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Dlemmas of nterventon and the buldng of state and naton 1 Chapter 1 Dlemmas of nterventon and the buldng of state and naton Sinclair Dinnen Even by the momentous standards of recent tmes, 2006 was an eventful year n Solomon Islands. The frst general electons snce the deployment of the Regonal Assstance Msson to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) were held at the begnnng of the year. In vew of RAMSI’s early achevements n restorng securty and stablsng the economy, voters had hgh expectatons of contnung progress. The electons led, n turn, to the frst change of government snce 2001. Despte ts unpopularty, the outgong government of Sr Allan Kemakeza (2001–06) was the frst snce ndependence to survve a full term n offce. July 2006 also marked RAMSI’s thrd annversary. The events most wdely reported were not, however, the passng of these mlestones but the publc dsturbances n Honara after the announcement of Snyder Rn as prme mnster-elect and the subsequent deteroraton n relatons between Solomon Islands and Australa under the new Sogavare government. Two days of rotng and opportunstc lootng on 18 and 19 Aprl 2006 reduced much of Honara’s Chnatown dstrct to ashes, and overseas mltary and polce renforcements were needed to restore order n the natonal captal. For most observers, the unrest came as a complete surprse, not least because of the success of the regonal msson n the prevous three years. What lay behnd the Aprl dsturbances and the sourng n blateral relatons, and what dd they sgnfy n terms of Solomon Islands’ post-conflct recovery? After the dsturbances, Rn quckly lost support among members of the new parlament and resgned after falng to secure the votes needed to survve a vote of no-confdence. In hs place, Manasseh Sogavare became 2 POLITICS AND STATE BUILDING IN SOLOMON ISLANDS the new prme mnster. In contrast wth the complant role adopted by Sr Allan Kemakeza n hs dealngs wth RAMSI and the Australan government, Sogavare began to openly challenge varous aspects of the msson. Many of hs fellow ctzens and Australan offcals have vewed hs more combatve stance—undertaken n the name of reassertng Solomon Islands’ soveregnty—as a brazen and cyncal attempt to undermne reform efforts and protect corrupt poltcal and busness nterests. The second half of 2006 wtnessed an ncreasngly ntense and acerbc struggle between the governments of Solomon Islands and Australa over the control, shape and future of the regonal assstance msson. Ths chapter locates recent developments n Solomon Islands n the larger context of state and naton buldng. At the core of RAMSI s an ambtous state-buldng exercse. Although some of the recent dffcultes n Solomon Islands arse from the partculartes of local crcumstances and poltcal culture, others are shared wth state-buldng nterventons n other parts of the world. Ths chapter examnes the contemporary settng of nternatonal state buldng and the partcular challenges presented n many post-colonal settngs, as well as examnng some of the common dffcultes facng nternatonal nterventons and the processes of nsttutonal transfer entaled. The character of RAMSI and ts recepton n Solomon Islands s analysed before the dscusson returns to the events of Aprl 2006 and the ensung struggle for the control of the msson. Contemporary nternatonal state-buldng nterventons Buldng or rebuldng functonng states capable of provdng ther ctzens wth a guaranteed level of physcal and economc securty has become one of the most pressng polcy challenges n nternatonal relatons today (Chesterman et al. 2005). The frequency and ntensty of state-buldng nterventons—usually, though not solely, n post-conflct stuatons—have ncreased exponentally snce the end of the Cold War. Internal tensons and dvsons that were effectvely suppressed durng that era resurfaced after ts demse, as demonstrated n growng levels of, n partcular, ntra-state conflct and nternal nstablty n dfferent parts of the world (Kaldor 1999). The attacks aganst the Unted States on 11 September 2001 and the ascendancy of the ‘war on terror’ have gven rse to powerful, Dlemmas of nterventon and the buldng of state and naton 3 though contested, arguments lnkng ssues of securty wth those of state capabltes. In the process, they have mbued today’s external state-buldng efforts wth a sense of urgency and pronounced concern for securty. Whereas the nternatonal communty once vewed state falure after nternal conflct prmarly n humantaran terms, the war on terror embarked on by the Unted States and ts ‘coalton of the wllng’ has recast ths phenomenon as a major threat to securty. Moreover, ths threat s not confned to the unfortunate ctzens of the state n queston but extends to those n neghbourng states and, ndeed, the broader regon. Buldng effectve states s now vewed as the necessary antdote to real and potental falure and ts contagous effects (Hppler 2004). Western governments contend that the prncpal threat to nternatonal peace and stablty comes not from powerful and aggressve states but from faled and falng ones wth lmted capabltes.1 The result, as Francs Fukuyama puts t, s that ‘[s]uddenly the ablty to shore up or create from whole cloth mssng state capabltes and nsttutons has rsen to the top of the global agenda’ (2004:x). The lmted capabltes of the small ndependent Melanesan states of the southwest Pacfc, ncludng Solomon Islands, have been apparent for many years, not least to Pacfc slanders themselves. They have manfested themselves n the dffcultes experenced n fulfllng the most basc tasks of modern statehood, ncludng the mantenance of nternal securty, the provson of essental servces (such as health, educaton, transport and communcaton) and prudent economc management. Internatonal development assstance from Australa and other donors has been drected at a wde range of capacty-buldng actvtes wth Pacfc sland states throughout most of the post-ndependence perod. Despte substantal amounts of ad, donors have been dsapponted wth the lmted mpact of tradtonal approaches to development assstance n strengthenng weak recpent nsttutons and mprovng lvng standards. As well as reflectng changes n the nternatonal strategc envronment, Australa’s more robust engagement wth ts Pacfc neghbours n recent years has been drven by the need to realse more tangble outcomes n transformng the capabltes of these states. One feature of ths more hands-on approach has been the drect nserton of Australan personnel—ncludng polce and seconded publc servants—nto ‘lne’, as well as advsory, postons wth key government agences and departments n recpent countres. In addton to Solomon 4 POLITICS AND STATE BUILDING IN SOLOMON ISLANDS Islands, ths approach s evdent, albet on a lesser scale, n Australa’s efforts to strengthen Nauru and n the Enhanced Cooperaton Program (ECP) n Papua New Gunea under whch Australan offcals—ncludng, for a short tme, Australan polce—have been deployed to buld the capacty of recpent government agences. The nfluental report on Solomon Islands by the Australan Strategc Polcy Insttute, Our Failing Neighbour, offers an early artculaton of the strategc thnkng behnd Canberra’s changng polcy. Publshed several weeks before RAMSI’s deployment n July 2003, the report labelled Solomon Islands a falng state and warned of the dre securty and humantaran consequences f vgorous and prompt remedal acton was not taken. It proposed a ‘sustaned and comprehensve multnatonal effort’ to undertake rehabltaton work wth the consent of Solomon Islands. The restoraton of law and order would provde the ntal focus, followed by a long-term state-buldng exercse desgned to ‘buld new poltcal structures and securty nsttutons and address underlyng socal and economc problems’ (Australan Strategc Polcy Insttute 2003:39). Whle the prospect of Solomon Islands becomng an ncubator for terrorsm and transnatonal crme s, to say the least, remote (Greener- Barcham and Barcham 2006), postonng the troubled archpelago wthn ths larger strategc framework bolstered the ntal case for nterventon, partcularly among a domestc Australan audence wth lttle famlarty or nterest n the travals of Pacfc sland mcro-states. Beyond the emotve rhetorc of faled states and terrorst threats, RAMSI has focused on ssues of governance and, n partcular, strengthenng the capactes of key state nsttutons. The nterventon has also provded an mportant source of learnng for further engagements, notably n the larger and more challengng context of Papua New Gunea. Australan Prme Mnster, John Howard, revealed another strand nformng Canberra’s change n polcy n hs reference to Australa’s specal responsbltes towards the strugglng states n ‘our patch’ (Sydney Mornng Herald 2003b). Not only was Australa expected to provde leadershp as the major regonal power, there was the rsk that others, wth Chna and Tawan already actve n the Pacfc, mght adopt a more promnent role f Canberra dd not. Although broad agreement exsts about the potental consequences of lack of state capabltes, there s less certanty about how to buld effectve Dlemmas of nterventon and the buldng of state and naton 5 states n dvded socetes. As Payne (2006:606) states, ‘The drty lttle secret of naton buldng s that no one knows how to do it.’ In the lterature generated by recent nterventons, the terms ‘state buldng’ and ‘naton buldng’ are often used nterchangeably. Ths has confused dfferent, though related, processes of poltcal development. Most nterventons n the name of naton buldng have focused on strengthenng state nsttutons, or, n some cases, are amed at achevng poltcal goals of regme change or transton to democratc government. They have relatvely lttle to do wth naton buldng n the lteral sense of developng a shared sense of dentty or communty among the populaton of a gven state. Usng these terms nterchangeably has also obscured the hghly contngent relatonshp between naton and state n hstorcal processes of state formaton and consoldaton.

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