Intervention and state-building in the Pacific : the legitimacy of 'co-operative intervention' / edited by Greg Fry & Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Fry, Greg.

Kabutaulaka, Tarcisius Tara, 1967-

Series:

New approaches to conflict analysis

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nation-building--Pacific Area.

Nation-building.

Pacific Area--Foreign relations.

Pacific Area.

International relations.

Pacific Area--Politics and government.

Politics and government.

Physical Description:

xvi, 246 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press, 2008.

Summary:

State-building intervention in weak, war-torn or failing states has become a priority for the international community. However, the question of how to legitimately engage in the shaping of national governance remains, at the very least, a vexed one.

This book explores this key issue through a critical examination of a new model of state-building intervention which has recently emerged in relation to the Pacific 'arc of crisis'. Initiated by the Australian government in 2003, this regional intervention doctrine has already found expression in major engagements in Solomon Islands, Nauru and Papua New Guinea, as well as in reforms to the Pacific Islands Forum. Built on declared principles of partnership and respect for sovereignty, and successful in gaining legitimacy in the international community, the new model seems to offer a legitimate way to engage in state-building intervention.

Drawing on a group of distinguished Pacific specialists, this book mounts a critique of these claims, showing how international legitimacy does not automatically translate into political legitimacy among those in the affected societies; and how the attempt to legitimise the intervention internationally may actually work against such legitimacy in the recipient state. The book questions whether this 'cooperative intervention' is in danger of being seen as an un-negotiated form of neo-trusteeship or 'shared sovereignty', rather than a model which is conducted in the name of sovereignty and partnership.

This analysis offers insights into the legitimacy issues confronting a new generation of state-building in which the intervening mission operates like a shadow government alongside the democratically elected sovereign government; in which peace-building and development agendas are blurred; and in which the engagement is sustained by security concerns around the war on terror.

Contents:

1 Political legitimacy and state-building intervention in the Pacific / Greg Fry, Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka 1

2 Altered states: the politics of state failure and regional intervention / Terence Wesley-Smith 37

3 Australia's intervention policy: a Melanesian learning curve? / Graeme Dobell 54

4 'Our patch': the war on terror and the new interventionism / Greg Fry 72

5 Australia's new assertiveness in the Pacific: the view from 'the backyard' / Steven Ratuva 87

6 Beyond state-centrism: external solutions and the governance of security in Melanesia / Sinclair Dinnen 102

7 The new regionalism and its contradictions / Stewart Firth 119

8 The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands in global perspective / Iris Wielders 135

9 Intervention and nation-building in Solomon Islands: local responses / Gordon Leua Nanau 149

10 Cooperation between Australia and Papua New Guinea: 'enhanced' or enforced? / Allan Patience 163

11 The Bougainville intervention: political legitimacy and sustainable peace-building / Anthony Regan 184

12 Towards legitimate engagement / Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka, Greg Fry 209.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780719076831

0719076838

OCLC:

154789217