State Building and Development: Two sides of the same coin? Exploring the case of Kosovo (PDF)

This dissertation's hypothesis argues that state-building and development are processes that, to function successfully, must be positioned in a complementary interrelationship. This argument has arisen in response to contemporary approaches to state-building and development that are too narrow, so that state-building strategies are often reduced to the establishment of political institutions to the exclusion of other equally necessary structures that include economic, social, and even cultural concerns; in the same sense, development strategies frequently focus on the support and establishment of selected economic structures at the exclusion of political, cultural, and social dimensions. Furthermore, a necessary prerequisite for long-term stability is a guarantee of individual and collective security, and the state requires, in its establishment and development, this aspect in all of its institutions. By taking as a case study the intervention of UNMIK and the EU in Kosovo, the author attempts to show how state-building and development processes are interrelated, and how they might best be applied in the field in order to achieve sustainable outcomes.
State-building is defined as the building of state structures, which are role- and rule-oriented institutions within political, economic, social and cultural domains. Development is used in this work to identify the process responsible for making these structures sustainable over time. In the case of Kosovo, in addition to the examination of the structures, this study examines the role of actors participating in these processes - local and international actors - and their potential alliances, coalitions and conflicts. Beyond these concerns, the aspect of security, especially the rule of law, is to be considered as the main precondition for undertaking any action in the aforementioned domains.
From the theoretical-methodical perspective, this work falls under the category of Policy Analysis. The new analytical model presented here will identify the significant variables for the examination of the case study, and after this theoretical model has been applied in the empirical section of this work, it will then serve in the end to estimate the main findings in the case of Kosovo.
In this manner the author hopes to contribute to the ongoing discussion on state-building and development theories and practice through two parallel aims: one goal is to illustrate and call attention to the low level of necessary dialogue between the two discourses of state-building and development theories, while the other means to show the benefit of the combined utility of this approach at the empirical level where implementation of policies takes place. The theoretical approach is wide-ranging and holistic, while the empirical part of this study will examine broadly and eventually apply multidimensional concepts of development and state-building.