Caplan, Richard

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Caplan, Richard

(Richard D. Caplan)

PERSONAL:

Education: McGill University, B.A.; Cambridge University, M.Phil.; University of London, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Politics and International Relations, Linacre College, University of Oxford, Manor Road Bldg., Manor Rd., Oxford OX1 3UQ, England.

CAREER:

House of Commons, London, England, specialist advisor to the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs; International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London, research associate; Institute for War and Peace Reporting, London, deputy director; Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford, Oxford England, research fellow; University of Reading, Reading, England, lecturer in politics; Linacre College, University of Oxford, Oxford, professor of international relations, lecturer, official fellow, 2003—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Research award, 2006; Carnegie Corporation grant, 2007.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with John Feffer) State of the Union, 1994: The Clinton Administration and the Nation in Profile, foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich, Westview Press (Boulder, CO), 1994.

(Editor, with John Feffer) Europe's New Nationalism: States and Minorities in Conflict, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

A New Trusteeship? The International Administration of War-Torn Territories, Oxford University Press/International Institute for Strategic Studies (Oxford, England), 2002.

International Governance of War-Torn Territories: Rule and Reconstruction, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Europe and the Recognition of New States in Yugoslavia, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Author of papers. Contributor to works by others, including Managing and Settling Ethnic Conflicts: Comparative Perspectives from Africa, Asia, and Europe, edited by Ulrich Schneckener and Stefan Wolff, C. Hurst (London, England), 2003; and Crisis Management: A New Form of Nation-Building?, edited by Tommi Koivula and Tuomas Tammilehto, National Defence College (Helsinki, Finland), 2005. Contributor to journals, including Third World Quarterly, Civil Wars, International Peacekeeping, Critique Internationale, Nations and Nationalism, Diplomacy and Statecraft, Ethics and International Affairs, International Affairs, and Journal of Strategic Studies. Former editor of World Policy Journal.

SIDELIGHTS:

As a professor of international relations at Linacre College, Oxford, Richard Caplan has taught graduate courses on international relations and a seminar on the United Nations. His research interests include international organizations and conflict management, peacekeeping theory and practice, contemporary European Security, Western Balkans (Yugoslavia), humanitarian intervention, and nationalism and ethno-nationalist conflict. According to his profile on the Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford University Web site, Caplan's "current research is focused on post-conflict state-building. In 2007-08, he is directing a research project on ‘Exit Strategies and Peace Consolidation’ that will explore the empirical experiences of, and scholarly and policy questions associated with, exit in relation to four types of international operations where state-building has been a major objective: colonial administrations, peacekeeping operations, military occupations and international administrations."

Before his appointment at Linacre College, Caplan was a specialist advisor to the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Commons, London, England; research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London; deputy director of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, London; research fellow at the Centre for International Studies, Oxford; and a lecturer in politics at the University of Reading.

Caplan is the author of a number of volumes and editor of others, including, with John Feffer, State of the Union, 1994: The Clinton Administration and the Nation in Profile, a collection of fifteen essays by policy scholars with the Institute for Policy Studies. The essays address the first year of the administration of President William Jefferson Clinton, which these analysts view as disappointing to progressives. Individual writers address subjects that range from the military to the environment. Barry Commoner advocates the reduction of hazardous waste and a government program to procure electric cars. Robert Borosage calls for increased cuts in military spending, and Marcus Raskin argues for an end to the covert operations of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Other essays focus on race, community, poverty, and gender issues. A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that in a roundtable discussion, Stanley Greenberg, a Clinton pollster, "argues that critics should give the president more than a year to deliver."

Caplan's International Governance of War-Torn Territories: Rule and Reconstruction is a study of third-party intervention and control of strife-ridden regions. The volume focuses on the administration of countries that include Bosnia-Herzegovina, Eastern Slavonia, Kosovo, and East Timor by the United Nations and multinational organizations, a level of governance previously unseen in recent history. Following the introduction, titled "Forms of International Administration," the first part of the book, "International Administration in Practice," includes chapters titled "Public Order and Internal Security," "Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons," "Civil Administration, Political Institution-Building," and "Economic Recon- struction and Development." The second section, "Critical Issues for International Administration," contains chapters titled "Planning Operations," "The Exercise of Executive Authority," "Accountability," "Exit Strategies," and "Enhancing Effectiveness." These are followed by "Conclusions."

These bodies did not confine activities to peacekeeping, but rather created banks, regulated media, administered laws and education, and rebuilt and operated utilities. The United Nations, for example, which is more adept at overseeing police and military forces and running human rights initiatives and elections, has little experience in politics and governing. T.K. Vogel concluded in a review for Ethics and International Affairs: "It is clear from this book—required reading for any presumptive administrator—that there are no quick or easy solutions to the challenges of administering postwar territories. While some institutional learning has taken place, this study provides many reasons to doubt the UN's capacity to do a good job. Caplan's analysis will help us understand better which challenges are inherent and beyond the control of the transitional administrator and which are questions of political, strategic, and operational leadership."

Europe and the Recognition of New States in Yugoslavia is Caplan's study of the controversial recognition of new states in Yugoslavia by the European Community, with particular emphasis on Germany's recognition of Croatian independence in December 1991, which it is felt, may have made matters worse. Following the introduction the volume consists of sections titled "The EC's recognition policy: origins and terms of reference"; "Recognition of states: legal thinking and historic practice"; "International law, international relations and the recognition of states"; "EC recognition of new states in Yugoslavia: the strategic consequences"; and "Political conditionality and conflict management." Appendices include the "EPC Declaration on the Recognition of New States in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union," "EPC Declaration on Yugoslavia," and "Treaty Provisions for the Convention." A bibliography and index are included.

Robert Legvold reviewed Europe and the Recognition of New States in Yugoslavia in Foreign Affairs, noting that Caplan "considers how the strategic use of recognition fits with standard practice," as well as with international law and international relations in a broader sense, in a "very thoughtful fashion."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice, June, 1994, R.E. Dewhirst, review of State of the Union, 1994: The Clinton Administration and the Nation in Profile, p. 1657; January, 2007, P. Vannicelli, review of Europe and the Recognition of New States in Yugoslavia, p. 902.

Ethics & International Affairs, March, 2006, T.K. Vogel, review of International Governance of War-Torn Territories: Rule and Reconstruction, p. 125.

Ethnic and Racial Studies, November, 1999, David McCrone, review of Europe's New Nationalism: States and Minorities in Conflict, p. 1067.

Foreign Affairs, May 1, 2006, Robert Legvold, review of Europe and the Recognition of New States in Yugoslavia, p. 168.

International Affairs, October, 1994, Nigel Bowles, review of State of the Union, 1994, p. 834; January, 1998, Josep Llobera, review of Europe's New Nationalism, p. 226; January, 2003, Mark Baskin, review of A New Trusteeship? The International Administration of War-Torn Territories, p. 161; May, 2005, Jane M.O. Sharp, review of International Governance of War-Torn Territories, p. 641; January, 2006, David Chandler, review of Europe and the Recognition of New States in Yugoslavia, p. 230.

International History Review, September, 2006, Shepard Forman, review of International Governance of War-Torn Territories, p. 699.

Library Journal, December, 1993, review of State of the Union, 1994, p. 150.

Publishers Weekly, November 1, 1993, review of State of the Union, 1994, p. 73.

Slavic and East European Journal, fall, 1997, Paul Pirie, review of Europe's New Nationalism, p. 523.

Slavonic and East European Review, October, 1998, James Gow, review of Europe's New Nationalism, p. 778.

Survival, spring, 2006, Bathsheba Crocker, review of International Governance of War-Torn Territories, p. 214; summer, 2006, Nicholas Whyte, review of Europe and the Recognition of New States in Yugoslavia, p. 167.

West European Politics, September, 2006, Tim Haughton, review of Europe and the Recognition of New States in Yugoslavia, p. 858.

World Today, June, 2005, Karin Von Hippel, review of International Governance of War-Torn Territories, p. 22.