Book review: Statebuilding

"Statebuilding." Timothy Sisk. Polity. April 2013. --- Timothy Sisk explores international efforts to help the world’s most fragile post–civil war countries build secure states. Tracing the historical roots of statebuilding to the present day, he demonstrates how the United Nations, leading powers, and well–meaning donors have engaged in statebuilding as a strategic approach to peacebuilding after war. Hamish Clift concludes that this is a clear, cogently argued monograph, but the tired goals of reinvigorating the responsibility to protect, increasing aid efficacy and understanding outcomes fall disappointingly short of the creative next steps one would expect from the preceding chapters.