ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the significance of texts in structuring practices and relationships in projects of humanitarian intervention. It follows the triangular dimensions of law in tracing the networks of texts, beginning with the formal law of human rights treaties, situated between law's violence and governmentality. Formal law becomes effective in the field through the law-making force of intervention, but it imports a normative framework for the new nation. The mandate, reflected in United Nations (UN) Security Council resolutions, is positioned between law's violence and bureaucracy, drawing upon the authoritative force of the UN and empowering the creation of civilian administration in the field. However, the familiar categories of military and civilian administration, monitoring the peace process, human rights promotion, and capacity building still emerge as constitutive elements of the mandate. Finally, the reports prepared in the everyday work of the field are located between law's bureaucracy and governmentality, as they fulfill institutional objectives and monitor the local population.
