Rebuilding Political Authority in States at Risk: International Strategies and the Role of NGOs
Project Period : July 1, 2005 - June 30, 2007

A new partnership between scholars at the Institute for International, Comparative, and Area Studies at UCSD and the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a leading international NGO dedicated to humanitarian services and advocacy for those uprooted or affected by violent conflict and oppression, will evaluate international strategies toward states at risk—societies in which poverty and insecurity are exacerbated by weak governance and violent conflict. This project is funded by a grant of $349,700 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

This research partnership with the IRC is a new departure for IICAS and UCSD. The project will bring UCSD research into practice at the NGO, improving both, and enhancing international capabilities for assisting states at risk. will evaluate international strategies for rebuilding legitimate political authority in states at risk, state with weak governance and a high risk of violent internal conflicts. Although international actors—security, humanitarian, development—have revised their strategies for rebuilding political authority in these states, existing strategies demonstrate shortcomings that can be traced to a knowledge deficit, no agreed understanding of which strategies are likely to be most effective in rebuilding political authority.

The IICAS-IRC partnership will attack this knowledge deficit through an evaluation of international strategies toward states at risk and through the development of proposals to make those strategies more effective and complementary. The project will bring research to practice with an aim to improve both and thereby to improve international intervention in states at risk.

Project Activities

The project has four, closely linked activities that will be implemented over two years:

(1) A team of four IICAS-based researchers will apply and extend research on global governance, political institutions, and internal conflict to contemporary international strategies for rebuilding political authority in states at risk. The researchers will produce and disseminate policy-relevant research directed toward improving the prospects of international intervention.

(2) Researchers will collaborate with the International Rescue Committee to extend this research to the NGO community, helping to situate post-conflict programming within a broader intellectual framework. The IICAS-based research team will also work with the IRC to design a research agenda to evaluate the effects of its work on domestic institutions in a carefully selected set of countries emerging from conflict.

(3) IICAS and the IRC will disseminate results of (1) and (2) at a conference that brings together research and policy communities to discuss alternative strategies for rebuilding political authority and through research monographs, policy briefs, and web and print publication. Results will also be discussed at IRC annual meetings over the course of the project.

(4) A final and perhaps most valuable product of the project is a network that connects researchers in universities and policy institutes with NGO practitioners. The project will participate actively in the emerging Carnegie Corporation network on states at risk. The engagement of visiting fellows from the NGO community, post-doctoral researchers, and graduate students (researchers and interns) will insure the future growth of the network.

Principal Investigators

UCSD international specialists Miles Kahler, Kristian Gleditsch, David Lake and Barbara Walter are the project's co-investigators. Clark Gibson and Craig McIntosh, other UCSD faculty members, will also participate in the research and Jodi Nelson, director of policy for the IRC, will provide leadership at the NGO partner organization.

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