ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the everyday geopolitics of Angelina Jolie's humanitarian interventions and the implications of the 'moral support' that she engendered among Burmese exiles by drawing on conversations with Burmese residents of northern Thailand. It identifies linkages between emerging literature on everyday geopolitics and celebrity humanitarianism. The chapter examines how this work intersects with recent research on the role of celebrity humanitarianism in humanitarian interventions. It then explores what author call the 'celebrity cosmopolitan aesthetic' or the widespread shift towards cosmopolitan and aestheticized humanitarian concern, rather than place-based politics of concern. Expanding on existing studies in everyday geopolitics, the chapter also examines the affective experience of Burmese exiles' interpretations of the event as an act of moral support and social solidarity. Finally, the chapter theorizes how the everyday geopolitics of Jolie's intervention, albeit inadvertently, served to depoliticize the refugee crisis along the Thailand-Burma border.
