Liberal Peacebuilding Research Articles

Russia’s Wagner Group/Africa Corps: an authoritarian conflict management examination

ABSTRACT The article examines Russia’s Wagner Group and its successor, Africa Corps, through the lens of Authoritarian Conflict Management (ACM) with its three levels of discourse, space, and economy. To set the analysis, the article first identifies ACM’s rationales and components in contradistinction to liberal peacebuilding. The article then interrogates Wagner Group’s activities in the Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali. It closes with a scrutiny of Wagner Group’s impact and limitations with ACM in mind and investigates the degree to which Africa Corps can be framed in the same manner. Collectively, these parts reveal that Wagner Group’s presence supported democratic erosion and authoritarian entrenchment in CAR and Mali. Yet human rights transgressions against civilians and particular attention to mining and economic activities spurred grievances amongst non-fighters, rebel groups, and jihadists alike in CAR and Mali. Quantitative personnel limitations of Wagner Group/Africa Corps both inform the stance taken and limit the ability to respond and assert dominance as per ACM considerations.

Democratization and Peace after Civil War—What Difference Can International Engagement Make? Insights from Liberia

Abstract What role can international engagement play for the relationship between post-conflict democratization and conflict recurrence? Empirical evidence indicates that democratization risks triggering violence. Consequently, some scholars criticize the liberal peacebuilding approach, which centers on the promotion of democracy and competitive elections with the aim of fostering peace after civil wars. This article (1) illustrates the risks and potential of post-conflict democratization and (2) traces the effect of international support in this context. It builds on the existing literature yet goes beyond the concentration on peacekeeping forces and places particular attention on democracy promotion. The analysis draws on rich empirical data from Liberia, which is an ideal case to explore this relationship. Twice, democratic elections followed in the wake of a devastating civil war in Liberia. The first post-war elections in 1997 are often cited as an example of how externally induced democratization triggers renewed violence. The democratization process following the end of the second civil war in 2003, in contrast, is regarded as having strengthened peace. The analysis shows that international (democracy) support constitutes a key explanatory factor in the Liberian case by reducing and even substituting for the weakness and lack of credibility of local democratic institutions and procedures.

Pragmatism, courage, and ideals of peace in times of war

ABSTRACT After the demise of liberal peacebuilding, the policy literature often views peacebuilding as a project aimed at avoiding relapse into conflict, focusing on prevention, stabilisation and hard security. Also, critical peace scholars have predominantly narrowed peacebuilding down to gradual, small, hybrid, everyday work. There is no enthusiasm for pointing towards new ideals of peace. To this aim, this article engages with the work of the American social worker, feminist, and peace activist of the early twentieth century, Jane Addams, who was the first to theorise what a positive peace may be. According to Addams, a positive peace was about enlarging human relations and already emerging from the ashes of the First World War. Peacebuilding had to be heroic, courageous, and aggressive, substituting the virtues of war. Her pragmatist work is useful for thinking of alternative imaginaries of liberal peace in times when imagination about peace and peacebuilding has dimmed.

Where is Serbia's stabilitocracy heading to? A Break from the past but without a future

Since 2012, the gradual establishment of a new type of political regime, stabilitocracy in the Balkan region and Serbia in particular has raised many questions. From Europeanization (failed attempts), active and instrumentalized memory activism, and progressivism, to the foreign policy shift compared to Yugoslavia and, broadly speaking, the contestability of the liberal peacebuilding processes at work in Serbia, this paper engages in a critical discussion about its constituents and emphasizes the limits of the current Serbian political pattern beyond dogmatism and partisan discourses, and by showing greater openness to non-Western ways of thinking.

The future of UN peace operations: pragmatism, pluralism or statism?

Abstract Although United Nations peace missions have played an important conflict management role for decades, a backlash against the post-Cold War model of ‘liberal peacebuilding’ and other recent developments have called their future into doubt. Some observers contend that a ‘pragmatic turn’ is now underway—a shift away from ambitious plans to transform war-torn societies into liberal democracies and towards more modest and realistic goals. Whether ‘pragmatism’ offers a viable alternative framework for peacebuilding, however, is less clear. This article challenges key assumptions of the pragmatic approach to peacebuilding, including the notion that UN missions can be ‘agnostic’ about the governance arrangements of societies that host these operations, as some proponents of pragmatism recommend. Historical case-studies show that such assumptions are integral features of collective conflict management systems, including UN peace missions. Moreover, a close examination of the pragmatist approach reveals that it, too, is based on such assumptions—namely, that building peace requires the promotion of pluralist societies and states. Pluralist peacebuilding, the article concludes, could offer a compelling foundation for future UN missions in an era of rising statist–authoritarianism, but developing this approach will first require discarding pragmatism's pretence of ideological agnosticism.

Peacebuilding Efforts in Civil War-Affected Countries in Afghanistan

Purpose: The aim of the study was to analyze peacebuilding efforts in civil war-affected countries in Afghanistan. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: Peacebuilding in war-torn Afghanistan faces hurdles due to ongoing conflict, ethnic divides, and Taliban resurgence. Governance reforms and reconciliation efforts struggle amidst poverty and corruption. Despite some progress, achieving lasting peace is an uphill battle. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Liberal peacebuilding theory, critical peacebuilding theory & relational peacebuilding theory may be used to anchor future studies on the peacebuilding efforts in civil war-affected countries in Afghanistan. Peacebuilding efforts should prioritize local ownership, inclusivity, and participatory approaches that empower affected communities to take an active role in shaping their own futures. Peacebuilding efforts should be integrated into broader development, security, and governance frameworks to ensure coherence, coordination, and sustainability.

Emerging trends in peacebuilding: The case of Colombia

AbstractThe implementation of the 2016 Peace Agreement has produced one of the most comprehensive and exhaustive peacebuilding efforts to date. The ambitious peace agreement, centred around six core themes, has expanded the scope of peacebuilding into areas that traditionally have been largely ignored or overlooked by policymakers. While the implementation process is still maintaining an overall trajectory that can be considered as success, the same process is still poised with a range of engdogenous and exogenous challenges that may undermine both the pace and the quality of peacebuilding efforts. This article surveys the current trends in the implementation phase, highlighting the key dynamics that stand in the way of an effective and timely implementation of the Colombian peace plan. In addition to exploring the emerging challenges to the liberal peacebuilding approach, this article also highlights the significance of concurrent opportunities and liabilities that stem from developmental approaches to peacebuilding.

New public financial management in liberal peacebuilding discourse: The Palestine–Israel conflict and the World Bank

AbstractThis paper delves into the discursive recontextualization of new public financial management (NPFM) in the context of peacebuilding, reshaping the dynamics among the donor community, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority. Utilizing Fairclough's dialectical relational version of Critical Discourse Analysis (2003, 2013) as a methodological framework, we extend the NPFM literature by broadening our understanding of how diverse discourses—particularly NPFM rooted in neoliberalism and peacebuilding—are brought together in a specific relationship for the purpose of transmission. In addition, this study advances our comprehension of the dialogic nature of NPFM, exploring the extent to which other voices are represented, excluded, or suppressed in the examined texts. The paper sheds light on the role of international agencies, exemplified by the World Bank, in transposing development discourses—a theme explored in previous research. Furthermore, we contribute to the literature by highlighting that the peacebuilding context serves as a space for influential actors, such as donor agencies, to exert their influence.

The End of Liberal Peacebuilding

The End of Liberal Peacebuilding

Undoing the Liberal versus Illiberal Peacebuilding Dichotomy

ABSTRACT Peacebuilding necessitates a re-evaluation of the Western/liberal, non-Western/illiberal dichotomy. After numerous failures in liberal peacebuilding and the lack of innovative intervention approaches, scholars sought potential alternatives in emerging powers’ involvement in post-conflict reconstruction. However, the debate often oversimplifies the issue, categorizing Western peacebuilding as inherently liberal and non-Western peacebuilding as illiberal. This dichotomic understanding is problematic and hinders progress in the analysis of the subject. We contend that peacebuilding has become institutionalized as a foreign policy tool driven by national interests, with similar strategies employed by different governmental actors irrespective of their stated objectives.

Manjkavost liberalnog nacionalizma kao uslova pozitivnog mira na Balkanu

The subject of the paper is liberal nationalism as the only acceptable form of nationalism for the Balkans, which has been imposed and allowed by the so-called great forces (the EU and the USA) after the end of the Cold War for this, from a political and ethnic aspect, unstable region. Liberal nationalism is an integral part of liberal peacebuilding, a dominant matrix on a global level, and it has been established as one of its strategies for building and maintaining positive peace, the conditions of normal functioning and the path of the Balkan countries towards the European Union. The paper first explains the concept of positive peace and provides an overview of the state in our region, and then it points to the central ideas of liberalism and nationalism as the foundations of liberal nationalism, whose features are stated thereafter. The focus of the paper is on the analysis of the shortcomings of liberal nationalism since political and ethnic crises in the Balkan countries in the last decade indicate that, in the imposed basis of peace in these societies, "something is not right". As the most obvious drawback of the application of liberal nationalism in the Balkans, favoring political nation model has been identified, which is contrary to the history and specificities of Balkan peoples (it resulted in the projects such as the building of the so-called Bosnian and Montenegrin nation, which has deepened ethnic-identity conflicts as the basis of political crises endangering the functioning of these states). In the concluding remarks, as a basic way to solve this drawback, or rather the illogicality, of liberal nationalism as a condition for positive peace in our region, focusing and returning to the cultural model of the nation is proposed because, firstly, this is the authentic feature of this type of nationalism, which is in accordance with its origin and characteristics, and secondly, the cultural-ethnic determination of the nation is the prevailing and authentic model of the nation in the Balkans. This idea about emphasizing the primary status of a cultural version of a nation refers to the aspect of liberal nationalism on the necessity of including national belonging, as an integral part of cultural belonging, in primary goods that the state ensures for its citizens, which means that liberal state cannot be fully ethnically neutral either. Furthermore, the cultural nation model, as an autochthonous feature of Balkan peoples, needs to be included more intensively in all the segments of liberal peacebuilding, whereby its adverse effects would be mitigated in the Balkans at least in part.

Autocratisation and Peacebuilding in Mozambique (2012–2019): Towards Illiberal Peace?

In 2012, 20 years after the end of the 16-year war between Renamo and the Frelimo-led government, Mozambique witnessed the resumption of armed confrontations between the two former belligerents. The renewed hostilities ended in 2019 when Renamo and the government signed the Maputo Accord for Peace and Reconciliation, hailed as a ‘global exemplar’ of liberal conflict resolution. Nevertheless, the peace process occurred in the context of increasing autocratisation in the country. Accordingly, this article examines the implications of authoritarian politics for an ostensibly liberal peacebuilding process. It argues that while the ruling elites resist attempts at building liberal peace, authoritarian conflict management has been complicated by state incapacity and the resistance of liberal actors. Therefore, the article concludes that attempts at rebuilding peace in a context of entrenched tensions between liberalisation and autocratisation in Mozambique delivered a precarious peace.

A Listening Device: Colombia’s Truth Commission and the Politics of the Audible

Abstract In this brief text I want to offer a personal reflection on my work as a former Commissioner in Colombia’s Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-repetition. What is of interest to me is the idea that truth-seeking commission models are complex “listening devices” that render certain forms of violence intelligible while other more systemic types, remain elusive. In contexts of deeply rooted historical and endemic racial and economic inequalities, this is not a minor issue as these material inequalities are at the heart of conflict itself. In fact, what I call the “transitional promise of transformation” often falls short of changing the structures of quotidian experience of people and communities scarred by such historical injuries. Rather, those “transformations” are deferred to a future “liberal peace building” or development-oriented agenda. I examine this way of listening through a particular theoretical lens and aspire not only to contribute with an empathic and a reflexive distance from our work as a Commission but also to posit wider questions.

Limitations of Liberal Peace Building in Sri Lanka

After the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka, building national unity and peace is still difficult. However, after 30 years, the country needs stable peace and unity among the people. Based on this, in the practical environment of the country, the governments that come to power from time to time have won the elections citing war as the reason, but the expectations of the minority communities have not been fulfilled till now. Attitudes about the war among Sri Lankan people have been explained. At the same time; the position of the Sri Lankan nation, people, and civil society in building peace has also been examined. The perspective of the Sinhalese people and the Tamil people and their expectations have been examined and mentioned to explain what kind of positions the people have after the war. Also, what kind of activities Sri Lanka is taking in peace building among foreign countries and the position of international countries regarding its practices are also explained. In addition to being a qualitative study, information has been gathered and summarized through interview methods and documents related to the topic for this research. National unity among all the people of the country is essential. And it is necessary to build peace among all the parties of the country. All parties should come forward to provide facilities for people to live a smooth life. This article is based on the fact that the governments of the country should ensure that inter-ethnic relations and unity are continuously maintained.

The UN Charter is our rules! Interview with Anna M. Evstigneeva, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

The practice of the functioning of the United Nations and the actual mechanisms of peacekeeping differ significantly from the theoretical ideas about them. Anna Mikhailovna Evstigneeva, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations (UN), who has been dealing with peacekeeping issues for many years, answers a number of important questions about contemporary peacekeeping and peacebuilding in her interview. She argues that while the West is building a “rules-based order,” for Russia the rules are the UN Charter. The key to ensuring the effectiveness of an international organization, according to A.M. Evstigneeva, is the ability of the parties to reach mutually beneficial solutions and to take each other’s interests into account. The rest is a “superstructure,” which, however, is partially enshrined in the doctrine. Dozens of factors (dialogue with civil society, gender, climate, etc.) play a special role, which over time become universal. Often, the beautiful Western theories of liberal peacebuilding do not stand up to the harsh reality; and in a number of cases there is silence on the part of decision-makers about the real situation on the ground. This interview highlights the challenges of the existing system of international peacekeeping in the context of the formation of a multipolar world.

Re-considering Nonresolution in Cyprus: The Impact of Illiberal Conditions on Liberal Peacebuilding

Abstract Although bi-communal violence in Cyprus ended almost 50 years ago, the island’s northern and southern sides have yet to reach a comprehensive peace deal. As a result, Cypriots live in a state of functional coexistence whereby they interact with each other in a limited fashion and nonviolently. This article examines the most common explanations for the status quo of nonresolution that has existed in Cyprus for decades before offering a new explanation to consider and address this nonresolution: the mismatch between “liberal” peacebuilding interventions and “illiberal” conditions. To overcome this mismatch, this article argues that it is first necessary to address illiberal conditions to allow peacebuilding attempts to be successful. If illiberalities are not dealt with, they will not only sustain and perpetuate nonresolution, but they will also prevent the emergence of positive peace.

Why ideas matter: Exploring the potential and limits of local civil society agency in peacebuilding

ABSTRACT Drawing on research conducted with a range of actors in Armenia during the aftermath of the 2020 war over Nagorno Karabakh, we examine the potential and limits of local agency peacebuilding. In examining how agency is manifested and constrained in situations of conflict, we draw on social and political theories of agency and power to consider the dialogic interplay between actors, structures and ideas. By adopting the framework of discursive institutionalism, we analyze the importance of ideas in shaping politics and policy. We argue that in the field of peacebuilding in Armenia, the agency of local civil society actors is on the one hand affected by the liberal peacebuilding paradigm advanced by international actors and on the other hand, by hegemonic State and societal discourses about the conflict. Together, these have engendered forms of disciplinary power that have led to self-censorship and reticence among civil society actors, limiting their agency in peacebuilding.

Folklore as a Vehicle for Conflict Resolution in Africa: A Case Study of Côte d’Ivoire

This paper examines l’Arbre à Palabre (AP)—Under the Palaver Tree, an Ivorian peacebuilding mechanism in contemporary conflict resolution. I argue that contextual and local understanding of armed conflicts before designing conflict resolution mechanisms is critical for peacebuilding because of the peculiarities of every post-conflict society. The mechanisms are geographically limited and culturally distinct but ontologically homogeneous across many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. I demonstrate that while liberal peacebuilding has its problems on the continent, African mechanisms are not immune because of the dynamics of modern conflicts, therefore the latter needs innovative approaches that transcend ethnic borders to meet contemporary challenges.

Stretching the Peace: The Role of Kundalini Yoga in the Lives of Young People in Alexandra, South Africa

The purpose of this exploratory study is to underline the importance of a humanistic approach to peace studies against a scenario characterized by the failings and weaknesses of the liberal peacebuilding agenda. To do so, we employ a transrational peace research framework to investigate whether Kundalini yoga can be used as a peacebuilding tool by analyzing its role in the lives of young people living in an Alexandra township, in South Africa. We conducted semistructured interviews with yoga instructors, surveyed yogis online, and analyzed three annual reports of Yoga4Alex, an organization that provides young people in Alexandra with tools for a better life through Kundalini yoga (and other programs). The main findings of this study demonstrate that practicing Kundalini yoga plays a vital role in the yogis’ lives in Alexandra, creating a space where peace can grow. Many respondents consider that yoga creates a community that offers them support and mental well-being. Moreover, yoga practice helps to develop tools they can use for personal transformation, contributing to the creation of a new identity and offering a nonviolent alternative for everyday life. This study provides reflections for both research and practice.

UN Reforms for an Era of Pragmatic Peacekeeping

ABSTRACT The era of liberal peacebuilding has passed, ushering in a turn toward pragmatic peacekeeping. Previously [Cassin, Katelyn, and Benjamin Zyla. 2021. “The End of the Liberal World Order and the Future of UN Peace Operations: Lessons Learned.” Global Policy 12 (4): 455–467] we argued that the UN must become less directive; accept a diffusion of control; and engage in more locally-driven approaches to peace interventions in light of this changing world order. In this article we posit that such reforms are contingent on change within liberal UN member states. We offer aligned strategic and operational recommendations for nations to reform their bureaucracies, training programmes, and framing strategies, to prepare for a fifth generation of UN peacekeeping that is normatively-flexible, collaborative, adaptive and relational.