Exit strategies and statebuilding Oxford University Press, by Richard Caplan, ed.

Abstract

Richard Cap Ian, ed. Exit strategies and statebuilding Oxford University Press, New York, 2012. 337pp $99.00 (cloth) ISBN: 978-01997601 14Exit strategies have been central to recent discussions in academic, policy, and media circles of military interventions and peace operations, particularly regarding the endgames of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Exit strategies involve a range of military, peacekeeping, and peace-building activities undertaken by a variety of multilateral organizations, such as NATO and the United Nations, as well as interventions led by individual states with the backing of such organizations. Richard Caplan's edited volume Exit Strategies and Statebuilding sheds light on the peculiar type of strategic thinking that is inherent to bringing foreign interventions and state-building to an end.The topic is timely indeed, considering the recent and ongoing UN-backed French intervention in Mali that initially aimed to prevent the advance of radical Islamist troops toward the Malian capital of Bamako. The intervention was designed to be multilateral, as French troops are assisted by troops from Mali's neighbours, including Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Nigeria.1 The spectre of exit strategy has been looming from the start. Some commentators have feared prolonged French and international involvement in Mali, considering early reports that militants were proving better-armed and equipped2 than expected. The French government pledged that the intervention would be quick and that France's exit strategy would be based on assisting the rapid deployment of the African force,3 as France plans to transfer responsibility to African forces and subsequently assume a support role.This book's primary contribution is to offer an analytical framework with which to think about exit mechanisms, as this is the first work of academic scholarship to provide a comprehensive map of exit strategies with a comparative perspective. Indeed, most of the literature to date has focused mainly on the conduct of interventions in early stages and troop withdrawal later on, as well as on post-conflict reconciliation and democratization efforts.4 Caplan's volume therefore provides a welcome focus on exit mechanisms implemented by intervening actors and coalitions that are designed to pave the way for both follow-up missions and the eventual termination of military and peace operations. The book provides a comprehensive and refreshing outlook on the topic, contributing mainly to two extensive bodies of literature, namely those concerning war termination and postconflict peace-building. Ultimately, Exit Strategies and Statebuilding provides a road map with which to categorize and analyze different types of exit mechanisms across diverse contexts of state-building operations.The book addresses important practical concerns as well, such as the type of mechanisms and criteria that should be established in order for peace to be scaled down and eventually lead to successful military disengagement and sustainable peace. The exit modes and mechanisms that states and multilateral organizations have proposed are useful in preliminary typological theorizing about exit strategies. These include cut and run, phased withdrawal, deadlines, benchmarking, elections, and successor operations (9 11). Caplan's academic analysis of these modes and mechanisms is policy-relevant, marrying practical knowledge with theoretical insight.Exit Strategies and Statebuilding draws on the expertise of leading scholars and practitioners and consists of both thematic discussions and case studies, thereby combining conceptual and empirical analysis, while analyzing a variety of contexts and perspectives pertaining to exit strategies and state-building. The main thesis uniting the volume's contributions is that exit post-conflict should not be conceptualized as a fixed concept and single occurrence but rather as a process or transitional stage (301). …