Peace Agenda Research Articles

Peace polysemy in business and peace agendas

This article presents an empirical study that delves into the complex dynamics of business–society relationships in fragile postconflict contexts. It addresses a crucial question: How does the interpretation of peace shape business and peace agendas? Our qualitative case study of Colombia, involving 41 stakeholder interviews and document analysis, focuses on the department of Antioquia. This region is undergoing a transformative process through the Development Programs with a Territorial Approach, known as PDET. These instruments aim to stabilize and transform conflict-affected regions, thereby contributing to peacebuilding in the country. Our findings reveal three distinct types of business and peace agendas, each rooted in different interpretations of peace: those that are direct, indirect, or independent from the government peace agendas. We propose an approach for tracing peace polysemy and establishing a minimal convergence between peace agendas, offering practical implications for decision-makers. We contribute to business and peace studies and identify promising avenues for future research.

Counterterrorism in the Lake Chad Region: An analysis of the fragmented efforts in Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram

While the need for securitisation and counterterrorism cooperation among states is consistently re-echoed in the previous studies on security, the role (or complicity) of the neo-liberal state in distorting and undermining these arrangements has been neglected. The objective of this article is to examine how state actors are implicated in the weakening of counterterrorism engagements in the Lake Chad region. Based on qualitative methods of data collection and analysis, the study identified three thresholds of state complicity undermining the fight against Boko Haram: (i) information compromise (ii) amnesty programme complicity (rehabilitation of Boko Haram members) and (iii) intelligence complicity. These are primarily underpinned by the rehabilitation of ‘unrepentant’ Boko Haram terrorists, fragmentation of military institutions, and complicity in cross-border arms movements. These acts do not only undermine internal peace and security but also perpetuate transnational terrorism in the Lake Chad region. The article, therefore, recommends a new peace agenda hinged on a hybrid of regional partnership on peace education and security cooperation.

Peacebuilding Inc.: neoliberal influences on Rwanda’s vulnerable youth

ABSTRACT Despite the notion that lasting peace is dependent upon youth participation, their contributions to peacebuilding are often overlooked by policymakers and scholars. Drawing on the case of Rwandan vulnerable youth, this article discusses how youth frame and describe their role in the national neoliberal peace agenda. This study draws from a mixed-method study with a survey and focus groups based at a Rwandan non-governmental organisation secondary boarding school. Findings suggest that a neoliberal national narrative plays an important role in youth prioritising economic participation and engaging in entrepreneurship as primary paths towards peacebuilding.

Disarming the Women, Peace and Security agenda: the case for centring the United Nations General Assembly

Abstract After over two decades of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda at the UN Security Council, involving the adoption of 10 thematic resolutions, there is now increasing momentum towards the de-centring of the Council from feminist engagement and from broader institutional activity on WPS. Against this backdrop, this article lays out arguments for centring the WPS agenda instead in the UN General Assembly. Given its broader membership and mandate, its role in international law-making, and critically, its leadership on disarmament, the article argues that the General Assembly offers more propitious opportunities for the institutionalization of a feminist peace agenda.

Peacemaking in an authoritaraian context in Africa: Promoting peace from below in Cameroon

Abstract Cameroon, traditionally overlooked on the international peace agenda, has recently received increased attention due to mounting security challenges. Operating under an authoritarian regime that denies conflicts while promoting a narrative of stability, the course of international peace-from-below initiatives is profoundly influenced by this constrained political environment. Through in-depth case studies of three ongoing humanitarian crises—the Central African refugees’ influx, the Boko Haram/Islamic State West Africa Province insurgency, and the Anglophone conflict—this article contends that localized peace approaches, centring on grassroots reconciliation, may obscure broader structural issues, silence non-state political claims from below, and absolve the state of its responsibilities. Embracing such methodologies not only reinforces authoritarian dynamics but also exhibits a performative dimension, contributing to the establishment of a ‘victor’s peace’ in the absence of military victory.

Sustaining gender: Natural resource management, conflict prevention, and the UN Sustaining Peace agenda in times of climate catastrophe

Abstract Climate change and its potentially violent consequences for international peace and security have transformed the United Nations (UN) approach to Sustaining Peace. One of the emblematic initiatives of this new approach is the UN Joint Programme for Women, Natural Resources, Climate, and Peace. We use feminist peace scholarship to consider what the recent debates about who builds peace and where peace is built in Peace Studies and Environmental Peacebuilding miss when they treat concepts of ‘scale’ and local natural resource management as gender-neutral and what this might tell us about the wider UN Peacebuilding agenda in which it is situated. We make three claims. First, we claim that gendered relations of power that leverage women for win–win opportunities of peace and gender equality (re)produce an idea of a feminised, self-contained local. Second, we demonstrate that this makes it possible to reproduce the dominant political order that privileges intervention, and the dominant economic order that is occupied with forcing ‘local’ economies to adapt their natural resource management strategies. Third, we argue that assuming that ‘the who’ and ‘the where’ of building peace is local makes it much harder to ask about how the conditions of possibility for violence transcend scales.

RENEWING THE AGENDA FOR PEACE: MOBILIZING THE MULTILATERAL SYSTEM TO PREVENT NUCLEAR RISKS

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought back the spectre of nuclear war. A sustained nuclear “sabre-rattling” from Russian authorities has triggered a dynamic debate about the Russian nuclear doctrine, the feasibility of use of “tactical” nuclear warheads in the Ukrainian battle theatre, the alleged consequences of such use, including escalation to a wider nuclear exchange with the United States and NATO, and the impact of such developments in global peace and security. The alarming prospect of nuclear devastation requires a bold political response from all peace-loving nations, particularly those from the South, cooperating with United Nations members coalescing around the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and, more widely, in like-minded coalitions galvanized by the humanitarian consequences of nuclear detonations. The Latin American and Caribbean region, and Chile in particular, have a special responsibility to deploy their diplomatic capabilities, inter alia, by supporting the Secretary General’s “New agenda for peace”, and mobilising the normative and operational powers of the General Assembly.

“A New Agenda for Peace” – The New School of Multilateralism

“A New Agenda for Peace” – The New School of Multilateralism

Zločini nad osobljem mirovnih misija tokom njihovog razvoja

The paper analyses the crimes against the personnel of the peacekeeping missions, which occur for numerous reasons related to the complexity of such missions. These reasons are mainly related to complicated political and normative space of the modern international society. The author refers to the Agenda for Peace of Secretary General Boutros-Ghali which first pointed out the need for providing protection for the personnel of the peacekeeping missions, as well to the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Related Personnel which regulates protection of the personnel, analysed in the context of crimes against personnel of peacekeeping missions. Paper also refers to some of the key UN documents adopted after 2017, which was the record year in 21st century when it comes to peacekeeper fatalities. The cases of crimes against personnel that the paper analyses are related to peacekeeping missions in Somalia, Rwanda, and Bosnia and Herzegovina as those cases are most often representative examples of the occurrence of crimes against peacekeepers, and closely connected to its development in the international arena. Finally, the paper refers to some of the most dangerous peacekeeping operations in modern international community.

AI for peace: mitigating the risks and enhancing opportunities

Abstract This article focuses on measuring the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the peace and security agenda, taking stock of recent initiatives and progress in this area. While there is a keen awareness of the fact that AI can be weaponized to become a tool of power politics and military competition, there is comparatively less systematic attention paid to what technology can do for peace. While it is important to address risk mitigation, equal space should be given to thinking about how to harness the peace potential of AI on a large scale. This study follows a series of publications that aim to assess the impact of technological innovation on peace, also referred to as PeaceTech, Global PeaceTech, peace innovation, or digital peacebuilding. The first section provides an overview of the debate on the impact of AI on peace and conflict. The second section examines conceptual frameworks and measures of the impact of AI on peace and conflict. The third section looks at the risks to peace and conflict posed by the use of AI and possible governance measures to mitigate them. The fourth section provides examples of AI-enabled initiatives that are having a positive impact on peace, providing a compass for public and private investment. The conclusion offers policy recommendations to advance the AI for peace agenda.

A Fragile Agenda for Peace: Change and Continuity in the Biden Administration’s Africa Policy

As the Biden administration’s first term nears its conclusion, this essay takes stock of the emerging consequences of its approach to US foreign relations with Africa. It does so by assessing change and continuity in US relations with the African states that have been selected by the Biden administration for Global Fragility Act partnerships: Libya, Mozambique, and, as a region, the coastal West African states of Ghana, Guinea, Togo, Benin, and Côte d’Ivoire. Passed in late 2019, the Global Fragility Act was hailed as a policy innovation meant to bring better coordination and long-term planning to US attempts to prevent conflicts and engender stability in regions of concern for Washington. This essay argues that these aims will be undermined by the dearth of new proposals advanced by the Global Fragility Act as well as the Biden administration’s overarching commitment to counterterrorism and geostrategic competition in Africa.

Performance Arts in Zimbabwe: Setting the Agenda for Peace and Development

Using purposively selected works of Zimbabwean artists posted on YouTube, and the public comments on this content, this article demonstrates the agenda-setting capabilities of performance artists, particularly those anchored on theatre, music and poetry. It does this by analysing how the artists set the agenda for peace, economic equity, political justice, social harmony and development in Zimbabwe. The paper notes that performance arts have been vital cogs in supporting and strengthening interventions aimed at achieving peace and development in the country. On the other hand, the comments section on social media sites was viewed as a ‘public space’ where people ‘converge’ to share their thoughts on various issues affecting them as raised by artists. Using document analysis and social media for observational data, this article argues that artists are critical in contributing to the peacebuilding discourse in Zimbabwe through putting important governance issues on the public agenda. The onus is on the authorities and other development partners to use this information to address the needs and the plight of the masses as a prerequisite for conflict transformation.

Asean Synergy Makes a Mine-Free World in Indonesia

The Convention for the Comprehensive Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines, was created with the aim of realizing a "Mine Free World". Indonesia ratified the 1997 Ottawa Convention into Law “Undang- Undang” Number 20 of 2006. As a State Party, Indonesia is bound to comply with all provisions of the convention. Most important is the commitment to protect every citizen of his country from falling victim to anti-personnel mines. During the armed conflict in Aceh, mines were used by both parties, namely the Indonesian Security Forces and the Free Aceh Movement. The indication is the number of victims who were dominated by civilians after the conflict ended. For this reason, the parties are deemed not to comply with and carry out their responsibilities as intended by the conventions and principles of international humanitarian law. The two sides seemed not doing their best to resolve the problems caused by the presence of anti-personnel mines. Therefore, the experience of ASEAN countries that have succeeded in burying their past due to involvement in armed conflict, is very much needed in mediating the problems experienced in Aceh, Indonesia. Experiences like Vietnam and Cambodia are indispensable in initiating an anti-personnel mine clearance agenda whose findings are still ongoing. Then the Philippines as a party to this convention, which has the characteristics of a non-international armed conflict like Indonesia, also needs its contribution in this regard. ASEAN involvement is intended to work together to encourage the two parties to continue the peace agenda in Aceh according to the Helsinki MoU on August 15, 2005 and Law “Undang-Undang” Number 11 of 2006 on Aceh Governance.

Peacebuilding Accountability: The United Nations Peacebuilding Fund and Community‐Based Monitoring and Evaluation

International peacebuilding as a discourse and practice has expanded rapidly in the nearly three decades since the publication of Boutros Boutros‐Ghali's Agenda for Peace. Alongside the growth of peacebuilding efforts has come the realization that many peacebuilding projects conceived of and sponsored by the international community have failed to meet their own objectives or, more importantly, have failed to be embraced fully by those whom they were supposed to help: the individuals and communities attempting to rebuild their lives in post‐conflict countries. One area that has been under‐examined and—in particular—under‐theorized is the role and impact of funder accountability mechanisms on local ownership, community agency, and peacebuilding success. However, in the development field some work has been done to examine accountability models and to try to develop new ones. As part of a project funded by the Council on Foreign Relations, the author served as a local peacebuilding advisor to the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund's monitoring and evaluation team, where he led an effort to develop a more collaborative evaluation method designed to close accountability loops by including a broader range of actors than that normally considered by current evaluation methodologies. This article offers a scoping analysis of the strengths and weaknesses inherent in the interactions between large international donor agencies and local peacebuilding efforts. It also presents a preview of one agency's determined efforts to bridge those gaps and implement programs and processes designed to promote local agency while supporting transparent accountability.

How Mauritius Became Africa's Avant-Garde in Sustaining Peace

This article investigates how Mauritius has been successful in sustaining peace since 2010. The Mauritian government's inclusive economic development and social security policies to combat poverty and marginalisation, both structural risk factors of violence in society, have been constitutive of a holistic approach that promotes United Nations (UN) pillars—inclusive development, human rights, and peace and security—essential to sustaining peace. This article argues that endogenous Mauritian initiatives, which predate the UN sustaining peace agenda, have generated durable peace, evidenced by the island state's constant position as the top African country on the Global Peace Index.

Peacekeeping, Disarmament, and the New Agenda for Peace

Abstract This article examines briefly the changing nature of conflict from the end of the Cold War until the present “post-post Cold War” era. Against the backdrop of Secretary-General António Guterres’s forthcoming (June 2023) New Agenda for Peace in response to the changing nature of warfare, alongside waning demand for certain UN conflict management tools, the article offers concrete recommendations for advancing peacekeeping (a New Civilian Response Capability, investing in hybrid and partnership-oriented peacekeeping, and revisiting the idea of standing peacekeeping forces) and disarmament (enhanced Arms Trade Treaty transparency, aligning the interests of nuclear armed states and non–nuclear weapons states, and establishing global norms on the illegality of specific types of cyber behavior) through the world body. Reform proposals privilege the development of multilateral and local capacities for peace. The article concludes with some thoughts on the research agenda ahead for scholars and policy analysts dedicated to studying and pursuing peace through more effective approaches to global governance.

Micro‐Evidence for Peacebuilding Theories and Policies edited by YuichiKubota, Singapore, Springer, 2022, viii +120 pp.

The Developing EconomiesEarly View Book Review Micro-Evidence for Peacebuilding Theories and Policies edited by Yuichi Kubota, Singapore, Springer, 2022, viii +120 pp. Wakako Maekawa, Corresponding Author Wakako Maekawa [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0003-3879-8874 Osaka University, Osaka, JapanEmail [email protected]Search for more papers by this author Wakako Maekawa, Corresponding Author Wakako Maekawa [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0003-3879-8874 Osaka University, Osaka, JapanEmail [email protected]Search for more papers by this author First published: 29 May 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/deve.12371Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. REFERENCES Axelrod, Robert. 1967. “Conflict of Interest: An Axiomatic Approach.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 11, no. 1: 87– 99. Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede. 2002. All International Politics Is Local: The Diffusion of Conflict, Integration, and Democratization. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Hellmüller, Sara. 2013. “The Power of Perceptions: Localizing International Peacebuilding Approaches.” International Peacekeeping 20, no. 2: 219– 32. Langer, Arnim, and Frances Stewart. 2014. “ Horizontal Inequalities and Violent Conflict: Conceptual and Empirical Linkages.” In Routledge Handbook of Civil Wars, edited by Edward Newman and Karl DeRouen. London: Routledge. MacGinty, Roger, and Oliver P. Richmond. 2013. “The Local Turn in Peace Building: A Critical Agenda for Peace.” Third World Quarterly 34, no. 5: 763– 83. Talentino, Andrea Kathryn. 2007. “Perceptions of Peacebuilding: The Dynamics of Imposer and Imposed Upon.” International Studies Perspectives 8, no. 2: 152– 71. Early ViewOnline Version of Record before inclusion in an issue ReferencesRelatedInformation

The Impact of the Theory of Liberalism on the United Nations’ and African Union’s Approach to Global Peace and Security

This article presents a critical analysis of the impact (influence) of the theory of liberalism on the United Nations’ (UN) and Africa Union’s (AU) approach to global peace and security. There are various and sometimes conflicting theories of international relations relating to how world politics functions, including international and regional peace and security. Which theory of international relations and peace would explain the United Nations' role in promoting worldwide peace and security, as well as the African Union's role in promoting regional peace and security within the African continent? Even though this question is difficult to answer and no single theory can fully capture the complexities surrounding the issues at hand, this article contends that the liberal peace framework has had a profound influence on the creation of the United Nations and the African Union, as well as their roles in international and regional peace and security. To this purpose, the study adopts a qualitative critical research strategy with secondary data collection and analytical approaches which comprise characterizing, thematizing, and contextualizing the topic at hand. The paper explains how liberalism influenced the essential thinking, values and norms, institutional legitimacy and mandate. It also conceptualizes and operationalizes peace and security concerns at the UN and AU. This is tied to UN-led global action which, when paired with the AU's considerable continental role, illustrates liberalism's impact in terms of laws, conventions, principles, and practices, facilitating cooperative peacebuilding efforts. Despite some critical theoretical and practical shortcomings, this paper argues that liberalism is still essential to achieving the UN’s and AU's, agenda for global peace and security.

Realism – Forgotten Theory for Peacebuilding

The article brings attention to the gap in the research on peacebuilding from the perspective of realist theories. Started by Johan Galtung, the peacebuilding field has been largely influenced by his understanding of peace and violence, as well as by the peace studies discipline itself. An Agenda for Peace turned the theoretical concept into international practice, and the liberal spirit accompanying it imprinted on the research approaches that guide peacebuilding activities. Executed in the form of democratic transformation and statebuilding, peacebuilding operations often did not bring the expected results and called on a lot of criticism. Besides, throughout the decades dominating approaches (liberalism complemented by institutional and critical IR theories) have not been able to explain the continuous unattainability of sustainable peace and exacerbation of violence. A little attention has been given to peacebuilding by the realist theory, which has limited interest in local conflicts. In this aspect, the article aims to discuss how the realist theories have been addressing the topic of peacebuilding so far, analyse what are the main assumptions related to peacebuilding from a realist perspective; and assess if the realist theories can be helpful in resolving the problem of peacebuilding ineffectiveness. The article opens further discussion on whether the realist perspective and its focus on states’ interests, rather than (democratic and liberal) values and institutions, can be used for analysing the problems of the peacebuilding process and can help to better understand situations, where it is ineffective.

Making Experts of Ourselves: Laura Puffer Morgan, Pacifism, and the Logics of the Security Sector

AbstractFor more than a century, gendered divisions between “insider” experts and “outsider” activists kept women at the margins of arms control policy, despite their long-standing disarmament advocacy. In the interwar period, when opportunities for women to influence security thinking from the inside were essentially nonexistent, lobbyist and analyst Laura Puffer Morgan educated herself in the technical knowledge of weaponry, the economics of military spending, and the bureaucratic processes that governed both. Unlike many of her colleagues in the broader peace movement, Puffer Morgan was “equipped to ‘talk army’ with generals or analyze tonnages with admirals.” She believed that women could and should become security experts who would “meet the militarists on their own ground”—a goal she advanced in her own career through voluminous written analysis and through public education about the concrete details of arms reduction. By turning to technical expertise over moral appeal, she was able to act as an advisor to civil society coalitions and delegates alike during the disarmament conferences of the 1920s and 1930s, and advance a peace agenda in quarters where many of her peers were seen as radical interlopers. She was one of a small group of women able to claim the mantle of “expert” and her career illustrates an alternative way women participated in disarmament thinking.