Governmentality and Counterterrorism: Appropriating International Security Projects in Kenya

Considering the growing influence of studies of governmentality within international relations, this article proposes a stronger engagement with the dynamics that happen in the arenas where dominant rationales are put into practice—in the interstices between programmes and their realization. Conceptual tools discussed in the anthropology of development have provided useful insights on how discursive and material interventions are negotiated, translated and appropriated by the actors involved. The case of international counterterrorism engagement in Kenya, in particular the Danish ‘Peace, Security and Development Programme’, illustrates how local mobilization against controversial security practices in Kenya has influenced the Danish counterterrorism agenda. However, the project's subsequent focus on ownership and empowerment remained entangled with more disciplinary forms of engagement.