Postcolonial embarrassment at the United Nations: Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict in the UN–Arria Formula Meeting

Abstract

This article offers a nuanced understanding of the internationalized efforts to end violence in the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon during the 2019 Arria Formula Meeting. Since 2017, the conflict between Anglophone separatists and the Cameroonian central state has led to a deteriorating security situation. This article argues the meeting presents a critical shift in the international reactions to the violence in the Anglophone provinces. To explain the dynamic interactions in the meeting, this article focuses on the strategic use of face-saving practices and “postcolonial embarrassment” to understand the space for actors to maneuver in the Global South. Using an interpretivist actor-centered form of process tracing, this article delves into the interactions during the informal meeting to give a nuanced understanding of the patterns, logics, and mechanisms that led to a changed international stance toward the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon. In doing so, this article reflects on the negotiations of interventions, the political space in global power configurations within the Arria Formula Meetings, and the temporalities of postcolonial conflicts.