Max Weber famously stated in his Economy and Society that "the [modern], rational state has only existed in the Occident" (Weber 1925; translation by the author). Yet, as indisputable as this claim might have been at the beginning of the twentieth century, states have since been built around the world during diverse decolonization processes, and continued to be externally "constructed" by powerful international voluntarism in the past decade. As a result of the enigmatic practices of slate building, the term is as fuzzy as any major social science concept and it continues to be subject to numerous partial interpretations contingent on the political contexts in which it is used. Numerous authors have thus tried to clarify the very concept of state building, and a plethora of special issues and edited volumes have scrutinized its implicit and explicit meanings (Chesterman 2004; Goetze and Guzina 2004; Paris 2004; Caplan 2005a).

Item Type:	Research Book Chapter
Keywords:	Statebuilding, nationbuilding, post colonialisation
Research Division:	Studies in Human Society
Research Group:	Political Science
Research Field:	International Relations
Objective Division:	Law, Politics and Community Services
Objective Group:	International Relations
Objective Field:	International Organisations
Author:	Goetze, C (Dr Catherine Goetze)
ID Code:	122507
Year Published:	2010
Deposited By:	Office of the School of Social Sciences
Deposited On:	2017-11-16
Last Modified:	2017-12-05
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