engaging fragile states - Woodrow Wilson International Center for ...

Part II
Responding to Fragile States:
Lessons from Recent
Experience
Since the end of the Cold War, the international community has
become involved in a large number of what now would be described
as fragile states, and has accumulated a great deal of
experience. Analysts have studied the outcomes of these efforts
and distilled guidelines on what actions and policies tend to work
well in what settings. Current policymakers can draw on those
guidelines to make informed judgments on what policy tools
and mixes are likely to be workable and effective in the fragile
states they are addressing. The problems the US has encountered
in Iraq and Afghanistan have arisen, in part, by ignoring
lessons that were readily available. It is one thing to identify the
sources of state failure, quite another to know what responses
will actually work. Monitoring government legitimacy and effectiveness
can help identify sources of state failure, but this practice
does not specify concrete solutions that would effectively address
them. Additionally, applying general prescriptions, such as
security sector reform, can be counteractive if conflict-specific
circumstances present themselves.
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