Peer-reviewed articles and book chapters by Nicolas Lemay-Hébert
International Journal of Transitional Justice, 2021
After belatedly apologizing for the cholera epidemic in Haiti, the 'New Approach to Cholera in Ha... more After belatedly apologizing for the cholera epidemic in Haiti, the 'New Approach to Cholera in Haiti' by the UN and the promise of material assistance to victims through a 'victim-centred approach' highlight how the victims turn and the socioeconomic turn are increasingly pivotal in the field of transitional justice. In light of these growing calls, we suggest a matrix to clarify the debate made of two separate dimensions: the focus of reparations-collective versus individual-and the means of reparationssymbolic versus material. Based on fieldwork conducted in March 2017 in the communities most affected by the cholera outbreak, this article demonstrates how the tensions between reparations offered by the UN (with a preference for collective symbolic reparations) and the reparations demanded by the victims (individual material reparations) can help understand the current stalemate in Haiti, and hopefully inform the next steps in the process of remedy for the victims.
Human Rights Quarterly, 2021
On 1 December 2016, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon apologized for the cholera epidemic in H... more On 1 December 2016, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon apologized for the cholera epidemic in Haiti, an illness Nepalese peacekeepers brought with them upon arrival in Haiti. After years of silence and denial from the UN, the UN finally established a “New Approach to Cholera in Haiti,” promising material assistance and support to the victims through a “victim-centered approach.” Based on fieldwork conducted in March 2017 in the communities most affected by the cholera outbreak, this article brings forward the victims’ views on the specific form the material assistance package should take. This article links this discussion with the literature on socioeconomic dimension of reparation in transitional justice, discussing the collective and the individual approaches to reparation and the victims’ preference for the latter.
Politics and Governance, 2020
We introduce this thematic issue by exploring the role of leadership in social and political chan... more We introduce this thematic issue by exploring the role of leadership in social and political change. In current times, the importance of leadership and choice has proved as important as ever. Leadership is often the critical variable separating success or failure, legitimacy and sustainability or collapse. This thematic issue explores a range of in-depth case studies across the Asia-Pacific region that help illustrate the critical elements of leadership. Collectively they demonstrate that leadership is best understood as a collective process involving motivated agents overcoming barriers to cooperation to form coalitions that have enough power, legitimacy and influence to transform institutions. Five themes emerge from the thematic issue as a whole: leadership is political; the centrality of gender relations; the need for a more critical localism; scalar politics; and the importance of understanding informal processes of leadership and social change.
Leiden Journal of International Law, 2020
While the cholera outbreak in Haiti still claims victims every month, it is also the backdrop of ... more While the cholera outbreak in Haiti still claims victims every month, it is also the backdrop of one of the biggest legal battles the UN has been engaged in-one for the recognition of harm caused and for reparations for victims of cholera. Having used its immunity to disengage from the issue, the UN finally changed its stance in December 2016 and apologized for the organization's role in the cholera outbreak. This article analyses the role of the elected members of the Security Council-alongside other key stakeholders-in contributing to the UN's change of policy. Based on privileged access to a number of actors in this politico-legal fight, this article argues that elected members of the Security Council have played a crucial role in pushing the UN to 'do the right thing'. This article, along with other contributions to this special issue, sheds a different light on the practices inside the Security Council, demonstrating that elected members are far from being powerless, as most of the literature on the subject tends to assume. They can successfully play a significant role inside the organization when the right conditions permit them to play this role.
Disasters, 2019
Building on empirical material gathered in Haiti, this paper advances a new and innovative unders... more Building on empirical material gathered in Haiti, this paper advances a new and innovative understanding of the internal brain drain phenomenon—the poaching of local skilled workers by international organisations (IOs) or international non‐governmental organisations (INGOs)— by conceptualising it as an equilibrium. This equilibrium is composed of two sets of tensions: (i) those between the salary conditions in the public sector and those on offer to local personnel working for IOs and INGOs; and (ii) those inherent in the dual salary scale used by IOs and INGOs for local and international staff. These two sets of tensions contribute in their specific ways to international migration, and, as such, the internal brain drain has a bearing on external brain drain dynamics. In addition, the paper addresses the difficult policy choices facing development and humanitarian organisations, since every set of policies that impacts on one side of the equilibrium is bound to affect its other side.
Development in Practice, 2019
This article reviews how peacekeeping officials safeguard children from sexual exploitation and a... more This article reviews how peacekeeping officials safeguard children from sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) in Liberia, more than 15 years after the landmark reports published on this issue. Based on original fieldwork conducted in Liberia and in New York, the article introduces an innovative framework to assess whether or not organisations effectively safeguard children from SEA. It reviews three interrelated issues: reinforcing the institutional environment in the country, strengthening prevention of and accountability for child SEA by UN actors. The article concludes with specific policy recommendations for actors involved in peacekeeping activities.
Peacebuilding, 2019
Critical Peace and Conflict Studies scholars have increasingly sought to overcome binary approach... more Critical Peace and Conflict Studies scholars have increasingly sought to overcome binary approaches to engage more fully the ways in which peacebuilding missions are designed, implemented and contested. In doing so, scholars have tried to understand ‘the local’ and mobilised three different concepts to do so – hybridity, the everyday and narratives. However, this shift has failed to translate into fully convincing research transcending the old binaries of ‘international’ and ‘local’. The use of the ‘everyday’ sees power everywhere, hybridity approaches fall into the same binary trap scholars want to avoid in the first place, and narrative approaches tend to focus on very personal stories, removing structural power from the equation. We suggest that a fruitful interaction with Feminist approaches and methodologies, and especially the scholarship on intersectionality, can help shed a new light on the power imbalances and inequalities within peacebuilding missions. We highlight the possible contribution of the concept of intersectionality to Critical Peace and Conflict Studies through an intersectionality of peace approach, which allows for a better understanding of multiple and complex identities of researchers and researchees. We illustrate this argument through a discussion of intersectional narratives centred around the space of the ‘guesthouse’ of South Africa.
Political Geography. , 2018
Every international intervention comes with its own security regulations, which contribute in tur... more Every international intervention comes with its own security regulations, which contribute in turn to structure the political geography of the intervention, delimiting areas of interaction between interveners and local population and shaping the political economy of intervention. The securitization of the everyday in Haiti took the form of colour-coded security zones (green, yellow and red), with distinct security regulations for each. This article will analyse the specific everyday ramifications of the security mapping in Haiti, focusing particularly on the vast yellow zone that covers residential areas in Port-au-Prince and the downtown area in dire need of investment after the earthquake. Based on interviews conducted in Port-au-Prince in 2017 and 2018, the article will make three distinct arguments, underscoring the ramifications of mapping as a spatial practice of securitization. First, by channelling expatriates to specific locations in the capital, and by preventing them from occupying other zones in Port-au-Prince, the securitization practices contribute to the gentrification process around the Pétion-Ville area, contributing in their own way to the deep-rooted social segregation process in play in Port-au-Prince. Second, it will analyse how these logics of securitization are linked to an ‘imagined geography’ of the capital, where actual security risks matter less than logics of disassociation from areas perceived as having no interest for international actors. Finally, the article will look at how security mapping is reappropriated and resisted by local actors, displaying a mix of resilience and self-help strategies. This article makes a distinct contribution by linking critical cartography and international relations, especially the colour-coding and security mapping discussion with the securitization and intervention literature.
in John Lahai, Howard Brasted, Karin von Strokirch and Helen Ware, eds. Governance and Political Adaptation in Fragile States. Basingstoke: Palgrave (2018), pp. 75-101.
The 'state fragility' lens is going through a major existential crisis at the moment. Traditional... more The 'state fragility' lens is going through a major existential crisis at the moment. Traditional state fragility indexes are increasingly seen as the extension of the privileged few's willingness to regulate societies outside of the OECD area, and the results are being increasingly questioned and rejected by both scholars and practitioners. This has led to a new interest in the resilience and risk management discussion by numerous actors involved in the business of ranking states' performance. This turn to resilience can be interpreted as both an understanding by many actors of the limits of traditional governance and capacity-building, but also as recognition of the new opportunities for the governance of wartorn states. As such, I argue that the 'fragility as resilience' framework operates through a twin conception of securitisation: securitisation of the other – pathologising specific states and societies while legitimising international interventions – and securitisation of the self – moving towards new risk mitigation strategies. This article concludes on a case study of Haiti, analysing the logics at play behind the 'fragility as resilience' framework. The 'fragile states' agenda: rising from the ashes After years of entertaining the modern fantasy of assessing state fragility and forecasting state failure with varying degrees of exactitude, the global discourse is now moving away from identifying 'fragile states' to focusing on 'situations of fragility' (UNDP et al. 2016, 2).1 This discursive move represents a retreat from the past position made of unequivocal certainties, but at the same time represents willingness from international actors to regroup and re-engage the terrain in a stronger position. This new battleground is the field of securitisation of risks in a context of resilience-building. In a statement to the 2016 UN Joint Board meeting to discuss the challenges of 'working in fragile contexts, including low-income countries,' Helen Clark, Administrator of the UNDP, notes that 'building resilience is now central to the way in which the UN is responding to fragility.'2 This approach pretends to allow for a better understanding of the root causes of fragility and a broadening of the scope of analysis in addressing fragility at subnational and global levels at the same time (UNDP et al. 2016, 2). However, these 'innovative' features are hardly new, and old, modernist, approaches to state fragility presented more or less the same claims. If we don't take at face value the argument about the necessity to better understand the root causes of fragility, then, this begs the question: how can we make sense of this recent mutation of the concept of state fragility? In this chapter, I argue that what really distinguishes this approach from 'old' ones is the understanding of fragility as risk (in contrast with capacity deficit for the previous approach) and statebuilding as risk-mitigation, with resilience-building at the core of the normative system. Many reasons may have contributed to this evolution. Of course, the resilience discourse is increasingly embraced by policy-actors, which certainly constitutes the backdrop to this discursive move. However, there are other reasons that are more expressly linked to the recent debates on state fragility. For one, the claim that 'climate change is among the largest drivers of fragility' (UNDP et al. 2016, 4) has clearly contributed to the smooth transition towards resilience
Politics and Governance
International actors have used multiple discursive frameworks for justifying interventions, from ... more 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, albeit in less obvious and overt ways than other competing narratives of intervention. This article 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 article argues that the optimization of interventions entails selective responses to govern risk and adapt to the transitional international order. 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.
Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 2018
This special issue is concerned with the development of the study of
narratives of political viol... more This special issue is concerned with the development of the study of
narratives of political violence and terrorism. While the concept of
narrative has become increasingly popular among scholars in the field
over the past two decades, this has not been accompanied by an active
and critical engagement with its full ontological, epistemological, and
methodological implications. This issue proposes to view the extant work
through a basic framework of three modes of narrative—as lens, as data,
and as tool—in order to take stock of the progress that has been made
to date and to facilitate the identification of remaining research gaps.
Building on this framework, the six contributions in this issue
demonstrate how the study of narratives of political violence and
terrorism may be advanced. This is done, in particular, through a focus
on narrative’s value for understanding social and political change, as well
as an emphasis on developing interdisciplinary and methodologically
innovative approaches.
Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 2017
This article analyses the concept of international administration by a multilateral organization ... more This article analyses the concept of international administration by a multilateral organization through the lens of the effective authority of example missions, arguing that the United Nations Interim Administration of Kosovo (UNMIK) and the United Nations Transitional Administration of East Timor (UNTAET) are very specific and distinct attempts at statebuilding. The article’s main argument is that the two most-cited cases in the interwar years – the Saar Territory and the Free City of Danzig, as well as the international administration of West New Guinea by the United Nation (UN) – while presenting interesting parallels with and providing useful insights into the challenges faced by the contemporary international administrations of Kosovo and Timor-Leste, are in fact drastically different endeavours in terms of the effective authority exerted on the ground. The article builds on this special section’s contribution on authority building, analysing the five international administrations through the prism of claimed, recognized, and exercised authority.
The peacebuilding and academic communities are divided over the issue of local ownership between ... more The peacebuilding and academic communities are divided over the issue of local ownership between problem-solvers who believe that local ownership can ‘save liberal peacebuilding’ and critical voices claiming that local ownership is purely a rhetorical device to hide the same dynamics of intervention used in more ‘assertive’ interventions. The article challenges these two sets of assumptions to suggest that one has to combine an analysis of the material and normative components of ownership to understand the complex ways in which societies relate to the peace that is being created. Building on the recent scholarship on ‘attachment’, we claim that different modalities of peacebuilding lead to different types of social ‘attachment’ – social-normative and social-material – to the peace being created on the part of its subjects.
Kosovo has been under various forms of international administration since 1999. Although the poli... more Kosovo has been under various forms of international administration since 1999. Although the political dimension of this international experience has been widely studied by scholars — especially those associated with the critical theory of liberal peacebuilding — the economic dimension of international rule has received less attention. This article explores the economic dimension by linking insights from rentier theory with critical approaches to liberal peacebuilding and statebuilding. The postulate informing this article is that the sources of a state's income have an impact on its institutional development. The article discusses liberal peacebuilding through the lens of rentier theory, it analyses the economic management in the early years of the international administration of Kosovo, and describes and explores some of the unintended consequences of this massive international presence in Kosovo for the local economy.
The Haiti cholera claims are focused upon the U.N.'s violation of the rights of individuals affec... more The Haiti cholera claims are focused upon the U.N.'s violation of the rights of individuals affected by the cholera outbreak to access a remedy. The U.N.'s absolute immunity from jurisdiction of national courts is counterbalanced by its duty to provide alternative dispute resolution mechanisms for private law claims. The U.N. has not only failed to provide those alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, but has repeatedly stated that it any claims are not receivable so in these circumstances. Here we set out that even if the U.N. is able to shield itself from private law claims by using the cloak of absolute immunity, the U.N. might be held responsible for human rights violations arising from the cholera outbreak in Haiti. This article is concerned with the broader issue of whether the U.N. has violated and continues to violate individuals' right to health in Haiti.
Questions of International Law
in SungYun Lee and Alp Ozerdem, eds. Local Ownership in International Peacebuilding: Key Theoretical and Practical Issues. London: Routledge, 2015, 74-92. ISBN: 9781138787544
Handbook of International Security and Development, 2015
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Peer-reviewed articles and book chapters by Nicolas Lemay-Hébert
narratives of political violence and terrorism. While the concept of
narrative has become increasingly popular among scholars in the field
over the past two decades, this has not been accompanied by an active
and critical engagement with its full ontological, epistemological, and
methodological implications. This issue proposes to view the extant work
through a basic framework of three modes of narrative—as lens, as data,
and as tool—in order to take stock of the progress that has been made
to date and to facilitate the identification of remaining research gaps.
Building on this framework, the six contributions in this issue
demonstrate how the study of narratives of political violence and
terrorism may be advanced. This is done, in particular, through a focus
on narrative’s value for understanding social and political change, as well
as an emphasis on developing interdisciplinary and methodologically
innovative approaches.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09557571.2016.1230588
narratives of political violence and terrorism. While the concept of
narrative has become increasingly popular among scholars in the field
over the past two decades, this has not been accompanied by an active
and critical engagement with its full ontological, epistemological, and
methodological implications. This issue proposes to view the extant work
through a basic framework of three modes of narrative—as lens, as data,
and as tool—in order to take stock of the progress that has been made
to date and to facilitate the identification of remaining research gaps.
Building on this framework, the six contributions in this issue
demonstrate how the study of narratives of political violence and
terrorism may be advanced. This is done, in particular, through a focus
on narrative’s value for understanding social and political change, as well
as an emphasis on developing interdisciplinary and methodologically
innovative approaches.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09557571.2016.1230588
A first set of articles examines the role played by the World Bank, the OECD, the European Union and the G7+ in the transnational diffusion of the concept, which is understood as a critical element in the new discourse on international aid and security. A second set of papers employs three case studies (Sudan, Indonesia and Uganda) to explore the processes of appropriation, reinterpretation and the strategic use of the ‘fragile state’ concept.