CIAO DATE: 2/08
Journal of International Relations and Development
Volume 9, Issue 2 (June 2006)
Articles
-
Bridging the rationalist–constructivist divide: re-engineering the culture of the World Bank
Daniel L Nielson, Michael J Tierney and Catherine E Weaver
In this article, we seek to explain reform patterns at the World Bank. Traditional realist and institutionalist theories say little about the process of change within international organizations ('IOs'). Drawing upon the insights of relatively new rationalist and constructivist approaches, we develop and test a model of IO change that combines insights from rationalism and constructivism. Our explanation integrates the 'top-down' logic of a rationalist principal-agent model — targeting the redesign of organizational structures, hiring procedures and promotional standards, and the 'bottom-up' logic of sociological constructivism — focusing on the transformation of bureaucratic culture. We find that reform outcomes hinge upon the ability of change entrepreneurs to disrupt both the logics of consequence and appropriateness that shape the preferences and behaviour of bureaucratic actors. We evaluate our model by examining four distinct aspects of the World Bank's Strategic Compact (1997–2001), which included attempts to alter project management, organizational culture, and the mission of the institution itself.
-
Shadow trade war economies and their challenge to peacebuilding
Monika Heupela
Since the end of the Cold War various attempts at post-conflict peacebuilding have collapsed. In recent years, many scholars have claimed that the failure to weaken spoilers' shadow trade war economies has seriously undermined efforts at implementing peace treaties and building stable peace during the 1990s and early 2000s. However, empirical research carried out so far has largely concentrated on illustrating the assumed link between the proliferation of natural resources trafficking as a means to fund warfare and peacebuilding failure, rather than conducting case studies that may challenge and potentially falsify this link. In order to fill this gap, this article presents four brief case studies on the role of war economies in the peacebuilding processes in Cambodia, Angola, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan. In doing so, the article provides empirical evidence in support of the claim that spoilers' unhampered access to war economies strongly impairs peacebuilding. Further, it demonstrates that the application of strategies to prevent spoilers from drawing on revenues gained from trafficking in natural resources to fund military operations can be highly instrumental in ending warfare and facilitating peacebuilding. Thus, far from offering a monocausal explanation of the success or failure of peacebuilding, the article empirically substantiates a distinct perspective on peacebuilding that complements other approaches and thus contributes to establishing a more comprehensive account of the determinants of peacebuilding.
-
From excluded to excluder: Spain in the transatlantic security community
Niels Lachmann
This article traces Spain's relation with the Transatlantic Security Community. It highlights the exclusion of the Franco regime from participation in this community, the specificity of the process leading to Spain's inclusion in the community at the end of the Cold War, and the highly divisive stance in the community of the Aznar government during and after the Iraq crisis of 2002/2003. I argue that these features are best understood through the framework of securitization, which provides insights on both external and internal exclusionary politics by security communities. These are linked to the importance of a common security culture regarding international threats to the collective identity of the participants, concerning exclusion of outsiders, and the claim that dissent over policies means weakening the security communities' unity and hence its existence, concerning the exclusion of insiders. In this context, as I show by the recent relations between Spain and the Transatlantic Security Community, participants might start to act no longer in a way to perpetuate the existence of the community.
Book Review
-
Discourse Theory in European Politics: Identity, Policy and Governance
Jonathan P J White
Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2005, 364pp.
ISBN: 0-333-96843-3 David Howarth and Jacob Torfing (eds) -
The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross
Veronika Bílková
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005, 356pp.
ISBN: 0-521-612810 David P. Forsythe -
Geopolitics and the Post-Colonial: Rethinking North–South Relations
Glen M Segell
Blackwell, Oxford, 2004, 286pp.
ISBN: 0-631-21452-6. David Slater -
Theory and Reform in the European Union
Ana-Maria Boromisa
Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 2003, 248pp.
ISBN: 0-7190-6385-X. Dimitris N. Chryssochoou, Michael J. Tsinisizelis, Stelios Stavridis and Kostas Ifantis -
Disputed Territories: The Transnational Dynamics of Ethnic Conflict Settlement
Nataša Kogej
Berghahn Books, New York, Oxford, 2003, 258pp.
ISBN: 1-75181-516-3 Stefan Wolff -
Foundations of International Political Economy
Cristina Bucur
Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, New York2005, 266pp.
ISBN: 1-4039-1351-X
Matthew Watson -
Promoting Women's Rights: The Politics of Gender in the European Union
Ilina Hristova
Routledge, New York and London, 2003, 174pp.
ISBN: 0-415-94435-X Chrystalla A. Ellina