Here Interest Meets Humanity: How to End the War and Support Reconstruction in Liberia, and the Case for Modest American Leadership

41 Pages Posted: 23 Jan 2011

Date Written: 2004

Abstract

This article succinctly summarizes and analyzes:

(1) The multidimensional strategy that international actors developed in the 1990s and early 2000s to help end civil wars and support reconstruction, including in the former Yugoslavia, East Timor, and Sierra Leone. The successes of those interventions have been obscured by the fate of the very different U.S. interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(2) The origins and dynamics of violent conflict in West Africa (especially Sierra Leone and Liberia) from 1989 to 2003, and how several international actors collaborated to end it.

(3) Arguments – now of primarily historical interest – that the United States could and should lead reconstruction efforts in Liberia after the fall of Charles Taylor in 2003.

Keywords: Postconflict Reconstruction, Peacekeeping, Peacemaking, Peacebuilding, Nationbuilding, Statebuilding, Civil War, Liberia, Sierra Leone, West Africa, U.S. Foreign Policy, Transitional Justice, Development, Peace and Conflict

Suggested Citation

O'Connell, Jamie, Here Interest Meets Humanity: How to End the War and Support Reconstruction in Liberia, and the Case for Modest American Leadership (2004). Harvard Human Rights Journal, Vol. 17, 2004, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1744335

Jamie O'Connell (Contact Author)

Stanford Law School ( email )

559 Nathan Abbott Way
Stanford, CA 94305-8610
United States

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