Locating Power in State-Building: The Conflict Network Perspective
Locating Power in State-Building: The Conflict Network Perspective

Summary/Abstract: Abstract. State-building scholarship distinguishes analytically between the outside and inside realms of the nation-state. Accordingly, obstacles to the external project of reconstructing local political authority are attributed to the relationship between outsiders and insiders which is reflected in studies of legitimacy, ownership and accountability. This paper adopts a war economy perspective to illustrate “regressive globalization”. It elaborates a network-centred analysis and shows that the outside-inside distinction is unable to adequately deal with the challenge posed by the reconfiguration of local power as a consequence of conflict. Rather, it argues that a focus on enduring, multi-faceted relations among a range of actors, both “in- ternal” and “external” in the post-conflict period provides insight into network-based rule and its ability to undermine the state-building project.

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