Persistent State Weakness in the Global Age

Persistent State Weakness in the Global Age addresses the question of why state weakness in the global era persists. It debunks a common assumption that state weakness is a stop-gap on the path to state failure and state collapse. Informed by a globalization perspective, the book shows how state weakness is frequently self-reproducing and functional. The interplay of global actors, policies and norms is analyzed from the standpoint of their internalization in a weak state through transnational networks. Contributors examine the reproduction of partial and discriminatory rule at the heart of persistent state weakness, drawing on a wide geographical range of case studies including the Middle East, the Balkans, the post-Soviet states and sub-Saharan Africa. The study of state-weakening dynamics related to institutional incapacity, colonial and war legacies, legitimacy gaps, economic informality, democratization and state-building provides an insight into durability and resilience of weak states in the global age. Introduction State Weakening and Globalization, Denisa Kostovicova, Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic; Part I Capacity Approaches; Chapter 1 Understanding Leviathan’s Malaise: Stateness and the Crisis of Governability in Post-communist Polities, Venelin I. Ganev; Chapter 2 Post-Soviet State Weakness: Legacies of Informal Networks and Troubled Transitions, Stacy Closson; Chapter 3 Informal Institutions of Political Part icipation in the Serbian Security Sector, Timothy Edmunds; Part II Historical Approaches; Chapter 4 Afghanistan: The Patrimonial Trap and the Dream of Institution-Building, Antonio Giustozzi; Chapter 5 The Durability of Weak States in the Middle East, Kristian Coates Ulrichsen; Chapter 6 State Failure and State-building in Russia, 1992–2004, Vadim Volkov; Part III Policy Approaches; Chapter 7 Foreign Intervention and state Reconstruction: Bosnian Fragility in Comparative Perspective, Marie-Joëlle Zahar; Chapter 8 State Formation and Persistent Hybridity in Africa: Reflections from a Development and Conflict Perspective, Tobias Debiel, Birgit Pech; Part IV Implications; Chapter 9 Measuring State Failure/Weakness: Do the Balkan Cases Fit?, Susan L. Woodward; Chapter 10 Democratization, Stateness, and the Western Response to Countries in Crisis After 1989, Daniel Lambach; Chapter 11 The Reconstruction of Political Authority in a Global Era, Mary Kaldor; conclusion Persistent State Weakness and Issues for Research, Methodology and Policy, Denisa Kostovicova, Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic;