7. Nicolas Lemay-Hébert and Gëzim Visoka (2019), ‘Normal Peace: A New Strategic Narrative of Intervention’, in Ho-Won Jeong (ed.) Conflict Management and Transformation: Theory and Practice, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 27-46.
International actors have used multiple discursive frameworks for justifying interventions, from human security to the responsibility to protect, and, most recently, resilience-building. We argue that, the language of normalization, hidden behind these narratives of interventions, has also contributed to structure the intervention landscape, in less obvious and overt ways than other competing narratives of intervention. This chapter disentangles the different practices of normalization in order to highlight their ramifications. It introduces the concept of normal peace – a new conceptual reference to understand interventions undertaken by the international community to impose, restore or accept normalcy in turbulent societies. The chapter argues that the optimization of interventions entails selective responses to govern risk. The art of what is politically possible underlines the choice of optimal intervention, be that to impose an external order of normalcy, restore the previous order of normalcy, or accept the existing order of normalcy.
Link: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781786610256/Conflict-Intervention-and-Transformation-Theory-and-Practice
