State Failure, Collapse & Reconstruction

This book situates state failure and state collapse in historical context and explains the structures and forces that have led to state collapse in a number of countries around the world. It also analyses and critiques contemporary interventions and reconstruction efforts in collapsed states. State collapse in such places as Afghanistan, Somalia, and Yugoslavia has led to widespread human suffering, regional instability, and transnational threats of organised crime and international terrorism. This collection situates state failure and collapse against the backdrop of the emergence, consolidation, expansion, and erosion of the Western state system. The contributors examine why and how states collapse through case studies of countries including Nigeria, Georgia, and Afghanistan, and through analyses of warlordism, conflict goods, and small arms and light weapons proliferation. Humanitarian and post-conflict reconstruction efforts in such places as East Timor, Cambodia, Somalia and Bosnia are also analysed and critiqued. The volume, which brings together some of the foremost scholars working on state collapse, will be of interest to both scholars and practitioners. This book situates state failure and state collapse in historical context and explains the structures and forces that have led to state collapse in a number of countries around the world. It also analyses and critiques contemporary interventions and reconstruction efforts in collapsed states. Addresses the subject of state failure which has received high-profile attention from both scholars and policy-makers. Examines how and why states collapse. Analyses and critiques post-conflict reconstruction efforts. Has contemporary relevance for developments in places such as East Timor, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Georgia. Challenges our assumptions about states and the state system.