Thinking about political settlements and post- conflict institution building: lessons from Cambodia and the Pacific
| Dates: | 14 May 2014 |
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| Times: | 16:30 - 18:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Environment, Education and Development |
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| Who is it for: | Adults, Alumni, Current University students |
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| Speaker: | David Craig |
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Thinking about political settlements and post- conflict institution building: lessons from Cambodia and the Pacific
David Craig and Doug Porter
Literature on post conflict stability and security has increasingly focussed on the role of ‘strong enough’ or ‘inclusive enough’ political settlements or coalitions in transitions from conflict and institutional fragility to peace and prosperity. Political settlements are sometimes said to develop in relation to ‘pacts’ or agreements between groups (and especially political and economic elites), which are deepened and expanded through institutionalisation and wider political support . Current donor policy narrative frames a sequence from intervention to ‘successful transition’ in which institutional reforms acting on the core functions of the state enable an underlying settlement to go from strength to strength, particularly in its democratic inclusivity, and its ability to extend security and entitlements out to the edge of national territory. This narrative simplicity, however, disappears in any attempt to map this kind of sequence to a particular case. The relationship between post- conflict pacts, longer term settlements, intervener’s reforms and emerging institutions is quickly confounded by a sense of longer durée history, culture, geopolitics, conflict and political dynamics. Basic questions need sharper framings: is the pact-settlement relation temporal, moving from pacts to settlements? Which elite actors count (local, political, economic, international), and how do they interact over time to produce outcomes? What kinds of capabilities – political, technical, and material – matter most in creating these outcomes? How do the institutional modalities and processes involved – including those deployed by donors - affect the temporal outcomes? How do interveners’ ways of operating interact with local arrangements, and what kinds of durable or fragile institutional arrangements emerge? The experience of Cambodia since the UN intervention in the early 1990s, and that of the fifteen country RAMSI coalition in Solomon Islands over the past decade provide contrasting vantage points to explore these questions.
David Craig is Research Associate Professor at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He has worked and written on emerging institutional arrangements in Cambodia and most recently Solomon Islands
Doug Porter is Adviser on justice, conflict and public finance in the Global Governance Practice Group, World Bank, and Adjunct Professor, Australian National University.
Speaker
David Craig
Role: Research Associate Professor
Organisation: University of Otago, New Zealand
Biography: David Craig is Research Associate Professor at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He has worked and written on emerging institutional arrangements in Cambodia and most recently Solomon Islands
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Humanities Bridgeford Street
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