Description
In recent years, there has been a normative shift in the debate about international interventions to combat war crimes and violence against civilians from large scale interventions to new actors in post-conflict missions. Against this background, the paper examines the current Anglophone conflict in Cameroon, focusing on hierarchies of knowledge related to security, peace, and conflict. Specifically, the paper investigates the influence of non-western actors, such as China, on conflicts and what form such interventions take in the contestation of former colonial powers, such as France. The main interest is to examine what changes are taking place as a result of strengthening non-Western actors on the international level: Do conflicting norms of justice and claims of transformative responsibility change the situation for civilians concretely in the case of Cameroon? What is the influence of non-Western actors without colonial past - do they share the non-interference norm and in what ways does this stance offer more peace for whom? The impact of new actors on peace and security dimensions are fundamental not only on the ground but also in international institutions (Fung 2019), again raising the question of to what extent does it sustain and legitimize international conflict prevention illiberal states alike. What new hierarchies are emerging and what does this mean for decision-making power on the ground? The paper delves into these questions by contributing to research on the practices and norms of intervention and statebuilding.
