Semantics of Statebuilding
This volume examines international statebuilding in terms of language and meanings, rather than focusing narrowly on current policy practices.
After two decades of evolution towards more integrated, multi-faceted or, simply stated, more intrusive statebuilding and peacebuilding operations, a critical literature has slowly emerged on the economic, social and political impacts of these interventions. Scholars have started to analyse the unintended consequences of peacebuilding missions, analysing all aspects of interventions.
Central to the book is the understanding that language is both the most important tool for building anything of social significance, and the primary repository of meanings in any social setting. Hence, this volume exemplifies how the multiple realities of state, state fragility and statebuilding are being conceptualised in mainstream literature, by highlighting the repercussions this conceptualisation has on good practices for statebuilding. Drawing together leading scholars in the field, this project provides a meeting point between constructivism in international relations and the critical perspective on liberal peacebuilding, shedding new light on the commonly accepted meanings and concepts underlying the international (or world) order, as well as the semantics of contemporary statebuilding practices.
This book will be of much interest to students of statebuilding and intervention, war and conflict studies, security studies and international relations.
Nicolas Lemay-Hbert is a senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham.
Nicholas Onuf is Professor Emeritus of International Relations at Florida International University.
Vojin Raki is Professor of Political Science at the University of Belgrade.
Petar Bojani is a researcher at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade.
Routledge Studies in Intervention and Statebuilding
Series Editor: David Chandler
Statebuilding and Intervention
Policies, practices and paradigms
Edited by David Chandler
Reintegration of Armed Groups After Conflict
Politics, violence and transition
Edited by Mats Berdal and David H. Ucko
Security, Development, and the Fragile State
Bridging the gap between theory and policy
David Carment, Stewart Prest, and Yiagadeesen Samy
Kosovo, Intervention and Statebuilding
The international community and the transition to independence
Edited by Aidan Hehir
Critical Perspectives on the Responsibility to Protect
Interrogating theory and practice
Edited by Philip Cunliffe
Statebuilding and Police Reform
The freedom of security
Barry J. Ryan
Violence in Post-Conflict Societies
Remarginalisation, remobilisers and relationships
Anders Themnr
Statebuilding in Afghanistan
Multinational contributions to reconstruction
Edited by Nik Hynek and Pter Marton
The International Community and Statebuilding
Getting its act together?
Edited by Patrice C. McMahon and Jon Western
Statebuilding and State-Formation
The political sociology of intervention
Edited by Berit Bliesemann de Guevara
Political Economy of Statebuilding
Power after peace
Edited by Mats Berdal and Dominik Zaum
New Agendas in Statebuilding
Hybridity, contingency and history
Edited by Robert Egnell and Peter Haldn
Mediation and Liberal Peacebuilding
Peace from the ashes of war?
Edited by Mikael Eriksson and Roland Kosti
Semantics of Statebuilding
Language, meanings and sovereignty
Edited by Nicolas Lemay-Hbert, Nicholas Onuf, Vojin Raki and Petar Bojani
First published 2014
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2014 selection and editorial material Nicolas Lemay-Hbert, Nicholas Onuf, Vojin Raki and Petar Bojani; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Semantics of statebulding: language, meanings and sovereignty/edited by
Nicolas Lemay-Hbert, Nicholas Onuf, Vojin Raki and Petar Bojani.
pages cm. (Routledge studies in intervention and statebuilding)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Nation-building. 2. Semantics. I. Lemay-Hbert, Nicolas.
JZ6300.S457 2014
327.1dc23
2013015401
ISBN: 978-0-415-81729-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-58478-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Albena Azmanova is a senior lecturer at the University of Kents Brussels School of International Studies. Her writing in social theory and political philosophy focuses on democratic transition and consolidation, social justice, and the transformation of political ideologies. Her latest book is The Scandal of Reason: A Critical Theory of Political Judgment, (2012).
Petar Bojani is the Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade University, at which he is also a Senior Research Fellow. He also heads the Center for Ethics, Law and Applied Philosophy. His research interests include political philosophy, continental philosophy, German idealism and Marx, bioethics, phenomenology, Jewish philosophy, philosophy of law, ethics of war. After having completed his PhD, The War (Last) and the Institution of Philosophy, under the supervision of Jacques Derrida and Etienne Balibar, he taught at the University of Cornell (USA), Aberdeen (UK) and the University of Belgrade (SRB). He is the author of numerous books, which include: Carl Schmitt and Jacques Derrida (1995), Figures of sovereignty (2007), Provocations (2008), and World Governance (with J. Babic) (2010).
