What is the impact of international statebuilding efforts on the political economy of war-torn states, including on the relationships between formal and informal economic and political structures in these countries?
To explore this question, the conference focused on four related themes, and their implications for policy:
- How do statebuilding approaches of various international actors differ, and how do these different approaches affect political and economic institutions and dynamics in post-conflict countries?
- Why, and under what conditions, have statebuilding policies fuelled or re-ignited violence?
- How best to engage informal structures to prevent de-stabilising the post-conflict environment yet without entrenching unjust political structures?
- To what extent are war-time, or pre-war, elites recycled or consolidated, and how does this affect the sustainability of institution-building efforts?The conference aimed to examine the findings of a two-year international research project on these issues with practitioners and policy analysts from post-conflict countries as well as statebuilding actors to better inform future policy-making by the international community.
