In-Between Magic and Mimicry: The Politics of the Community Liaison Assistants’ In-visibility and the ‘Betrayals’ of Translating the Protection of Civilians Agenda

In this chapter, I propose delving deeper into the debates about the translator’s image to complexify the representation of the CLAs’ in-visibility in UN discourse. This chapter aims to complement the former’s proposal to understand the problem of protection as a translating endeavor by discussing some of the implications that emerge when I invited the reader to consider current debates in UN peace operations literature through a translation lens. While I comprehend that it can be seen as an abstract effort, exploring how the political character of translation impacts the CLA’s task of mediating the relationship between the peacekeepers and the local population to improve PoC activities stresses the instability of the PoC agenda in UN discourse and the consequences of not problematizing that for protection discourses and those expected to perform it. By emphasizing the ‘betrayals’ inherent to these processes, which make them a ‘problem’ to the UN, I argue that their job places them in an ambivalent position. Returning to Bhabha’s interpretation of the (post-) colonial discourse, I explore how the UN tries and fails to center the meaning of protection through the CLAs.