Week 8: State-building interventions & peacebuilding

Question 1

What is Neo-Weberian institutionalism / definition of state building

Answer 1

• Focuses on state capacity, institutions, and the monopoly of violence as central to state-building.
• Tends to overlook historical and cultural contexts, reducing the legitimacy of institutional performance
• Western way of state building often leads to empty-shells

Question 2

What is Charles Tilly’s theory on state-building?

Answer 2

Tilly’s bellicist theory states that “war made the state and the state made war,” emphasising the role of warfare in shaping state structures through centralising violence and building administrative capacity

Question 3

In Tilly’s concept of the transformation of European States, what is meant by ‘wasps’ and ‘locomotives’?

Answer 3

wasps: smaller, less centralised entities
locomotives: larger, centralised power

Question 4

What are Charles Tilly’s four essential activities of state-building?

Answer 4

1. State-making: Eliminating internal challengers to control the territory.
2. War-making: Engaging in external conflicts to defend or expand the state.
3. Protection: Safeguarding allies and ensuring their loyalty.
4. Extraction: Collecting resources (e.g., taxes) to fund the above activities.

Question 5

What are the four further steps of state’s expansion into the society?

Answer 5

1. Adjudication
2. Production
3. Distribution
4. Bargaining

Question 6

what’s the difference between European and African’s state-building?

Answer 6

European state building was through warfare, African’s state-building was through peaceful colonisation

Question 7

What is Frederick Cooper’s concept of Gatekeeper state (Africa’s weakness as a gatekeeper state)

Answer 7

State relied on controlling access to resources from external trade and aid rather than developing a broad economic base.

Question 8

What challenges do African states face in state-building compared to European states?

Answer 8

• African states were imported through colonization, lacking organic development like in Europe.
• Territorial control was less critical due to abundant land and low population density.
• States rely on external aid and trade (“gatekeeper state”), reducing internal governance accountability

Question 9

what is Hinterland countries

Answer 9

landlocked countries like Mali and Chad

Question 10

what type of state is Somaliland considered

Answer 10

De facto state - an emipirical statehood but lacks international recognition

Question 11

what is a security vacuum

Answer 11

when government loses control over a region

Question 12

What is Dodge’s argument about Iraq’s exogenous state-building?

Answer 12

• External powers attempted to build state capacity by working with selected local allies.
• This approach often alienates other segments of the population, undermining the legitimacy of the reconstructed state.

Question 13

What is Balthasar’s (2017) critiques of state-building?

Answer 13

• Rule standardisation: does not apply to local contexts
• The contradiction between peace-building and state-building

Question 14

What is the main critique of state-building interventions, as discussed by Lottholz & Lemay-Hebert (2016)?

Answer 14

• Interventions often create “empty shells,” where state institutions meet international standards but lack legitimacy or accountability to local populations.

Question 15

How did state-building differ in Somalia’s regions of Somaliland and Puntland?

Answer 15

• Somaliland: Declared independence in 1991 and operates as a de facto state without international recognition.
• Puntland: Declared autonomy in 1998 but remains part of Somalia, focusing on self-governance.

Question 16

What role did war play in European state-building, according to Tilly?

Answer 16

War led to the centralisation of violence, the formation of military and administrative institutions, and the establishment of mechanisms like taxation to sustain state functions.

Question 17

What are the key weaknesses of African state-building?

Answer 17

• Weak governance and infrastructure in peripheral areas.
• Lack og government incentive
• Over-reliance on external trade and aid revenues.
• Limited incentives for internal taxation or accountability.

Question 18

Why did international state-building efforts in Iraq fail to establish stability?

Answer 18

• Quick regime change without reconstruction.
• Creation of a power vacuum, enabling armed groups.
• Reliance on external powers that alienated sections of the population.

Question 19

What is the contradiction between peace-building and state-building

Answer 19

• peace-building focuses on creating non-violent coexistence despite differences
• state-building: emphasises rule standardisation, institutional unification, and seeks homogeneity

Question 20

Two things that state-building often fails to do are:

Answer 20

• prevent a relapse into conflict
• avoid contributing to renewed violence and instability