The governance challenge -- Introduction / Arne Bigsten -- Impacts of external interventions on domestic governance / Arne Bigsten -- Economic policy -- Democratization in the aftermath of natural disasters / Pelle Ahlerup -- Political decentralization and the effectiveness of aid / Thushyanthan Baskaran, Arne Bigsten and Zohal Hessami -- When is aid volatility bad? : and how bad is it? / Sven Tengstam -- Social policy -- Abstinence, abstinence, and more abstinence : HIV/AIDS in Malawi / Dick Durevall and Annika Lindskog -- Indigenous politics and the quest for solidarity / Cristina Rojas and Gustavo Morales -- Environmental policy -- Payments for environmental services : understanding the determinants of impact and behavioural responses to policy intervention / Anna Nordén, Martin Persson, and Francisco Alpizar -- Security policy -- "Building peace from the outside" : the role of the EU in the Democratic Republic of Congo / Meike Froitzheim and Fredrik Söderbaum -- Willing reformers? : an analysis of defence reform initiatives in the DRC / Maria Eriksson Baaz and Maria Stern -- The African Union and the politics of protection : mediating ownership and sovereignty / Jan Bachmann and Linnea Gelot -- Conclusion -- Concluding remarks / Arne Bigsten.