Upcoming Conference: Field Research and Ethics in Post-Conflict Environments
 December 4-5, 2008. The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Economic Strategy, Aid Policy, and the State in Countries Emerging from War
 April 3-4, 2008. The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Download Meeting Report as a PDF

This workshop convened to discuss statebuilding in post-conflict environments and focus on what is known empirically about the economic and political processes of statebuilding and the influence of aid. The starting assumption was that for all the current attention on statebuilding, we do not know very much about the effect of economic assistance and yet the current focus on greater policy coherence presumes we do.

In preparation for the workshop, several participants from academic and policy communities drafted memos for the group to discuss. These memos can be downloaded in PDF format below:

Blanca Antonini, Visiting Professor for the Master Program of International Relations at the Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires, Argentina
State Building and Reconstruction

Sunil Bastian,
The New Love Affair with the State

Andy Bearpark, Founder and Director of Post Conflict people. Director General of British Association of Private Security Companies
Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Statebuilding

John Bevan,
Arrested Development

Carlos Castel-Branco, Director, Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Económicos, Maputo, Mozambique
Economic Policy and State Building

Xavier Devictor, Country Program Director (Egypt, Yemen, Djibouti), The World Bank
What effect does the choice of economic strategy and aid policy have on the State?

Miles Kahler, Rohr Professor of Pacific International Relations, Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego
Aid and Statebuilding

Mushtaq Khan, Professor in Economics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Memo on State Building, Economic Development and Conflict Resolution: Insights from Palestinian state-building during the Oslo Period

Richard Kozul-Wright, Development Strategy and Analysis Unit, UN DESA/DPAD
Lessons from the Marshall Plan

Astri Suhrke, Senior Researcher, Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Norway
Aid Policy and Statebuilding

 

Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: Connecting Research and Policy
 January 25, 2008. The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Download Meeting Report as a PDF
Download Research Memos as a PDF

A group of scholars and policymakers working in the field of post-conflict peacebuilding came together to discuss what new ideas scholars can propose on the basis of their empirical research for policy and practice on post-conflict peacebuilding. A major theme that emerged was the challenge of how academics and policymakers can most effectively communicate with each other.
Download Participants and Agenda as a PDF

 

Inside Out: Insider’s Perspectives on Post-Conflict Statebuilding
 July 2-3, 2007. The Graduate Center, City University of New York
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The goal of this meeting was an increased knowledge base, in particular, knowledge from within countries undergoing statebuilding, with the additional object of sharing this information with policy makers. The invitees were both authors of articles describing the experience of post-conflict state-building from an insider’s perspective, and scholars and practitioners who were invited to comment on and discuss the articles with the goal of producing a book, which is currently in the process of being edited.

 

Why State-Building?
 March 14, 2006. The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Download Meeting Report as a PDF

This workshop convened a group of scholars and policy practitioners to discuss Susan L. Woodward's paper, “Why State-Building?”   Her argument is that the study and practice of post-conflict reconstruction lacks consensus on the substance of what is meant by the “state.”   This lack of a common concept of the state makes operations more difficult.   Particularly now, as an organizational basis for coordinated action (such as the UN Peacebuilding Commission) is being developed, a common conceptual and analytical framework is needed in order to define the core elements of state-building and set priorities for policy implementation.

The workshop covered the 3 aspects that Woodward argues are the most important for policy practitioners to have in mind in programming and implementation: (1) the essential, priority roles of the state in the early stages of peacebuilding (and prevention) and why they are essential; (2) the respective roles of insiders and outsiders (sometimes referred to as the ownership question) in this process of state reconstruction or transformation; and (3) the particular characteristics of transitions and why they need to be understood to program and implement a successful transition away from war and fragility.   In the discussion, participants considered the historical development of the state-building agenda, the unique nature of the post-conflict moment, typologies of cases based on pre-intervention conditions and the nature of interveners, Woodward's proposal for increasing consensus on the state-building agenda by prioritizing building legitimate authority over the use of force, democratic legitimacy, and effective administration, and, finally, how academic research can influence policy development and implementation.

 

Inside-Out: The Sierra Leone Experience with Post-Conflict State Restoration
 November 14, 2005. The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Download Meeting Report as a PDF

The workshop report on “Inside-Out: The Sierra Leone Experience with Post-Conflict State Restoration” includes a summary of the paper by James O.C. Jonah, former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and Senior Fellow of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies.   Following Jonah's account of causes of the civil war in Sierra Leone, the unfolding of the war itself, and its aftermath, audience members with backgrounds in academia, diplomacy and aid groups respond with concerns about the paper and their own interpretation of events in Sierra Leone.   The workshop then moved to an in-depth discussion of local governance, the role of the UN in Sierra Leone, and finally the connection between corruption, conditionality, and legitimacy for post-conflict state-building efforts.   Participants concluded that the workshop provided lively debate about the causes of the war and the concept of failed states, as well as inside knowledge that filled important gaps in existing scholarship on Sierra Leone.

 

Post-Conflict State Building: The Academic Research
 November 4, 2005. The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Download Meeting Report as a PDF
Download Workshop Packet as a PDF

The workshop convened a group of younger scholars and policy practitioners to address the problem of the gap between academic knowledge on post-conflict state-building and operational practice.   The participants focused upon (1) substantive knowledge and perspectives on post-conflict state-building from their respective studies (2) the goals, methods, existing models, and institutional aspects of creating a network of scholars; and (3) the goals, challenges, especially the ethics, the methods, and the value to policy makers of connecting academic and policy communities. The discussion ranged from the benefits to researchers and the production of more and better research via connections with the policy community, on the one hand, to the very useful suggestions from policy practitioners of what research they need, the most usable forms, and what practitioners can offer the academic community in return.  

 

State Failure: Reframing the International Economic and Political Agenda
 May 9-10, 2005 The Graduate Center, City University of New York

The international security agenda is now focused on state failure -- its prevention, the roots of fragility, and international interventions to restore collapsed states after war. The problem, however, is that the concept of state failure is vague, even tautological; the goals and targets of the new agenda are unclear; and the concept is based on particular models of the state and policy prescriptions that may well be the cause of state fragility and the international-security threats assigned to state failure. This project applies a critical lens on the concept of state failure and on the models of the state on which it is based, and undertakes serious empirical research on state failure and international responses with the aim of proposing policy alternatives.

The purposes of the workshop were:

  1. to take stock of the research response provoked thus far by the concept of state failure/fragility in the new international security agenda: what we think has been accomplished, where it is heading, what alternative, critical perspectives need to be considered, and whether there are directions for future research that we want to encourage
  2. to begin and nurture a conversation among us, and particularly across the North-South divide, about the consequences of this policy agenda and the role that research can play.

In preparation for the workshop, several participants from academic and policy communities drafted memos for the group to discuss.   These memos can be downloaded in PDF format below:  

Professor Susan L. Woodward, Director, Program on States and Security, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Introduction to the Workshop “State Failure: Reframing the International Economic and Political Agenda”

Stephen Baranyi , Conflict Prevention, North-South Institute, Ottawa
Thoughts for Further Research on Official Development Assistance in Fragile States

Mark Taylor, Deputy Managing Director, FAFO, Oslo
The Problem of State

David Sogge , Independent researcher and consultant, Amsterdam
The Aid System and State Fragility

Professor Juan G. Tokatlian, Director, Ciencia Politica y Relaciones Internationales, Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina
Only Joint Action Can Counter Andean Tensions