Fragile States and Insecure People? Violence, Security, and Statehood in the Twenty-First Century

by Andersen, Louise; Møller, Bjørn; Stepputat, Finn

• ISBN13: 9781403983824
• ISBN10: 1403983828
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-07-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

When states collapse, human and global security are threatened. Order and stability must somehow be restored. This book provides a unique account of the pursuit of security at the edge of the global order. It sheds light on reform of state police and armed forces, and analyses the alternative security structures that emerge in the absence of the state. In contrast to other volumes on state failure, this book remains open-minded as to which 'model' for security is better. It thus challenges the current state-building model and the idea of the central state as the only legitimate provider of security.

Author Biography

Louise Andersen is currently a PhD candidate at the Institute for Political Science, Copenhagen University. At the time of editing this volume she was a visiting scholar at the Danish Institute for International Studies on secondment from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she has served since completing Master in Political Science in 1996. Her research focuses on international policies towards fragile states.
 
Bjørn Møller is a Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies and leader of its research group on Post-Conflict Peacebuilding.  He holds an MA in History and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen, and teaches conflict theory, international relations and development studies at the universities of Copenhagen and Aalborg.  He is the author of three books and editor or co-editor of seven anthologies.
 
Finn Stepputat is a Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. He holds a M.Sc. in Economic Geography and a Ph.D. in Cultural Sociology from Copenhagen University and has published extensively on issues of violent conflict, forced migration, and post-conflict reconstruction, mainly in Latin America. He has also worked on more theoretical and methodological issues of state formation and sovereignty, and has co-edited the books States of Imagination: Ethnographic Explorations of the Post-colonial State (2001), and Sovereign Bodies: Citizens, Migrants and States in the Post-colonial World (2005).

Table of Contents

Preface

Security Arrangements in Fragile States

What To Do?

The Dilemmas of International Engagement in Fragile States

The Organization of Violence: A Historical Perspective

Local Security Systems in Somali East Africa

Protectors and Predators: Why Is There a Difference among West African Militias?

Non-state Providers of Every-day Security in Fragile African States

Security Sector: An instrument of the State-Building Project

Integrating Former Enemies into National Armies

Insecurity, State and Impunity in Latin America

Towards a Multi-Layered Approach to Security

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