Divided Partners: The Challenges of NATO-NGO Cooperation in Peacebuilding Operations

Abstract

In this article, I examine the challenges associated with the cooperation between NATO and nongovernmental organizations in peacebuilding operations. I argue that those challenges need to be understood as part of a process of contestation and competition over the redefinition of the of the game in the changing domain of peacebuilding. This process of contestation, I suggest, can significantly undermine NATO's ability to contribute to sustainable peacebuilding in war-torn countries. KEYWORDS: peacebuilding, NATO, reconstruction, humanitarianism, norms, contestation. IN RECENT YEARS, AS PART OF A PROCESS OF REDEFINING ITS IDENTITY AND purpose, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has become deeply involved in complex operations aimed at stabilizing and rebuilding countries emerging from conflict. One of the key assumptions underpinning those operations is that their success depends crucially on systematic coordination between military and civilian actors--governmental and nongovernmental, domestic and international. The official discourse articulated by NATO (often echoing the UN discourse on peacebuilding) assumes that the alliance and a plethora of civilian organizations will mobilize their respective resources and cooperate closely in reconstructing war-torn countries. In practice, however, cooperation between NATO and civilian agencies engaged in reconstruction has been limited and, in some instances, virtually nonexistent. (1) As noted in Alexandra Gheciu's and Roland Paris's introduction to the special focus section, this tends to be portrayed as just one aspect of a larger challenge of coordination among the myriad of actors involved in reconstruction. By contrast, some scholars have highlighted the dangers of focusing too much on procedural efforts to improve coordination, to the detriment of substantive issues and challenges of peacebuilding. Roland Paris, for instance, has noted that the heavy emphasis on the question of coordination tends to conceal deeper disagreements among those actors over the desirable means and ends of reconstruction. (2) Against the background of those debates, this article seeks to shed light on some of the deeper issues that can help explain the inadequate cooperation between NATO forces and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) engaged in peacebuilding operations. (3) The relationship between NATO and NGOs is one of the most interesting aspects of the changing sub-field of peacebuilding, not least because these are institutions with very different cultures and mandates that now find themselves in a situation in which they need to collaborate in unprecedented ways. Yet this relationship remains comparatively undertheorized in the--otherwise rich--international relations literature on peacebuilding. I suggest that problems of cooperation between NATO and NGOs need to be understood as part of a process of contestation and competition over the redefinition of the of the game in the changing domain (or subfield) of peacebuilding. Rapid transformations in peacebuilding since the 1990s have blurred the boundaries between activities performed by military and civilian actors, and have destabilized existing norms governing the roles of various actors involved in postconflict reconstruction. In the context of these broad changes, a variety of actors (local and international, civilian and military, governmental and nongovernmental) have mobilized various forms of material and symbolic capital in an effort to cast themselves--and secure recognition--as expert, leading actors in peacebuilding operations. Simultaneously, they have tried to reshape the norms and rules of peacebuilding according to their particular worldviews. Although this article focuses specifically on relations between NATO and the NGO community, it is reasonable to argue that this is part of a larger process of change, which involves practices of contestation and competition among multiple players engaged in postconflict reconstruction. …