Elites and International Actors in Post-War Societies: The Limits of Intervention

Abstract

This article analyses the efforts of external actors to influence opportunities for national political elites to gain or maintain positions of power in post-conflict societies. The analysis compares the cases of Liberia and Kosovo, both of which have been characterized by high levels of external intervention though with significant differences in the scope of authority of external actors. Despite these differences, similar dynamics have characterized elite formation in both countries. The impact of external actors on elite systems is mostly indirect, and chances for accumulating authority provided by the national setting determine elite careers. External actors bow to these national conditions rather than decisively changing them.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

An earlier version of this article was presented at the 6^th European Consortium for Political Research General Conference in August 2011 at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik. We thank the panel participants and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. This research was made possible by a grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Notes

Roger Mac Ginty and Oliver Richmond (eds), The Liberal Peace and Post-War Reconstruction: Myth or Reality?, London: Routledge, 2009.

Carrie Manning, ‘Interim Governments and the Construction of Political Elites’, in Karen Guttieri and Jessica Piombo (eds), Interim Governments: Institutional Bridges to Peace and Democracy?, Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2007, pp.53–72.

Daniel Serwer and Patricia Thomson, ‘A Framework for Success: International Intervention in Societies Emerging from Conflict’, in Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson and Pamela Aall (eds), Leashing the Dogs of War: Conflict Management in a Divided World, Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2007, pp.369–87.

Cf. Mattei Dogan and John Higley (eds), Elites, Crises, and the Origins of Regimes, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998.

Jan Selby, ‘The Political Economy of Peace Processes’, in Michael Pugh, Neil Cooper and Mandy Turner (eds), Whose Peace? Critical Perspectives on the Political Economy of Peacebuilding, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, pp.11–29, 13.

Notable exceptions are Michael Barnett and Christoph Zürcher, ‘The Peacebuilders's Contract: How External Statebuilding Reinforces Weak Statehood’, in Roland Paris and Timothy D. Sisk (eds), The Dilemmas of Statebuilding: Confronting the Contradictions of Postwar Peace Operations, London: Routledge, 2009, pp.23–52; Oisín Tansey, Regime-Building: Democratization and International Administration, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Although UNMIK and UNMIL were both multidimensional peacebuilding operations, there were significant differences in the depth of intervention and the range of associated external actors.

This assumption applies only to intrastate wars.

The theory of opportunity structure has so far been mainly applied in the studies of social movements and contentious politics. See, Doug McAdam, John D. McCarthy and Mayer N. Zald (eds), Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996; Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 2006.

Tilly (see n.9 above), p.19.

Shmuel N. Eisenstadt and Luis Roniger, Patrons, Clients and Friends. Interpersonal Relations and the Structure of Trust in Society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984, pp.29–50.

Christopher Clapham, ‘Clientelism and the State’, in Clapham (ed.), Private Patronage and Public Power: Political Clientelism and the Modern State, London: Pinter, 1982, pp.1–35; Eisenstadt and Roniger (see n.11 above), pp.220–45.

James C. Scott, Comparative Political Corruption, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1972, pp.21–23, 54–91; Susan Rose-Ackerman, Corruption and Government: Causes, Consequences, and Reform, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp.9–38, 91–126.

Michael Pugh, ‘Protectorates and Spoils of Peace: Political Economy in South-East Europe’, in Dietrich Jung (ed.), Shadow Globalization, Ethnic Conflicts and New Wars: A Political Economy of Intra-state War, London: Routledge, 2003, pp.47–69.

Max Weber, Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1978, pp.228–41,1025–69.

Tansey (see n.6 above), pp.37–42; Manning (see n.2 above), pp.54–6.

Note that opportunity structures of post-war societies not only affect domestic political actors. Intervention, of course, also creates opportunities for international actors such as intergovernmental organizations and NGOs, because it allows them to accumulate reform expertise and to pursue tasks that justify their existence. It provides opportunities for international organizations to gain legitimacy, and creates career chances for international personnel. Thus, the distinction between national and international opportunity structures is an analytical one. Both dimensions are interlinked and may overlap. For a Bourdieusian perspective on these links, see Stephan Hensell, ‘The International Scramble for Police Reform in the Balkans’, in Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (ed.), State-building and State-formation: The Political Sociology of Intervention, London: Routledge, 2012, pp.182–97.

Jean-François Bayart, ‘Africa in the World: A History of Extraversion’, African Affairs, Vol.99, No.395, 2000, pp.217–67.

David Brown, ‘On the Category “Civilized” in Liberia and Elsewhere’, Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol.20, No.2, 1982, pp.287–303; Gus J. Liebenow, Liberia: The Evolution of Privilege, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1969.

Taylor's post-war government was installed as a consequence of peace negotiations that eventually allowed elections to be held. The peace process, however, unfolded under the circumstances of the NPFL's clear military supremacy.

International Crisis Group, ‘Tackling Liberia: The Eye of the Regional Storm’, Africa Report No.62, Freetown/Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2003.

See Renata Dwan and Laura Bailey, ‘Liberia's Governance and Economic Management Assistance Programme (GEMAP): A Joint Review’, New York: UN DPKO and World Bank, May 2006 (at: www.peacekeepingbestpractices.unlb.org/PBPS/Library/DPKO-WB%20joint%20review%20of%20GEMAP%20FINAL.pdf). The ICGL was a multilateral body comprising the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Germany, Ghana, Nigeria, Spain, Sweden, the UK, the UN, the United States, and the World Bank among its members. It was led by a Liberian International Economic Governance Steering Committee (EGSC) chaired by President Johnson Sirleaf (since 2006) and co-chaired by the US Ambassador.

UN Panel of Experts, ‘Report of the Panel of Experts Appointed Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1306 (2000), para. 19, in Relation to Sierra Leone’, Document S/2000/1195, 20 Dec. 2000 (at: www.un.org/sc/committees/1132/selecdocs.html).

UN Security Council, ‘Security Council Committee Issues List of Persons Affected by Resolution 1343 (2001) on Liberia’, Press release, UN doc., SC/7068, 4 June 2001 (at: www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/sc7068.doc.html).

Additional sanctions on timber in contrast had no immediate impact, as the government had already lost major logging areas and export facilities when the measures entered into force in July 2003.

Quote from the SCSL webpage as of December 2011 (at: www.sc-sl.org).

Priscilla Hayner, ‘Negotiating Peace in Liberia: Preserving the Possibility for Justice’, Geneva/ New York: Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and International Center for International Justice, Nov. 2007 (at: www.hdcentre.org/publications/negotiating-peace-liberia-preserving-possibility-justice), pp.8–9.

Under pressure because of the indictment, Taylor declared he would go into exile, but few observers were convinced that he would. Taylor eventually left on 11 Aug., four days after the weapons consignment was impounded.

Hayner (see n.27 above), pp.12–14.

See, UN Security Council, ‘Security Council Issues List of Those Subject to Measures Indicated in Resolution 1532 (2004) – Assets Freeze List’, Press release, UN doc. SC/8123, 15 June 2004 (at: www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/sc8123.doc.html). The measures were based on UN Security Council Resolution 1534 (2004) which had already frozen assets of Taylor's spouse and one of his sons, Charles McArthur ‘Chuckie’ Taylor who, being a citizen of the country, was sentenced to 97 years in jail for torture committed in Liberia by a US court in January 2009. BBC News, ‘Taylor's Son Jailed for 97 Years’, BBC News, 9 Jan. 2009 (at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7820069.stm).

UN Panel of Experts, ‘Final Report of the Panel of Experts on Liberia Submitted Pursuant to Paragraph 4 (e) of Security Council Resolution 1854 (2008)’, UN doc. S/2009/640, 11 Dec. 2009 (at: www.un.org/sc/committees/1521/liberiaPOE.shtml).

A ‘System and Financial Audit’ commissioned by the European Commission Office in Monrovia can well be interpreted this way: Ernst and Young, ‘Liberia Petroleum Refining Company “LPRC”, Vol.2, Detailed Report, Audited period from Oct. 2003 to June 2004’, Monrovia, 2005.

On the rapprochement between traditional and settler elites despite maintenance of a pertinent, culturally defined dividing line, see Stephen Ellis, ‘The Mutual Assimilation of Elites: The Development of Secret Societies in Twentieth Century Liberian’, in Jacqueline Knörr and Wilson Trajano Filho (eds), The Powerful Presence of the Past: Integration and Conflict along the Upper Guinea Coast, Leiden: Brill, 2010, pp.185–204.

Albert Porte, Liberianization or Gobbling Business?, Crozierville: self-published, 1974; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President, New York: Harper Collins, 2009.

These included the Ministry of Finance, the Bureau of Maritime Affairs, the Forestry Development Authority, the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy, the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company, and the National Ports Authority.

Dwan and Bailey (see n.22 above), pp.13–14.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, ‘Inaugural Address of H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’, 16 Jan. 2006 (at: www.emansion.gov.lr/doc/inaugural_add_1.pdf).

See, for instance Panel of Experts 11 Dec. 2009 report (n.31 above).

‘A Second Term for Sirleaf’, Africa Confidential, 14 May 2010; ‘Honesty – Not the Easiest Policy’, Africa Confidential, 22 July 2011.

‘The Post-War Economy is Easier to Manage than Monrovia's Politicians’, Africa Confidential, 15 Dec. 2006.

Amos Sawyer, ‘Emerging Patterns in Liberia's Post-Conflict Politics: Observations From the 2005 Elections’, African Affairs, Vol.107, No.427, 2008, pp.177–99.

Ibid., p.186.

Johnson Sirleaf's first Minister of National Security, a former Justice Minister under Taylor, was appointed in 2008. He did not stay long in office but the Interior Minister appointed thereafter was also from the former Taylor government. The LURD's representative, the Transport Minister, lost his position in 2009.

These issues are analysed in greater detail in Felix Gerdes, ‘Liberia's Post-war Elite: A New Era of Inclusive Ownership or Old Wine in New Bottles?’, Research Unit of Wars, Working Paper No. 1/2011, University of Hamburg, 2011 (at: www.akuf.de).

Although the SCSL is based in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Taylor's trial takes place in The Hague for security reasons, using the facilities of the International Criminal Court.

This was the case of Emmanuel Shaw, a key financial adviser to Taylor suspected of hiding some of his assets and subject to both a travel ban and assets freeze. Johnson Sirleaf rescinded her decision to appoint Shaw a senior official of the Airports Authority after ‘details regarding sanctions imposed against Mr. Shaw by the United Nations and the United States Government … [had] been brought to her attention’. See, Executive Mansion, ‘Appointment of Emanuel Shaw as LAA Chairman Withdrawn over Sanctions’, ‘Press Release by The Office of the President’, 27 May 2011 (at: www.emansion.gov.lr/press.php?news_id=1903).

Lenard J. Cohen, The Socialist Pyramid: Elites and Power in Yugoslavia, London: Tri-Service Press, 1989, pp.335–92.

Besnik Pula, ‘The Emergence of the Kosovo “Parallel State”, 1988–1992’, Nationalities Papers, Vol.32, No.4, 2004, pp.797–826.

Henry H. Perritt Jr, Kosovo Liberation Army. The Inside Story of an Insurgency, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008, pp.130–51.

Pugh (see n.14 above), pp.47–50.

Besnik Pula, ‘The UN in Kosova: Administering Democratization?’, in Florian Bieber and Židas Daskalovski (eds), Understanding the War in Kosovo, London: Frank Cass, 2003, pp.199–216.

International Crisis Group, ‘Who's Who in Kosovo’, Balkans Report No.76, Pristina, 31 Aug. 1999, pp.8–11; International Crisis Group, ‘What happened to the KLA?’, Balkans Report No.88, Pristina, 3 Mar. 2000, pp.2–5.

Dana Eyre and Andreas Wittkowsky, ‘Privatisation in Kosovo. The Political Economy of Property Rights and Stability in a Peace-Building Mission’, Südosteuropa Mitteilungen, Vol.42, No.4, 2002, pp.16–35, p.20; Pula (see n.51 above), p.205.

Alexandros Yannis, ‘Kosovo: The Political Economy of Conflict and Peacebuilding’, in Karen Ballentine and Jake Sherman (eds), The Political Economy of Armed Conflict. Beyond Greed and Grievance, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003, pp.167–95; Michael Pugh, ‘Crime and Capitalism in Kosovo's Transformation’, in Tonny Brems Knudsen and Carsten Bagge Laustsen (eds), Kosovo between War and Peace: Nationalism, Peacebuilding and International Trusteeship, Abingdon: Routledge, 2006, pp.116–34.

Marcus Brand, ‘The Development of Kosovo Institutions and the Transition of Authority from UNMIK to Local Self-Government’, Centre for Applied Studies in International Negotiations, Geneva, 2003, p.24.

Brand (see n.55 above), pp.24–5.

Ibid., p.26.

International Crisis Group 1999 (see n.52 above), pp.7–8.

Brand (see n.55 above), p.11.

Ibid., p.12.

Jens Narten, ‘Building Local Institutions and Parliamentarianism in Post-war Kosovo: A Review of Joint Efforts by the UN and OSCE from 1999–2006’, Helsinki Monitor, Vol.17, No.2, 2006, pp.144–59.

Narten (see n.61 above), p.147.

Brand (see n.55 above), p.19.

Ibid., p.15.

Brand (see n.55 above), pp.19–22.

Eyre and Wittkowsky (see n.53 above), pp.25–8.

Ibid., pp.25, 30.

Brand (see n.55 above), pp.36–8.

Ivan Briscoe and Megan Price, ‘Kosovo's New Map of Power: Governance and Crime in the Wake of Independence’, The Hague: Netherlands Institute of International Relations, 2011, p.13.