War-Making as Worldmaking: A Discussion with Samar Al-Bulushi on Kenya and the Workings of Blackness, Place, and International Politics

Today we talk with Samar Al-Bulushi about her rich and complex work on Kenya, which, across multiple scales of time and place, discovers how the War on Terror both tapped into colonial ideologies of the past and present-day political calculations at the intersection of the local and global. We find out how the War has taken many different forms that often escape the eye—embedded as they are in structures of feelings and new practices that were instilled as Kenya maneuvers its different roles as war-maker and pacifier, independent state and partner with the US. We end with an important update on Kenya since the book’s publication, which has seen a popular uprising and state repression. We speak about the roles of civil society and international organizations in this new historical moment.

Samar Al-Bulushi is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at UC Irvine. Her book, War-Making as Worldmaking: Kenya, the United States, and the War on Terror, was published by Stanford University Press in November 2024. She is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and previously served as contributing editor for Africa is a Country. She has published in a variety of public outlets on topics ranging from the International Criminal Court to the militarization of U.S. policy in Africa.