Democracy Promotion As Foreign Policy
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DEMOCRACY PROMOTION AS FOREIGN POLICY AS FOREIGN PROMOTION DEMOCRACY series editors JENNY EDKINS AND NICK VAUGHAN-WILLIAMS This book looks at democracy promotion as a form of foreign policy. Elliott asks why democracy was seen to be the answer to the 7/7 bombings in London, and why it should be promoted not in Britain, but in Pakistan. The book provides a detailed answer to these questions, examining the logic and the modes of thinking that made such a response possible through analysis of the stories we tell about ourselves: stories about time, history, development, civilisation and the ineluctable spread of democracy. Elliott argues that these narratives have become a key tool in enabling practices that differentiate selves from others, friends from enemies, the domestic from the foreign, civilisation from the barbarian. They operate with a particular conception of time and constitute a British, democratic, national identity by positing an “other” that is barbaric, alien, despotic, violent and backward. Such understandings are useful in the wake of disaster, because they leave us with something to do: danger can be managed by bringing certain people and places up-to-date. However, this book shows that there are other stories to be told, and that it is possible to read stories about history against the grain and author alternative, less oppressive, versions. Providing a genealogy drawing on material from colonial and postcolonial Britain and Pakistan, including legislation, political discourse, popular culture and government projects, this book will be of interest to scholars and students focusing on democracy promotion, genealogy, critical border studies, poststructural IR, postcolonial politics, discourse analysis, identity/subjectivity, and “the war on terror”. Cathy Elliott is a Senior Teaching Fellow at the School of Public Policy, University College London. She previously worked as a development manager in Pakistan. Her research interests include poststructural international relations; time, temporality and history; politics and aesthetics; and feminism and gender. Cathy Elliott DEMOCRACY PROMOTION AS FOREIGN POLICY TEMPORAL OTHERING IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS POLITICS / DEMOCRACY Cover image: © Peter Sanders ISBN 978-1-138-66972-7 The Tracks of My Tears INTERVENTIONS Muhammad Jamil, CSA, tending his small garden at Edgware Road www.routledge.com Tube Station. He was one of the first CATHY ELLIOTT people to rush down the train tunnel 9 781138 669727 on 7/7 to offer assistance. Routledge titles are available as eBook editions in a range of digital formats Democracy Promotion as Foreign Policy This book looks at democracy promotion as a form of foreign policy. Elliott asks why democracy was seen to be the answer to the 7/7 bombings in London, and why it should be promoted not in Britain, but in Pakistan. The book provides a detailed answer to these questions, examining the logic and the modes of thinking that made such a response possible through analysis of the stories we tell about ourselves: stories about time, history, development, civilisation and the ineluctable spread of democracy. Elliott argues that these narratives have become a key tool in enabling practices that differentiate selves from others, friends from enemies, the domestic from the foreign, civilisation from the barbarian. They operate with a particular conception of time and constitute a British, democratic, national identity by positing an “other” that is barbaric, alien, despotic, violent and backward. Such understandings are useful in the wake of disaster, because they leave us with something to do: danger can be managed by bringing cer- tain people and places up-to-date. However, this book shows that there are other stories to be told, and that it is possible to read stories about history against the grain, and author alternative, less oppressive versions. Providing a genealogy drawing on material from colonial and postcolonial Britain and Pakistan, including legislation, political discourse, popular culture and government projects, this book will be of interest to scholars and students focusing on democracy promotion, genealogy, critical border studies, post- structural international relations, postcolonial politics, discourse analysis, identity/subjectivity, and the “war on terror”. Cathy Elliott is a Senior Teaching Fellow at the School of Public Policy, University College London. She previously worked as a development man- ager in Pakistan. Her research interests include poststructural international relations; time, temporality and history; politics and aesthetics; and feminism and gender. Interventions Edited by: Jenny Edkins, Aberystwyth University and Nick Vaughan-Williams, University of Warwick The Series provides a forum for innovative and interdisciplinary work that engages with alternative critical, post-structural, feminist, postcolonial, psychoanalytic and cultural approaches to international relations and global politics. In our first 5 years we have published 60 volumes. We aim to advance understanding of the key areas in which scholars working within broad critical post-structural traditions have chosen to make their interventions, and to present innovative analyses of important topics. Titles in the series engage with critical thinkers in philosophy, sociology, poli- tics and other disciplines and provide situated historical, empirical and textual studies in international politics. For a full list of available titles please visit https://www.routledge.com/series/INT. The most recent titles in this series are: Refugees in Extended Exile Living on the edge Jennifer Hyndman and Wenona Giles Security Without Weapons Rethinking violence, nonviolent actions, and civilian protection M. S. Wallace Disorienting Democracy Politics of emancipation Clare Woodford Democracy Promotion as Foreign Policy Temporal othering in International Relations Cathy Elliott Asylum Seekers, Sovereignty, and the Senses of the International A politico-corporeal struggle Eeva Puumala Global Powers of Horror Security, politics, and the body in pieces François Debrix Democracy Promotion as Foreign Policy Temporal othering in international relations Cathy Elliott First published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Cathy Elliott The right of Cathy Elliott to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Elliott, Cathy. Title: Democracy promotion as foreign policy : temporal othering in international relations / by Cathy Elliott. Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016037848| ISBN 9781138669727 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315618050 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Democratization–International cooperation. | Democracy. | international relations. Classification: LCC JC423 .E385 2017 | DDC 327.1/1–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016037848 ISBN: 978-1-138-66972-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-31561-805-0 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Taylor & Francis Books To my mum and dad, with love Contents List of figures viii Preface ix Introduction 1 1 What is democracy promotion? 22 2 Democratic representation 38 3 Disordering histories 55 4 Authoring the codes elsewhere: Colonial governmentality and teleological time 82 5 Blood in the codes: Liberal governmentality, democracy and Pakistan 106 6 Twelve months that shook the world: 1989 and the Salman Rushdie affair 126 7 The art of integration: Representing British Muslims 147 Conclusion: Democracy promotion, time and the “radical ordinary” 165 Bibliography 176 Index 196 Figure 2.1 Why politics will not fix Pakistan 38 Preface On Friday 13 November 2015, we tragically saw yet another co-ordinated terrorist attack in a European capital city. Gunmen and suicide bombers in Paris attacked a rock concert, a sports stadium, and various bars and restau- rants, killing 130 people and injuring many more (BBC, 2015a). A two-minute monologue by BBC TV political affairs presenter Andrew Neil condemning the attacks subsequently went viral on social media. It was later translated into French and made freely available on the BBC website in both languages (BBC, 2015b). This intervention summed up common discursive responses to such terrible events. The attackers, says Neil, are more in a long historical line of “fascists, Nazis and Stalinists” who have attacked Europe and “democ- racy” before. He proposes that France is a symbol of “civilisation” and cites as evidence a long list of distinguished French citizens. This is mainly a roll call of dead white men – including Sartre and Camus but not Simone de Beauvoir – though Juliette