State-building by external actors can be understood as a practice of intervention in post-conflict spaces characterized by convergences and contestations between different actors striving for power and legitimacy. Informal non-state (armed) groups and clientele networks profit from the contingencies during transition and “capture” emerging formal state institutions to secure private gains and public positions. Order in this newly formed state is established through a dynamic process involving both external actors and domestic power networks. Most of the literature on intervention either focuses on top-down effects of external actors or resistance by local actors, thus falling short of describing the timeless ties of post-war networks and individuals in their day-to-day interaction patterns. How can we then understand the interaction and collusion between post-conflict power networks and external “statebuilders”? We use Bourdieu’s concept of the field to examine the local spaces of interventions and argue that interventions are social and relational practices characterized by day-to-day routines and overlapping, yet co-existing modes of formal and informal interactions. Empirically, we rely on qualitative social network analysis and interviews to visibilize these social practices and collusion between external actors and power networks in Kosovo and its impact on “state-building” efforts by the international community.

中文翻译：

---

瞬态和永恒的联系：形式、电力网络和欧盟驻科索沃使命

外部行为体的国家建设可以被理解为对冲突后空间的干预实践，其特点是不同行为体之间争取权力和合法性的趋同和竞争。非正式的非国家（武装）团体和客户网络从转型期间的突发事件中获利，并“占领”新兴的正式国家机构，以确保私人利益和公共地位。这个新成立的国家的秩序是通过涉及外部参与者和国内权力网络的动态过程建立的。大多数关于干预的文献要么关注外部行为者的自上而下的影响，要么关注当地行为者的抵抗，因此未能描述战后网络和个人在日常互动模式中的永恒联系。那么，我们如何理解冲突后权力网络与外部“国家建设者”之间的互动和勾结呢？我们使用布迪厄的场域概念来考察干预的局部空间，并认为干预是社会和关系实践，其特征是日常惯例和重叠但共存的正式和非正式互动模式。从经验上讲，我们依靠定性的社交网络分析和访谈来了解这些社会实践以及科索沃外部行为体和权力网络之间的勾结及其对国际社会“国家建设”努力的影响。