"International Statebuilding in West Africa," co-authored by Professor Nikolas Emmanuel of the Graduate School of International Peace Studies, has been published by Indiana University Press.

"International Statebuilding in West Africa," co-authored by Professor Nikolas Emmanuel of the Graduate School of International Peace Studies, has been published by Indiana University Press.

At the turn of the last century, manipulation of the democratic process coupled with preexisting political and economic grievances led to long civil wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire. During and after these conflicts, international peacekeeping and humanitarian intervention became the dominant paths for restoring stability and state reconstruction. This manuscript examines internationally driven statebuilding, the problematic nature of the postcolonial state, and the difficulties of securing its people's wellbeing.Bah and Emmanuel argue that peacebuilding and statebuilding are clearly connected, not domestic matters alone but also matters of global importance; and that civil wars are opportunities for statebuilding through creative postwar partnerships and restructuring.

Applying comparative-historical methods and theory to archival materials and expert interviews, this book shifts the discourse on civil wars, from their causes and implications to the opportunities they provide to rework failed states—and move the discourse on African states from their colonial and neocolonial legacies to their shared moral and security interests with the rest of the world.