Full Description
This volume connects the study of statebuilding to broader aspects of social theory and the historical study of the state, bringing forth new questions and starting-points, both academically and practically, for the field.
Building states has become a highly prioritized issue in international politics. Since the 1990s, mainly Western countries and international institutions have invested large sums of money, vast amounts of manpower, and considerable political capital in ventures of this kind all across the globe. Most of the focus in current literature is on the acute cases, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, but also to states that seem to fit the label 'failed states' such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Somalia.
This book brings together a diverse group of scholars who introduce new theoretical approaches from the broader social sciences. The chapters revisit historical cases of statebuilding, and provide thought-provoking, new strategic perspectives on the field. The result is a volume that broadens and deepens our understanding of statebuilding by highlighting the importance of hybridity, contingency and history in a broad range of case-studies.
This book will be of much interest to students of statebuilding and intervention, peacebuilding, war and conflict studies, security studies and IR in general.
Contents
1. Introduction: The Need for New Agendas in Statebuilding, Robert Egnell and Peter Haldén Part I: New Theoretical aPProaches to Statebuilding 2. Hybrid Statebuilding, Roger Mac Ginty 3. Against Endogeneity: The Systemic Preconditions of State-formation, Peter Haldén 4. Somalia: State 'Failure' and the Emergence of Hybrid Political Orders, Morten Boas 5. State Theory and Statebuilding, Lee Jones Part II: Revisiting Historical Cases of Statebuilding 6. The Improbably European State: Its Ideals Observed with Social Systems Theory, Gorm Harste 7. The Local Adaptation of Centralizing Politics: Hybrid Statebuilding in Sixteenth Century Sweden, Mats Hallenberg 8. Changing Perceptions of the Western Form of Government in Islamic Thought, Mohammad Fazlhashemi Part III: Strategic imperatives in Statebuilding 9. Exploring the Strategic logic of Withdrawal from Statebuilding Interventions: When is a State?, Jan Angstrom 10. In Our Image: Statebuilding Orthodoxy and the Afghan National Army, Adam Grissom 11. Winning legitimacy?: Counterinsurgency as the Military Approach to Statebuilding, Robert Egnell Conclusion 12. Towards New Agendas: Implications for the Theory and Practice of Statebuilding, Robert Egnell and Peter Haldén
