Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research
Schifferstr. 44
47059 Duisburg
Germany

Tel:  +49 (0)203 379-5230
Fax: +49 (0)203 379-5276
E-mail: bergamaschi@spam protectgcr21.uni-due.de

International Intervention in Mali: Transformation and Legitimacy

International intervention in Mali did not start with the French military initiative in January 2013. In fact, the country was engaged in an ancient and close partnership with aid donors in the pre-coup scenario. However, international intervention in the country is ongoing transformations under the influence of humanitarian actors (emergency ONGs and UN specialised agencies), military and security actors and the launch of the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (Minusma) on July 1st 2013. While Mali’s political crisis has triggered a crisis of the aid regime, the modus operandi and purposes of international processes of involvement in Mali have shifted from development assistance for poverty reduction and aid efficiency towards a more fragmented superimposition of objectives and organisations intervening in a more complex and competitive environment.

The research project that will be pursued at the Centre seeks to inform those changes, trace the processes of their legitimation and acceptance amongst the population and account for their political effects, i.e. the way Malian politics is played out, the renewal (or not) of the ruling class, the balance of power between competing actors, the empowerment of certain political and social actors over others as well as the meanings and practices of the state, conflict and peace, sovereignty and democracy in the country.

• The French military intervention in Mali in 2013: Not exactly françafrique but definitely post-colonial
• The Fall of a donor darling: The role of aid in Mali's crisis
• “Latin American Activists at the World Social Forum: Reflections on the Relationships between the Alter-Globalist Movement and Institutional Politics” (with Héloise Nez and Tania Navarro)
• “Division of Labour and Partnerships in Transnational Social Movements: Observations of North-South and South-South Interactions at the World Social Forum in 2011" (with Hélène Baillot and Ruggero Iori)

Bergamaschi, Isaline (2013): French Military Intervention in Mali: Inevitable, Consensual, and Insufficient, Practice Note, Stability: International Journal of Security and Development, June, http://www.stabilityjournal.org/article/view/sta.bb

Bergamaschi, Isaline (with Mahamadou Diawara) (2013): The French Intervention in Mali: Not only françafrique but definitely post-colonial, in Tony Chafer and Bruno Charbonneau (eds.), Peace Operations in the Francophone World: Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Chad, Haiti, Routledge (in print, to be published in 2014)

Bergamaschi, Isaline (2013): Appropriation et lutte contre la pauvreté au Mali : Interprétations, pratiques et discours concurrents <Ownership and Poverty Reduction in Mali: Competing Interpretations, Practices, and Discourses>, Revue Tiers Monde, 2011, vol. 205 (1), pp. 135–50 (To be published soon on the Cairn platform)

Bergamaschi, Isaline (2013): Review of Claude Arditi et al., La lutte contre la sécurité alimentaire au Mali. Réalités et faux semblants, Paris: Karthala (2011), in: Revue française de Science Politique

Bergamaschi, Isaline (2013): Review of Mosse David (ed.), Adventures in Aidland: The Anthropology of professionals in International Development, New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books, in: Politique africaine

Bergamaschi, Isaline (2010): Assess, Influence and Govern. Data and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers in Mali, Capital, Labour and Society, vol. 42 (1/2), pp. 116–39

Bergamaschi, Isaline (2008): Mali: Patterns and Limits of Donor-driven Ownership, in Lindsay Whitfield (ed.), The New Politics of Aid: African strategies for dealing with donors, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 217–45

Bergamaschi, Isaline and Dezalay, Sara (2005): Dilemmes et ambiguïtés de la sortie de crise par la voie multilatérale en Afrique: le cas de l’ONU en Côte d’Ivoire, Champ de Mars, n°17, pp. 53–73

Bergamaschi, Isaline, Diabaté, Alassane, and Paul, ELisabeth: L’agenda de Paris pour l’efficacité de l’aide. Défis de l’« appropriation » et nouvelles modalités de l’aide au Mali, Afrique contemporaine, n°223-224, pp. 219–49

• “La plus populaire de toutes les interventions françaises en Afrique? Processus nationaux et internationaux de construction de l’opération Serval de la France au Mali”, communication presented in «Les missions de paix et leurs détracteurs », seminar held at 'L'Observatoire sur les missions de paix et opérations humanitaires de la Chaire Raoul-Dandurand', Université du Québec, Montréal-Canada, 28-29 November, 2013
• “Collapsing models, shifting interventions, competing experts: The international government of Mali after March 2012”, Aegis/ECAS, Lisbon, Portugal, June 2013
• “International Intervention in Mali: Transformations, Sovereignty, Legitimacy”, keynote speech delivered at the seminar “Descolonizando as Relações Internacionais: Contribuições dos Estudos Pós-Coloniais”, Instituto de Relações Internacionais, Pontifíca Universidade Católica, Rio de Janeiro, 28-30 October, 2013
• “The Crisis in Mali: Causes, Dynamics and Implications” (in Spanish), organised at Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia; Guest speakers: Professors Florent Frasson-Quesnoz and Maguemati Wabgou, 2013
• “Emerging countries in global politics I: Foreign policy” and “Emerging countries in global politics II: Governance issues”, ISA annual convention, San Francisco, US; with Prof. Arlene Tickner, 2013
• “Beyond the Islamist Threat: A political Economy Approach to the Crisis in Mali”, Research Seminar at the Politics Department, Universidad de los Andes, 2013
• “Contemporary Development Practices in the International Political Economy I: Framing development issues & international interventions” and II “Implementation and creative uses of development and foreign aid” at the ISA-BISA joint-conference, Edimburgh, Scotland; Panels sponsored by BISA’s International Political Economy Group and ISA’s International Political Economy Section; With Phoebe Moore-Carter, 2012
• “To Own or not to Own? Aid, Donor Agendas and the International State in Mali”, Center of Interdisciplinary Development Studies, Universidad de los Andes, 2012
• “Division of Labour and Partnerships in Transnational Social Movements: Observations of North-South and South-South Interactions at the World Social Forum” (with Hélène Baillot and Ruggero Iori) and “Latin Americans at the World Social Forum: Reflections on the Relationships between the Alter-Globalist Movement and Institutional Politics” (with Héloïse Nez and Tania Navarro), 2012

• 2012-2013: Research grant ($10 000) funded by the Universidad de los Andes
• 2012: Research grant ($ 10 000) for the research project “The 2013 Election in Mali: Citizenship, Participation, Democratisation” by the French embassy in Bamako
• 2006-2009: Doctoral scholarship funded by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research
• since 2006: Full-funding for participation in 14 academic conference and 6 field-trip missions provided by Sciences-Po, the University of Oxford and Universidad de los Andes