Crafting Liberal Peace? International Peace Promotion and the Contextual Politics of Peace in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Contemporary armed conflicts are typically intrastate conflicts in the Global South. These are often represented as global security threats, providing a justification for practical geopolitics of promoting liberal peace through elitist peace negotiations and instrumental use of humanitarian and development aid. In this context, the contemporary hegemonic discourse on peace emphasizes the synergies among liberal peace, liberal democracy, and neoliberal development. Based on recent democratic transitions, it is assumed that liberal peace can be crafted through internationally facilitated elite negotiations. This article examines this technocratic approach to peace and highlights the tension between elitist crafting of liberal peace and contextual political dynamics in conflict situations, using Sri Lanka as an exemplary case. Sri Lanka's fifth peace process is presented as a product of international and domestic power relations and stakeholder strategies, with a convergence between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam around two defining characteristics: (1) crafting of peace through narrowly defined elite negotiations and (2) linking of peace and development through humanitarian and development aid. It is argued that the use of development as a precursor to peace politicized the issue of interim development administration and the combination of political exclusion of elites and social exclusion of intermediate Sinhalese classes undermined the government and its agenda for liberal peace. Sri Lanka is thus an illustrative case of international promotion of liberal peace but also the tensions between internationalized and elitist crafting of peace and contextual power relations and political dynamics in conflict situations.