‘A Struggle for Control and Influence’: Western Counterinsurgency and the Problematic of Autonomy

Abstract

This chapter will, on the one hand, show that in their problematization of individual and collective autonomy, Western rationalities and practices of counter-insurgency can be read as symptomatic of a post-liberal paradigm of intervention. Yet, on the other hand, this contribution will also problematize the supposed break between liberal and post-liberal rationalities and practices of intervention. In fact, liberal political thought has always problematized autonomy. Moreover, a supposed incapacity for responsible individual and collective self-governance has always been a major catalyst for liberal intervention both at home and abroad. This is brought into stark relief by the colonial genealogy of counter-insurgency. Just like the colonial small-wars tradition, from which it descends, contemporary Western counter-insurgency points up the illiberalism of liberalism’s problematization of autonomy. The problematization of autonomy opens up a field for outside intervention, and the more irresponsible and excessive local autonomy is deemed to be, the more coercive and violent are the chosen instruments of intervention.