Conflict Field Research
The workshop report on Inside-Out: The Sierra Leone Experience with Post-Conflict State Restoration includes a summary of the paper by James O.C. Jonah, former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and Senior Fellow of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies. Following Jonah’s account of causes of the civil war in Sierra Leone, the unfolding of the war itself, and its aftermath, audience members with backgrounds in academia, diplomacy, and aid groups responded with concerns about the paper and their own interpretation of events in Sierra Leone. The workshop then moved to an in-depth discussion of local governance, the role of the UN in Sierra Leone, and finally the connection between corruption, conditionality, and legitimacy for post-conflict state-building efforts. Participants concluded that the workshop provided lively debate about the causes of the war and the concept of failed states, as well as inside knowledge that filled important gaps in existing scholarship on Sierra Leone.