Peacebuilding upside down? How a peace community in Colombia builds peace despite the state

Abstract

Critics explain the modest success of liberal peacebuilding with the neglect of local particularities. While the local is upgraded in concepts like local ownership, the role of the state and the direction of peace operations remain untouched. Following normative models of Western states, most peacebuilding practitioners and scholars assume that the state has an interest in peaceful public order, while local actors are deemed to have no potential for peace transformation. Anthropological concepts assume that the state is not a monolithic entity. Neither is the state seen as having an a priori purpose for existence. This approach allows for the analysis of certain state practices as rational that, from the perspective of normative state models, might appear dysfunctional, e.g. human rights violations by armed forces. In the 50 years of ongoing conflict in Colombia, some state institutions and regional elites seem unwilling to promote a peaceful public order throughout the country. Paradoxically, it is in these conflict regions that some communities have created strategies to increase their safety. Drawing on the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado, I will show how these communities develop the potential for peace as their strategies for self-protection counteract conflict causes.