1,721,004 research outputs found
State Building and International Intervention in Bosnia
No full textThe presence of international missions in weak and failing states across the globe confirms that multi-lateral involvement has become a strategic imperative to secure international peace and security. With demands for democratic governance and peaceful coexistence in countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, the questions and issues addressed in Bosnia take on greater urgency.
Focussing on Bosnia after the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) in 1995, this book examines the role of the international community in state building and intervention. It makes two arguments that challenge conventional, power-sharing approaches to conflict management based on group representation and elite collusion. First, the author explores the idea that effective intervention requires moving beyond the dichotomy between international imposition of state-building measures and local self-government. When compromise among the former warring parties proves impossible and domestic institutions cannot autonomously guarantee efficient policy-making, the presence of international staff in domestic institutions can guarantee further democratisation and local ownership of the peace process. Second, this book argues that the long-term transformation of conflict requires the active involvement and empowerment of domestic civil society groups. Instead of considering domestic society as a desolate blank slate, international intervention needs to build on local resources and assets, which are available even in the aftermath of a devastating war.
Based on extensive field research this book will be of interest to students, scholars and policy makers struggling to understand and improve upon the dynamics of international intervention, and to those with a specific interest in the Balkans
International Intervention and the Problem of Legitimacy: Encounters in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina
No full textGilbert’s effort to bring to light the power relations and changing dynamics involved in international encounters make this book compelling reading for all students of intervention
Local Peacebuilding and International Legitimacy
No full textThis volume provides a rich theoretical and empirical analysis of a fundamental issue which is central in the study of the complexities of peacebuilding
Assessing the Rise of Macro-regionalism in Europe: the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR)
Full text linkThis article investigates the rationale and activities of the European Union Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR) established in 2014 with the objective of addressing macro-regional challenges—most importantly, the attempt to couple the protection of the Adriatic and Ionian seas with the area’s economic development—while progressively integrating Southeastern European states into the European Union through multi-level governance programmes. The results of this scheme, however, have been so far unsatisfactory. Through an examination of two highly salient issues pertaining to its development, oil and gas exploration in the Adriatic Sea and the building of a highway linking Greece to Italy, this article shows how the EUSAIR influences only marginally, if at all, states’ priorities and it does not yet contribute significantly to the building of cross-border cooperation and trust. Accordingly, the EUSAIR risks becoming irrelevant vis-à-vis the challenges that the macro-region is expected to confront
The European Union Blowback? Euroscepticism and its Consequences in the Western Balkans
No full textWhile there exists a large body of literature investigating the European Union’s intervention in the western Balkans, and in particular the influence of so-called ‘enlargement fatigue’, rarely is the western Balkans’ own fatigue towards the EU given serious consideration. This paper examines domestic views about Europe, arguing that aspiring new EU member states have been experiencing various forms of Euroscepticism due to a number of socio-economic, cultural and political factors. The growth of Euroscepticism has helped Russia to play a more assertive and influential role in the region. However, as this paper argues, Euroscepticism is not a rejection of the European perspective and the search for alternatives, but rather a critique of the actual methods, timing and impact of the integration process
The Rise and Fall of Peacebuilding in the Balkans
No full textThis book examines the evolution of liberal peacebuilding in the Balkans since the mid-1990s. After more than two decades of peacebuilding intervention, widespread popular disappointment by local communities is increasingly visible.
Since the early 2010s, difficult conditions have spurred a wave of protest throughout the region. Citizens have variously denounced the political system, political elites, corruption and mismanagement. Rather than re-evaluating their strategy in light of mounting local discontent, international peacebuilding officials have increasingly adopted cynical calculations about stability. This book explains this evolution from the optimism of the mid-1990s to the current state through the analysis of three main phases, moving from the initial ‘rise’, to a later condition of ‘stalemate’ and then ‘fall’ of peacebuilding
Društveni ugovor elite naspram svakodnevnoga društvenog ugovora u Bosni i Hercegovini
No full textOvaj sažetak pruža kratak pregled rezultata studije slučaja koja je rađena za Bosnu i Hercegovinu u sklopu projekta koji je obuhvatio dijalog i istraživanje provedeno u 11 zemalja a kroz koji se promatralo što je to što pokreće jak društveni ugovor unutar jedne države u zemljama koje su bile pogođene konfliktom i krhkošću te zemljama u tranziciji. Njime se zagovara da u BiH postoje dvije vrste društvenog ugovora – „društveni ugovor elite“ te „svakodnevni društveni ugovor“. Društveni ugovor elite samo ponavlja, a ne rješava ključna pitanja konflikta, te koči zupčanike jakoga i otpornog društvenog ugovora – naročito u pogledu djelotvornosti i uključenosti institucija, ali i pokušaja da se proširi i produbi društvena kohezija. Nasuprot tome, svakodnevni društveni ugovor pokazuje potencijal koji omogućuje rad ovih zupčanika. Sve hitnije ekonomske i društvene potrebe osporavaju razlike među osobama i grupama unutar populacije; stvaraju prilike za koheziju društva te osporavaju postojanje društvenog ugovora elite. Prijedlozi za politike djelovanja usmjereni su ka stvaranju jednoga državnog društvenog ugovora koji može potpomoći transformaciju trenutnih dinamika te imati pozitivan utjecaj na zupčanike jakoga društvenog ugovora. Specifično govoreći, aktivizam na lokalnom nivou, multietničke političke stranke, sindikati kao i dijaspora imaju visok potencijal da daju podršku postupnom razvoju jakoga državnog društvenog ugovora
The Multi-level Dimensions of Peace: The New Macro Regionalism in Europe
No full textSince 2009 several macro-regions have been created, or are in the pro- cess of being created, on European territory. While scholars have discussed the broader implications of this new development, above all macro-regions’ contribution to the pursuit of cohesion goals, little attention has been given to their impact on peace and stability. Focusing on the case of the Adriatic Ionian macro-region, which involves the volatiles states of the western Balkans, this paper examines the macro-regions’ ability to further peace and stability. On balance, while there exist considerable challenges in the process of implementation of macro-regions, nonetheless this initiative represents an important attempt to involve Europe’s neighbours in the European political and institutional space and, by so doing, extends the European regional peace system to as many states as possible
After Brexit: the Western Balkans in the European Waiting Room
No full texthe European enlargement process in the western Balkans is in trouble. This paper starts by briefly reviewing the much debated, and quite well known, ‘enlargement fatigue‘ the European Union (EU) has been experiencing largely, but not exclusively, as a result of the post-2008 economic, financial and political crisis in Europe. While this crisis has slowed considerably the EU enlargement process, the post-2016 ‘Brexit’ risks postponing it indefinitely. Second, it notes how a less known, but equally important, version of the enlargement fatigue is found in western Balkan states where various levels of Euroscepticism, or Euro-fatigue, have been developing. Third, and finally, the paper discusses some alternatives to the western Balkans’ integration into the EU, including the development of a ‘privileged partnership,’ various forms of ‘differentiated integration,’ and the construction of a ’macro-region.’ Overall, we argue that the EU’s approach to the region ultimately depends on its own institutional development
Stabilization Operations and their Relationship to Liberal Peacebuilding Missions
No full textThis chapter begins with a discus- sion of the different usages of the term by the United States (US), the United Kingdom, and France which, more than any other state, have contributed to “upload” their understanding of stabilization in UN Security Council resolutions. Second, the chapter examines conceptual aspects. Stabilization is often associated to, or used as a synonymous of, other terms like peacekeeping, peace enforcement, counterterrorism, counterin- surgency, and peacebuilding. Indeed, stabilization involves all of these aspects but does not coincide with any of them. Finally, key empirical examples of UN-led stabilization operations are briefly reviewed. They reveal the importance of a “robust posture” in stabilization operations, as well as of a number of contradictions and antinomies emerg- ing in the process of implementation of stabiliza- tion’s activities. As a whole, stabilization reflects the disappointment with earlier large-scale, trans- formative peacebuilding interventions and the related downgrading among the list of interna- tional priorities of normative issues such as the promotion of democracy and the protection of human rights
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