Creating room for manoeuvre: domestic repertoires of action in international post-war interventions

Abstract

This article contributes to debates about the scope and influence of local agency in international state- and security-building interventions by investigating how domestic intermediary actors create and make use of their room for manoeuvre in intervention processes. The article empirically reconstructs a set of distinct domestic repertoires of action in intervention processes to highlight the different ways in which domestic actors ‘manage’ and ‘push back’ international donors. The article bases its argument on a qualitative study of domestic agency in two post-war political settings that have been exposed to multiple international state- and security-building interventions. It draws on problem-centred and expert interviews conducted in 2015 and 2016 in Côte d’Ivoire and Lebanon to make its case.