ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the background, emergence and development of the UK's overarching state building policy during the decade between around 2000 and the release of the 2010 paper Building Peaceful States and Societies, as well as to consider the way and extent to which research and evidence fed into that process. It provides a solid basis on which to probe the subject of research use in fragile states in greater detail through a combination of quantitative analysis and qualitative case studies pertaining to prominent aspects of the process, both at headquarters and country levels. It overviews the main substantive developments in British approaches to state building as set out in the UK government's major policy documents on the subject. This is divided into three principal periods of: early articulations; emerging frameworks; and mature policy. It also overviews the evolution of British state building policy both in terms of its substantive content and overarching approaches.
