Partner or patron? International civil administration and local capacity-building

Abstract

This article examines the civil administrative functions of contemporary international territorial administrations and explores the relationship between civil administration and local capacity-building. While the importance of building local capacity is widely recognized, in practice it is often given too little emphasis because international authorities are inclined to rely on international agencies and personnel to ensure that civil administration is conducted competently and in conformity with the requirements of a mission's mandate. A better balance needs to be struck between the demands for effective and efficient administration in the short term and the strengthening of local capacity in the longer term if international administrations are not to leave behind weak states or territories as a part of their legacy.

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Mark Baskin, Karin von Hippel and Dominik Zaum for their comments on an earlier draft of this article. The article was written with the support of grants from the Leverhulme Trust and the United States Institute of Peace. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Trust or the Institute.

Notes

For other earlier experiments in international civil administration, see Sally Morphet, ‘Organizing Civil Administration in Peace-Maintenance’, in Jarat Chopra (ed.), The Politics of Peace-Maintenance, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998, ch. 3.

Shepard Forman, Stewart Patrick and Dirk Salomons, Recovering from Conflict: Strategy for an International Response, New York: Center on International Cooperation, 2000, pp.17–18.

Interviews by author with UNTAET officials, Dili.

Derek Boothby, ‘The Political Challenges of Administering Eastern Slavonia’, Global Governance, Vol.10, No.1, 2004, pp.37–51.

‘Report of the Secretary-General Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1025 (1995)’, UN Document No. S/1995/1028, 13 Dec. 1995, paras.14–16.

Details of the functioning of the JICs are drawn from Robert J.A.R. Gravelle, ‘The United Nations Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja, and Western Sirmium (UNTAES): A Successful United Nations Mission’, unpublished manuscript.

‘Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium’, UN Doc. S/1996/622, 5 Aug. 1996, para.4. The oil field, with a total of 74 wells producing approximately 10,000 tonnes of crude oil a month, was the single most important source of revenue for the region. Most of the oil was being sent to Yugoslavia to be refined, and Croatia demanded an end to this outflow as a condition for the opening of the Adriatic pipeline to Yugoslavia. See ‘Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium’, UN Doc. S/1996/472, 26 June 1996, paras.27–9.

‘Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium’, UN Doc. S/1996/821, 10 Oct. 1996, paras.4, 17.

The IEBL marked the boundary between the Federation and Republika Srpska with the exception of the disputed Brcˇko area, the allocation of which was to be decided by binding arbitration. See The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Annex 2.

‘10th Report of the High Representative for Implementation of the Peace Agreement to the Secretary-General of the United Nations’, 14 July 1998, para.81.

See, for instance, the interview with Sejfudin Tokić, vice-president of the Steering Committee of the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia-Herzegovina: ‘Apologies and Reconciliation in Bosnia? Part I’, RFE/RL South Slavic Report, Vol.2, No.34, 21 Sept. 2000, accessed at www.rferl.org/southslavic.

Report of the Denazification Policy Board, 15 Jan. 1946, cited in John Gimbel, The American Occupation of Germany: Politics and the Military, 1945–1949, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968, p.103.

The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Annex 4, Article IX(1); Peace Implementation Conference, ‘Bosnia and Herzegovina 1998: Self-sustaining Structures,’ Bonn, 10 Dec. 1997.

For a discussion of the effectiveness of some of these institutions, see European Stability Initiative, Reshaping International Priorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Part II: International Power in Bosnia, Berlin/Brussels/Sarajevo: ESI, 30 March 2000.

Interview by author with IMC official, Sarajevo.

Customs and Fiscal Assistance Office to Bosnia and Herzegovina (CAFAO), ‘Briefing Note: Combating Organised Crimes in the Balkans: Customs Enforcement in Bosnia and Herzegovina’ (mimeo), Sarajevo, 18 Oct. 1999.

House of Lords, European Union Committee, Responding to the Balkan Challenge: The Role of EU Aid, Session 2001–2002, Twentieth Report, HL 107, London: Stationery Office, 2002, para.224.

Of East Timor, Joel C. Beauvais observes: ‘The population that emerged from the conflagration of August 1999 … included only about sixty lawyers, thirty-five doctors, and a handful of engineers. Most of the top echelons of the occupying Indonesian administration had fled, leaving the territory virtually bereft of an administrative class’. See his ‘Benevolent Despotism: A Critique of U.N. State-Building in East Timor’, New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, Vol.33, No.4, 2001, p.1137.

‘The KLA's Future’, transcript of PBS NewsHour television programme, 23 June 1999, accessed at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/europe/jan-june99/kla_6‐23.html.

UN Security Council Res. 1244 (1999), 10 June 1999, 11(a).

The KTC comprised two Albanian representatives from the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), two from the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), two from the United Democratic Movement (LBD), and two independents; one Kosovo Serb representative from the Serbian Orthodox Church and one from the Serbian Resistance Movement (SPO); one Bosniak from the Party of Democratic Action (SDA); and one Turk from the Turkish People's Party (TPP). See ‘UNMIK Convenes First Meeting of Kosovo Transitional Council’, UNMIK Press Release UNMIK/PR/12, 16 July 1999. The NCC comprised seven representatives of the National Council of East Timorese Resistance (CNRT); one from the Catholic Church; three from pro-autonomy groups: the Forces of the East Timorese People (BRTT), the Timorese Nationalist Party (PNT), and the Forum for Unity, Democracy and Justice (FPDK); and four UNTAET representatives. See UNTAET Regulation No. 2, ‘On the Establishment of a National Consultative Council’, 2 Dec. 1999.

See ‘Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo’, UN Doc. S/1999/779, 17 July 1999, para.18; and ‘Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor’, UN Doc. S/2000/53, 26 Jan. 2000, para.4.

Anthony Goldstone, ‘UNTAET with Hindsight: The Peculiarities of Politics in an Incomplete State’, Global Governance, Vol.10, No.1, 2004, p.94. The National Council, Goldstone argues, was concerned that the constitutional commissions would undermine the autonomy of the Constituent Assembly. Vieira de Mello later issued the regulation as a directive.

Cited in Beauvais (see n.18 above), p.1130, n.111.

For a discussion of Bildt's ‘Karadžić strategy’, see Carl Bildt, Peace Journey: The Struggle for Peace in Bosnia, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998, ch.12.

Conflict, Security and Development Group, A Review of Peace Operations: A Case for Change, London: King's College London, 2003, p.227.

Jarat Chopra, ‘Building State Failure in East Timor’, Development and Change, Vol.33, No.5, 2002, p.997.

Jarat Chopra, ‘Building State Failure in East Timor’, Development and Change, Vol.33, No.5, 2002, p.996.

Simon Chesterman, ‘East Timor in Transition: From Conflict Prevention to State Building’, New York: International Peace Academy, 2001, p.21.

The phased strategy is outlined in ‘Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo’, UN Doc. S/1999/779, 17 July 1999, and ‘Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor’, UN Doc. S/2000/53, 26 Jan. 2000.

UNMIK Regulation No. 2000/1, ‘On the Kosovo Joint Interim Administrative Structure’, 14 Jan. 2000.

UNTAET Regulation No. 2000/23, ‘On the Establishment of the Cabinet of the Transitional Government in East Timor’, 14 July 2000.

Author interviews with UNMIK officials.

Ruth Wedgwood and Harold K. Jacobson, ‘Symposium: State Reconstruction after Civil Conflict: Foreword’, American Journal of International Law, Vol.95, No.1, 2001, p.2.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, ‘How Not to Run a Country: Lessons for the UN from Kosovo and East Timor’, unpublished manuscript (2000), p.4.

Beauvais (see n.18 above), p.1144.

Interview by author with UNTAET official, Dili.

This issue is discussed in A Review of Peace Operations (see n.26 above), ‘East Timor’.

Vieira de Mello (see n.35 above), p.8.

Details about the health sector are drawn from A Review of Peace Operations (see n.26 above), pp.252–3.

World Bank, ‘Memorandum of the President of the International Development Association to the Executive Directors on a Transitional Support Strategy of the World Bank for East Timor’, Report No. 21184-TP, 3 Nov. 2000, p.16.

UNMIK Regulation No. 2001/36, ‘On the Kosovo Civil Service’, 22 Dec. 2001.

‘Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo’, UN Doc. S/2002/1126, 9 Oct. 2002, para.10.

‘Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo’, UN Doc. S/2003/996, 15 Oct. 2003, para.13.

Dominik Zaum, ‘The Paradox of Sovereignty: International Involvement in Civil Service Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.10, No.3, 2003, pp.102–20.

Dominik Zaum, ‘The Paradox of Sovereignty: International Involvement in Civil Service Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.10, No.3, 2003, p.105.

‘Declaration of the Peace Implementation Council’, Madrid, 16 Dec. 1998.

‘Declaration of the Peace Implementation Council’, Madrid, 16 Dec. 1998, Annex, III(3).

Office of the High Representative, ‘Decision Imposing the Law on Civil Service in the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina’, 23 May 2002.

The Framework was promulgated as UNMIK Regulation No. 2001/9, ‘On the Executive Branch of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government in Kosovo’, 15 May 2001.

The transferred and reserved powers are specified in Chapter 5 and Chapter 8 of the Constitutional Framework respectively.

‘Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo’, UN Doc. S/2001/926, 2 Oct. 2001, para.15.

UNTAET Regulation No. 2001/28, ‘On the Establishment of the Council of Ministers’, 19 Sept. 2001.

‘Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor’, UN Doc. S/2001/983, 18 Oct. 2001, para.12.

Cited in A Review of Peace Operations (see n.26 above), p.251.

Cited in A Review of Peace Operations (see n.26 above), p.29.