A World of Struggle : How Power, Law, and Expertise Shape Global Political Economy

__A World of Struggle__ reveals the role of expert knowledge in our political and economic life. As politicians, citizens, and experts engage one another on a technocratic terrain of irresolvable argument and uncertain knowledge, a world of astonishing inequality and injustice is born. In this provocative book, David Kennedy draws on his experience working with international lawyers, human rights advocates, policy professionals, economic development specialists, military lawyers, and humanitarian strategists to provide a unique insider’s perspective on the complexities of global governance. He describes the conflicts, unexamined assumptions, and assertions of power and entitlement that lie at the center of expert rule. Kennedy explores the history of intellectual innovation by which experts developed a sophisticated legal vocabulary for global management strangely detached from its distributive consequences. At the center of expert rule is struggle: myriad everyday disputes in which expertise drifts free of its moorings in analytic rigor and observable fact. He proposes tools to model and contest expert work and concludes with an in-depth examination of modern law in warfare as an example of sophisticated expertise in action. Charting a major new direction in global governance at a moment when the international order is ready for change, this critically important book explains how we can harness expert knowledge to remake an unjust world. A World of Struggle: How Power, Law, and Expertise Shape Global Political Economy 4 Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Introduction: Could This Be 1648? 14 PART I: THE STRUGGLES OF GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY 18 PART II: EXPERTISE 20 PART III: LAW 23 REMAKING AN EXPERT WORLD 26 Part I: Political Economy and Struggle 34 1 Political Economy: World-Making Stories 36 WORLD-MAKING STORIES: BACKGROUND IMAGES AND REFORM TRAJECTORIES 39 FOREGROUNDING THE TECHNICAL WORK OF EXPERTS 42 SHIFTING THE STORY, CHANGING THE TECHNICAL TERRAIN 45 INHABITING A SOPHISTICATED TECHNICAL STORY 47 EXPERTISE: A FIRST PICTURE 49 BIG IDEAS AND SMALL CHOICES: THE EXPERT VOCABULARY 52 MAKING AN ECONOMY GLOBAL 53 LINKING POLITICS TO POLITIES 57 THE OUTCOME: A WORLD POLITICAL ECONOMY OF EXPERT MANAGEMENT AND STRUGGLE 63 2 Struggle: Toward a Cartography of Engagement 67 STRUGGLE: DISTRIBUTION THROUGH COERCION 69 THE PERSPECTIVE OF PEOPLE IN STRUGGLE 73 A CARTOGRAPHY OF PEOPLE AND THEIR POWERS 79 A CARTOGRAPHY OF VALUE, GAIN, AND COERCIVE DISTRIBUTION 80 STRUGGLE WITH WORDS AND THE POWER OF IDEAS 84 CARTOGRAPHY AS AN ANTIDOTE TO THE LIMITS OF SYSTEM ANALYTICS 88 REIFY THE ACTORS AND STRUCTURES 89 TENDENCY TO OVERESTIMATE ORDER 91 THE TENDENCY TO OVERLOOK THE KNOWLEDGE WORK OF EXPERTISE 95 Part II: Expertise 100 3 World-Making Ideas: Imagining a World to Govern and Resist 102 THE WILL TO WORLDLINESS: IMAGING AND RESISTING A WORLD TO BE GOVERNED 106 IMAGINING A WORLD WITH PROBLEMS 108 A WORLD OF GLOBAL PROBLEMS AS POLITICAL STRATEGY 111 GLOBAL MANAGEMENT BY PREFIGURATION 112 SOVEREIGNTY AS PREFIGURATION 114 FROM THE OUTSIDE: GLOBAL GOVERNANCE AS THE MYSTERIOUS STATUS OF FORCES 116 4 Expertise: The Machinery of Global Reason 121 EXPERT WORK: THE BACKGROUND BETWEEN FOREGROUND AND CONTEXT 123 MAKING THE BACKGROUND VISIBLE 129 MAPPING THE KNOWLEDGE PRACTICES OF BACKGROUND PROFESSIONALS 133 GETTING STARTED: IDENTIFYING AN EXPERT COMMUNITY 133 BOUNDARIES: PROFESSIONAL ROLE AND POSITION 137 EXPERTISE: MAPPING PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE 143 5 Expertise in Action: Rule by Articulation 148 ARGUMENTS AMONG POLICY EXPERTS ABOUT WHAT TO DO: THREE EXAMPLES 153 ACTING BY ARTICULATION: A SHARED TEMPLATE? 157 THE SOPHISTICATION OF DISENCHANTMENT 164 COMMON SENSE AND STYLE: THE PLAUSIBLE AND THE UNTHINKABLE, INSIDER AND OUTSIDER 166 SOPHISTICATED RULE BY ARTICULATION 172 SOPHISTICATED EXPERTISE: THE SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVES 177 Part III: Law 182 6 Law and the Global Dynamics of Distribution 184 THE POWER OF LAW: COERCION AND LEGITIMACY 185 LAW: A MODE OF DISTRIBUTION AND THEREFORE STRUGGLE 189 LAW AS EXPRESSION: ADVOCACY AND RESOLUTION 201 LAW AND THE STATUS OF FORCES AMONG GROUPS 208 THE DYNAMICS OF DISTRIBUTION AND INEQUALITY: CENTERS AND PERIPHERIES 212 7 International Legal Expertise: Innovation, Avoidance and Professional Faith 231 THREE INNOVATIONS: PRACTICAL INNOVATION AND SCHOLARLY REINTERPRETATION 234 FAITH AGAINST DOUBT: THE ORIGIN OF A PROFESSIONAL RIDDLE 239 THE PROBLEM OF RULES: THE LIMITS OF CONSENT 245 THE PROBLEM OF POWER: LEGALIZATION WITHOUT LIMIT 252 DISCIPLINARY RENEWAL AND PROFESSIONAL FAITH: THREE EXAMPLES 254 RESPONDING TO LEGAL PLURALISM 265 8 Legal Expertise in War 269 DISPERSION: MODERN WAR AS A LEGAL INSTITUTION 273 MODERN LAW: RHETORICAL STRATEGY 275 A HISTORY OF MODERNIZATION 277 PEOPLE PURSUING PROJECTS BY ARTICULATION 282 MODERN LAW AND MODERN WAR IN ACTION 286 Epilogue: Let It Be So 290 Notes 294 Introduction: Could This Be 1648? 294 1 Political Economy: World-Making Stories 296 2 Struggle: Toward a Cartography of Engagement 296 3 World-Making Ideas: Imagining a World to Govern and Resist 298 4 Expertise: The Machinery of Global Reason 298 5 Expertise in Action: Rule by Articulation 299 6 Law and the Global Dynamics of Distribution 299 7 International Legal Expertise: Innovation, Avoidance and Professional Faith 302 Index 306 "A World of Struggle reveals the role of expert knowledge in our political and economic life. As politicians, citizens, and experts engage one another on a technocratic terrain of irresolvable argument and uncertain knowledge, a world of astonishing inequality and injustice is born. In this provocative book, David Kennedy draws on his experience working with international lawyers, human rights advocates, policy professionals, economic development specialists, military lawyers, and humanitarian strategists to provide a unique insider's perspective on the complexities of global governance. He describes the conflicts, unexamined assumptions, and assertions of power and entitlement that lie at the center of expert rule. Kennedy explores the history of intellectual innovation by which experts developed a sophisticated legal vocabulary for global management strangely detached from its distributive consequences. At the center of expert rule is struggle: myriad everyday disputes in which expertise drifts free of its moorings in analytic rigor and observable fact. He proposes tools to model and contest expert work and concludes with an in-depth examination of modern law in warfare as an example of sophisticated expertise in action. Charting a major new direction in global governance at a moment when the international order is ready for change, this critically important book explains how we can harness expert knowledge to remake an unjust world"--Publisher's website. Acknowledgments vii INTRODUCTION Could This Be 1648? 1 PART I Political Economy and Struggle 21 CHAPTER 1 Political Economy: World-Making Stories 23 CHAPTER 2 Struggle: Toward a Cartography of Engagement 54 PART II Expertise 87 CHAPTER 3 World-Making Ideas: Imagining a World to Govern and Resist 89 CHAPTER 4 Expertise: The Machinery of Global Reason 108 CHAPTER 5 Expertise in Action: Rule by Articulation 135 PART III Law 169 CHAPTER 6 Law and the Global Dynamics of Distribution 171 CHAPTER 7 International Legal Expertise: Innovation, Avoidance and Professional Faith 218 CHAPTER 8 Legal Expertise in War 256 EPILOGUE Let It Be So 277 Notes 281 Index 293