Reframing Responsibility

CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Kent Academic Repository Reframing Responsibility: The limitations and potential of international narratives in statebuilding By Gizem Sucuoglu A thesis submitted to the University of Kent’s School of Politics and International Relations for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Politics & Government April 2015 1 ABSTRACT Statebuilding is widely defined as a comprehensive and external exercise that aims to shape economic, security and administrative structures and institutions in a post-conflict society by promoting liberal internationalist norms. This thesis proposes that the narratives on statebuilding assign limited responsibility to international actors engaged in statebuilding, despite its comprehensive and intrusive nature: a mismatch dubbed as the ¨responsibility gap¨. It continues to propose that the limited attribution of responsibility to actors engaged in external statebuilding is possible through ¨discursive safeguards¨ inherent in the framing of statebuilding. These propositions are tested in four stages: a) conducting a frame and discourse analysis on statebuilding in order to understand the way international responsibilities are framed, b) formulating an alternative framework to attribute responsibility by utilizing perspectives on moral responsibility, c) comparing these two frameworks to identify a responsibility gap in the way the statebuilding frame attributes responsibility to external actors, d) pointing out the discursive safeguards in international narratives that allow sustaining the responsibility gaps. As a last step, the propositions are tested through a case study, on the involvement of the European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 2 ACRONYMS AfP Agenda for Peace CAR Central African Republic CFSP Common Foreign and Security Policy DFID (UK) Department for International Development DPA Dayton Peace Agreement 1995 DRC Democratic Republic of Congo EC European Community ECHR European Convention on Human Rights ECtHR European Court of Human Rights ENP European Neighborhood Policy ESDP European Security and Defense Policy ESS European Security Strategy EU European Union EUPM European Union Police Mission EUSR European Union Special Representative FAC EU Foreign Affairs Council FBiH Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina G-77 Group of 77 (countries at the UN) ICCPR UN Internatonal Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ICG International Crisis Group IFOR Implementation Force ILC International Law Commission MENA Middle East and North Africa NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NGO Non-governmental organization OHR Office of the High Representative OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development OECD – DAC OECD Development Assistance Committee PIC Peace Implementation Council PRST Presidential Statement RS Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) SBC’s EU Statebuilding Contracts SEA Single European Act SFOR Stabilization Force SSR Security Sector Reform TMAF Tokyo Mutual Accountability Framework UN United Nations UNDP United Nations Development Program UN PBC UN Peacebuilding Commission 3 UNSC UN Security Council US United States USAID US Agency for International Development 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE _________________________________________________________ 8 PART ONE 1. INTRODUCTION_______________________________________________ 14 1.1 The Puzzle: The Responsibility Gap______________________________ 14 1.1.1 Introducing the Puzzle ___________________________________ 14 1.1.2 The evolution and implementation of statebuilding: A literature survey_______________________________________________________17 1.1.3 The Gap: ¨International responsibility¨ in statebuilding _______ 25 1.1.4 Sustaining the responsibility gap – Discursive safeguards _____ 33 2. The Way Forward _______________________________________________ 35 1.2.1The hypothesis and the research question ___________________ 36 1.2.2 Designing the research ___________________________________ 46 1.2.3 Chapter breakdown ______________________________________50 1.2.4 The boundaries of the research ____________________________ 53 1.2.5 Novelty of the study _____________________________________ 53 1.2.6 Personal perspectives ____________________________________ 55 PART TWO 2. MORAL RESPONSIBILITY AS AN ALTERNATIVE FRAMEWORK __58 2.1. Defining Responsibility _______________________________________ 59 2.1.1 Legal responsibility vs. Moral responsibility ________________ 60 2.1.2 Moral responsibility _____________________________________ 64 2.1.3 Moral agency ___________________________________________ 66 2.2. Operationalizing Responsibility ________________________________ 72 2.2.1 The moral responsibility framework _______________________ 74 2.2.2 Operationalizing the responsibility framework: Intentions, impact and capacity_________________________________________________ 76 2.2.3The way forward ________________________________________ 82 2.3. Attributing Responsibility _____________________________________ 83 2.3.1 Responsibilities of the intervener towards local populations ___ 84 5 2.3.2 Responsibilities to protect or advance self-interests___________ 86 2.3.3 Normative responsibilities and identity promotion ___________88 2.3.4 Dilemmas in the moral responsibility framework ____________ 89 2.4. Summing Up __________________________________________________93 3. THE FRAMING OF STATEBUILDING: MAIN CONCEPTS, PRACTICES AND SHIFTS _________________________________________ 98 3.1 Frame Analysis as a Methodology________________________________ 98 3.1.1 Setting the goals: Statebuilding, responsibility gaps and discursive safeguards___________________________________________________ 98 3.1.2 Frame analysis __________________________________________ 99 3.1.3 The way forward _______________________________________ 101 3.2 The Frame of Statebuilding ____________________________________ 104 3.2.1 Conceptualizing Statebuilding____________________________ 104 3.2.2 Application of statebuilding: Addressing the ¨capacity gap¨ __114 3.2.3 The development of statebuilding _________________________121 3.3 Introducing the responsibility gap ______________________________ 123 3.3.1 International responsibilities and the statebuilding frame ____ 124 3.3.2 The moral responsibility framework and statebuilding _______127 3.3.3 The responsibility gap ___________________________________133 3.4 Introducing Discursive Safeguards _____________________________ 136 3.4.1 Challenging the statebuilding frame: Competing discourses _ 137 3.4.2 Examples of discursive safeguards ________________________139 4. THE EU, STATEBUILDING AND RESPONSIBILITY ______________ 143 4.1 Framing the EU as an External Statebuilding Actor _______________ 143 4.1.1 The EU and the statebuilding frame _______________________144 4.1.2 The EU as a unique actor ________________________________ 148 4.2 The EU in Conflict Resolution: Policies, Tools and Capacities _____ 150 4.2.1 The development of the EU as a foreign policy actor ________ 150 4.2.2 The operationalization of EU foreign policy ________________ 155 4.2.3 The EU and statebuilding guidelines ______________________ 158 4.2.4 The EU and the statebuilding frame _______________________ 160 4.3. – The EU and Statebuilding: Responsibilities, Problems and Discursive Safeguards _______________________________________________________162 6 4.3.1 The EU in the moral responsibility framework______________ 163 4.3.2 The responsibility gap __________________________________ 171 4.3.3 Discursive safeguards ___________________________________ 174 4.3.4 Responsibility gaps and discursive safeguards: The EU ______ 180 PART THREE 5. STATEBUILDING IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA ____________ 183 5.1 The Evolution of Statebuilding in Bosnia ________________________ 185 5.1.1 The War in Bosnia ______________________________________ 185 5.1.2 The Dayton Peace Accords ______________________________ 187 5.1.3 The early post-Dayton years: Initial optimism ______________ 189 5.1.4 Comprehensive and intrusive statebuilding ________________ 191 5.1.5 Attempts to exit ________________________________________ 196 5.2 The Statebuilding Framework in Bosnia _________________________ 203 5.2.1 The security dimension _________________________________ 205 5.2.2 The institutional dimension ______________________________ 208 5.2.3 Human rights and democracy ____________________________ 211 5.2.4 Economy and development ______________________________ 213 5.3 The EU and the Statebuilding Frame in Bosnia ___________________ 215 6. FRAMING EUROPE’S RESPONSIBILITIES IN BOSNIA ___________ 218 6.1 The EU and the Moral Responsibility Framework ________________ 218 6.1.1 Establishing agency _____________________________________ 218 6.1.2 Operationalizing moral responsibility of the EU in Bosnia ___ 224 6.1.3 The direction of the EU’s responsibilities __________________ 232 6.2 Responsibility Gaps and Discursive Safeguards __________________ 234 6.2.1 Responsibility gaps in Bosnia ____________________________ 234 6.2.2 Responding to criticisms to the statebuilding frame: Discursive safeguards _________________________________________________ 240 6.2.3 Responsibility Gaps and Discursive Safeguards ____________ 249 7. CONCLUSION ________________________________________________ 252 7 PREFACE One of the most enjoyable parts of life as an expat in a conflict or post-conflict country is the after work socializing. International aid workers, development experts,

Load more