Public Finance, Conflict, and International Interventions: How Good Governance Reforms Can Weaken State-building...

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Tobias Akhtar Haque

Public Finance, Conflict, and International Interventions

How Good Governance Reforms Can Weaken State-building

Tobias Akhtar Haque

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English

Routledge
20 June 2025

Peace studies & conflict resolution; International institutions; Warfare & defence

Series: Routledge Studies in Conflict, Security and Development

This book provides a critical analysis of the political and conflict impacts of “good governance” public finance reforms, showing how unintended distributional outcomes can undermine broader state‑building goals.

The international community expends enormous resources trying to build “good governance” institutions in countries emerging from war. By ensuring efficiency, increasing transparency, and enhancing public accountability in the use of public resources, the adoption of “good governance” institutions is assumed to support stability, peace, and sustainable economic growth. Such assumptions, however, have a limited empirical basis and obscure a more complex reality. Drawing from political science and institutional economics, and evidence from major state‑building interventions in Afghanistan, Timor‑Leste, and Solomon Islands, this book explores the impacts of technocratic “good governance” reforms in fragile environments. Through the lens of public finance reform, it illustrates how efforts to achieve efficiency and accountability, while often bringing important benefits, can also undercut the patronage channels that draw together powerful elites, thereby increasing conflict pressures and eroding prospects for sustainable peace. This book makes the case for a reconsideration of the “good governance” agenda and the appropriateness of its application in developing countries experiencing or at risk of war.

This book will be of interest to students of state‑building, global governance, political economy, development studies, and International Relations.

By: Tobias Akhtar Haque
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 610g
ISBN: 9781032969343
ISBN 10: 1032969342
Series: Routledge Studies in Conflict, Security and Development
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 20 June 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Tobias Akhtar Haque is a development professional and economist with extensive practical experience leading governance and economic reforms in fragile state contexts. He holds a PhD in Public Finance from the Australian National University, Canberra.

Reviews for Public Finance, Conflict, and International Interventions: How Good Governance Reforms Can Weaken State-building

""This meticulously researched book is essential reading for policymakers, aid practitioners, and researchers who want to understand why so many state-building efforts fall short—and, more importantly, how to design interventions that have a better chance of success.” Stefan Dercon, Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University; former Chief Economist, United Kingdom Department for International Development ""Excellent and original. An important and constructive contribution to the policy debate on state building and post-conflict reconstruction in developing countries"" Mushtaq Khan, Professor of Economics, SOAS, University of London “Though deep case study research, this book shows how aid policymakers fail to grasp the role that patronage-based systems play in stabilizing conflict-affected countries. More importantly, it offers a sensible set of policy adjustments that international aid organizations should now follow if they are to improve their dismal recent intervention record in ‘fragile states’.” Nigel Roberts, Former World Bank Country Director for the West Bank and Gaza, and for the Pacific Island Countries; Co-Director of the World Development Report on Conflict, Security, and Development