International security and peacebuilding: Africa, the Middle East, and Europe

Introduction : the conundrums of global liberal governance / Abu Bakarr Bah -- Negotiating narratives : R2P and the conundrum of the monopoly of legitimized use of force / Rebecca Gulowski -- Responsibility to protect : the paradox of international intervention in Africa / Dauda Abubakar -- Dancing boys and the moral dilemmas of military missions : the practice of bacha bazi in Afghanistan / Michelle Schut and Eva van Baarle -- Managerial capacity in peacekeeping operations : the case of EUFOR / Unsal Sigri, M. Abdulkadir Varoglu, and Ufuk Basar -- Personalized mediations and interventions in the Ivoirian conflict / Amy Niang -- African agency in new humanitarianism and responsible governance / Abu Bakarr Bah -- Regime change : neoliberal state building and its collapse on Iraqi society / Deniz Gokalp.

The end of the Cold War was to usher in an era of peace based on flourishing democracies and free market economies worldwide. Instead, new wars, including the war on terrorism, have threatened international, regional, and individual security and sparked a major refugee crisis. This volume of essays on international humanitarian interventions focuses on what interests are promoted through these interventions and how efforts to build liberal democracies are carried out in failing states. Focusing on Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, an international group of contributors shows that best practices of protection and international state-building have not been applied uniformly. Together the essays provide a theoretical and empirical critique of global liberal governance and, as they note challenges to regional and international cooperation, they reveal that global liberal governance may threaten fragile governments and endanger human security at all levels