The language of public debate on international issues is filled with appeals to and invocations of the international community.1

Even though the term is in ubiquitous use, this pervasiveness has not rendered it devalued. On the contrary, not only has it become an idea of high currency, but more and more power is accorded to it.

International Politics, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-53752-2_11 of this special term and values attached to it. Yet since ideas have real-life consequences, questioning the international community becomes a task of perennial importance.

This chapter engages with the uses of the idea of international commu­nity in policy discourse produced in the area of development cooperation, with particular focus on international statebuilding. I argue that for policy practitioners the idea of international community has become a narrative that not simply helps make sense of experience but provides significance, inspires people, and guides action. The way the idea of international com­munity is used and produced through discourse allows claiming that it performs functions ascribed by literature to political myths. The myth of international community motivates actors in their statebuilding endeav­our, sanctions a particular model of the state, and allows for presenting statebuilding as necessary and good rather than interventionist.

I follow Chiara Bottici’s exploration of political myths. Rather than approaching political myth as an object, Bottici proposes a relational and phenomenological approach to myths, placing emphasis on social pro­cesses accompanying their production and influencing their popularity. A myth, according to this approach, is best described as a ‘process of con­tinual work that responds to a perpetually changing need for significance’ (Bottici 2007: 132). The narrative dimension is key to myths, as it allows reducing the complexity of social life, thus facilitating comprehension. Political myths are not any kind of narrative; they are specific in that they are believed to be true or acted upon as if they were true. Political myths perform a number of functions. They provide a sense of cohe­siveness, define common purpose, and grant stimulus for action. In that way, political myths play an important role in shaping collective identity (Bottici 2007).

The chapter presents the results of a textual and discourse analysis of policy documents, speeches, and interviews, with special focus on dis­course produced by national and international organisations and practi­tioners in the field of statebuilding. It approaches talk and text as social action and thereby language as constructive and performative (Johnstone 2001; Neumann 2008; Willig 2008). Policy documents selected for the purpose of this study were those authored by key actors or agenda-setters in development cooperation. Arguments are illustrated with examples of statebuilding practices in Central Asia, in particular, in Kyrgyzstan, where fieldwork took place.

The chapter develops its argument in several steps. Opening with a brief overview of literature engaging with the idea of international com­munity, it proceeds with the analysis of discursive uses of the idea in the political practice of development cooperation, with special reference to statebuilding.