David Chandler is Professor of International Relations at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, UK.

1. Introduction David Chandler Part 1: Policy Frameworks 2. Ownership in Theory and Practice: Transfer of Authority in UN Statebuilding Operations Simon Chesterman 3. Do the Root Causes of Civil War Matter? On Using Knowledge to Improve Peacebuilding Interventions Susan L. Woodward 4. The Myth of the Failed State and the War on Terror: A Challenge to the Conventional Wisdom Aidan Hehir Part 2: Practices of Statebuilding 5. Reconstruction: an Agenda Amitai Etzioni 6. State-Building and Force: The Proper Role of Foreign Militaries Kimberly Marten 7. Police Restructuring in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Problems of Security Sector Reform Thomas Muehlmann Part 3: Paradigms 8. Hybrid Polities and Indigenous Pluralities: Advanced Lessons in Statebuilding from Cambodia David Roberts 9. Debt, Development and Intervention in Africa: The Contours of a Sovereign Frontier Graham Harrison 10. The Tragedy of Liberal Diplomacy Beate Jahn

This edited book sets out and engages with some of the key policies, practices and paradigms of external intervention in the case of state support and reconstruction.
Many assumptions about statebuilding have been reconsidered in the wake of Iraq, and ongoing problems in other states such as Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo. Rather than being a regional survey or a policy-orientated 'lessons learned' book, this collection explores the broader framing of policy goals, statebuilding practices and the consensus on the need for Western states and international institutions to be engaged in this policy area. The volume is divided into three parts: the first engages with some of the key policy frameworks and conceptual issues raised by recent statebuilding interventions; the second considers core statebuilding practices; and the third reconsiders statebuilding paradigms more broadly. The essays open up debate and critical discussion in the field at a time when many advocates of extending statebuilding intervention suggest that the complex nature of the problems of non-Western states and societies mean that it will inevitably be contradictory and limited in its results.