Dialectics of Intervention

International interventions are enduring and complex agents of transformation, employed with the intention and pretense of repairing social and political order. Despite several shortfalls and criticisms, interventions are still deployed as means to fix and restore liberal peace; they are meant to provide local development and rebuild infrastructure in countries considered fragile or unstable according to Western liberal standards. This Special Issue questions the problem of interventions’ persistence and multidimensionality by asking what makes interventions still relevant, often inevitable, and for whom. It focuses on the multiple official discourses, policies, techno-political practices, and mechanisms that continue to justify international interventions and their impact in the present. Moreover, many contributions to this Special Issue privilege the experiences of those under intervention to center their voices and alternative views against the official dominant narratives of international agencies and analysts.