Chapter Two: Stabilising Fragile States and the Humanitarian Space

Abstract

The transition from war to peace is fraught with tension and the risk of a return to bloodshed. With so much at stake, it is crucial that the international community and local stakeholders make sense of the complex mosaic of challenges, to support a lasting, inclusive and prosperous peace. Recent missions, such as in Afghanistan, Somalia or Sudan, have highlighted the fact that there can be no one-size-fits-all approach to steering countries away from violence and towards stability.

This Adelphi offers a series of economic perspectives on conflict resolution, showing how the challenges of peacebuilding can be more effectively tackled. From the need to marry diplomatic peacemaking with development efforts, and activate the private sector in the service of peacebuilding aims, to the use of taxes and natural-resource revenues as a financial base for sustainable peace, this issue considers how economic factors can positively shape and drive peace processes. It examines the complex ways in which power and order may be manifested in conflict zones, where unpalatable compromises with local warlords can often be the first step towards a more lasting settlement. In distilling expertise from a range of disciplines, this Adelphi seeks to inform a more economically integrated and responsive approach to helping countries leave behind their troubled pasts and take a fuller role in constructing their futures.

Notes

A range of fragility indices is used to monitor and measure ‘fragility’. A number of these are neatly summarised in A. Wennmann, ‘Grasping the Strengths of Fragile States: Aid Effectiveness between Top-down and Bottom-up Statebuilding’, CCDP Working Paper 6 (Geneva: CCDP, 2010), available at http://graduateinstitute.ch/webdav/site/ccdp/shared/6305/Broch_6_BD.pdf.

See A. Ghani and C. Lockhart, Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

See, for example, the country and thematic reports prepared by the OECD at http://www.oecd.org/document/5/0,3343,en_21571361_42277499_42283205_1_1_1_1,00.html.

See P. Collier, V.L. Elliott, H. Hegre, A. Hoeffler, M. Reynal-Querol, and S. Sambani, Breaking the Conflict Trap (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

From Robert Zoellick's keynote address to the 2008 IISS Global Strategic Review, available at http://www.iiss.org/conferences/global-strategic-review/global-strategic-review-2008/keynote-address/.

See R. Muggah, T. Sisk and S. Lakhani, Post-conflict Governance: A Strategic Framework (Geneva: UNDP/BCPR, 2010 forthcoming).

See Human Security Report 2009: The Shrinking Costs of War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).

See R. Muggah (ed.), Security and Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Dealing with Fighters in the Aftermath of War (New York: Routledge, 2009).

Meanwhile, World Bank President Robert Zoellick told an IISS conference in 2008 that ‘when states are breaking down or overcome by conflict, they pose waves of danger’. For the full text see http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21898896~pagePK:34370~piPK:42770~theSitePK:4607,00.html.

UK Stabilisation Unit, UK Concepts of Stabilisation (London: Stabilisation Unit, 2007): http://www.stabilisationunit.gov.uk/resources/factsheets/Stabilisation%20Unit%20UK%20Concept%20of%20Stabilisation%20Factsheet.doc, Accessed 20 April 2010. The G7+ comprises Afghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Liberia, Nepal, Solomon Islands, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Timor Leste.

See US State Department, 2009 in Review (Washington DC: CRS, 2010): at http://www.crs.state.gov/. Accessed 20 April 2010.

See Canada. START: Organisational Structure (Ottawa: DFAIT, 2008): www.international.gc.ca/START-GTSR. Accessed 20 April 2010.

See, for example, the Colombian government's Presidential Directive 01 of 2009.

See, for example, R. Muggah and I. Carvalho, ‘Brazil's “Southern Effect” in Fragile Countries’ (Paris: OECDPDG, 2009): available at http://www.opendemocracy.co.uk/robert-muggahlona-szab%C3%B3-de-carvalho/brazils-southern-effect-in-fragile-countries.

See Zoellick, 2008.

See C. Cramer, Civil War Is Not a Stupid Thing: Accounting for Violence in Developing Countries (London: Hurst & Company, 2006).

See Collier et al., Breaking the Conflict Trap.

See, for example, R. Paris, At War's End: Building Peace After Civil Conflict (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

See, for example, N. McFarlane and Y. Khong, Human Security and the UN: A Critical History (New York: Indiana University Press, 2006).

See, for example, the Human Security Network (which has met regularly since 1999): http://www.mzz.gov.si/en/foreign_policy/human_security_network_hsn/.

See, for example, USIP Briefing ‘Post-Conflict Stabilisation and Reconstruction: What have we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan?’ (Washington DC: the US Institute for Peace, 2005); Bensahel et al., Principles for Stabilisation and Reconstruction (The Rand Cooperation: 2009). These, and other texts, are shaping doctrine in Canada, the UK and the US.

See, for example, www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/31/general-mcchrystal-afghanistan.com.

That said, the UK has also given greater weight to the tension between politics and ostensibly neutral humanitarian assistance. See, for example, DfID, Why We Need to Work More Effectively in Fragile States (London: DfID, 2005): available at http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Documents/publications/fragilestates-paper.pdf.

It is worth noting, however, that the UN has yet to fully take on the language of fragility. According to senior figures in the UNDP and UNDPKO, there is sufficient apprehension among G77 (group of 77 developing) member states with the concept of fragility as to limit its use in the wider UN system.

See, for example, UNDPKO, United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Guidelines and Principles (New York: DPKO, 2008): available at http://www.peacekeepingbestpractices.unlb.org/Pbps/Library/Capstone_Doctrine_ENG.pdf. Accessed 20 April 2010; see also A. Le Roy and S. Malcorra, ‘A New Partnership Agenda: Charting A New Horizon for UN Peacekeeping’, United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations and UN Department for Field Support, New York, July 2009; available at http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/documents/newhorizon.pdf.

See, for example, OECD, Concepts and Dilemmas of State Building in Fragile Situations, 2008: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/59/51/41100930.pdf; OECD, Service Delivery in Fragile Situations, 2008: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/17/54/40886707.pdf; OECD, State Building in Fragile Situations, 2008: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/62/9/41212290.pdf; and OECD, Ensuring Fragile States are Not Left Behind, Factsheet, 2007: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/34/24/40090369.pdf

See Zoellick, 2008.

There are 23 countries classified as fragile in Africa, six in Asia, six in Central Asia, five in the Americas and three in the Middle East.

According to the OECD, aid to fragile states was approximately $34.6bn in 2008. See also https://community.oecd.org/community/factblog/blog/2010/04/16/aid-for-fragile-states.

See, for example, www.jfcom.mil/newslink/storyarchive/2010/pa031510.html.

See, for example, R. Muggah and S. de Carvalho, The Southern Effect: Brazil's Engagement in Fragile States, (Paris: OECD, 2009); and S. Elharawy, Stabilisation and Humanitarian Action in Colombia: Background Paper (London: ODI, 2010).

See, for example, M. Duffield, Development, Security and Unending war: Governing the World of Peoples, (Cambridge: Polity, 2007).

See, for example, M. McNerney, ‘Stabilisation and Reconstruction in Afghanistan: Are PRTs a Model or a Muddle?’, Carlisle Defence Academy, 2006.

See, for example, A. Zwitter, ‘Humanitarian Action on the Battlefields of the Global War on Terror’, Journal of Humanitarian Assistance, 25 October, 2008.

See N. De Torrent, ‘Humanitarianism Sacrificed: Integration's False Promise’, Ethics and International Affairs vol. 18 no. 2, 2004, pp. 3–12.

N. Leader, The Politics of Principle: The Principles of Humanitarian Action in Practice, HPG Report 2 (London: ODI, 2000).

See OECD, Armed Violence Reduction: Enabling Development (Paris: OECD, 2009).

See, for example, M. Barnett and T.G. Weiss, ‘Humanitarianism: a brief history of the present’, in Barnett and Weiss (eds.), Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics (London: Cornell University Press, 2008).

See S. Collinson, S. Elhawary and R. Muggah , ‘States of fragility: stabilisation and its implications for humanitarian action’, HPG Working Papers published by ODI, May 2010, available at http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?id=4881&title=states-fragility-stabilisation-its-implications-humanitarian-action.

See H. Rittel and W. Webber, ‘Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning’, Policy Sciences, vol. 4, 1973: pp. 155–69.

See, for example, M. Barnett and D. Zurcher, ‘Peacebuilders Contract: Why Peacebuilding Recreate Weak States', in Paris and Sisk (eds), Dilemmas of Statebuilding: Confronting the Contradictions of Post-War Peace Operations, (New York: Routledge, 2008).

See, for example, Muggah and Krause, ‘Closing the Gap Between Peace Operations and Post-Conflict Insecurity: Towards a Violence Reduction Agenda’, pp. 136–150.

See, for example, A. Stoddard, A. Harmer and V. DiDomenico, ‘Providing Aid in Insecure Environments: 2009 Update’, HPG Policy Brief 34, April, 2009, at http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/3250.pdf. Accessed 20 April 2010.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert Muggah

Robert Muggah is Research Director of the Small Arms Survey, Fellow of the Center for Conflict, Peacebuilding and Development (CCDP), and Principle of The SecDev Group. Special thanks are due to Sarah Collinson and Samir Elharawy from the Overseas Development Institute for their input. Credit is also due to the Folke Bernadotte Academy which is supporting the ‘States of Fragility’ project: http://graduateinstitute.ch/ccdp/projects-statesoffragility.html.