Political Economy of Statebuilding by Berdal, Mats; Zaum, Dominik;

Short description:

This volume examines and evaluates the impact of international statebuilding interventions on the political economy of post-conflict countries over the past 20 years.

Long description:

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.

"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 enriches our understanding of the consequences of statebuilding interventions."- Astri Suhrke, Christian Michelsen Institute, Norway

'With a particular focus on economics, the book is a well-written, analytically impeccable and insightful account of the limits of state-building by some of the best scholars in the field.' - Erik Jones, Survival Journal June 2013

Table of 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-Conflict Political Economy, Susan Woodward  10. Regional Approaches to State-building I: the European Union, Richard Caplan, Spyros Economides, and Othon Anasthasakis  11. Regional Approaches to State-building II: The African Union and ECOWAS, Kwesi Aning and Naila Salihu  Section III: Case Studies  12. Back to the Future: the Failure to Reform the Post-war Political Economy of Iraq, Toby Dodge  13. Building a State and ‘State-building’: East Timor and the UN, 1999-2012, Antony Goldstone  14. The Political Economy of State-building in Kosovo, Dominik Zaum with Verena Knaus  15. From New Dawn to Quicksands: The Political Economy of State-building in Afghanistan, Antonio Giustozzi and Niamatullah Ibrahimi  16. The Political Economy of State-building in Burundi, Peter Uvin and Leanne Bayer  17. The Political Economy of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan, Atta El-Battahani and Peter Woodward  18. The Political Economy of Statebuilding in Haiti: Informal Resistance to Security-First State-building, Robert Muggah  19. Georgia and the Political Economy of State-building, Neil MacFarlane  20. How the EU and the US Stopped a War and Nobody Noticed: The Containment of the Macedonian Conflict and EU Soft Power, Kristof Bender