ABSTRACT
This book deals with the question of how we can conceptualize the policies and practices of international statebuilding. There is little doubt that international statebuilding – with the goal of developing and exporting frameworks of good governance – has become a key policy field for leading states and international institutions. These policy practices have increasingly become internationally accepted as central mechanisms through which the problems of weak or failing states can be addressed. International statebuilding is no longer something that just happens after the event – western military interventions for humanitarian or security reasons (Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq) or post-conflict peacebuilding (Bosnia and East Timor) – but is increasingly seen as a vital package of policy measures designed to prevent states from sliding into economic and political collapse. As a set of international policy prescriptions, the frameworks of good governance are seen as a ‘silver bullet’ capable of assisting states in coping with the problems of our complex globalized world: facilitating sustainable development, social peace and the development of democracy and the rule of law.
