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31. State Formation, Liberal Reform and the Growth of International Organizations

Author:
Guy Fiti Sinclair
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This article argues that the growth of international organizations over the past century has been imagined and carried out in order to make modern states on a broadly Western model. The proliferation of international organizations and the expansion of their legal powers, through both formal and informal means, raise profound questions regarding the relationship between international law’s reforming promise and its imperialist perils. The article proposes a new analytic framework for understanding these phenomena, focusing on the rationalities of international organizations’ powers and the technologies through which they are made operable. It argues that both the growth of international organizations and the cultural processes of state formation are impelled by a dynamic of liberal reform that is at once internal and external to law. That dynamic and the analytic framework proposed here are both illustrated and exemplified through a critical account of the emergence of international organizations in the 19th century.
Topic:
Imperialism, International Law, International Organization, History, and State Formation
Political Geography:
Europe and United Nations

32. Support for the Formation of a Federation of East African States: Citizens’ Attitudes in Kenya and Tanzania

Author:
Samuel Balongo
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Afrobarometer
Abstract:
Political leaders in the five countries of the East African Community (EAC) – Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi – have made concerted efforts to promote the benefits of an East African Federation (EAF). The signing of regional integration treaties is covered extensively in national and regional media. Yet many citizens in the two largest member states are not convinced that integration will lead to promised benefits for their countries. In Afrobarometer public-opinion surveys in 2011-2012, citizens of Kenya and Tanzania were asked about the likely impact of an integrated EAF on the availability of jobs, managing conflict, controlling corruption, strengthening democracy, and controlling prices. On none of these five issues did a majority of Tanzanians say that an EAF would have a positive impact, and on only two issues – availability of jobs and controlling prices – did a majority of Kenyans expect improvement through an EAF.
Topic:
Governance, State Formation, State Building, Federalism, and Bureaucracy
Political Geography:
Kenya, Africa, and Tanzania

33. The Central Margins: Congo’s Transborder Economy and State-Making in the Borderlands

Author:
Timothy Raeymaekers
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
Timothy Raeymaekers has spent eight years doing fieldwork in the Congolese-Ugandan borderlands, a region that often calls up images of isolation and remoteness, where predatory and armed men ravage, and where death arrives suddenly and unexpectedly. To most people, the eastern Congolese borderlands represent a perversion of economic development, where criminal gangs and looting militias rule on the ruins of state collapse. But rather than collapsed statehood and economic development-in-reverse, Raeymaekers in this DIIS Working Paper argues that the interdependencies and accumulation strategies developed during Congo's protracted crisis have gradually made this borderland a crucial pillar in the equilibrium forces between formal and informal, state and non state actors and regulations in this territorial periphery - which has subsequently become a central margin in today's regional processes of state formation.
Topic:
Migration, Non State Actors, State Formation, Borders, Trade, and Smuggling
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, and Democratic Republic of Congo

34. Between Discipline and Discretion: Policies Surrounding Senior Subnational Appointments

Author:
Martine Van Bijlert
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
Over the years the calls for improved governance in Afghanistan have become increasingly urgent. Understanding the various ways in which governors and district governors are appointed, and the different influences that affect the process, is important if ways are to be found to improve overall governance in Afghanistan. This new discussion paper from AREU explores this issue, examining existing appointment practices and suggesting a number of ways that the process could be improved, along with the shifts in emphasis needed to make them happen.
Topic:
Governance, Leadership, State Formation, and State Building
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East