Suchergebnisse

This book compares police reform operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan, addressing the internal machinery that makes peace operations work-or not. Recognizing that the chances for effective peacebuilding vary widely across contexts, this book investigates the impact of one of the few variables that peacebuilders do control: the management and design of peace operations. Building on field research and over one hundred expert interviews, International assistance to police reform: Managing Peacebuilding systematically compares such operations in two different contexts-Kosovo and Afghanistan-by focusing specifically on international assistance for local police reform since 1999. Four comprehensive case studies examine operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan before and after the European Union took over police reform responsibilities: in Kosovo from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and in Afghanistan from the German government. Speaking to scholars and practitioners in domestic and international organizations, the book drills in the complex relation between headquarter diplomats and field level conflict experts. Its findings combine to a set of recommendations for policy-makers to better align their operations to the contentious politics of conflict management and peacebuilding

This book compares police reform operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan, addressing the internal machinery that makes peace operations work--or not. Recognizing that the chances for effective peacebuilding vary widely across contexts, this book investigates the impact of one of the few variables that peacebuilders do control: the management and design of peace operations. Building on field research and over one hundred expert interviews, International assistance to police reform: Managing Peacebuilding systematically compares such operations in two different contexts--Kosovo and Afghanistan--by focusing specifically on international assistance for local police reform since 1999. Four comprehensive case studies examine operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan before and after the European Union took over police reform responsibilities: in Kosovo from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and in Afghanistan from the German government. Speaking to scholars and practitioners in domestic and international organizations, the book drills in the complex relation between headquarter diplomats and field level conflict experts. Its findings combine to a set of recommendations for policy-makers to better align their operations to the contentious politics of conflict management and peacebuilding.

AbstractBureaucratic representation theory holds that civil servants are not "neutral" in a Weberian sense. Bureaucrats are thought to "actively" represent their communities by trying to make them better off. This article proposes an alternative understanding of individual behavior in representation that emphasizes knowledge sharing instead of patronage, but leads to similar outcomes: Their societal background provides officials with advanced social knowledge about the group(s) they represent, including both informational knowledge (facts about culture, history, politics) and relational knowledge (how people interact). Bureaucratic knowledge linkage is the process of sharing information and managing relations internally and with citizens. An extreme case serves to illustrate knowledge linkage empirically: Survey data from an international organization yield high levels of knowledge asymmetries within staff bodies and subsequent observation of knowledge linkage mechanisms. In generalizing findings, the risks (knowledge distortions) and benefits (attaining public value) of knowledge linkage are discussed for both international and domestic administrations.

A large share of civilian staff working in international peace operations are nationals of the host state. Academic research has not yet investigated the effect of these locally recruited bureaucrats on peacebuilding. Theoretically, it is argued that to accomplish their missions in complex environments, peace operations require crucial knowledge about local perceptions, politics, and customs. Local staff can have a positive performance impact by soliciting such knowledge. But information advantages create new principal-agent problems. Peace operations have a hard time scrutinizing their employees' allegiances, and they risk sabotage from within. Empirically, it is shown that peace operations conducted by the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the European Union (EU) differ significantly in how they navigate the ensuing tension by enabling or restricting the influence of their local staff. A new data set on the staffing of 52 peace operations as well as analysis of internal staff policies yields significant variance in the potential of local staff to influence peacebuilding policy implementation, which is most extensive in the OSCE, followed by the UN and the EU. This finding warrants more attention on the role of local staff as information gatekeepers who could be at the center of potential frictions between international and local norms and knowledge.

A large share of civilian staff working in international peace operations are nationals of the host state. Academic research has not yet investigated the effect of these locally recruited bureaucrats on peacebuilding. Theoretically, it is argued that to accomplish their missions in complex environments, peace operations require crucial knowledge about local perceptions, politics, and customs. Local staff can have a positive performance impact by soliciting such knowledge. But information advantages create new principal-agent problems. Peace operations have a hard time scrutinizing their employees' allegiances, and they risk sabotage from within. Empirically, it is shown that peace operations conducted by the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the European Union (EU) differ significantly in how they navigate the ensuing tension by enabling or restricting the influence of their local staff. A new data set on the staffing of 52 peace operations as well as analysis of internal staff policies yields significant variance in the potential of local staff to influence peacebuilding policy implementation, which is most extensive in the OSCE, followed by the UN and the EU. This finding warrants more attention on the role of local staff as information gatekeepers who could be at the center of potential frictions between international and local norms and knowledge.