Advocacy in Conflict: Critical Perspectives on Transnational Activism

311 Pages·2015·2.128 MB·English

by  Alex de Waal

About the editor
Alex de Waal is executive director of the World
Peace Foundation and a research professor
at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. He
is considered one of the foremost experts on
Sudan and the Horn of Africa, and his scholar-
ship and practice have also probed humanitarian
crisis and response, human rights, HIV/AIDS
and governance in Africa, and conflict and
peace-building. He was a member of the African
Union mediation team for Darfur (2005–06) and
senior adviser to the African Union High-Level
Implementation Panel for Sudan (2009–11). He
was on the list of Foreign Policy’s 100 most influ-
ential public intellectuals in 2008 and Atlantic
Monthly’s 27 ‘brave thinkers’ in 2009.

ADVOCACY IN CONFLICT
CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON TRANSNATIONAL
ACTIVISM
edited by Alex de Waal
with Jennifer Ambrose, Casey Hogle,
Trisha Taneja and Keren Yohannes
Zed Books
London
Advocacy in Conflict: Critical perspectives on transnational activism was first
published in 2015 by Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London n1 9JF, UK
www.zedbooks.co.uk
Editorial copyright © Alex de Waal 2015
Copyright in this collection © Zed Books 2015
The right of Alex de Waal to be identified as the editor of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988
Set in Monotype Plantin and FFKievit by Ewan Smith, London
Index: [email protected]
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mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of Zed
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
isbn 978-1-78360-273-5 hb
isbn 978-1-78360-272-8 pb
isbn 978-1-78360-274-2 eb
isbn 978-1-78360-275-9 epub
isbn 978-1-78360-276-6 mobi
CONTENTS
Preface | viii
1 introdUction: transnationaL advocacy in
contention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Jennifer Ambrose, Casey Hogle, Trisha Taneja and
Keren Yohannes
2 GeneaLoGies oF transnationaL activism . . . . . . 18
Alex de Waal
3 bUrma’s strUGGLe For democracy: a criticaL
appraisaL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Maung Zarni with Trisha Taneja
4 the JanUs Face oF internationaL activism and
GUatemaLa’s indiGenoUs peopLes . . . . . . . . . 68
Roddy Brett
5 advocacy deLeGitimized: the convoLUted case
oF Gaza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Anat Biletzki
6 conFLict mineraLs in conGo: the conseqUences oF
oversimpLiFication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Laura Seay
7 ‘maKe him FamoUs’: the sinGLe conFLict narrative
oF Kony and Kony2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142
Mareike Schomerus
8 GettinG away with mass mUrder: the spLa and its
american Lobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .164
Alex de Waal
9 From whose perspective anyway? the qUest For
aFrican disabiLity riGhts activism. . . . . . . . .187
Tsitsi Chataika, Maria Berghs, Abraham Mateta and
Kudzai Shava
10 activism and the arms trade: exposinG the shadow
worLd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .212
Andrew Feinstein and Alex de Waal
11 a riGht to Land? activism aGainst Land GrabbinG
in aFrica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Rachel Ibreck
12 concLUsion: recLaiminG activism . . . . . . . . .271
Casey Hogle, Trisha Taneja, Keren Yohannes and
Jennifer Ambrose
About the contributors | 283
Index | 288
PREFACE
The start of this book was, unexpectedly, a quiet discussion
between four students, over coffee and in between classes, at
the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. A
discussion about various work experiences in the development
and humanitarian aid sector quickly turned into a dialogue about
the misrepresentations and inadequacies of advocacy campaigns
seen in our work, centring on the last and most visible of them all
– Kony2012. Eventually, this discussion was turned into a proposal
for the World Peace Foundation Student Seminar Competition,
which is an annual competition that gives students the
opportunity to host a research seminar with renowned academics
and practitioners on a topic of their choice. Our proposal was
chosen, and over the next few months we worked with the
wonderful staff of the World Peace Foundation to refine the topic,
choose cases similar to Uganda and Kony2012 from around the
world, and invite academics and practitioners to contribute their
own research and opinions. The research seminar was held at the
Fletcher School on 28 February and 1 March 2013. At the end of
the seminar, we realized that our conversations – though fruitful
– were still incomplete, and moreover that these debates could
benefit from a wider audience and added perspectives. And so
the idea of a book developed, one that could encompass not only
the discussions from the seminar and its participants, but also
views from others working to promote a similar understanding of
‘reclaimed activism’.
We would like to thank Lisa Avery and Bridget Conley-Zilkic
at the World Peace Foundation, and all the seminar participants,
including Rony Brauman, Holly Fisher, Kate Cronin-Furman,
Mvemba Dizolele, Elliot Prasse-Freeman, Sara Roy, Amanda
Taub and Kennedy Tumutegyereize, in addition to those who
contributed to this volume.

1 | INTRODUCTION: TRANSNATIONAL
ADVOCACY IN CONTENTION
Jennifer Ambrose, Casey Hogle, Trisha Taneja
and Keren Yohannes
‘Nothing for us without us’
Activists across time zones, decades and topics have used varia-
tions of the slogan ‘nothing for us without us’ to express a key tenet
of responsible advocacy: people affected by conflict, rights abuses
and other injustices should play the leading role in movements that
advocate on their behalf. When repression, silencing or dispersal
leaves those people disadvantaged, it places particular responsibili-
ties on Western advocates to act in a way that allows the substantive
agenda, targets and goals, media portrayal, and methods to be set
in accordance with the articulated priorities of the affected popula-
tion. Most recently associated with the international disability rights
movement of the 1990s, ‘Nothing for us without us’ demands that
audiences listen to the self-expressed interests and goals of o ppressed
people. In the wake of recent advocacy campaigns, such as Invisible
Children’s Kony2012 film and the US Campaign for Burma’s ‘It Can’t
Wait’ videos – both of which became international sensations more
for their tactics and messaging than for the issues they promote – the
slogan encourages reflection on the extent to which recent trends in
transnational advocacy have deviated from core principles of respon-
sible activism. Hence, the impetus for this book is our recognition
of the need to reclaim international advocacy movements to make
them more self-reflective and accountable to the people and the
evolving situations they represent.
Our focus is on a particular subset of transnational activism, itself
a subset of activism more generally, namely professionalized Western
advocacy concerned with particular conflicts in other parts of the
world. While there is a rich literature on global society and activism
(Kaldor 2003; Feher 2007; Reydams 2011), Western-led campaigns that
focus on particular conflict-affected countries are dealt with only