Empire in Denial

The Politics of State-Building

David Chandler

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN: 9780745324296
• eBook ISBN: 9781849642873
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political History & Theory
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book argues that state-building, as it is currently conceived, does not work. In the 1990s, interventionist policies challenged the rights of individual states to self-governance. Today, non-western states are more likely to be feted by international institutions offering programmes of poverty-reduction, democratisation and good governance. States without the right of self-government will always lack legitimate authority. The international policy agenda focuses on bureaucratic mechanisms, which can only institutionalise divisions between the West and the non-West and are unable to overcome the social and political divisions of post-conflict states. Highlighting the dangers of current policy - including the redefinition of sovereignty, and the subsequent erosion of ties linking power and accountability.

Table of contents

• Contents
• 1 Introduction: Empire in Denial
• 2 State- building States without Sovereignty
• 3 The Governance of Government
• 4 The Ethics of Empire in Denial
• 5 Denial of the EU's Eastern Empire
• 6 Denying the Bosnian Protectorate
• 7 Techniques of Evasion ( 1) Anti- corruption Initiatives
• 8 Techniques of Evasion ( 2) The Rule of Law
• 9 Conclusion: Six Theses on Phantom States and Empire in Denial
• References
• Index