The Legacy of State Formation Theory for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding

The mainstream literature on state formation has provided the basis for peacebuilding and statebuilding praxes to focus on power and realist concepts of security and the state. The dominant focus on violence and how it shapes the state has been an important motif of peacebuilding and statebuilding literatures. However, state formation literatures also offer sociological, anthropological, and structural accounts as a basis for a post-colonial framework for peace, security, and order, which expose the limits of peacebuilding and statebuilding. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.