Master peace: expert power and techno-morals in Lebanon

Abstract

This article argues that contemporary politics of peace features masters and disciples, entangled in global hierarchies and premised on the control of moral ends and technical means. Affective moralities and effective materialities form powerful twin forces that frame debates, design interventions, and largely define “the violence problem”, to paraphrase Dubois. This intervention explores the articulations of the “violence problem” and relevant solutions in post-war Lebanon, a prime location for the theme under study. In the 30 years that followed the end of the civil war in 1989 the small country has witnessed diverse investments in the politics of post-violence and peacemaking. This politics was often marked by merged schemes of moralities and technicalities. This symbiosis came in diverse formats: in conflict resolution specialists working with communities in Palestinian refugee camps or rural villages or in security experts analyzing and monitoring recalcitrant groups, such as the notorious Hezbollah. These seemingly distinct moral missions often transmogrify into highly specialized technical processes. Contemporary peace expertise encapsulates a politics of techno-moral power revolving around the formation of post-violence subjects. I coin the trope “master peace” to highlight the significant influence that moral and technical hierarchies bear upon the contemporary politics of peace.“Master” seeks to designate the power that these forces exercise upon debates, actions and solutions dully put in place in order to address the violence problem today. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.