Peace-building in the periphery: Lessons from Central America

Abstract

This article seeks to clarify the conceptual usefulness of the concept of complex political emergency (CPE) through an analysis of the Central American conflicts and post-conflict reconstruction. It argues that CPEs are a distinct category of conflicts of the 1990s, characterised by state collapse/failure in countries with historically weak states and where the dynamic of globalisation has undermined the relevance of state- and nation-building to owners of capital and power. In addition, they coincide with the collapse of universal mobilising principles into multipolar struggles around particular interests. Central America, like many of the countries where the term CPE is applicable, is on the periphery of the global economy. Its civil war in the 1980s, however, was driven by qualitatively different factors. Nevertheless, Central America has been affected in the 1990s by the same forces which currently affect CPEs. These forces have seriously undermined the post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding processes in the region, despite a considerable and in many respects creative set of initiatives by international donors, particularly at the micro level.