Stuart Gordon

COIN machine: the British military in Afghanistan

Abstract This article examines Britains capabilities and resources in Helmand Province, and assesses the high-level strategy and civilian-military inter-relationships that provide the overarching framework of current operations. In doing so, Theo Farrell and Stuart Gordon analyse the British counter-insurgency approach, arguing that the UKs troops have faced and overcome unique challenges in Afghanistan.

Bridging the concepts of community resilience, fragile states and stabilisation

Purpose – The fragile states and stabilisation concepts appear to resonate with the concept of community resilience. Yet, there is barely a framework that integrates the three concepts. The authors posit that despite the increasing interest in community resilience in fragile states, there is much less clarity of resilience, fragility and stabilisation connections. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on the literature review of the concepts of community resilience, fragility and stabilisation. Findings – The findings restate that the state fragility results from the breakdown of the social contract between the state and its citizens. Whilst both resilience and stabilisation are desirable constructs in reducing fragility, they should be broadly underpinned by agency not only to enhance preventive, anticipatory, absorptive and adaptive actions but also lead to social transformative capacity where agency is embedded for communities to exercise some sort of...

Health, Conflict, Stability and Statebuilding: A House Built on Sand?

Abstract Increasingly, the purpose of third party health interventions in fragile states has become linked to statebuilding agendas in order to build government through health programmes. However, there is only limited data to support the efficacy of such an assumption. Indeed, this approach may instead invert the desired outcome of social legitimacy and undermine the rationale for which it is intended. This paper examines the strategic response from donors vis-à-vis the objective of statebuilding, and concludes that new research is required. It concludes that until there is empirically based evidence of the benefits of health interventions for statebuilding, the goals of health interventions should remain fixed primarily on improving health indicators instead.

Romancing principles and human rights: Are humanitarian principles salvageable?

“Classical” or “Dunantist” humanitarianism has traditionally been constructed around the core principles of neutrality (not taking sides) and impartiality (provision of assistance with no regard to ethnicity, religion, race or any other consideration, and proportional to need), plus the operational imperative (rather than a formal principle) to seek the consent of the belligerent parties. These principles, whilst never unchallenged, have dominated the contemporary discourse of humanitarianism and have been synonymous with or at least reflections of a presumed essential, enduring and universal set of humanitarian values. This paper offers a more dynamic and changing vision of the content of humanitarian action. It maps the origins and content of the “new humanitarian” critique of the humanitarian sector and principles and argues that this has both misrepresented the ethical content of neutrality and obscured what amount to significant operational adaptations that leave traditional humanitarianism well prepared for the contemporary operating environment.

Resilience, panarchy and customary structures in Afghanistan

‘Fragile’ and ‘failed state’ discourse leads to a reductionist portrayal of failure that can obscure the presence of patterns of resilience. This paper examines the role of resilience theory, and one of its derivations, ‘panarchy’, in relation to the restorative agency of communities, simultaneous fragmentation and positive adaptation across multiple connected systems in Afghanistan. The results suggest that the resilience of Afghan communities to conflict and violence has depended on the durability of both their positive and negative adaptive strategies in providing a range of public services to fill in the void left by government. While customary structures have been sources of order and solidarity at the local level, they have also fomented destabilisation and frustrated the extension of the neoliberal governmentality and the securitisation agendas. Customary affiliations have adapted in multiple and overlapping ways, demonstrating a high level of community resilience in the face of widespread disruption brought about by conflict.