How has scholarship on state fragility influenced the policies of influential international actors? Professor Paris argues that academic research has helped policy-makers to define and refine understandings of state fragility as a policy problem, and has informed the development of operational frameworks for response. But there are also problems in the transmission of ideas between the academic and policy realms: in particular, substantial time lags; distortion and manipulation of research findings; and unreliable findings have the potential to circulate as quickly as more reliable information.

Roland Paris is director of the Centre for International Policy Studies and associate professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. He is one of the more influential scholars writing on  issues of post-war reconstruction and peacebuilding, including At War's End: Building Peace After Civil Conflict (Cambridge University Press, 2004), which received an international award for its contribution to global order and mulitlateralism.

Discussants:
Torunn Wimpelmann Chaudhary, Researcher, Chr. Michelsen Institute & Ph.D. Candidate, SOAS, University of London
Ole Jacob Sending, Senior Researcher, NUPI (Oslo) and Associate Researcher, CMI