Regulating Business for Peace: The United Nations, the Private Sector, and Post-Conflict Recovery

by Jolyon Ford

Overview

This book addresses gaps in thinking and practice on how the private sector can both help and hinder the process of building peace after armed conflict. It argues that weak governance in fragile and conflict-affected societies creates a need for international authorities to regulate the social impact of business activity in these places as a special interim duty. Policymaking should seek appropriate opportunities to engage with business while harnessing its positive contributions to sustainable peace. However, scholars have not offered frameworks for what is considered 'appropriate' engagement or properly theorised techniques for how best to influence responsible business conduct. United Nations peace operations are peak symbols of international regulatory responsibilities in conflict settings, and debate continues to grow around the private sector's role in development generally. This book is the first to study how peace operations have engaged with business to influence its peace-building impact.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107037083
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/05/2015
Pages:	442
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.98(d)

About the Author

Dr Jolyon Ford is an associate of the Global Economic Governance Program at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the regulation of investor and business activity in fragile, transitional and conflict-affected states, policy and regulatory options for fostering responsible and conflict-sensitive business practices, and wider public policy on the private sector's role in meeting development goals. He blogs on these issues in 'Private Sector – Public World'.

Table of Contents

Part I. Policy: 1. Business and peace: describing the gap; Part II. Practice: 2. The gap in peace operation mandates, strategies and practice; 3. Timor-Leste (East Timor); 4. Liberia; Part III. Theory: 5. A theory of transitional business regulation; 6. The policy basis for a transitional regulatory role; Part IV. Future: 7. Incipient practice by peace operations; 8. Implementing transitional business regulation.

Editorial Reviews

"The role of the private sector - actual and potential - in countries emerging from violent conflict has been woefully under-examined by scholars and policy analysts. Regulating Business for Peace offers valuable insights into the risks and opportunities that business activity can bring to peacebuilding."
Richard Caplan, Oxford University, author of International Governance of War-Torn Territories

"This is a very thoughtful, well-researched and well-written assessment of the role of regulation and the United Nations in fostering businesses’ contributions to peace. It builds on a burgeoning area of contemporary research while advance an important and unique contribution to the field. Dr Ford’s book is worth a close reading."
Timothy L. Fort. JD, Eveleigh Professor of Business Ethics, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University

From the Publisher