Political economy of statebuilding: power after peace

"Through the lens of political economy, this book positions housing as a key factor in understanding social inequality. It does so drawing on rich empirical evidence from the case of the Chilean housing market. This book provides insights on the articulation between real estate development, housing provision and social inequality based on applied urban economics analyses that illustrate the contradictions of neoliberal urbanism through the case of Chile. For neoliberal urbanism, the good city is not equal for all, it is based on the principle of profitability and benefits from segregation to make capital investment more efficient. The chapters of this book expose how these processes are generated by a political system that allows them rather than by the invisible hand of the market. The book will be of interest to graduate students in urban studies, urban planning, sociology and urban geography. It will also appeal to decision-makers and also to actors in the real estate market seeking to perfect the social benefits of their professional activities, aspiring to generate more egalitarian and just cities"--

Cover -- Endorsement -- Half Title -- Series Information -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Tables -- Notes on Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- 1 The Political Economy of Civil War and UN Peace Operations -- Introduction -- Political Economy Analysis of War and Conflict: Strengths and Limitations -- UN Peace Operations and the Political Economy of Intrastate Conflict -- Understanding the Sources of Violence and Armed Group Behaviour -- Engaging With Non-State Forms Governance

This book examines the operational and political challenges facing UN peace operations deployed in countries where civil war and protracted violence have given rise to the complex and distinctive political economies of conflict. The volume explores the nature and impact of such political economies - informal systems of power and influence formed by the interaction of local, national, and region-wide war economies with the political agendas of conflict actors - on the course of UN peace operations. It focuses in detail on the UN's long-running peace operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Mali, and Somalia. The book is centrally concerned with the interaction of UN missions with the power structures and local conflict dynamics that shape individual mission settings, and the challenges these pose for mediation, protection of civilians, and other tasks. It also offers a critical assessment of the various ways in which the UN system', from its headquarters in New York to the field, has confronted the policy challenges posed by political economies of conflict-affected states, societies, and regions. It advances a pragmatic set of policy recommendations aimed at improving the UN's ability to confront predatory and exploitative war economies. At the same time, the volume makes it clear that political and institutional obstacles to more effective UN action are certain to remain profound and are unlikely ever to be fully overcome let alone eradicated. Despite making some progress since the 1990s to better understand the political economy of civil wars, the UN has struggled with how to tackle informal networks of power and their consequences for efforts to end wars. The book will be of special interest to students of war and conflict studies, statebuilding, political economy of conflict, UN interventionism and peacebuilding, and IR/Security in general.

This book examines the operational and political challenges facing UN peace operations deployed in countries where civil war and protracted violence have given rise to the complex and distinctive political economies of conflict. The volume explores the nature and impact of such political economies – informal systems of power and influence formed by the interaction of local, national, and region-wide war economies with the political agendas of conflict actors – on the course of UN peace operations. It focuses in detail on the UN's long-running peace operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Mali, and Somalia. The book is centrally concerned with the interaction of UN missions with the power structures and local conflict dynamics that shape individual mission settings, and the challenges these pose for mediation, protection of civilians, and other tasks. It also offers a critical assessment of the various ways in which the UN 'system', from its headquarters in New York to the field, has confronted the policy challenges posed by political economies of conflict-affected states, societies, and regions. It advances a pragmatic set of policy recommendations aimed at improving the UN's ability to confront predatory and exploitative war economies. At the same time, the volume makes it clear that political and institutional obstacles to more effective UN action are certain to remain profound and are unlikely ever to be fully overcome let alone eradicated. Despite making some progress since the 1990s to better understand the political economy of civil wars, the UN has struggled with how to tackle informal networks of power and their consequences for efforts to end wars.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of figures -- List of tables -- Preface -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Constitution and housing -- 3 Cost of living -- 4 House prices in Chile -- a Hypothesis 1: due to soil scarcity -- b Hypothesis 2: the problem is not housing, it is wages -- c Hypothesis 3: due to regulations -- d Hypothesis 4: the real estate market is imperfect -- 5 Real estate profitability -- 6 Housing and financialisation -- 7 Land and speculation -- 8 Pandemic and political economy of housing -- 9 Afterword: housing as political economy -- References -- Index.

"Through the lens of political economy, this book positions housing as a key factor in understanding social inequality. It does so drawing on rich empirical evidence from the case of the Chilean housing market. This book provides insights on the articulation between real estate development, housing provision and social inequality based on applied urban economics analyses that illustrate the contradictions of neoliberal urbanism through the case of Chile. For neoliberal urbanism, the good city is not equal for all, it is based on the principle of profitability and benefits from segregation to make capital investment more efficient. The chapters of this book expose how these processes are generated by a political system that allows them rather than by the invisible hand of the market. The book will be of interest to graduate students in urban studies, urban planning, sociology and urban geography. It will also appeal to decision-makers and also to actors in the real estate market seeking to perfect the social benefits of their professional activities, aspiring to generate more egalitarian and just cities"--

This volume examines and evaluates the impact of international statebuilding interventions on the political economy of conflict-affected countries over the past 20 years. It focuses on countries that are emerging, or have recently emerged, from periods of war and protracted conflict. The interventions covered fall into three broad categories:international administrations and transformative occupations (East Timor, Iraq, and Kosovo); complex peace operations (Afghanistan, Burundi, Haiti, and Sudan); governance and statebuilding programmes

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of illustrations -- Notes on contributors -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- 1 Power after peace -- PART I A political economy perspective on selected statebuilding practices -- 2 Statebuilding and the limits of constitutional design -- 3 Elections and post-conflict political development -- 4 Transition from war to peace: stratification, inequality and post-war economic reconstruction -- 5 Private and public interests: informal actors, informal influence, and economic order after war -- 6 Statebuilding and corruption: a political economy perspective -- 7 Statebuilding and the political economy of the extractive industries in post-conflict states -- PART II Approaches to statebuilding -- 8 The United Nations and international statebuilding after the Cold War -- 9 The IFIs and post-conflict political economy -- 10 Regional approaches to statebuilding I: the European Union -- 11 Regional approaches to statebuilding II: the African Union and ECOWAS -- Part III Case studies -- 12 Back to the future: the failure to reform the post-war political economy of Iraq -- 13 Building a state and 'statebuilding': East Timor and the UN, 1999-2012 -- 14 The political economy of statebuilding in Kosovo -- 15 From new dawn to quicksand: the political economy of statebuilding in Afghanistan -- 16 The political economy of statebuilding in Burundi -- 17 The political economy of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan