Here's a video of Paul Collier at the US State Department discussing the keys to rebuilding war torn nations.
He emphasizes the importance of security before politics and discusses the economics of peacekeeping.
What are key elements to this approach?
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One of Collier's keys is recognizing interdependence. Collier discussed three major actors that are important for rebuilding war torn nations. A peace keeping force is the first major actor. Collier suggests that while currently the view is that the situation after conflict is dangerous only in the short term, peace keeping forces need to be present in these nations for at least a decade.
ReplyDeleteThe second actor is donors. Collier says that typically, donors are interested in providing aid for a few years before growing bored and moving on to another situation. Foreign aid will help nations recover from conflict, but it is a slow process and donors must be willing to provide money over a long period of time.
The last actor is the post conflict government. The government should focus on economic reform rather than political issues like creating a constitution. Economic reform is important because during conflict, economic policies often suffer because leaders are concerned with a short term struggle rather than long term prosperity.
These three actors are all interconnected. A peace keeping force in place for a decade will give provide security, giving confidence to private investors. If a government doesn't reform its economic policies and receive aid, there will not be an economic recovery.
Collier suggests we recognize this interdependence by having a standard set of mutual commitments between the three major actors that could be managed by the United Nations.