Civil Society and Peace Formation

Abstract

Civil society organisations and initiatives are considered one of the key agents of peacebuilding in post-conflict societies. This chapter explores the role of civil society in shaping peace in Kosovo. The chapter argues that, in the absence of effective cooperation with ethnic elites, civil society was used by international missions as a subcontractor for implementing the peacebuilding and statebuilding agenda in Kosovo. Despite these challenges, the chapter illustrates that the potential for peace formation and rebuilding of ethnic relationships was not among international missions, ethnic elites, and resistance movements, but rather among civil society initiatives that operated at grassroots levels and supported everyday peace processes. They have been instrumental in overcoming the flaws of fluid interventionism and the destructive agency of local resistance, while promoting non-violent pathways to peace formation.