Performing as local staff: work strategies of Afghan employees in NATO's ISAF operation

This article explores the work strategies through which Afghan local staff employed by NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) sought to navigate a hierarchical and mistrustful work environment in which they held structurally subordinate positions. Drawing on sociological and feminist theories of performance and performativity and based on in-depth interviews with 17 former ISAF employees, the article identifies three performance strategies through which local staff sought to enhance professional standing and work continuity: insider performances, bridgebuilding performances, and subordinate performances. We explore specific performance types and dynamics within each strategy, substantiated by concrete examples of how local staff reported speaking with, offering expertise to, and dressing among international personnel. The article advances a more nuanced understanding of the relational dynamics within peace operations and extends emerging scholarship on local staff by foregrounding their strategic responses to their work environment. More broadly, it contributes to analyses on the interactions between international and local actors and critiques how security is enacted toward host populations by shifting the analysis inside the missions themselves.