This essay speculates on how imageries/imaginations of peace emerge before and beyond the words of peace talk and practice. Exploring the example of Operation Restore Hope (1992-1993) in Somalia, it is argued that imageries/imaginations of peace, emerging from and into everyday socialities and tribal puissance – echoing Maffesoli – to a significant degree to structure the outcome of (international) peacemaking operations. The essay describes how, during Restore Hope (a test case towards President Bush’s “new world order”) imageries/imaginations of peace as immobility emerged, before and beyond the words of a medic’s Law of Stabilization. This essay explores the imaginary of international peacekeeping operations. As such, it tries to move beyond the words and the signs of international law. It wants to explore the images, the imageries, the imaginations that roam – merging and dissipating – before laws, before the Law of the Symbolic.
