its clear-eyed and fair critique of the oppositional response the praxis of power. both the liberal anti-war left and the radical anti-imperialist fractions are taken to task for their limpid response to the end of the cold war and their inability to adapt to the new conditions.
indeed, although it is now 10+ years old, the last chapter is an excellent jumping off point for all the ballers and brawlers that want to be shot-callers in the internationalist thunderdome.
Displaying 1 of 1 review