Research Seminar in International Security
Introduction and Literature Review
"State building provided for the emergence of specialized personnel, control over consolidated territory, loyalty, and durability, permanent institutions with a centralized and autonomous state that held the monopoly of violence over a given population". Therefore, state building process goes through different stages, and needs different elements to be fulfilled. The state should possess effective control over each area, which means effective governance and economic development.
Analysis has been done on different literatures and a conclusion developed indicating that war is essential in the state building process, which creates a base for economic development and effective governance. The effect of war on successful governance and economic development is discussed trying to show an interaction between these three concepts. The war itself leads to economic development, which leads to effective governance, which in turn leads to the non-existence of war.
Firstly, for effective state building, economic development is crucial. Dorussen (2005) argues, “The development should ease the process of state building by allowing the central government to solve collective needs and compensate losers”.
The war creates a sense of urgency thereby it may successfully develop the taxation institution. J.Herbst argues that when the war is the main issue in the country, people are willing to pay the government so that the government may provide them with the security they need. He goes on to say that, war makes people to pay taxes voluntarily to the government thus creating and enforcing the tax institution that brings economic development. For example, J.Herbst claims that lack of wars in Africa did not create a sense of urgency and the people were not willing to pay taxes. One other author, Boaz argues that Africa States lack the external threats that prompted European rulers to boost taxation. Boaz reasons that higher taxation might occur without an actual war due to the presence of potential rivals. The threat of war can then push different states to expand their extractive capacity. This is because sustaining war is expensive and lack of proper planning and anticipation can lead a state into a debt crisis. Therefore, the process of state building will be crippled due to shortage of funds.
Secondly, state-building process needs good governance. Despite the presence of enough economic resources, lack of effective governance impedes the success and completion of the state building process. Francis Fukuyama (2004) argues that state building should involve ‘The creation of the new government institutions and the strengthening of existing ones’. Therefore, this is possible only by good governance and an enforcement mechanism of the vital institutions including economic institutions of government. Dorussen goes on to say, “that good governance is at least as important as economic development for the prospects of state formation”. The capacity of governance has a crucial effect on ethnic conflicts and in dealing with minority grievances. The basic argument is that economic and political discrimination signals the weakness of a central government and is, thus, more likely to lead to further intensification of civil conflict.
Additionally, the effect of war on the state building process can be seen in terms of governance. Besides the advantage of war on the taxing process, it creates ideological glue, which brings people under one ideology. J.Herbst (1990) calls the process “consolidation” where the people by external threats come up together under single governance leading to improvement of administrative capability of government. Government with the aim of nation-state building usually uses this ideological glue.
Moreover, Africa’s artificially drawn frontiers made the same nation be divided into two different countries faced with violation of ethnic regional lines. Such a nation can change its destiny by war and create its own borders.
Effective governance by its nature will lead to peace in those countries, which once have had war in their history to achieve state-building process. Effective governance is the result of that war process, which eventually leads to peace as the final stage. One good example can be Europe, which in the process of state building has had various wars, which led to economic development and effective governance, however, currently there is stability and peace in that region.
Hypothesis
War creates necessary condition for two essential elements of state building; economic development and successful governance and these three concepts are interrelated among each other.
Research objective and research questions
How are these three concepts interrelated?
Methodology
Data for this study will be obtained using secondary sources to find how war affects the effective state building process.
Conclusion
War adversely affects a state, but the aftermath developments may rebuild a state to a position it had never attained before. However, it should not be forgotten that war making, extraction, and capital accumulation interacted to shape European state making.To a lesser degree, war-making likewise resulted to state-making via the expansion of military docket itself, as a ranked army, war industries, sustaining bureaucracies and (rather later) schools developed within the state infrastructure. All of these developments checked possible rivals and opponents. In the process of making war, extracting possessions, and building up state infrastructure, the managers of states created alliances with particular social classes.
The associates of those classes lent resources, offered technical services, or helped guarantee the conformity of the rest of the populace, all in reward for a measure of protection against their own opponents and enemies. Consequently, these numerous strategic options resulted to the development of a characteristic state apparatus within each major region of Europe.
The failure of the state building process and many failed states in Africa can be clearly linked with the given statehood to those countries after the collapse of colonialism. These states have not been into struggles like most European States and by not experiencing war; they could not develop their economic institutions, political institutions and others as well as other countries, which have had wars in their history. Therefore, as J.Herbst mentions “War can have a significant effect on economic structure, administrative structure, and people’s relation with the state.
Bibliography
Andrew, Goldsmith. "Transnational Police Building." Taylor & Francis Group, 2007: 1-20.
Boaz, Atzili. Good Fences, Bad Neighbor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
Deborah, Brautigam. Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries:. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Dorusen H.(2005)”Governance, Development and State-Building”. The European Journal of
Development Research, Vol17, No.3, 411-422
J.Herbst -International Security Vol.14, No.4 (Spring, 1990), pp.117-139
Roland, Paris. The Dilemman of State Building: confronting the contradictions of postwar peace
Operations. New york: Cambridge university press, 2005.
Tilly, Charles. "WARMAKING. AND STATEMAKING - AS ORGANIZED CRIME." 1982: 1
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