Liberal Peacebuilding Research Articles

Sport and strategic peacebuilding: Northern Ireland and Korea compared

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the growing body of scholarship on sport’s peacebuilding capacity by comparing the role of sport in two peace processes, Northern Ireland and Korea. Uniquely, the analysis is guided by the concept of strategic peacebuilding which goes beyond the much-criticised liberal peacebuilding ‘toolkit’ and emphasises the importance of coordinated action at all levels and by many types of actor. The empirical sections examine the peacebuilding roles of sport at state level – in relation to elite sport, symbolism and diplomacy – and at grassroots level, particularly people-to-people projects. The article shows how and why sport has been able to play certain peacebuilding roles in each case, as well as the constraints on sport placed by structural characteristics of the peace processes. The article argues that the sporting domain can make interdependent peacebuilding inputs at each peacebuilding level, and thus has a distinct potential as a dimension of strategic peacebuilding.

Persistence of informal networks and liberal peace-building: evidence from Bosnia and Herzegovina

Informal networks persist after conflict and undermine liberal peace-building. While these adverse effects are well-known, how informal networks survive beyond conflict is less understood. Scholars explain informal networks’ persistence by their stability and cohesion, attributed to solidarity of ascriptive bonds such as ethnic ties. In these accounts, networks are approached as actors and not as relational structures. We address this gap in the peace-building scholarship and conduct a longitudinal study of relations within an informal network in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Drawing on the political approach to networks, and applying Social Network Analysis, we investigate actors’ relational power and reveal how network actors use their connections to create strategic coalitions and opportunistic collaborations enabling them to exploit different stages of the peace-building process. We demonstrate that unequal distribution of relational power creates vested interests in sustaining the network and in seeking access to it, and how dynamic reconstitution of relational power within the network ensures continuity of network action from war to peace. From a policy perspective, this structural account of informal network persistence suggests a need for a better understanding of the dynamics among co-ethnics within an informal network that allows network members to subvert efforts to counter informality and undermines post-conflict institution-building.

Perpetual Peacebuilding: A New Paradigm to Move Beyond the Linearity of Liberal Peacebuilding

ABSTRACT This article will introduce the ‘perpetual peacebuilding’ paradigm. Academics and policy-makers have accepted that the linearity of the liberal peace neither reflects, nor should it drive, the tumult of peacebuilding. Nevertheless, practitioners have made merely cosmetic changes to their approaches. Within the perpetual peacebuilding paradigm, peacebuilding is envisioned as an ever-developing process manifested in a series of (re-)negotiations of the social and political contract. Notions of success and failure and concepts such as ‘tracks’ and ‘peace agreements’ are abandoned, and peace is both utopian and subjective. Lastly, the peacebuilding community is called upon to display greater courage and creativity.

Disrupting Settler-Colonialism or Enforcing the Liberal ‘Peace’? Transitional (In)justice in Palestine-Israel

The growing interest in ‘During Conflict Justice’ (DCJ) in areas experiencing ongoing, sustained violent ‘conflict’ has further demonstrated the confluence between transitional justice and liberal peacebuilding approaches. Nowhere so is this more evident than in the case of Palestine-Israel where an ongoing process of Israeli settler-colonialism in historic Palestine continues, with the further spotlighting of ‘justice’ issues that are longstanding and unresolved. This article critiques the application of TJ/DCJ in Palestine-Israel and calls for a radicalisation of its application so as to ensure a platforming of conversation around decolonisation. It does so by critiquing the impact of discourse, specifically the framing of the ‘conflict’ and focuses on the nefarious role of a liberal peace building agenda in Palestine-Israel, a process that has embedded a deeply unjust and inequitable status quo. An insight into several ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ strategies of TJ/DCJ in Palestine-Israel is provided, with the conclusion reached that; any TJ/DCJ praxis that does not platform meaningful conversation around decolonisation in the region will ultimately amount to the individualisation of ‘justice’ whilst failing to address root causes.

UN peace operations in a multipolar order: Building peace through the rule of law and bottom-up approaches

ABSTRACT UN peace operations need a new peacebuilding agenda that acknowledges both the transboundary nature of conflict drivers and the multipolar nature of the global order. This means casting aside the current stabilization approach, but also abandoning the pursuit of liberal peacebuilding of the unipolar era. Such a conflict transformation agenda would require UN peace operations to prioritize the rule of law and bottom-up approaches, thus creating the potential to be embraced by a much broader range of member states. In this article, we bring liberal peacebuilding critiques into a discussion with debates on the nature of the global order. Liberal peacebuilding critiques are rooted in the bottom-up problematization of international interventions and show what kind of peacebuilding is desirable. Conversely, the debates on the multipolar nature of the global order expose the top-down constraints as to what kind of peacebuilding is feasible.

The Dynamics of Security Sector Reform in Liberia

Abstract Security Sector Reform (ssr) is one of the key mechanisms of the UN norms of liberal peacebuilding. After the end of a 14-year-long civil war, ssr in Liberia has faced enormous challenges but opened a new space for peace and democracy for the people. Under the comprehensive supervision of the USA, two private military companies, DynCorp International and Pacific Architects and Engineers (pae), have played a pivotal role in army reform. Alternatively, unmil has been involved in police reform, which has not been considered successful enough. Furthermore, this study has observed that before ssr, disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (ddr) was not properly managed, which has had a pessimistic impact on ssr. The study has also found that the reformed army and police have been strongly criticised due to a lack of local ownership and citizen oversight, gender inequality, and poor democratic control. Nevertheless, beyond its limitations, the study shows that ssr has achieved a mixture of success in the current security, stability and peace in Liberia.

The Local, the ‘Indigenous’ and the Limits of Rethinking Peacebuilding

ABSTRACT Recent critical perspectives on peacebuilding have sought to shed light on experiences so far marginalized by mainstream approaches. In particular, critics have pushed peacebuilding towards radically different ways of thinking about governance, conflict and peace, by engaging with narratives, experiences and knowledge coming from societies perceived as not invested in modernity or liberalism, such as Indigenous communities. Whilst this may force theory to confront questions of human-centrism, colonial erasure, and structural violence, turning to Indigeneity without questioning the impact of liberal peace ‘thinking', might further elicit marginalization and appropriation, and simply ‘save’ liberal peacebuilding through the back door.

Where does hybridity originate? Interfacing between local and international actors in Sri Lankan postconflict peacebuilding

ABSTRACT The peace and conflict literature has paid much attention to the hybridity produced by international peacebuilders and local actors. Although the modalities of hybridity have been discussed, few studies related to hybridity have observed the presence of locally led hybrid peacebuilding. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper addresses an emerging form of hybridization that is distinct from the internationally led type by examining the case of Sri Lanka. The paper takes a new direction by investigating the peace practices of local agents, referred to as grama niladharis (GNs), which has caused changes in the behavior of international actors in liberal peacebuilding in Sri Lanka. An anthropological method is applied with in-depth interviews and participatory observation. The paper identifies a critical direction for the discourse by documenting a form of locally led hybridization in which the GN system, with ownership by the local government, incorporates certain liberal peacebuilding concepts. Through this hybridization, local systems appear to reinterpret the liberal peace practices introduced by international peacebuilders in a modified form of peacebuilding and maintain autonomous local operations.

Judicializing economic violence as means of dismantling the structural causes of atrocity in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract The International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted three militia commanders – Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Germain Katanga and Bosco Ntaganda – for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ituri, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, none of these convictions have resulted in a cessation of violence in the region, as recent events have illustrated. Although the ICC is one initiative aimed at securing peace in Ituri, the extent of the ICC’s engagement with this particular context presents a good opportunity to reflect on its limited contribution and to illustrate the structural violence problems that underlie most, if not all, ICC situations and cases in Africa. Furthermore, it will be argued that the ICC can redeem itself from its embeddedness within the liberal peacebuilding paradigm by judicialising the economic realities of violence, thereby combating some of the worst effects of structural violence.

Environmental peacebuilding from below: customary approaches in Timor-Leste

Abstract Environmental peacebuilding is the integration of natural resource management into conflict prevention, resolution and recovery so as to support peace and environmental sustainability. Most studies have been of cases where there is significant involvement of external (usually international) actors. They thus provide implicit support for liberal peacebuilding practice, which is itself the subject of much critique. Conversely, documented examples of environmental peacebuilding from below are rare. We analyse an endogenously emerging environmental peacebuilding institution, the customary tara bandu process in Timor-Leste. We explain the way tara bandu is used bottom-up to promote the sustainable use of natural resources and more peaceful relations. Tara bandu proves to be a successful, locally diverse environmental peacebuilding institution. We further show how recent attempts by international peacebuilders and state institutions to employ tara bandu have somewhat ignored the way it is deeply interwoven with local social and spiritual relations, and in so doing have jeopardized its legitimacy and efficacy. This suggests that attempts from outside actors to facilitate environmental peacebuilding may be constrained by a mismatch between theorized norms of social and environmental relations (such as ‘shared interests’) and local cultural particularities.

The Local Turn In Peace Studies Toward A Review Of Liberal Peacebuilding

The Local Turn In Peace Studies Toward A Review Of Liberal Peacebuilding

Time to break up with the international community? Rhetoric and realities of a political myth in Cambodia

AbstractThe international community is as ubiquitous as it is elusive and its universalist pretensions remain unchallenged in political and academic discourse. In response, this article turns to Bottici's work on political myths. Against the notion of myths as falsehoods, we argue that they create their own sphere of shared social and political reality. The analysis centres on the case of Cambodia, a country that served as an experiment of liberal interventionism. It draws on archival and field research on two consecutive international interventions, a review of public statements by international actors, and interviews with Cambodian actors and activist. We argue that to understand the ideas actors use to orient themselves as they press for change, it is necessary to consider how decades of engagement with the myth have shaped the political imaginary. Our empirical analysis points to three different phases in the use of the myth: Its production during UNTAC, the reinforcement of its narratives through subsequent legal, aid and development interventions, and finally its contemporary use in a post-liberal context. We observe that Cambodian actors increasingly engage the myth to question the terms of transnational cooperation for democracy. Our work has implications for assessments of the legacies of liberal peacebuilding.

Beyond Liberal Peace in Sri Lanka: Victory, Politics, and State Formation

In 2009, the war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ended through a military victory for the government. Features of the post-war peace—including persistent militarization, strengthened nationalism, and communal violence—have commonly been attributed to a failed attempt at liberal peacebuilding followed by an authoritarian backlash. In contrast, this study shows how the post-war peace has been shaped by historical processes of state formation aimed at consolidating the Sri Lankan state. The article takes a long-term approach to analysing peace in Sri Lanka through the lens of state formation. The analysis centres on four key aspects: (1) post-war security, (2) state–minority relations, (3) socio-economic aspects, and (4) electoral politics. We conclude that there are currently few signs of any substantial state reform that would accommodate the continuous demand for social justice and minority rights that has spurred violent conflicts in Sri Lanka.

EU peacebuilding’s new khaki: Exceptionalist militarism in the trading of good governed for military-capable states

This article explores how European Union (EU) peacebuilding is being reconfigured. Whereas the EU was once a bulwark of liberal peacebuilding, promoting a rule of law–based international order, it is now downplaying the goal of good governance and placing military capacity as central for international peace and security. Several works have analysed these changes but have not theorised militarism, despite war-waging and war-preparation have marked EU peacebuilding’s direction. The article argues that EU peacebuilding continues to expose elements of liberal militarism since its origins but is now changing from what Mabee and Vucetic call a nation-statist to an exceptionalist militarism. This shift implies that peace has ceased to be served by the intervention of sovereignty with a discourse based on the link between order, good governance, and human rights and is now premised on the upholding of sovereignty, even if that means the suspension of rights. The research draws on thematic analysis of EU documents and interviews undertaken with EU and G5 Sahel officials and managers of EU-funded peacebuilding programmes. It also briefly analyses the case of the Sahel as an example of how the build-up of states’ military capacity is strengthening states’ capacity to override human rights and repressing dissent.

“Our struggle, our cry, our sweat”: challenging the gendered logics of participation and conflict transition in Solomon Islands

ABSTRACT While women’s contributions to peacebuilding and conflict mediation are currently viewed as central to the durability of peace, women peace leaders still face constraints in their work toward a peace that is gender-just. In this article, we reflect on the gendered rules that structure the conflict transition environment in Solomon Islands, a context that is shaped by interactions between internationally driven liberal peacebuilding and local influences. Building on insights from feminist institutional analysis, we describe this environment as a complex ecology of gendered rule making in which constraints to women’s participation are formidable. Nonetheless, we are motivated to investigate whether closer attention to Indigenous deliberative institutions in this context, and perhaps in others, might offer possibilities for navigating these constraints. Our research suggests that if due consideration is given to these institutions, the political weight of women’s stories of “struggle,” “cries,” and “sweat” might drive change more effectively, making the objectives of durable and gender-just peace more attainable for those in conflict-affected societies.

Peace in the Family is the Basis of Peace in the Country: How Women Contribute to Local Peace in Southern Kyrgyzstan

ABSTRACT There has been a significant amount of research on peacebuilding in Central Asia in general and in Kyrgyzstan in particular. This has helped us both understand socio-political processes in the republic itself, and the shortcomings of the liberal peacebuilding framework in general. However, this work has, with rare exceptions, focused largely on male peacebuilding at either the state or international scale. Correcting that trend, this article illuminates the role of women peacebuilders in the post-conflict city of Osh. Based on ethnographic research conducted in 2016, it argues that women have a hitherto overlooked but nonetheless important ‘invisible’ role in peacebuilding.

Revolutions and the liberal peace: Peacebuilding as counterrevolutionary practice?

This article explores the relationship between contemporary revolutionary agency, domestic reforms and liberal peacebuilding in the aftermath of the Arab Uprisings. In particular, it focuses on the tensions between the liberal peace’s orthodox and emancipatory strands by asking: Does liberal peacebuilding support or hinder revolutionary emancipation in the Arab region? The article aims to close a gap in PCS scholarship by delivering insights into contemporary revolutionary processes (here called ‘everyday state formation’). After elaborating the disjunctures between revolutionary agency and liberal peacebuilding interventions in the spheres of statebuilding, development and democratisation, many peacebuilding interventions appear as counterrevolutionary practices.

A Resilience Approach to Transitional Justice?

ABSTRACTTransitional justice, which is typically part of a liberal peacebuilding strategy, often seems distant, ineffective or even counter-productive. The concept of resilience, to which transitional justice discourses and scholarship have remained relatively indifferent, appears useful to explore justice initiatives in conflict or post-conflict situations. This article argues that much can be gained from better understanding the relevance of – and significant risks associated with – resilience thinking in this context. Through a critical approach to resilience, and embedded within a legal-pluralist framework, it examines some of the ways of dealing with political violence, with a particular focus on the Central African Republic.

For a Dynamic Approach to Stabilization

ABSTRACT Stabilization is a contestable concept of intervention in violent conflicts. Often, it is either uncritically supported or rejected. In this article, we criticize current conceptualisations and practices of stabilization and newly introduce a dynamic approach for stabilization that yields a transformative potential. By distinguishing static vs. dynamic approaches to stabilization, we address the widespread dilemma that so-called stabilization measures seem unable to avoid instability and protracted violence in the long-term. Our analysis of the three policy fields peacekeeping, train & equip programmes and migration management in Mali reveals the dominance of static elements in stabilization practice. Instead, our article proposes to see a transformative variant of stabilization measures that enhances long-term security and development. We argue that there are two dynamic approaches of stabilization that policy-makers and practitioners can apply in (post-)conflict societies: state-centred liberal peacebuilding that takes its normative core seriously, and non-state centric peacebuilding that acknowledges alternative lived orders.

Positive Peace, Paradox, and Contested Liberalisms

Particular conceptions of peace can be associated with logics of dominance and imposition, but also human flourishing and emancipation. These dynamics have been amply explored in debates about liberal peacebuilding over the past two decades. Despite a recent renaissance of attention, however, the concept of positive peace has only rarely been problematized to the same extent. That is unfortunate because it has the potential to operate at both ends of this imposition-emancipation spectrum. This paper revisits Galtung’s early (1960s) articulation of positive peace in order to resurface its fundamental radicalism, together with some of its inherent tensions, paradoxes and politics, particularly insofar as one might try to operationalize the theory. It then explores the linkages between the concept of positive peace and the prevailing peacebuilding paradigm of our day: liberal peacebuilding. I argue that our understanding of both positive peace and liberal peacebuilding can be clarified when viewed through the lens of contested liberalisms and conflicting liberal values. Advancing peace theory and praxis at this stage would benefit from an increasing willingness to openly confront some of these conflicts and a greater degree of transparency about our liberal commitments, including in the hard, “real world” cases where tensions seem irreconcilable.