FRAGMENTATION · State Fragmentation and Sub-State Actors in Comparative Perspective: Somalia and Afghanistan
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2015-09-01 → 2017-08-31
- EU contribution
- €177,599
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-RI
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
State Fragmentation and Sub-State Actors in Comparative Perspective: Somalia and Afghanistan
This project offers to address topical and policy-relevant questions with regards to state consolidation and state fragmentation: How do states consolidate? Why do some states remain fragmented? What is the role of sub-state actors in state consolidation and state fragmentation? This project aims to generate knowledge on state formation and external state building through five main objectives: 1) Test the two main existing paradigms of the historical-sociological literature on state formation: state formation as a state/society struggle that ends with the subordination of sub-state actors; and state formation as a bargaining process. 2) Develop a more encompassing and comprehensive theoretical framework to go beyond these two paradigms. 3) Address a gap in the state-building literature. 4) Develop new empirical knowledge on alternative governance networks, state failure, and state formation. 5) Unfold a sound outreach strategy, which could in turn benefit the reconstruction of a viable political order in Afghanistan, Somalia, and elsewhere.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
This project offers to study processes of state formation and state fragmentation by conducting extensive fieldwork and an in-depth analysis of sub-state actors in Somalia and Afghanistan. While conventional views assume that most international actors prefer building bureaucratic states, this work aims to investigate the post 9/11 shift in international engagement that consists in identifying sub-state actors with the ability to control populations. This policy-relevant agenda is in line with the need for a better understanding of state failure that was identified in the 2004 Barcelona report. The EU requires a sound strategic thinking on state-building to counter-balance the American model that has shown its limits in Iraq and Afghanistan. This project aims to explain why states remain fragmented and will identify the conditions under which sub-state actors integrate into the state’s institutions. It will develop a theory of sub-state authority that is capable of falsifying two dominant paradigms of state formation: state formation as a struggle against societal forces; and state formation as a bargaining process. It will test hypotheses on the nature of political order at the sub-state level and the role of the international environment in sub-state governance. In addition to generating scientific knowledge on sub-state authorities and producing high quality publications, this work will unfold an elaborate outreach strategy, which could in turn benefit the reconstruction of a viable political order in Afghanistan, Somalia, and elsewhere. The Individual Fellowship would provide the applicant with a unique opportunity to implement this innovative research agenda, improve his methodological and theoretical skills in the process, and advance his long-term career objectives. It would strengthen his integration into the European scientific community while greatly benefiting his host institution in retaining a researcher with high potential for scientific objectives.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- STICHTING RADBOUD UNIVERSITEIT · NijmegenCoordinatorNetherlands
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/661644
- http://www.romainmalejacq.com
- https://arquivo.pt/wayback/20201230065049/https://www.romainmalejacq.com:80/
Data: CORDIS, © European Union