This volume examines and evaluates the impact of international statebuilding interventions on the political economy of conflict-affected countries over the past 20 years. It focuses on countries that are emerging, or have recently emerged, from periods of war and protracted conflict. The interventions covered fall into three broad categories:
international administrations and transformative occupations (East Timor, Iraq, and Kosovo);
complex peace operations (Afghanistan, Burundi, Haiti, and Sudan);
governance and statebuilding programmes conducted in the context of economic assistance (Georgia and Macedonia).
This book will be of interest to students of statebuilding, humanitarian intervention, post-conflict reconstruction, political economy, international organisations and IR/Security Studies in general.
Reviews
"This is an important book because it focuses on the most critical and, sadly, often-neglected aspect of state building -- the political dimension. The high quality essays in this volume not only illuminate state-building cases and practices, they also make a compelling case that shaping political economies and fostering political settlements conducive to reform are foundational and essential to success." - Brig. H.R. McMaster, US Army.
"This book, which contains a magisterial introduction by Mats Berdal and Dominik Zaum, brings together some of the top thinkers in the world of peacebuilding. It takes the commonly expressed idea that 'development' is a necessary route to peacebuilding, and shows how neo-liberal interpretations of 'development' have often promoted instability, not least by promoting large-scale unemployment."- David Keen, LSE, UK
"Focusing on the interactions between external 'statebuilders' and local power brokers - and how these processes shape post-war developments - Mats Berdal and Dominik Zaum have produced an impressive collection of thematic and country cases that significantly enur understanding of the consequences of statebuilding interventions."- Astri Suhrke, Christian Michelsen Institute, Norway
Contents
Foreword, Alvaro de Soto 1. Introduction,Mats Berdal and Dominik Zaum Section I: A Political Economy Perspective on Selected Statebuilding Practices 2. State-Building and the Limits of Constitutional Design, Oisin Tansey 3. Elections and Post-conflict Political Development, Benjamin Reilly 4. Transition from War to Peace: Stratification, Inequality and Post-War Economic Reconstruction, Stina Torjesen 5. Informal Actors and the Post-conflict Moment, Christine Cheng 6.State-building and Corruption: A Political Economy Perspective, Michael Pugh 7. State-building and the Political Economy of the Extractive Industries in Post-Conflict States, Thorsten Benner and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira Section II: Approaches to Statebuilding 8.The United Nations and International State-Building after the Cold War, Mats Berdal and Hannah Davies 9. The IFIs and Post-Confli...
