NYU Global Affairs Course

1. NEW YORK UNIVERSITY GLOBAL AFFAIRS PROGRAM
STATEBUILDING AND INTERNATIONAL POLICY
X12.9224
SUMMER 2009
Wednesday: 5:45 - 7:50 PM
Classes meet in room of the Woolworth Building,
15 Barclay Street
May 20-July 8, 2009
Instructor: Mark Whitlock
E-mail: maw22@nyu.edu
Background
Failed and fragile states - and the establishment or reconstitution of state institutions - are now recognized as some of
the most potent challenges in international policy. With the surge in civil wars, insurgency, and peace settlements in
the post-Cold War era and the impact of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, 'state-building' has gained unprecedented
importance. There remains, however, much debate over what 'state-building' actually entails, aims at, and which
actors are best placed to undertake what task. This course helps students identify and grapple with some of the key
dilemmas associated with the endeavor to rebuild states.
Themes and Objectives
State failure since the end of the Cold War. Statebuilding in the 21st
Century. The class will begin by exploring
theory related to the formation and definition of the modern nation state. It will then examine international efforts at
statebuilding in the post-Cold War era. Questions animating the course include: What defines the state in
contemporary international affairs? How did it arise, who defines it? What constitutes a failed state? What are the
causes of civil war and insurgency? How are monopolies over violence or the coercive use of force pursued and
legitimized? What is statebuilding, how is it different from nation building, and what do various domestic and
international actors seek to gain from the enterprise? What are possible strategies for statebuilding?
The objectives of this course are to examine state-failure and the perils of statebuilding in the contemporary
international system. By the end of the course, students will be able to identify characteristics that define the modern
nation state, analyze case studies in statebuilding since the end of the Cold War with a specific focus on the Middle
East and Africa, evaluate core challenges including security, economic policy, justice and institution building, and
synthesize this knowledge by critiquing international policy and contemporary efforts at statebuilding.
Requirements and Assessment
Students will be required to attend classes, do assigned readings and participate in class discussion. Students will also
take responsibility for one class seminar by writing a two-page critique of the week’s readings and sharing it with the
class by e-mail at least 24 hours before the session meets. Depending on class enrollment, groups may be assigned to
share seminar presentations. There will also be a mid-term written exam covering the readings and discussion.
Lastly, students will prepare a 15-page research paper on a topic of current relevance due at the last class.
Assessment breakdown is as follows: Attendance and class participation 10%, Class seminar paper and discussion
20%, mid-term exam 30%, Research paper 40%.
CERTIFICATE IN GLOBAL AFFAIRS
This certificate is comprised of six courses - two required and four electives of your choice from Global Affairs
courses. Grades MUST be requested in all courses used towards certificate and completed with a grade of B or better.
REQUIRED COURSES TOWARDS CERTIFICATE
• International Relations in the Post World War II Era (X12.9210)

2. • The Politics of International Economic Relations (X12.9251)
BOOKS TO PURCHASE
• Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart. New
York: Oxford University Press 2008
• Building States to Build Peace Charles T. Call and Vanessa Wyeth (Editors) International Peace Institute.
Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers 2008
• The US Army * Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manuel: US Army Field Manual No. 3-24 Marine
Corps Warfighting Publication No. 3-33.5. University of Chicago Press, 2007.
Books will be ordered at the NYU Bookstore and are available online through various websites such as Amazon.com.
All other course readings will be available on reserve from Bobst Library or through Blackboard online.
Schedule of classes and readings:
May 20th
Session I: CLASS INTRODUCTION
CONSTRUCTING THE STATE
States and Citizens: How the World Came to Be the Way it is. Social Revolutions.
REQUIRED:
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan Chapter 13, 14, 17, 18, 29, 30.
Max Weber, “The Types of Legitimate Domination” in Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive
Sociology, ed., Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich Berkeley 1978 pp. 216-271 [55]
Theda Skocpol States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China
Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979 Ch. 1. pp. 3-43 [39]
Charles Tilly, “Where do Rights Come From?” in ed., Theda Skocpol et al., Democracy, Revolution, and
History (Cornell University Press 1998) p. 55-72 [17]
SUPPLEMENTAL:
John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration Hackett 1983
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism McMillan 1958
Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks
Fredrik Barth, “Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Cultural Difference” Introduction
9-38 [29] (Primordialism)
Eugene Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870-1914 Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 1976. (Modernization School)
Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1992.
Mahmood Mamdani Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism
Princeton University Press 1996
Michael Taussig The Magic of the State New York: Routledge 1997.
May 27th
Session II: THE STATE AND THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM
Nationalism and the State.
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3. Identity – cultural and political, individual and group. Is it primordial, constructed, manipulable?
The State and International Relations Theory – Realism, Liberalism, and Constructivism.
Weak States and Strong States.
REQUIRED:
Michael Hecter Containing Nationalism New York: Oxford University Press 2000 ch. 1 and 2 [34]
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism New
York: Verso, 2006. ch. 1-3 [46]
Jack Snyder, “One World, Rival Theories” Foreign Policy November/December 2004. [12]
Mohammed Ayoob The Third World Security Predicament: State making, Regional Conflict, and the
International System Boulder, CO: Lynne Reiner, 1995 ch. 1 pp. 1-19 [19]
Barry Buzan People, States, and Fear: The National Security Problem in International Relations (University
of North Carolina Press, 1983). pp. 65-69 [4]
Lisa Anderson, “Antiquated Before They Can Ossify: States that Fail Before they Form” Journal of
International Affairs Fall 2004 [14]
SUPPLEMENTAL:
Anthony Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986 (Perennialism)
Ernest Gellner Nations and Nationalism Cornell University Press 1983.
Gabriel Almond, “The Return to the State” American Political Science Review, Vol. 82, No. 3, 853–874,
1988.
John Mearsheimer The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (Offensive Realism)
Alexander Wendt “Anarchy is What States Make of it: The Social Construction of Power Politics”
International Organization, Vol. 46, No. 2 (Spring, 1992), pp. 391-425 (Constructivism)
Michael W. Doyle “Three Pillars of the Liberal Peace” The American Political Science Review, Vol. 99, No.
3 (Aug., 2005), pp. 463-466 (Liberalism)
Jack Snyder “Anarchy and Culture: Insights from the Anthropology of War” International Organization,
Vol. 56, No. 1 (Winter, 2002), pp. 7-45
June 3rd
Session III: DEFINING THE PROBLEM - STATE FAILURE
Imperial collapse. The Sovereignty Gap, contradictions and dilemmas in statebuilding.
Failed Institutions.
Security challenges in rebuilding states.
REQUIRED:
Jack Snyder “Reconstructing Politics Amidst the Wreckage of Empire” in Post-Soviet Political Order:
Conflict and Statebuilding Barnett Rubin and Jack Snyder (eds) New York: Routledge 1998 pp. 1-12 [12]
Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World New
York: Oxford University Press 2008 Introduction and Chapter 1-4. pp. 3-84 [81]
Charles T. Call “Ending Wars Building States” in Building States to Build Peace Charles T. Call and
Vanessa Wyeth (eds) pp. 1-22 [22]
Barnett Rubin “Politics of Security in Post-Conflict ” in Building States to Build Peace Charles T. Call and
Vanessa Wyeth (eds) pp. 25-49 [22]
SUPPLEMENTAL:
Alan Whaites, “States in Development: Understanding State-building” UK Department for International
Development (DFID working paper), London, 2008. (From Professor)
Kenneth Menkaus “Somalia: Governance vs. Statebuilding” in Building States to Build Peace Charles T.
3

4. Call and Vanessa Wyeth (eds) pp. 187-216
Berghof Research Center Publication, "Building Peace in the Absence of States: Challenging the Discourse
on State Failure” http://www.berghof-handbook.net/std_page.php?LANG=e&id=268&parent=5
June 10th
Session IV: THE STATE AND INSURGENCY
The center and the periphery revisited.
Counterinsurgency and anti-insurgency – characteristics and delineation.
Statebuilding amidst rebellion
REQUIRED:
The US Army * Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manuel: US Army Field Manual No. 3-24 Marine
Corps Warfighting Publication No. 3-33.5. University of Chicago Press, 2007
Foreword by John Nagle, Introduction by Sarah Sewall, Foreword, Preface, Introduction [41]
The US Army * Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manuel: US Army Field Manual No. 3-24 Marine
Corps Warfighting Publication No. 3-33.5. University of Chicago Press, 2007 ch. 1 [52]
James D. Fearon and David D. Laitin, “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War” The American Political
Science Review, Vol. 97, No. 1 (Feb., 2003), pp. 75-90 [15] http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3118222.pdf
Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy Weinstein. “Who Fights? The Determinants of Participation in Civil War”,
The American Political Science Review, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Apr., 2008), pp. 436-455 [20]
http://www.columbia.edu/~mh2245/papers1/who_fights.pdf
SUPPLEMENTAL
On Insurgency:
Jeremy Weinstein, Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007
Mao Tse-Tung On Guerrilla Warfare New York: Praeger, 1961
Franklin A. Lindsey “Unconventional Warfare” Foreign Affairs Vol. 40, No. 2 (January 1962)
On Counterinsurgency:
Robert Harkavy and Stephanie Neuman, Warfare and the Third World New York: Palgrave, 2001 ch. 5 (pp.
189–254). [65]
John Nagl, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife
David Kilcullen The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One New York: Oxford
University Press 2009
Gebru Tareke, “From Lash to Red Star: The Pitfalls of Counter-insurgency in Ethiopia, 1980-82”, Journal of
Modern African Studies, Vol. 40, No. 3 (September 2002) pp. 465-498. [33]
Hugo Slim, Killing Civilians: Method, Madness, and Morality in War New York: Columbia University
Press, 2008
Benjamin Valentino Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th
Century
June 17th
Session V:
Wednesday, June 17: Mid-Term Examination (1st
hour)
ECONOMICS OF STATEBUILDING – (2nd
Hour)
REQUIRED:
Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World New
York: Oxford University Press 2008 Chapter 5. pp. 85-112 [27]
4

5. Michael Carnahan and Clare Lockhart “Peacebuilding and Public Finance” in Building States to Build Peace
Charles T. Call and Vanessa Wyeth (Editors) pp. 73-102 [29]
Paul Collier Postconflict Economic Policy in Building States to Build Peace Charles T. Call and Vanessa
Wyeth (Editors) pp. 103-118 [15]
SUPPLEMENTAL:
Peace and the Public Purse : Economic Policies for Postwar Statebuilding
James K Boyce; Madalene O'Donnell Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers 2007
Susan Woodward “Economic Priorities for Peace Implementation” International Peace Academy 2002
June 24th
Session VI: STATEBUILDING AS PEACEBUILDING
*Students should submit outlines for their final research papers before class
Justice and the Rule of Law
Conflict Transformation and reconciliation.
Redefining the State and its Functions
REQUIRED:
John Paul Lederach “Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies” USIP, 1997, Ch. 3 pp.
23-35 [12]
Charles T. Call and Elizabeth Cousens “Ending Wars and Building Peace” Coping with Crisis Series
International Peace Academy 2007. [19]
Michael Carnahan and Clare Lockhart “Justice and the Rule of Law” in Building States to Build Peace
Charles T. Call and Vanessa Wyeth (Editors) pp. 119-142 [29]
Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart Fixing Failed States. Ch. 6-7 pp. 115-168. [53]
July 1st
Session VII: CASE STUDIES: THE MIDDLE EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICA
Choose readings from one of two clusters:
Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, (also Afghanistan) on the Middle East, or …
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda on the Great Lakes of Central Africa.
THE MIDDLE EAST
American attempts at statebuilding in Afghanistan and Iraq have dominated public discourse since 2001 and
2003, respectively. Attempts at statebuilding in Palestine and the rise of Hezbollah’s state within a state in
Lebanon offer opportunity for substantive exploration as well.
Rashid Khalidi Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America’s Perilous Path in the Middle East
Boston: Beacon Press, 2004
Ahmed Rashid Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan,
Afghanistan, and Central Asia New York: Viking 2008.
Augustus Richard Norton Hezbollah: A Short History Princeton University Press, 2007.
Judith Palmer Harik Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism London; New York: I.B. Tauris, 2004.
Kamal S. Salibi A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered, Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press, 1988.
5

6. Robert Fisk Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon New York: Atheneum 1990 (Journalistic account)
Rashid Khalidi The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood Boston, MA: Beacon
Press, 2006.
Rex Brynen “Palestine: Building Neither Peace Nor State” in Building States to Build Peace Charles T. Call
and Vanessa Wyeth (Editors) pp. 217-248
Jake Sherman “Afghanistan: Nationally Led Statebuilding” in Building States to Build Peace Charles T. Call
and Vanessa Wyeth (Editors) pp. 303-334
THE GREAT LAKES OF AFRICA
The 1994 Mass Killing in Rwanda occurred in the context of a civil war. This catastrophe must be framed as
the central event that catalyzed ongoing violence in the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa. Countries
include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda.
Gérard Prunier, Africa’s World War: Congo, The Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental
Catastrophe New York: Oxford University Press, 2009 (Regional events since 1994)
Séverine Autesserre, “The Trouble with Congo: How local Disputes Fuel Regional Conflict” Foreign Affairs
May/June 2008 [9].
Jean-Pierre Chrétien The Great Lakes of Africa: Two Thousand Years of History New York: Zone Books,
2003
René Lemarchand, Burundi: Ethnocide as Discourse New York: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1994
African Rights: Rwanda: Death, Despair, Defiance London: African Rights, 1994
Gérard Prunier, The Rwandan Crisis New York: Columbia University Press, 1995
Alison Des Forges et al, Genocide in Rwanda, New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/
Christopher Taylor, Sacrifice as Terror: The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 New York: Berg, 1999.
Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001
Scott Straus, The Order of Genocide, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006 Introduction, ch. 1 and 6
(pp. 1-40 and 153-174). [61] (skim ch. 2-3)
Ben Kiernan, Blood and Soil, ch. 15.
Benjamin Valentino, Final Solutions Chapter 5: pp. 178-187. [9]
Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. Perennial, 2002, ch. 10 (Rwanda)
Gil Courtemanche Un Dimanche à la piscine à Kigali Montréal: Editions du Boréal, 2000 translated as A
Sunday at the Pool in Kigali New York: Knopf, 2003. (Novel)
July 8th
Session VIII: THE FUTURE OF STATEBUILDING
Research Papers Due and Evaluation
New Agendas for State Building
Sovereignty and Institutional Strategies for statebuilding
REQUIRED
Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart Fixing Failed States. Ch. 8, 9, and conclusion pp. 169-231. [62]
Sarah Cliffe and Nick Manning “Practical Approaches to Building State Institutions” in Building States to
Build Peace Charles T. Call and Vanessa Wyeth (Editors) ch. 8 pp. 163-186 [23]
Charles T. Call “Conclusion - Building States to Build Peace?” in Building States to Build Peace Charles T.
Call and Vanessa Wyeth (Editors) ch. 15 pp. 365-388 [23]
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7. Selected Bibliography
• Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism Benedict Anderson, New York:
Verso, 2006
• Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber McMillan 1958
• States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China Theda Skocpol.
Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
• Nation-building and Citizenship: Studies of our Changing Social Order Reinhard Bendix Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press 1977
• The Dilemmas of Statebuilding: Confronting the Contradictions of Postwar Peace Operations Roland Paris
and Timothy D. Sisk (Editors) New York: Routledge, 2009.
• The Sovereignty Paradox: The Norms and Politics of International Statebuilding Dominik Zaum New York:
Oxford University Press, 2007.
• Statebuilding and International Intervention in Bosnia Roberto Belloni. New York: Routledge, 2007.
• Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America’s Perilous Path in the Middle East Rashid Khalidi.
Boston: Beacon Press, 2004.
• Keeping the Peace: Lasting Solutions to Ethnic Conflict Daniel L. Byman, Baltimore, Maryland: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2002
• Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror Mahmood Mamdani
• Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and
Central Asia Ahmed Rashid
• Hezbollah: A Short History Augustus Richard Norton, Princeton University Press, 2007.
• Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism Judith Palmer Harik. London; New York: I.B. Tauris, 2004.
• The Limits of Power – Andrew Bacevich
• A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered Kamal S. Salibi, Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press, 1988.
• Pity the Nation Robert Fisk
• The Great War for Civilization Robert Fisk
• The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood Rashid Khalidi, Boston, MA: Beacon
Press, 2006.
• Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness Rashid Khalidi, New York, NY:
Columbia University Press, 1997.
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How naturally we entify and give life to such. Take the case of God, the
economy, and the state, abstract entities we credit with Being, species of things
awesome with life-force of their own, transcendent over mere mortals. Clearly
they are fetishes, invented wholes of materialized artifice into whose woeful
insufficiency of being we have placed soulstuff. Hence the big S of the State –
Michael Taussig The Magic of the State

8. 8