Cumulative influence: the case of political settlements research in British policy

ABSTRACT

The concept of the political settlement has risen to occupy a central place in British policy toward conflict-affected and fragile states. Yet, at around the turn of the millennium, the term was barely mentioned in official circles and the so-called ‘good governance’ approach held sway as the dominant operational mode. So, how had this transformation in policy approach come about and what was the role of research? In this article, we demonstrate that research played a central role in influencing the rhetoric of policymakers through a process we term ‘cumulative influence’. Indeed, the subject of political settlements represents an excellent case study for understanding the dynamics of research utilisation. It allows us to build on existing models and suggest useful ways forward in this important area of public policy analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• Policy influence
• conflict-affected and fragile states
• political settlements research
• research uptake
• DFID
• United Kingdom
• post-war reconstruction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sultan Barakat is the founding director of the Centre for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute. He is also a Professor of Politics at the University of York, UK. The is the author of a number of Books and journal articles.

Thomas Waldman is Lecturer in Security Studies at Macquarie University. He is author of two books: Understanding Influence: The Use of Statebuilding Research in British Policy (with Sultan Barakat and Andrea Varisco, 2014) and War, Clausewitz and the Trinity (2013).

ORCID

Thomas Waldman http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2718-245X

Notes

1 The overarching project is entitled ‘The Influence of DfID-Sponsored State Building-Oriented Research on British Policy in Fragile, Post-Conflict Environments’ and is jointly funded by the ESRC and DfID (grant reference: RES-167-25-0596). The Principal Investigator is Professor Sultan Barakat.

2 The RAPID programme involved theoretical, case study and practical work to achieve these objectives and the results have been widely disseminated.

3 Interviews, UK officials, Nepal. Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, 2012.

4 This was especially apparent in Afghanistan, where the DfID country office suffered from gaps in advisory staff. Interviews, DfID officials, Kabul, December 2012.

5 This point was raised in relation to some of the Crisis States research centred upon Latin America. Interview, DfID official, March 2012.

6 Interview, senior DfID and FCO officials, Kabul, December 2012.

7 Interviews, senior DfID officials, London, March and April 2012.

8 Interview, senior DfID official, London, May 2012.

9 Interview, senior DfID official, London, April 2012.

10 Interviews, senior UK officials, Kabul, December 2012

11 Interviews, DfID officials, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Kabul, 2012.

12 Interview, FCO official, Kabul December 2012 and FCO official, London, March 2013.

13 Interview, senior DfID official, London, May 2012.

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank the ESRC and DfID for supporting the project from which this article emerges: ‘The Influence of DfID-Sponsored State Building-Oriented Research on British Policy in Fragile, Post-Conflict Environments’ (grant reference: RES-167-25-0596).