Governance and Political Adaptation in Fragile States

307 Pages·2019·2.95 MB·English

by  John Idriss Lahai

EDITED BY
JOHN IDRISS LAHAI, KARIN VON STROKIRCH,
HOWARD BRASTED & HELEN WARE
Governance and Political Adaptation
in Fragile States
John Idriss Lahai • Karin von Strokirch
Howard Brasted • Helen Ware
Editors
Governance and
Political Adaptation
in Fragile States
Editors
John Idriss Lahai Karin von Strokirch
University of New England University of New England
Northern Tablelands, NSW, Australia Northern Tablelands, NSW, Australia
Howard Brasted Helen Ware
University of New England University of New England
Northern Tablelands, NSW, Australia Northern Tablelands, NSW, Australia
ISBN 978-3-319-90748-2 ISBN 978-3-319-90749-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90749-9
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C
ontents
1 Introduction 1
John Idriss Lahai, Karin von Strokirch, Howard Brasted, and
Helen Ware
Part I The History and Theories of State Fragility: From
Fragility to Resilience 13
2 The History and Representations of the Challenges of
Governance in the Fragile States of Sub-Saharan Africa 15
John Idriss Lahai and Nenneh Lahai
3 Reifying Imagined Communities: The Triumph of the
Fragile Nation-State and the Peril of Modernization 39
Chris C. Bosley
4 From Saving Failed States to Managing Risks:
Reinterpreting Fragility Through Resilience 75
Nicolas Lemay-Hébert
v
vi CoNTENTS
Part II Politics of Survival: Instability and the Possibilities of
the Neoliberal Governance Framework 103
5 Adapting to Survive: The Peculiar Fate of Liberal
Governance Models in East Timor 105
Pádraig McAuliffe
6 Somalia: The Struggles in the Transient Phases in
“Somali-Style” (and Other Hybrid) Models of Governance 135
John Idriss Lahai
7 Whither Pakistan: The Ambivalence of Constitutional
Road Mapping? 167
Howard Brasted, Imran Ahmed, and Saira Bano orakzai
8 Managing Fragility? Chad’s (Il)liberal Interventions
and the Making of a Regional Hegemon 195
Nikolas Emmanuel and Brendan Schwartz
Part III The Politics of Electoral Adaptation 215
9 More Legitimate, Less Fragile, Less Liberal? The
Adoption and Adaptation of Elections in Afghanistan 217
Anna Larson
10 Does Electoral Authoritarianism Persist? A Comparison
of Recent Elections in Fiji, Seychelles, and Maldives 243
Mosmi Bhim
Part IV Reconstructions of the Pacific Islands Countries 271
11 Governance and Political Adaptation: Constituency
Development Funds in Solomon Islands and the
Construction of a Melanesian State 273
Julien Barbara
Index 301
n C
otes on ontributors
Imran  Ahmed is a doctoral candidate in History in the School of
Humanities, University of New England. His research focuses on consti-
tutional politics in South Asia. His research in the field of Pakistan’s con-
stitutional history and political development has been published. His latest
work, “‘Strategic Constitutions’: Constitutional Change and Politics in
Pakistan,” has been published in the journal South Asia.
Julien  Barbara is a Senior Policy Fellow at the State, Society, and
Governance in Melanesia Program (SSGM) at the Australian National
University. Since joining SSGM in mid-2013, he has undertaken research
on issues relating to governance and development in Melanesia, with a focus
on state-building, elections and political participation, and the political
economy of reform. For the three years up to December 2016, Julien was
convenor of the Centre for Democratic Institutions (CDI). Between 2000
and 2013, he worked in a variety of policy positions in Australia’s Department
of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Australian Agency for
International Development (AusAID), including a two-year secondment to
the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) as Director
of the Machinery of Government Program. He has worked widely across
the region with development partners and regional governments.
Mosmi Bhim is a Lecturer in Ethics, Fiji National University, and a PhD
candidate at the University of New England (UNE). Prior to that, she was
Communications and Advocacy officer for a rights-based NGo Citizens’
Constitutional Forum (CCF). Initially, she worked in journalism and pub-
lic relations. She has a BA in Journalism and History/Politics and an MA
vii
viii NoTES oN CoNTRIBUToRS
in Governance from University of the South Pacific. She is the author of
‘Stifled Aspirations—The 2014 General Election under restrictive laws’
(2015); ‘Constitution-making in a stifled democracy—A case-study of
self-censorship perpetuating propaganda in Fiji’ (2013); ‘Stifling
opposition—An analysis of the approach of the Fiji Government after the
2006 coup’ (2007); ‘A case for Fiji’s grassroots citizenry and media to be
better informed, engaged for democracy’ (2010); and ‘The Impact of the
Promotion of Reconciliation, Tolerance and Unity Bill on the 2006
Election’ (2007).
Chris C. Bosley is a senior program officer for the Countering Violent
Extremism (CVE) projects across the United States Institute of Peace
(USIP). As senior program officer for CVE, Chris collaborates across
USIP, United States Government elements, and NGos to identify and
implement policies and practices to disengage, deradicalise, rehabilitate,
and reintegrate violent extremist offenders. Prior to joining USIP, Chris
was a Senior Advisor for Political Stability, Conflict Warning, and CVE, in
the office of the Director of National Intelligence (oDNI), and Manager
for East Asia, an assistant secretary-level official in the United States
Government. There, he was responsible for prioritising preventive CVE
efforts in the policy discourse, to include national and regional CT strate-
gies, National Security Council (NSC) meetings, Congressional testimony,
and international engagements. He aligned intelligence community sup-
port to the NSC, ensuring national policymakers received accurate and
timely intelligence to inform strategic responses to the Rohingya crisis in
Burma, democratic backsliding throughout Southeast Asia, and North
Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. Prior to joining oDNI,
Chris served for a decade as a naval intelligence officer. His assignments
included the Joint Staff, Defense Intelligence Agency, and a tour of duty
aboard the USS Carl Vinson. He has produced the daily intelligence update
for the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
developed an analytic framework mirroring the dynamics of instability to
assess fragile societies and provide early warning of violence, prioritised
operational equities to reconcile the ‘pivot to Asia’ with the demands of the
Arab Spring, and orchestrated the delivery of relief material in the immedi-
ate aftermath of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake. His research interests include
political stability and development, fragile states, identity-driven conflict,
instability early warning, social drivers of violent conflict and extremism,
the international strategic environment and consequences of rising powers
in a global society, and linking the human and social effects of violent
NoTES oN CoNTRIBUToR S ix
conflict with international security imperatives for stability and sustainable
peace. He holds a Master’s degree in International Security, Conflict, and
Development from Georgetown University, backed by a postgraduate
certificate from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
(SAIS) and a BA in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh. His
scholarly works have appeared in several edited collections, and prestigious
journals, including the International Studies Review.
Howard Brasted is Professor of History and Islamic Studies at the
University of New England, Australia. Developing a research interest in
South Asia and Islam at Edinburgh University, where he completed a PhD
in 1974, he went on to serve as the long-term Secretary of the South Asian
Studies Association (1984–2002) and editor of its refereed journal
South Asia (1984–2001). Since 2010, he has been on the Board of
Advisors for Melbourne University 4 Press’s Islamic Studies series,
and in 2017, he was appointed an editorial advisor to the Indian
Historical Review. He is author and/or editor of several books and
author of several chapters and journal articles. He is researching in
the field of Islamic radicalization, and his recent publications include
A New World Disorder in the Making? and The Political Economy of
Pakistan’s “War on Terror” (2015).
Nikolas Emmanuel is an associate professor at Soka University of Japan,
where he is a faculty member within the Graduate School of International
Peace Studies (SIPS). Prior to that, he was an assistant professor in the
Department of Political Science and the Centre for Resolution of
International Conflicts, University of Copenhagen. His research interests
include international relations, comparative politics, foreign policy analy-
sis, incentive strategies, Africa, civil conflict, conflict management, peace
and conflict studies, peacebuilding, and transnational networks. His most
recent publications are External Incentives and African Regional Security
Cooperation: Lessons from the Lake Chad Basin, in African Border Disorders:
Addressing Transnational Extremism in the Sahara-Sahel, olivier Walther
and William Miles (eds.), Routledge, 2017.
John Idriss Lahai is an applied development studies scholar with broad
interests in governance, international development, peace, conflict and
security studies, and gender and women’s studies. He holds a research fel-
lowship at the University of New England (where he obtained his PhD in
2012). Some of his other scholarly books include The Ebola Pandemic in
Sierra Leone (2016; Springer Nature/Palgrave Macmillan); Gender in
x NoTES oN CoNTRIBUToRS
Human Rights and Transitional Justice (2017; Palgrave Macmillan);
Gender, Culture, Politics and Society (2016; Peter Lang); African Frontiers:
Insurgency, Governance and Peacebuilding (2016; Routledge); Human
Rights in Sierra Leone, c1787–2016: The Long Struggle 2018, Routledge
(Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Africa); Governance and
Societal Adaptation in Fragile States (2018; Palgrave Macmillan); and
Humanitarian Action: Perspectives and Interventions from the Global South
(in preparation for the Manchester University Press). Dr Lahai is also the
author of over 30 papers published by reputable edited books and journals.
He has held consultancy positions on governance and political adaptation
projects in sub-Saharan Africa with funding from the United Nations, the
World Bank, the British government, and several governments in sub-
Saharan Africa. He has also held teaching positions in Africa (Sierra Leone;
Ethiopia), Latin America (Costa Rica), and the United States.
Nenneh Lahai is a DPhil candidate in the Centre for Peace and Conflict
Studies, University of New England in Australia. She has worked for the
British Government’s Department of Foreign and International
Development (DFID), Crown Agents (a UK-based international
consulting firm), the Government of Sierra Leone, and the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP), among others. She
holds a Bachelor of Science in Peace and Conflict Studies and a
Bachelor of Laws (Hons), both from the University of Sierra Leone.
Much of her extensive professional work is on human rights, transitional
justice, governance, gender, and state fragility. She is the co-author (with
John Idriss Lahai) of Human Rights Frameworks and Women’s Rights in
Post-Transitional Justice Sierra Leone (in John Idriss Lahai and Khanyisela
Moyo (eds.)) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).
Anna Larson holds PhD in post-war recovery and is Senior Teaching
Fellow in Development Studies at SoAS, University of London. She has
been following and working on elections and political participation in
Afghanistan since 2006, and her articles on this subject have been pub-
lished widely. She is co-author (with Noah Coburn) of Derailing Democracy
in Afghanistan: Elections in an Unstable Political Landscape (2014).
Nicolas Lemay-Hébert is Senior Lecturer in International Development
Department, University of Birmingham (UK). He was a visiting scholar at
the Kimberley Green Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida
International University, USA, and at the Institute of Advanced Studies
(Kulturwissenschaftliches Kolleg), University of Konstanz (Germany),