Nation-Building Unraveled
The volume contributed to the critical debate over the direction of current international approaches to the management of crises in the periphery. A project supported by IPA, it focused on the Afghanistan experience to illustrate how emerging international “ordering” practices affect the role and policy of international actors such as United Nations agencies and international NGOs, their interaction with national authorities and local communities, and their ability to generate just social outcomes. Written by key practitioners and analysts directly involved in the political, assistance, and human rights aspects of the Afghan crisis, the volume offered an insider’s perspective to the costs and benefits, challenges and opportunities, and trade-offs and compromises involved in response to conflict, injustice, and chronic insecurity.
As part of this project, an Experts’ Workshop was held on 10 February 2003 at the Permanent Mission of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, entitled “Aid, Peace and Justice: The Search for Coherence in Afghanistan and Beyond,” followed by a one-day brainstorming session. The editors, several of the authors, and key experts associated with the UN system met to provide feedback on the initial research conducted by contributors and to discuss the substance and trajectory of the edited volume.
Edited by Antonio Donini, Norah Niland, and Karin Wermester (Kumarian Press, January 2004). For more information, please visit the publications section.