Breaking the Rules

Abstract

Referring to the reputed monthly spend on international intervention, a government official in Sierra Leone bemoaned, ‘You don’t see the benefit of $20 million on the ground. It affects the reputation of Sierra Leone. It seems reckless.’ This apparent recklessness seems to justify a ruled response, and while principles and rights do not guide aid organisations, they may enable them to influence the environment in which they work, thereby reducing the dissonance between what they say and what actually happens. To what extent then are the rules strategic, if strategy is defined as that which distinguishes a ‘place’ in relation to the Other (de Certeau, 1984: 36)?