Introduction
This chapter introduces students to the post-conflict state-building agenda. Identifying the end of the Cold War, the rise of the discourse of humanitarian intervention and the events of 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as key to the development of this agenda, the chapter focuses on the main areas of contention and debate in this field. In particular, it seeks to highlight debates over the political content of post conflict statebuilding, and notes that more recent developments have slowed the impetus of this agenda. The chapter closes with a brief consideration of the impacts of the post-conflict state-building agenda, and asks where that agenda might head from here.
The rise of post-conflict state-building
State-building became the international community's default answer when presented with the need to respond to calls for help by severely weakened or beleaguered governments (as in the Solomon Islands), the dissolution of certain regimes (as in Afghanistan and Iraq) or the complete creation of new political authorities (as in Kosovo and East Timor). From 1999, such projects increasingly were seen as a potential panacea for solving conflict and cementing peace and security.
Although there were some historical precedents in the form of the post-World War II rebuilding of Japan and Germany, as noted in Box 30.1, the motivation for external actors to be involved in the building of states in post-conflict sites has predominantly been a post-Cold War and post-9/11 affair.
BOX 30.1: CASE STUDY
Post-war state-building in Japan
Japan was occupied by the Allied powers from its defeat at the end of World War II until 1952. President Truman's ‘US Initial Post Surrender Policy for Japan’ set out two main objectives: (1) to prevent Japan from being able to wage war again in the near future; and (2) to turn Japan into a pro-American Western-style democratic state.
State-building efforts therefore focused on supporting the institutionalisation of democracy and human rights. These were to be enshrined in the new Constitution of 1947, which also limited Japan's military capabilities and formally renounced the right to war. In addition to this, the education and police services were decentralised, land reforms were undertaken and universal suffrage was introduced.
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