Educating into liberal peace: the International Crisis Group’s contribution to an emerging global governmentality

Abstract

Indonesia has seen excessive political violence in the first years since the end of autocratic rule under former president Suharto. Documented violence has ranged from separatist struggle to communal strife to terrorist attacks. The International Crisis Group (icg) has reported extensively on the conflicts underlying this violence and has formulated policy advice on how to overcome them. While the icg’s reports on Indonesia have been acknowledged for their detailed and accurate account of micro-level violence, their recommendations reveal their political objectives. The icg’s panacea for overcoming violent conflicts is institution building and security sector reform, which are centrepieces of the ‘standard programme’ of liberal peace- and state building. However, it is not only its policy advice but all the icg’s publications in general that aim to diffuse the liberal governance agenda. This article argues that, through the narrative technique of epideictic oratory, the icg is aiming to educate its audience into a liberal governmentality characterised by practices and procedures which effect a de-politicisation of violence, foster liberal forms of governance and self-government and thus contribute to sustaining liberalism as a global ‘regime of power’.