“Theoretically insightful and empirically detailed, this study deftly analyzes the complex and contradictory impacts of contemporary intervention on the sovereignty of ‘the intervened’. Through the careful unpacking of key concepts such as ownership and capacity-building, Wilén teases out crucial – and hitherto unresolved – tensions in the peacebuilding orthodoxy. An important work.” (Timothy Donais, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Global Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University)
“This is an important book that addresses the difficult issue of how international intervention affects sovereignty and the legitimacy of government. Dealing with the three cases of Burundi, Congo and Liberia, Wilén skilfully uses empirical evidence to dissect the language of the international community with regard to local ownership, sovereignty and legitimate action. At the same time these empirical cases shed light on the theoretical underpinnings of international interventionin Africa.” (Professor Paul Jackson, Birmingham University)
“This study interrogates how statebuilding and liberal peacebuilding have had many inintended consequences, not least on the legitimacy of international claims about their “responsibility to protect” and in parallel on local expectations of sovereignty and local ownership. In Africa both of these sets of claims have been somewhat exposed over the last decades, as this valuable and detailed study ably documents in especially rich and insightful empirical detail.” (Oliver Richmond, Professor at the School of International Relations, University of St Andrews)
“This important book explores the contradictory logic behind peacebuilding interventions. It intrigues the reader by critically examining the paradoxical problem of stabilizing sovereignty through intervention. Based on original fieldwork, this thoroughly researched book provides penetrating empirical insights as well as a stringent theoretical contributionto the debate about challenges and chanegs of key concepts, such as sovereignty and peacebuilding interventions and their normative underpinnings.” (Annika Bjoerkdahl, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Lund University)
From the Back Cover
Wilén answers the paradoxical question of how to stabilize a state through external intervention without destabilizing sovereignty. She examines the justifications for international and regional interventions in the cases of Liberia, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Discourse analysis of official documents and over fifty interviews of external actors in the field provide a practical perspective. Furthermore, the social constructivist framework provides the theoretical background. Rather than reinforcing sovereignty, non-aggressive interventions neutralize target states in the sense that they become dependent on external capacity to maintain their stability. The conclusion is that interventions remain both controversial and paradoxical and the stated aim of reinforcing the state’s sovereignty is questionable at best.
About the Author
Nina Wilén is a Post-Doctoral FNRS Research Fellow at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels. She has published extensively on interventions and peacebuilding operations and in particular focused on reconstructing armies after conflict in Africa. Dr. Wilén teaches at ULB and Sciences Po Paris parallel to her research and fieldwork in Africa.
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