Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T16:29:50.088Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Imperative to Rebuild: Assessing the Normative Case for Postconflict Reconstruction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Alexandra Gheciu  and
Jennifer Welsh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The past two decades have witnessed the proliferation of comprehensive international missions of peacebuilding and reconstruction, aimed not simply at bringing conflict to an end but also at preventing its recurrence. Recent missions, ranging from relatively modest involvement to highly complex international administrations, have generated a debate about the rights and duties of international actors to reconstruct postconflict states. In view of the recent growth of such missions, and the serious challenges and crises that have plagued them, we seek in this article to address some of the gaps in the current literature and engage in a critical analysis of the moral purposes and dilemmas of reconstruction. More specifically, we construct a map for understanding and evaluating the different ethical imperatives advanced by those who attempt to rebuild war-torn societies. In our view, such a mapping exercise is a necessary step in any attempt to build a normative defence of postconflict reconstruction. The article proceeds in two stages: first, we present the various rationales for reconstruction offered by international actors, and systematize these into four different “logics”; second, we evaluate the implications and normative dilemmas generated by each logic.

Type
Postwar Justice and the Responsibility to Rebuild
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , Summer 2009 , pp. 121 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1 For more critical analyses see, for example, Bain, William, Between Anarchy and Society: Trusteeship and the Obligations of Power (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003); and Wilde, Ralph, International Territorial Administration: How Trusteeship and the Civilizing Mission Never Went Away (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008). See also Caplan, Richard, International Governance of War-Torn Territories: Rule and Reconstruction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005); and Chesterman, Simon, You, the People: The United Nations, Transitional Administration, and State-Building (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Orend, Brian, “Justice after War,” Ethics & International Affairs 16, no. 1 (2002), pp. 43–56; Bass, Gary J., “Jus Post Bellum,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 32, no. 4 (2004), pp. 384–412; Bellamy, Alex J., “The Responsibilities of Victory: Jus Post Bellum and the Just War,” Review of International Studies 34, no. 4 (2008), pp. 601–25; and Ben-Porath, Sigal, “Care Ethics and Dependence—Rethinking Jus Post Bellum,” Hypatia 23, no. 2 (2008), pp. 61–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 See Bain, , Between Anarchy and Society; Wilde, , International Territorial Administration; and Chandler, David, Empire in Denial: The Politics of Statebuilding (London: Pluto Press, 2006).Google Scholar

4 This notion is set out in the report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. See The Responsibility to Protect (Ottawa: International Development Research Centre, 2001), pp. 39–45.Google Scholar

5 Bellamy refers to this as the “minimalist approach” to postconflict reconstruction. See “Responsibilities of Victory,” pp. 602–05.Google Scholar

6 Walzer, Michael, Arguing about War (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004), p. 19.Google Scholar

7 Roberts, AdamandGuelff, Richard, eds., Documents on the Laws of War, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 80–84, 317–27.Google Scholar

8 Bellamy, , “Responsibilities of Victory,”p. 605.See alsoScheffer, David, “The Security Council and International Law on Military Occupations,” inLowe, Vaughan, Roberts, Adam, Welsh, Jennifer, andZaum, Dominik, eds., The United Nations Security Council and War: The Evolution of Thought and Practice since 1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 580–607.Google Scholar

9 We are grateful to Thomas Hurka for helping us to clarify this point.

10 Walzer, , Arguing about War, p. 21.While Walzer insists that a moral account ofpost bellum should offer guidelines for establishing what is ethical in statebuilding (thereby constraining the practices of international officials), he offers little in the way of detailed suggestions.Google Scholar

11 Cited in Etzioni, Amitai, Security First: For A Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 66.Google Scholar

12 Feldman, Noah, What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation Building (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004), pp. 80–81.Google Scholar

13 Responsibility to Protect, p. 39.For an analysis of ICISS contribution to the debate on intervention and reconstruction, seeWelsh, Jennifer, Thielking, Carolin, andMacFarlane, S. Neil, “The Responsibility to Protect: Assessing the Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty,”inThakur, Ramesh, Cooper, Andrew F., andEnglish, John, eds., International Commissions and the Power of Ideas (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2005), pp. 198–220.Google Scholar

14 Address by Prime Minister Martin, Paulat the United Nations, September 22, 2004; available at http:\\www.canadainternational.gc.ca/g8/media/2004/paul_martin_un-na_ 2004.aspx?lang=eng(accessed March 5, 2009).Google Scholar

15 The term is drawn from Miller, David.See “Distributing Responsibilities,” Journal of Political Philosophy 9, no. 4 (2001), p. 454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 See ibid., pp. 464–68, for a discussion of these principles.Google Scholar

17 Wood, Nicholas, “Barroso Stresses Balkans' Future in EU,” International Herald Tribune, February 17, 2006; available at http:\\www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/17/news/balkans.php.Google Scholar

18 For a clear articulation of the international harm principle, see May, Larry, Crimes Against Humanity: A Normative Account (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).Google Scholar

19 Goodin, Robert E., Protecting the Vulnerable: A Reanalysis of Our Social Responsibilities (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985).Google Scholar

20 National Security Strategy of the United States of America, March 2006, p. 1, p. 5.Google Scholar

21 See Nicolaï dis, KalypsoandHowse, Robert, “‘This is my EUtopia…’: Narrative as Power,” Journal of Common Market Studies 40, no. 4 (2002), pp. 767–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 See Manners, Ian, “Normative Power Europe: A Contradiction in Terms?” Journal of Common Market Studies 40, no. 2 (2000), p. 241.Google Scholar

23 Solana, JavierandMoeller, Per Stig, “The EU Takes Responsibility and Makes a Difference,” Jyllands Posten, September 7, 2006; available at http:\\www.um.dk/en/menu/AboutUs/TheMinister/SpeechesAndArticles/Archives2006/EuropeTakesResponsibility.htm(accessed March 5, 2009).Google Scholar

24 Ambassador Guenter Burghardt, Head of Delegation of the European Commission to the United States (address to the conference on “The European Union: Its Role and Power in the Emerging International System,” Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, October, 3–5, 2003)(emphasis added).Google Scholar

25 Canada's International Policy Statement, A Role of Pride and Influence in the World (Ottawa: Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 2005), pp. 20–22.Google Scholar

26 Foucault, Michel, Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collège de France (London: Penguin Books, 2003).Google Scholar

27 Wight, Martin, “Western Values in International Relations,” in Wight, Martin and Butterfield, Herbert, eds., Diplomatic Investigations (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1966), p. 128.Google Scholar

28 Morgenthau, Hans, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, 7th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006);see the foreword byThompson, Kenneth W.andClinton, W. David, p. xxiv.Google Scholar

29 For a more detailed analysis, seeGheciu, Alexandra, NATO in the “New Europe”: The Politics of International Socialization after the Cold War (Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2005)Google Scholar; and Williams, Michael C., “The Discipline of the Democratic Peace: Kant, Liberalism and the Social Construction of Security Communities,”European Journal of International Relations 7, no. 4 (2001), pp. 525–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 For an examination of the origins and operationalization of the so-called liberal peace thesis, see Paris, Roland, At War's End: Building Peace after Civil Conflicts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), ch. 2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31 See, for instance, Kouchner, Bernard, “The Challenge of Rebuilding Kosovo,” NATO Review 47, no. 4 (1999); and the “Report of the Secretary General of the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo,” UN Security Council Document S/1999/779, July 12, 1999.Google Scholar

32 National Security Strategy of the United States of America, p. 7.

33 See, for example, “The Alliance's Strategic Concept,”NATO Press Release, Washington, DC, April 23–24, 1999; available at http:\\www.nato.int/docu/pr/1999/p99-065e.htm.Google Scholar

34 A Secure Europe in a Better World: European Security Strategy, December 12, 2003; available at http:\\www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/78367.pdf.Google Scholar

35 Speech by Indian Ambassador to the United Nations, Kamalesh Sharma, UN doc. S/PV.4497, March 26, 2002.

36 Joint Statement on Counterterrorism by the President of the United States and the President of Russia, Shanghai, October 21, 2001; available at http:\\www.ln.mid.ru/bl.nsf/5d5fc0348b8b2d26c3256def0051fa20/dfe9a9a6bb8e0d4443256bc3005201fb?OpenDocument.Google Scholar

37 For an analysis of the “morality of states” perspective, see, for instance, Vincent, R. J., Human Rights and International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 113–15.Google Scholar

38 Bass, , “Jus Post Bellum,” pp. 394–95.Google Scholar

39 “Chinese Foreign Ministry Statement Welcomes ‘New Stage’ in Cambodian Settlement,” Xinhua News Agency, September 11, 1990.Google Scholar

40 Speech by Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations, Guofang, Shen, UN doc. S/PV.4057, October 25, 1999.See also the speech byChinese Ambassador to the United Nations, Zhenmin, Liu, UN doc. S/PV.5512, August 15, 2006.Google Scholar

41 “China Says Afghan People Must Have Final Say in Their Future,” Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, November 12, 2001.Google Scholar

42 Speech by Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations, Guofang, Mr. Shen, UN doc. S/PV.4272, February 5, 2001.Google Scholar

43 Shue, Henry, “Exporting Hazards,”inBrown, Peter G.andShue, Henry, eds., Boundaries: National Autonomy and Its Limits (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1981), pp. 135–36.See alsoGoodin, , Protecting the Vulernable, pp. 126–27.Google Scholar

44 A recent statement of this argument can be found in Hurd, Ian, After Anarchy: Legitimacy and Power in the United Nations Security Council (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007).Google Scholar

45 Erskine, Toni, “‘Blood on the UN's Hands'? Assigning Duties and Apportioning Blame to an Intergovernmental Organisation,” Global Society 18, no. 1 (2004), pp. 21–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

46 See for example, Caron, David D., “The Legitimacy of the Collective Authority of the Security Council,” American Journal of International Law 87, (1993), pp. 552–88; and the introduction to Lowe, et al. , eds., The United Nations Security Council and War. For a philosophical analysis that weighs effectiveness against other criteria in judging the UN's legitimacy, seePattison, James, “Humanitarian Intervention and International Law: The Moral Importance of an Intervener's Legal Status,” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 10, no. 3 (2007), pp. 301–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47 Goodin, , Protecting the Vulnerable, p. 125.Google Scholar

48 ICISS is clear in saying that intervention should ideally be authorized by the Security Council. But this does not answer the question of which actor(s) should mount an intervention or reconstruction mission.

49 Rodin, David, “ The Responsibility to Protect and the Logic of Rights,” inJütersonke, OliverandKrause, Keith, eds., From Rights to Responsibilities: Rethinking Interventions for Humanitarian Purposes (Geneva: Graduate Institute of International Studies, 2006).Google Scholar

50 Miller, David, “The Responsibility to Protect Human Rights,” article presented to the International Symposium on Justice, Legitimacy, and Public International Law, University of Bern, December, 15–17, 2006.Google Scholar

51 Stuart Mill, John, “A Few Words on Nonintervention”(1859), inGertrude, Himmelfarb, ed., Essays on Politics and Culture (Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1973), pp. 368– 84.Google Scholar

52 See Chandler, David, Bosnia: Faking Democracy after Dayton, 2nd ed. (London: Pluto, 2000).Google Scholar

53 Jackson, Robert, The Global Covenant: Human Conduct in a World of States (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 412; and Bain, , Between Anarchy and Society, p. 26.Google Scholar

54 Responsibility to Protect, p. 44.

55 Ayoob, Mohammed, “Humanitarian Intervention and State Sovereignty,” International Journal of Human Rights 6, no. 1 (2002), p. 93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

56 Oakeshott, Michael, “The Tower of Babel,”in hisRationalism in Politics and Other Essays (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1991), pp. 478–79.Google Scholar

57 Feldman, , What We Owe Iraq, p. 22.Google Scholar

58 A. Gheciu's interviews with British, American, and Canadian officials, May– July 2008.

59 For further elaboration, see Chesterman, , You, the People, p. 252.Google Scholar

60 SeeCampbell, David, “ Apartheid Cartography: The Political Anthropology and Spatial Effects of International Diplomacy in Bosnia,” Political Geography 18, no. 4 (1999), pp. 395–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

61 Suhrke, Astri, “Reconstruction as Modernisation: The ‘Post-Conflict' Project in Afghanistan,” Third World Quarterly 28, no. 7 (2007), pp. 1291–1308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

62 Grono, Nick, “Success in Afghanistan: How to Define It, How to Make It Happen,” Speech at the Policy Dialogue Conference, European Policy Centre, Brussels, April 2, 2008; available at http:\\www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5371&l=1.Google Scholar

63 Examples of scholars who have argued for potential solutions to manage these dilemmas include Caplan, , International Governance of War-Torn Territories and Paris, , At War's End.Google Scholar

64 See, for instance, Evans, Mark, this issue.Google Scholar