ABSTRACT
Since 1948 over 67 UN peace operations have been deployed to support post-conflict transitions. Bringing substantial resources to monitor military ceasefires and to address humanitarian needs, these operations have increasingly also deployed resources to spur democratic governance and institutional development. The end of the Cold War triggered a dramatic expansion of these interventions as the balance of power has given way to an increasingly fragmented political world, and discredited models of economic and political government. In a few short decades, we have moved from a world of absolute sovereignty in which state intervention was intrusive2 to one in which fragile and conflict-affected countries are themselves calling for improved international efforts to support statebuilding.3 In the process, our understanding of statebuilding has changed.
