For all of the doubts raised about the effectiveness of international aid in advancing peace and development, there are few examples of developing countries that are even relatively untouched by it. Sarah G. Phillips's When There Was No Aid offers us one such example.

Using evidence from Somaliland's experience of peace-building, When There Was No Aid challenges two of the most engrained presumptions about violence and poverty in the global South. First, that intervention by actors in the global North is self-evidently useful in ending them, and second that the quality of a country's governance institutions (whether formal or informal) necessarily determines the level of peace and civil order that the country experiences.

Phillips explores how popular discourses about war, peace, and international intervention structure the conditions of possibility to such a degree that even the inability of institutions to provide reliable security can stabilize a prolonged period of peace. She argues that Somaliland's post-conflict peace is grounded less in the constraining power of its institutions than in a powerful discourse about the country's structural, temporal, and physical proximity to war. Through its sensitivity to the ease with which peace gives way to war, Phillips argues, this discourse has indirectly harnessed an apparent propensity to war as a source of order.

Sarah G. Phillips is Associate Professor in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. Follow her on X @DrSarahPhillips.

Theoretically sophisticated and beautifully written, Sarah Phillips's book is a remarkable study that is an example of some of the very finest research and scholarship to emerge from political science and international relations in recent years. When There Was No Aid is destined to become a landmark text in the fields of development, international affairs, peace, conflict and security studies.

Phillips's nuanced and provocative study is the most compelling account yet of Somaliland's recent history.

When There Was No Aid is the result of extensive fieldwork.... Phillips has drawn on impressive empirical research to produce a compelling account of Somaliland's path to peace. While it is evidently written with an academic audience in mind, this book is lively and accessible.

This remarkable study of a non-state upends dominant scholarly and policy discourses about statehood, conflict, peace, development, and international interventions. Phillips skillfully engages the relevant literature and methodological issues, and employs a creative multimethod approach to capture both the uniqueness of Somaliland and its value for comparative analysis and political theory. This is an excellent volume for college and larger public libraries, and for collections supporting programs in international affairs, as well as for Africana, peace, development, and security studies.

Jonathan Fisher, University of Birmingham, author of East Africa after Liberation:

When There Was No Aid presents persuasive and thought-provoking arguments. This book will be of great interest to policy-makers and practitioners, and makes a significant contribution to researchers in the fields of Peace studies, Conflict studies, and African studies.

Duncan Green, London School of Economics and Political Science, author of How Change Happens:

In this important study, Sarah Phillips builds on her influential previous work on a fascinating natural experiment. Those insisting on 'state-building' in so-called fragile states need to learn from Somaliland that the very absence of an effective state was what brought about peace.

Jasmine-Kim Westendorf, La Trobe University, author of Violating Peace:

When There Was No Aid is a critical contribution to debates about the effectiveness of international interventions in shaping peace. Phillips makes a compelling argument about the role of war in peace, the limitations of international institutional responses to peacebuilding, and the importance of local discourses in building and maintaining peace—this book should be essential reading for scholars and practitioners working in conflict-zones globally.