state-building

Reconnecting Joined-up Approaches: Nation-building through state-building

This paper examines the tensions between the long-term goal of building government capacity as the basis for sustainable development and the equally important but shorter-term goal of securing a political settlement and delivering basic security. When these two objectives are pursued separately, they can conflict with each other. The need for quick results on the …

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Fragile States: Defining Difficult Environments for Poverty Reduction

In recent years, there has been growing concern over the impact of weak or ineffective states. Sovereign states are expected to perform certain minimal functions for the security and well being of their citizens, as well as the smooth working of the international system. In simple terms, people need states to work. States that fail …

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Managing Contradictions: The Inherent Dilemmas of Postwar Statebuilding

Statebuilding has become a central focus of multidimen- sional peace operations in war-torn societies. But efforts to construct legitimate, effective state institutions are rife with tensions and contradictions. Understanding these tensions and contradictions is essential for anticipating many of the practical problems that international agencies face in the course of statebuilding operations and for devising …

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