scholarly journals The Regional Dimension of Statebuilding Interventions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Brast
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Political System ◽  
Process Tracing ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Formation Theory ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Tracing Method

In the post-cold war era, liberal statebuilding interventions have become a major tool of global governance. Yet, the variation in outcomes is still poorly understood. This article draws on state formation theory to elaborate a causal mechanism that can explain the successful monopolization of the means of violence in statebuilding interventions. Insights from the state formation literature suggest that the regional political system is crucial for state formation and statebuilding. In order to test the hypothesis, a novel process-tracing method is applied to the case of Sierra Leone. The case study suggests that only a cooperative regional setting enables interventions to succeed.

scholarly journals Liberal Statebuilding Interventions and the Monopoly on Violence

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Brast
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
International System ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Process Tracing ◽  
Modern State ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Monopoly ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Tracing Method

Since the end of the Cold War, liberal statebuilding interventions in conflict-ridden societies have become a major feature of the international system. Although these interventions seek to export liberal statehood, they often fail to establish the minimum feature of the modern state: The monopoly on the use of force. The dissertation seeks to explain the outcomes of liberal statebuilding interventions in terms of violence regulation. Using a novel process-tracing method, the study looks for violence monopolization patterns within and across the cases of Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sierra Leone. The findings indicate that a liberal statebuilding intervention leads to a state monopoly on violence when the intervention is supported by key regional actors and when the target society had a history of strong statehood prior to civil war.

The Role of Local Actors in Peacekeeping: The Cases of Liberia and Sierra Leone

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Sempijja ◽  
Ekeminiabasi Eyita-Okon
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Policy Work

With the advent of multidimensional peacekeeping, in considering the changing nature of conflicts in the post–Cold War period, the role of local actors has become crucial to the execution of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mandate. Just as peacekeeping does not have space in the UN charter, local actors do not have a clearly defined space in the UN-led conflict resolution process. However, they have gained recognition, especially in policy work, and slowly in the academic discourse, as academics and practitioners have begun to find ways of making peacekeeping and peacebuilding more effective in the 21st century. Therefore the construction and perception of local actors by international arbitrators play an important and strategic role in creating and shaping space for the former to actively establish peace where violent conflict is imminent. Local actors have independently occupied spaces during and after the conflict, and although they bring a comparative advantage, especially as gatekeepers to local communities, they have largely been kept on the periphery.

scholarly journals Democratic Legitimacy between Port-au-Prince and Cairo: A Reply to Erika de Wet

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 208-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jure Vidmar
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Law ◽  
Political System ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
Democratic Government ◽  
Normative Force ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Definition Of

In the 1990s, international legal scholarship was marked by democratic idealism and the belief that democracy had become the only legitimate political system. The more radical proposals even speculated about legality of pro-democratic intervention. Such re-conceptualizations of international law were met with determined criticism. However, even skeptical voices were willing to admit that democracy nevertheless did have some limited normative force in post-Cold War international law. While it would be an exaggeration to say that nondemocratic governments are illegitimate per se, a consensus started to emerge that international law prohibited at least a coup against a democratic government. In the absence of a workable definition of substantive democracy for international law purposes, a democratic government was understood as an authority which comes to power in an electoral process that is reasonably free and fair.

Engendering transitional justice: questions of absence and silence

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eilish Rooney
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Women's Equality ◽  
Belfast Agreement ◽  
Practical Implications

The globalisation of transitional justice as a framework for the resolution of conflicts is a remarkable phenomenon of the post-Cold War era (Bell and Craig, 2000). In different contexts this framework has significant consequences for women’s equality. This article asserts that a conceptualisation of gender that intersects with other dimensions of inequality in state formation provides an important tool for understanding contemporary transitional justice processes. This complex tool of intersectional analysis is used to explore the issue of women’s equality in Northern Ireland’s transition. This is applied to the problems of women’s absence from negotiations and the silence in these negotiations on matters to do with women’s day-to-day lives. The Good Friday/Belfast Agreement and the enactment of the equality legislation enacted in the Northern Ireland Act 1998 are the textual sites of analysis. These documents comprise the formal transitional framework for Northern Ireland. The article examines the theoretical tensions and practical implications inherent in universal claims for women’s equality in a situation where recognition of ‘difference’ is enshrined in both the equality legislation and the mechanisms for future democratic representation. The article concludes by suggesting that transitional justice discourse can benefit from the theoretical challenges posed by intersectionality and that social stability in NI and in other conflicted societies may be strengthened through addressing the corrosive impacts of inequality.

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT RESEARCH IN GERMANY: RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (01) ◽  
pp. 1550010 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHANN KOEPPEL ◽  
GESA GEISSLER
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Environmental Assessment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Study Research ◽  
Assessment Research

This paper aims to provide an overview of German Environmental Assessment (EA) research over the recent decades. Likely reasons for previous developments as Germany's post-Cold War challenges, ongoing case study research endeavours and further prospects are outlined. This involves research on large-scale SEA making, an enhanced EA theory building and a move towards "best available science" research. Last but not least, a stronger research oriented conference series is proposed.

scholarly journals Participatory Budgeting: Case Study of Possible Causes of Failures

2021 ◽  
pp. 139-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Soukop ◽  
Pavel Šaradín ◽  
Markéta Zapletalová
Keyword(s):  
Local Level ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Process Tracing ◽  
Theory Testing ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Participatory Budgeting ◽  
Domino Effect ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Know How

Participatory budgeting is perhaps the most widespread and popular form of democratic innovation (DI). It is often identified as an appropriate tool to deepen the democracy at the local level. The text shows that this is not always the case, as some elected officials may use it as a innovation “façade” or its design suffers from various forms of imperfections leading to its failure to be implemented. The authors focus on the practice of participatory budgeting and its failures in the Czech Republic. Through the empirical testing of causal mechanism, the article reveals the main causes of that failure, in the case of its implementation in Prague 7 borough. The mechanism presented is based on the theory-testing minimal process-tracing design in which part of the findings of the previous research have been tested. It also attempts to support empirically only the significant steps of the mechanism between cause and outcome. In particular, the three scope conditions are tested: political support, sufficient funding for participatory budgeting and the existence of a source of know-how. Authors conclude that in the selected case, there was a domino effect of failure, with successive failures in all observed conditions, which ultimately led to a complete brake of causal mechanism and failure of participatory budgeting tool.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document