Inter-Discursive Dynamics and Darfur: Analyzing Narrative Complexity Behind Responses of the United Nations and African Union, 2003-2006

Date

2015

Authors

Crewe, Kathryn Ellen

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Abstract

International intervention, most visibly represented by the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), has failed to resolve the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. Respected scholars have claimed that the “subordination of peacemaking to peacekeeping” in Darfur was driven in part by a western advocacy campaign, which set the international narrative for the crisis (Flint, 2010; De Waal, forthcoming). This dissertation innovates a method of inter-discursive narrative complexity analysis to assess how one simple storyline about Darfur hegemonized the discursive space around international intervention. It argues that a discourse coalition, enabled by discursive affinity among many outside narratives and their resonance within existing social and institutional discourses, rather than coordination by any particular actor from above, marginalized what could have been more lasting political and diplomatic responses with implications for other cases.

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Keywords

Peace studies, Public policy, International relations, Conflict Resolution, Darfur, Discourse analysis, International Intervention, Interpretive policy analysis, Narrative Complexity

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