GPPi participates in Bellagio conference on state building

The Global Public Policy Institute co-sponsored a conference on "International Protectorates and the Challenge of State Building: the record, the politics, the prospects" that took place at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center from 6-10 February 2006.

The conference brought together a select number of key policymakers and academics to analyze the state of the art of what we know about international protectorates and state building. The conference specifically addressed why the "new protectorates" have often fallen short of creating the sort of sustainable institutions, "well-adjusted" political actors, and liberal politics to which they aspire.

Conference participants included Gary Bass (Princeton University), Christopher Clapham (University of Cambridge), Simon Chesterman (New York University), Clare Lockhart (Overseas Development Institute) and Jeffrey Herbst (Ohio State University). GPPi Associate Director Thorsten Benner and GPPi researcher Philipp Rotmann participated in the conference and presented a project focusing on the UN’s challenges of strategic planning and organizational learning.

The conference was organized by James Mayall, Centre of International Studies, University of Cambridge and Ricardo Soares De Oliveira, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge who is a Fellow of the Global Public Policy Institute. The Bellagio conference is the starting point for a longer-term project on the politics and prospects of international protectorates. More information on the conference and the project will be available on the GPPi website in late February.