ABSTRACT
There is a consensus today that it is urgently necessary to use international support to sustain domestic institutions in the developing world, even sometimes to the extent of rescinding self-determination in favour of trusteeship. Whereas in the last century, the threat to international peace was perceived to come from strong, aggressive states with ambitions on their neighbours’ territory, today it is weak and failing states that are seen as major sources of global insecurity, drawing in their neighbours and the international community against their will. Internationalized state-building is seen as necessary in order to ensure international security and to enable societies to function effectively. Initially confined to ‘post-conflict reconstruction’ and peacekeeping operations in war-torn societies, state-building policies are now seen as applicable to a wide spectrum of developing countries, both in war and peace. International stability, economic progress and political development are increasingly fused together under the rubric of strengthening domestic governance.
