Peace Infrastructures And State Building At The Margins

This book offers a critical examination of ‘infrastructures for peace’, originally proposed as a framework of conflict transformation. Through an exploration of the statist ideological underpinnings of peace-building, it traces how the concept was transformed by institutional actors – international organisations and states – into a tool to further the state-building goals of liberal peace-building.

Western struggles—and failures—to create functioning states in countries such as Iraq or Afghanistan have inspired questions about whether statebuilding projects are at all viable, or whether they make the lives of their intended beneficiaries better or worse. In this groundbreaking book, Oliver Richmond asks why statebuilding has been so hard to achieve, and argues that a large part of the problem has been Westerners’ failure to understand or engage with what local peoples actually want and need. He interrogates the liberal peacebuilding industry, asking what it assumes, what it is getting wrong, and how it could be more effective.

Post-conflict scenarios are often proposed for Arab countries that have witnessed significant changes and civil wars. Yet the plans for reconciliation, transitional justice, and the return of the displaced often overlook the real conditions that make these recommendations impossible. This book provides a critical analysis of current post-conflict frameworks for Syria and Iraq. Drawing on empirical research, the book shows that reconciliation and reconstruction scenarios need to be considered alongside the realities on the ground. It argues that Iraq and Syria exist in a condition of 'conflict transformation' rather than of 'conflict termination', because the extreme changes that accompanied these countries into war continue long after the conflicts end. Furthermore, the chapters highlight why experts should not seek solutions in culturalist terms and ancestral enmities, or rely on the wartime status quo. Rather, they should look to the specific military, political, economic and socio-cultural conditions that require different solutions. A critical analysis of existing post-conflict frameworks, their applicability and their potential outcomes in Iraq and Syria, the book is a vital contribution to post-conflict studies. It highlights the need for new approaches to reconstruction and peacebuilding in Arab countries and points to how they should be found.

A critical assessment of current liberal approaches to post-conflict statebuilding with constructive suggestions as to where improvements might be made. Newly available in paperback.

This book explores the contradictions that emerge in international statebuilding efforts in war-torn societies. Since the end of the Cold War, more than 20 major peace operations have been deployed to countries emerging from internal conflicts. This book argues that international efforts to construct effective, legitimate governmental structures in these countries are necessary but fraught with contradictions and vexing dilemmas.. Drawing on the latest scholarly research on postwar peace operations, the volume: addresses cutting-edge issues of statebuilding including coordination, local ownership, security, elections, constitution making, and delivery of development aid features contributions by leading and up-and-coming scholars provides empirical case studies including Afghanistan, Cambodia, Croatia, Kosovo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and others presents policy-relevant findings of use to students and policymakers alike The Dilemmas of Statebuilding will be vital reading for students and scholars of international relations and political science. Bringing new insights to security studies, international development, and peace and conflict research, it will also interest a range of policy makers.

For much of the last half century, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has seemed the outlier in global peace. Today Iraq, Libya, Israel/Palestine, Yemen, and Syria are not just countries, but synonyms for prolonged and brutal wars. But why is MENA so exceptionally violent? More importantly, can it change? Exploring the causes and consequences of wars and conflicts in this troubled region, Ariel Ahram helps readers answer these questions. In Part I, Ahram shows how MENA’s conflicts evolved with the formation of its states. Violence varied from civil wars and insurgencies to traditional interstate conflicts and affected some countries more frequently than others. The strategies rulers employed to stay in power constrained how they recruited, trained, and equipped their armies. Part II explores dynamics that trap the region in conflict—oil dependence, geopolitical interference, and embedded identity cleavages. The catastrophic wars of the 2010s reflect the confounding effects of these traps, culminating in state collapse and intervention from the US and Russia, as well as regional powers like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Finally, Ahram considers the possibilities of peace, highlighting the disjuncture between local peacebuilding and national and internationally-backed mediation. War and Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa will be an essential resource for students of peace and security studies and MENA politics, and anyone wanting to move beyond headlines and soundbites to understand the historical and social roots of MENA’s conflicts.

War devastates the lives of those who are caught up in it. For thousands of years, reparations have been used to secure the end of war and alleviate its deleterious consequences. More recently, human rights law has established that victims have a right to reparations. Yet, in the face of conflicts that last for decades with millions of victims, how feasible are reparations? And what are the obstacles to delivering them? Using interviews with hundreds of victims, ex-combatants, government officials, and civil society actors from six post-conflict countries, Reparations and War examines the history, theoretical justifications, and practical challenges of implementing reparations after war. It examines the role of non-state armed groups in making reparations, the role of victim mobilisation, the evolving use of reparations, and the political instrumentalization of redress. Luke Moffett offers a measured and honest account of what reparations can and cannot do. This book sheds new light on how reparations can be politically manipulated, or used to reward those loyal to the State, rather than to achieve justice for the victims who suffer.