External interventions, local realities : What can we learn from lessons (not) learned

This policy brief reflects on the role of knowledge and expertise in external interventions, as a follow-up to the workshop 'Rethinking global knowledge production of "the local": The role of political anthropology in international intervention', held at the EUI on 20 and 21 June 2022. During the workshop, researchers from different academic disciplines (anthropology, International Relations, and political sciences) working on different geographical areas discussed what the notion of 'intervention' means in competing environments with diverse sets of interests, actors and uncertainties. The workshop asked why, despite collective calls for and public commitment to the principles of 'participation', 'local ownership', and 'lessons learned', interventions often continue to pursue rigid forms of order and stability that feed displacement, uprooting, and grievances rather than redress them. The panels revolved around the different steps through which interventions are thought through, designed, implemented, challenged, and re-assessed in the long-term. This policy brief condenses the outcomes of these panels by referring to three main domains, namely: security interventions, development and humanitarianism, and peace- and state-building. External interventions have a questionable track record, particularly in regions where poverty and insecurity are accompanied by environmental stress and state fragility.