State-Society Relations and Intangible Dimensions of State Resilience and State Building: A Bottom-Up Perspective

Crucial social and cultural elements underpin state institutions and ensure that they function. This is true in any context, but it is even more important to understand and truly acknowledge in fragile ones. Conventional perspectives need to be broadened and need to look at the multiplicity and diversity of political institutions (formal and in-formal), cultures and logics through which state resilience and state-building processes may be supported. Such an approach would help re-integrate the intangible dimensions that constitute the substantive content of institutions, their ethos, beyond their mere forms. Based upon concrete experiences in different African countries, this paper explains what these intangible dimensions are in three of the sectors usually concerned with reforms (politics, justice and security), and why they are important and should be better integrated in analyses, intervention strategies and aid programmes. An equally important dimension of such integration is that it would also allow better consideration of local capacities and resources to be taken, in particular in terms of resilience, and would allow it to go beyond the impression of vacuum or chaos too often given to situations of fragility. Finally, the paper presents some concrete recommendations to integrate these dimensions better into the priorities and modalities of European aid, as well as suggest a few avenues for further research on the subject.state building; institutions

Pérouse de Montclos, Marc-Antoine. — L’aide humanitaire, aide à la guerre ?

Récemment, « l’humanitaire » faisait la une des journaux en France. Le rapport d’une mission d’évaluation conjointe du Haut Commissariat des Nations Unies pour les réfugiés (hcr) et de l’ong Save the Children Fund, révélait que des travailleurs humanitaires appartenant à quarante organisations avaient utilisé leur position de pouvoir pour obtenir les faveurs sexuelles de réfugiés mineurs en Sierra Leone, au Liberia et en Guinée. Dans la foulée, Sylvie Brunel, présidente démissionnaire de l’or..

Pérouse de Montclos, Marc-Antoine. — L’aide humanitaire, aide à la guerre ?

Récemment, « l’humanitaire » faisait la une des journaux en France. Le rapport d’une mission d’évaluation conjointe du Haut Commissariat des Nations Unies pour les réfugiés (hcr) et de l’ong Save the Children Fund, révélait que des travailleurs humanitaires appartenant à quarante organisations avaient utilisé leur position de pouvoir pour obtenir les faveurs sexuelles de réfugiés mineurs en Sierra Leone, au Liberia et en Guinée. Dans la foulée, Sylvie Brunel, présidente démissionnaire de l’or..

L’intervention de l’ONU dans l’histoire politique récente d’Haïti

L’action politique de l’onu en Haïti s’est particulièrement exercée à deux moments-clés de l’histoire récente de ce pays : les premières élections démocratiques de décembre 1990, le règlement de la crise ouverte par le coup d’Etat de septembre 1991. Révélatrices du rôle croissant de l’onu sur des questions considérées auparavant comme relevant de la stricte compétence interne, ces interventions ne sont pas exemptes d’ambiguïtés et d’incohérences de la part de la “ communauté internationale ”. Or, sur le terrain, l’onu entre en interaction avec des acteurs politiques et sociaux qui déploient des stratégies paradoxales. Interprétables au regard des mutations en cours dans la société haïtienne, ces comportements contribuent, dans leur ambivalence même, à limiter d’autant la portée de telles interventions mais ils pourraient participer également de processus de recomposition partielle de l’espace socio-politique interne.The un action in Haiti, at the political level, has notably occured at two key moments of the recent history of the country: in December 1990 with the first democratic elections; then, in the crisis following the coup d’Etat of September 1991. These interventions have to be considered in the context of an evolutionary process in which, since the end of the bipolarity, the UN is interfering increasingly into matters which were traditionally viewed as domestic affairs. But they are not free from ambiguities and incoherences. In the field, the un is interacting with political and social actors who take paradoxical strategies which may be interpretated according to the current evolutions in the Haitian society. Because of their ambivalence, these beheviors are partly responsible for the limitation of the impact of such interventions but they are also part of partial processes of internal reconstruction

« L’humanitaire à l’aune du politiquement incorrect » et « À propos du sionisme »

L'humanitaire est de ces sujets qui « font recette » et ont suscité, ces dernières années, une littérature abondante mais souvent décevante. Par-delà les inégalités entre les contributions qu'il réunit, le dossier que Philippe Ryfman a coordonné pour les CEMOTI a le mérite d'échapper à cette règle pour deux raisons majeures. Alors que l'essentiel des travaux de ces dernières années a porté sur l'Afrique sub-saharienne et les Balkans, la région couverte ici a été relativement délaissée...

« L’humanitaire à l’aune du politiquement incorrect » et « À propos du sionisme »

L'humanitaire est de ces sujets qui « font recette » et ont suscité, ces dernières années, une littérature abondante mais souvent décevante. Par-delà les inégalités entre les contributions qu'il réunit, le dossier que Philippe Ryfman a coordonné pour les CEMOTI a le mérite d'échapper à cette règle pour deux raisons majeures. Alors que l'essentiel des travaux de ces dernières années a porté sur l'Afrique sub-saharienne et les Balkans, la région couverte ici a été relativement délaissée...

Legitimacy in conflict: concepts, practices, challenges

The study of legitimacy in situations of conflict and peacebuilding has increased in recent years. However, current work on the topic adopts many assumptions, definitions, and understandings from classical legitimacy theory, which centers on the relationship between the nation-state and its citizens. In this introduction, we provide a detailed critical overview of current theories of legitimacy and legitimation and demonstrate why they have only limited applicability in conflict and post-conflict contexts, focusing on the three main areas that the articles included in this special issue examine: audiences for legitimacy, sources of legitimacy, and legitimation. In particular, we show how conflict and post-conflict contexts are marked by the fragmentation and personalization of power; the proliferation and fragmentation of legitimacy audiences; and ambiguity surrounding legitimation strategies

UN Peace operations and conflicting legitimacies

Analyses of UN peacekeeping increasingly consider legitimacy a key factor for success, conceiving of it as a resource that operations should seek and use in the pursuit of their goals. However, these analyses rarely break down legitimacy by source. Because the UN is an organization with multiple identities and duties however, different legitimacy sources—in particular output and procedural legitimacy—and the UN’s corresponding legitimation practices come into conflict in the context of peacekeeping. Drawing on a range of examples and a specific case of the UN mission in Congo, this article argues that looking at different legitimacy sources and linking them to the institutional identity of the UN is thus critical and it shows how the UN’s in contradictory legitimation practices can reduce overall legitimacy perceptions

Domestic elites and external actors in post-conflict democratisation: mapping interactions and their impact

Following the end of the Cold War, post-conflict democratisation has rarely occurred without a significant international involvement. This contribution argues that an explanation of the outcomes of post-conflict democratisation requires more than an examination of external actors, their mission mandates or their capabilities and deficiencies. In addition, there is a need to study domestic elites, their preferences and motivations, as well as their perceptions of and their reactions to external interference. Moreover, the patterns of external–internal interactions may explain the trajectory of state-building and democracy promotion efforts. These issues deserve more attention from both scholars and practitioners in the fields of peace- and state-building, democracy promotion, regime transition and elite research. Analyses of external actors and domestic elites in post-conflict democratisation should therefore address three principal issues: (1) the identification of relevant domestic elites in externally induced or monitored state-building and democratisation processes, (2) the dynamics of external–domestic interactions and (3) the impact of these interactions on the outcomes of post-conflict democratisation