This book examines the ways in which long-term processes of state-formation limit the possibilities for short-term political projects of statebuilding.

Using process-oriented approaches, the contributing authors explore what happens when conscious efforts at statebuilding 'meet' social contexts, and are transformed into daily routines. In order to explain their findings, they also analyse the temporally and spatially broader structures of world society which shape the possibilities of statebuilding.

Statebuilding and State-Formation includes a variety of case studies from post-conflict societies in Africa, Asia and Europe, as well as the headquarters and branch offices of international agencies. Drawing on various theoretical approaches from sociology and anthropology, the contributors discuss external interventions as well as self-led statebuilding projects. This edited volume is divided into three parts:

• Part I: State-Formation, Violence and Political Economy
• Part II: Governance, Legitimacy and Practice in Statebuilding and State-Formation
• Part III: The International Self - Statebuilders' Institutional Logics, Social Backgrounds and Subjectivities

The book will be of great interest to students of statebuilding and intervention, war and conflict studies, international security and IR.

About the Author

Berit Bliesemann de Guevara is a researcher and lecturer in international relations at Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg. She co-authored Illusion Statebuilding (Hamburg 2010) and is assistant editor of the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.

Book Information
ISBN 9780415731423
Author Berit Bliesemann de Guevara
Format Paperback
Page Count 286
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 408g