State-building in Lebanon and Bosnia: the impact of foreign agents

What is it about?

The paper is about how the state is rebuilt and transformed following a civil war. It described a reconstruction cycle that alternates between phases of status quo, transformation, and conflict. This cycle is propelled by the interactions between political organizations but is also influenced by the involvement of foreign agents. The article shows that international interventions might unlock a protracted peace process but can also support political radicalization.

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Why is it important?

State-building cannot be understood through simplistic measures of "success or failure". This paper offers first and foremost a sophisticated analysis of post-war state-building in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Lebanon. Only then does it make a careful and balanced assessment of the impacts of external interventions. It makes an important contribution to the political sociology of reconstruction and put into perspective previous researches which tend to focus on the international relations and neglect the complex political interactions both at the domestic level and the transnational level.

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