ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how regional forces differed in their sense-making of Zimbabwe. Some regional forces, especially South African opposition and civil society, comprehended the crisis in Zimbabwe in terms of an increasingly authoritarian government. They hoped, by implication that regional intervention would push for a democratic opening. At the end of the regional intervention, most of the regional forces shaping the discourse on Zimbabwe endorsed signifiers like 'power-sharing' and 'constitutional engineering', generally associated with liberal peace-building. The signifier 'sanctions' was introduced into the Zimbabwean field of intervention by the US Government. The chapter shows how the regional authorities failed to reinvent themselves as a progressive force that was able to represent itself as acting with regard to Zimbabwe. Instead, the crisis in Zimbabwe seemed to infect the neighbouring societies as well. It becomes clear that the intervention scene remained complex. It was criss-crossed by controversies about who had to be considered as the problem and who should act.
