Networks of democracy
Subtitle: lessons from Kosovo for Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond
By: Anne Holohan.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Stanford, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 220
Subjects: United Nations -- Serbia and Montenegro -- Kosovo (Serbia); Communication and technology; Intervention (International law); Kosovo (Serbia) -- History -- Civil War, 1998-1999
Description: In 1999, the United Nations embarked on a massive intervention in Kosovo. This book compares the fate of two adjacent municipalities two years into that intervention. Though similar in all key respects, by 2001 the municipalities were headed down markedly different paths -- one making progress toward institution-building, democratization, and reconstruction, the other stagnating. Drawing on extensive field research, the author shows that the successful municipality was able to bring together international organizations and local populations as part of a "network" organization. The lack of progress in the second municipality was due to the same organizations staying behind bureaucratic walls, and keeping local populations at a distance. In both municipalities, information and communication technologies contributed in surprising ways to the success or failure of the international efforts. This book has relevance for interventions around the world, most obviously for the challenging situations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the author develops policy recommendations in the concluding section. No other book on nation-building or democratization examines the daily behavior in an international intervention to answer the big question: How do you get from the chaos of a post-conflict society to one with functioning institutions?
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [199]-214) and index.
Table of contents: title: The UN mission in Kosovo as a network organization; title: Two municipalities in Kosovo; title: Information and communication technologies; title: Members of the network.