Time in the Shadows-- Hashim Ali

Laleh Khalili’s monograph entitled “Time in the Shadows” utilizes a genealogical historical method to trace the liberal counterinsurgency tactics over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As Khalili states: “This book is a political sociology of forms of wartime confinement; over the course of the century, large-scale political mobilization both in colonies and in metropolises along with struggles to bring fairness to legal regimes that regulate warfare—in other words, liberalism in war—have led to rise in confinement and incarceration as central tactics of counterinsurgency warfare” (Khalili, 5). Counterinsurgency is about “securing” and “protecting” the population and thus depends on law for their continuation.

Khalili states clearly that the “asymmetric” warfare was essential to the conquest of the Americas, Africa and Asia. In fact, the colonies emerged as laboratories for the application of counter-guerilla. She even highlights the roles of local knowledge and local agents in the colonies that were instrumental in disseminating this counterinsurgency knowledge. I was particularly fascinated by her ability to decode and decontextualize the role of doctrine manuals across different imperial and colonial powers. The question I have relates to the notion of empire: what constitutes an empire? It seems to me that Khalili’s framework is one-sided as it designates the former colonial empires (British, French and Dutch) and more recent ones (the United States and Israel) as part of the liberal counterinsurgencies framework. Though Ann Stoler’s article was really illuminating in resolving the differences between an imperial and colonial power and particularly in debunking the myth of America as an exceptional imperial power. The contention I have remains:

Question:

1. Can Khalili’s genealogical method of liberal counterinsurgency tactics be applied to the decolonized states who coopt these tactics from the western states against their subnational groups and guerilla? How would such a study look like?