Post-conflict Peacebuilding Research Articles

The NGO game: post-conflict peacebuilding in the Balkans and beyond

The NGO game: post-conflict peacebuilding in the Balkans and beyond

Civil society actors in peace negotiations in Central America

ABSTRACTCivil society actors are assumed to play an important part in post-conflict peacebuilding; therefore, the international community pushes for civil society participation already during peace negotiations. However, the actual connection between civil society’s participation in those negotiations and its role in implementation processes remains unclear. Taking the Central American peace processes of the late 1980s and early 90s as a case study, this article compares civil society participation in peace negotiations and provisions for civil society involvement for the implementation phase, with the actual role that the civil society played in the implementation processes in Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. The article questions the importance of including civil society actors in the negotiation process since the level of civil society inclusion in, activism during and influence on the negotiation process in the three cases did not result in a stronger role for civil society organizations in the implementation process. The article concludes with an analysis of how these findings modify the current understanding of the role of civil society in peace processes and proposes a different focus for future research.

When hybridity breeds contempt: negative hybrid peace in Cambodia

This paper examines the unresolved tensions from international/liberal-local encounters during Cambodia’s post-conflict peacebuilding in the areas of governance and justice. The quick introduction but weak implementation of international/liberal norms and institutions enabled the local elite to contextualise, negotiate, resist and reject those international/liberal norms and institutions to preserve an elite-centred status quo. The outcome of these international/liberal-local encounters is a negative hybrid peace in which peace is neither liberal nor emancipatory. The analysis in this paper contributes to the discussion on hybridity in peacebuilding by describing the characteristics, explaining the formation process and tracing the long-term consequences of negative hybrid peace.

The NGO Game: Post-Conflict Peacebuilding in the Balkans and Beyond. By Patrice C. McMahon. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2017. 224p. $89.95 cloth, $24.95 paper.

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Domino Effect of Negative Hybrid Peace in Kosovo's Peacebuilding

ABSTRACTThe concept of hybrid peace is at the forefront of recent scholarship on the local turn in peacebuilding. It highlights the interplay between the international and local, and advocates for better involvement of local actors and agencies. This paper adds to the growing scholarship on hybrid peace by substantiating the concept of negative hybrid peace and characterizing its dynamics on the ground. Using the case of Kosovo's post-conflict peacebuilding process this paper reveals that the co-option of a select group of local actors unintentionally contributed to a rejection of minority rights, resistance to liberal justice, and contextualization of healthcare provision. It shows that negative hybrid peace has a domino effect in that when a negative form of hybrid peace takes root in a peacebuilding component, other peacebuilding components become susceptible to other forms of negative hybrid peace. The analysis in this paper proves the utility of the concept of negative hybrid peace in understanding the consequences of unresolved tensions from international/liberal–local encounters during internationally administered peacebuilding missions.

The NGO Game: Post-Conflict Peacebuilding in the Balkans and the Beyond. By Patrice C. McMahon. Ithaca: Cornell University Press2017, xiv, 178 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $89.95 hard bound. $24.95, paper.

The NGO Game: Post-Conflict Peacebuilding in the Balkans and the Beyond. By Patrice C. McMahon. Ithaca: Cornell University Press2017, xiv, 178 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. 24.95, paper. - Volume 77 Issue 4

The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Post-Conflict Peace Building in North Eastern, Nigeria

ABSTRACT Nigeria as a sovereign state is characterized by the dynamics of crisis which slow – pace of its developments in all ramifications. The ill political will on the part of the government to address the post – conflict phenomena, particularly in north – eastern part of Nigeria, became an issue which draw the attention of the local and international community. This development specially dragged the attention of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in handling humanitarian services at various internally displaced camps, of the region. Elite theory which hinges on the thrust that public policy is by and large the mirror image of elite interest was employed to guide the analysis of this work. Content analysis was equally used as a source of data collection and it revealed that the Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) are institution of humanitarian services characterized with some pitfalls, in the post-conflict areas of the north-eastern Nigeria. The paper critically reviewed the existing literature both conceptually and thematically and relied on secondary source of data and examination of official documents as its methodology. The paper is structured into eight interrelated compartments. The paper recommends that government should carefully scrutinize and thoroughly accredit all NGOs participating in the post-conflict areas, before granting license to operate. The paper concludes that the role of NGOs in the Post-conflict region should go/operate beyond humanitarian services, to include reconstruction and resettlement as lasting solution to the conflict. Key words: NGOs, Post-Conflict, Peace-building, North-eastern Nigeria.

Is There Any Hope for the Balkans?

Is There Any Hope for the Balkans? Branislav Radeljić (bio) Balázs Vizi, Norbert Tóth and Edgár Dobos, eds. Beyond International Conditionality: Local Variations of Minority Representation in Central and South-Eastern Europe. 272 pp. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2017. ISBN 9783848730674. Patrice C. McMahon. The NGO Game: Post-Conflict Peacebuilding in the Balkans and Beyond. xiv + 221 pp. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2017. ISBN 9781501709241. Jasmin Mujanović. Hunger and Fury: The Crisis of Democracy in the Balkans. xii + 229 pp. London: C. Hurst & Co., 2018. ISBN 9781849048927. So much has been said and written about the Balkans or, more specifically, the collapse of the Yugoslav Federation and the post-Yugoslav states. Since the early 1990s, academics, journalists, and policy experts have tried to figure out what went wrong and whom to blame, and to identify lessons learned so they could propose recommendations, the purpose of which is to help the region make progress and hopefully come closer to the rest of Europe, if admittedly not capable of catching up with it fully. But, figuring out what the region itself really wants has been extremely difficult. Back in 2013, while completing a volume on the post-Yugoslav space, I observed that it has been the EU that is more interested in providing the Western Balkans with a European perspective than the respective states themselves. As often outlined, actors involved in transnational organized crime and monopolistic businesses, although seriously affecting the development and stability of the Balkans, have shown no interest whatsoever in European integration. Indeed, some of them have tried to establish close links with political elites, so that their position could be even more protected.1 [End Page 125] In such a complicated setting, corruption flourishes, institutions are rarely independent, and development of civil society is stuck. As a result, decisions of vital importance are too often pursued under unclear circumstances, aimed at strengthening the position of the ruling elites at the cost of ordinary citizens. Accordingly, this review article looks at three important books, carefully exposing a whole range of dilemmas and wrongdoings, some deep-rooted and probably never-ending. Jasmin Mujanović has every right to insist that democracy has never had an easy time in the Balkans. He examined a long period of time and produced a good overview of the decisions adopted by the local oligarchic elites whose corrupt practices and clientelistic modus operandi have prevented the region's development. His disappointment is obvious: "The region is today, as it was at the end of the nineteenth century, overwhelmingly rural, economically backward, and politically dominated by a handful of socio-economic (and criminal) clans of supposedly mutually incompatible ethno-national persuasions."2 In an environment of coercive control, with highly problematic distribution of resources and accumulation of wealth, the development of capitalist structure or political culture has never properly materialized. Looking back, the Ottoman authorities welcomed the Balkan gangsters since they served the imperial order and its military machine, so when the empire started to face dissolution problems and eventually collapsed, functioning political and economic institutions were not in place. By employing ethnonationalist rhetoric, the new elite consolidated its power and continued to accumulate wealth through dispossession, not trade and commerce. At the same time, criticism of the post-Ottoman order was marginalized; as correctly observed, "[t]he system was virtually designed to prevent the kinds of class and social conflicts that had necessitated the emergence of complex representative and democratic bodies in the West."3 Later on, during the Austro-Hungarian presence, the situation did not change substantially, and the Obrenović and Karadjordjević dynasties focused on militarization and irredentism, both prerequisite for consolidation of power and future expansionist aspirations, while democratic reforms lagged behind. In addition, prominent nationalists successfully manipulated local populations (largely peasant and undereducated) and used the good us vs. bad you/them narrative to spread fear and simultaneously offer protection, altogether aimed at furthering their own agenda. In the 20th century, Yugoslavia experienced a brief period of parliamentarianism, royal dictatorship, and then, in the post-1945 context, a communist regime with workers' councils and self-management as a backbone: "In theory, it was a kind of federalist direct democracy writ...

A Detour in the Local Turn: Roadblocks in Timor-Leste’s Post-Conflict Peacebuilding

Liberal missteps have paved the way for the local turn in post-conflict peacebuilding. However, localized peacebuilding does not always produce peaceful outcomes. Several scholars have previously demonstrated that unresolved tensions from international-local encounters result in a negative hybrid peace in which political and social hierarchies are preserved and conflict and violence persist. To add to existing analyses on the local turn in peacebuilding, this article analyzes some of the causes and consequences of negative hybrid peace using the case of Timor-Leste. Exclusive and superficial local involvement, political cleavages within the local leadership, and unresolved tensions from international-local encounters were roadblocks in Timor-Leste’s post-conflict peacebuilding. These characteristics prelude a return to a status quo dominated by the local elite and plagued with governance and socio-economic issues.

Restoring Confidence in Post-Conflict Security Sectors: Survey Evidence from Liberia on Female Ratio Balancing Reforms

Civilian confidence in domestic institutions, particularly in the security sector, is important for stability and state consolidation in post-conflict countries, where third-party peacekeepers have helped maintain peace and security after a conflict. While other scholars have suggested that a strong security sector is necessary for mitigating the credible commitment problem, this article provides two alternative criteria for assessing security sector reforms’ effect on confidence in the security sector: restraint and inclusiveness. Female ratio balancing in the security sector meets these two criteria, suggesting that it has the potential to help enhance confidence in the security sector and thereby create the right conditions for the peacekeeping transition. The argument is tested using original surveys conducted in post-conflict, ex-combatant communities in Liberia. The expectations received empirical support. The findings indicate that restraining and inclusive reforms could improve trust in the state’s security sector. They also demonstrate the importance of considering gender in theories related to post-conflict peace building and international relations more broadly.

Peace Governance and Multiculturalism: What role for Peace Education in the Balkans

This article will focus on theoretical and practical dilemmas related to the concept of peace governance, and within this context on the possible transformative role of peace education trough facilitation of contact between communities in conflict. The basic assumption is that violent conflicts in the Balkans have been resolved trough negotiated settlements and peace agreements. Yet, education strategy including peace education and its impact on post-conflict peacebuilding and reconciliation are underestimated. Peace governance is recognized as a dynamic but challenging process often based on institutional and policy arrangements aimed to at least settle conflict dynamics or in some cases even to provide more sustainable peace after signing of negotiated settlement in multicultural societies. We will argue that education in general is one of the critical issues of peace governance arrangements that could facilitate peacebuilding and create a contact platform between communities. The first question addressed in this article is to what extend peace agreements refer to education as an issue and the second one relate to the question if education is included in peace agreement to what extent it contributes for contact between different conflicting communities. Although it is widely accepted that contacts between former adversaries contributes for multicultural dialogue it is less known or explained if and in what way peace agreements provisions on education facilitate contact and transformation of conflicting relations.

The Role of Civil Society Actors in Peacemaking: The Case of Guatemala

This article builds upon recent scholarship in critical peace studies that focuses on the role of civil society actors in formal peacemaking processes, in short, peace talks, and post-conflict peacebuilding. The article specifically explores the role of civil society actors in the Guatemalan peace process. The research addresses the possible tensions and potential complementarities in processes where civil society enjoys a mandated role in centralised, formal peace negotiations carried out between the state and armed actors in talks levied within the liberal peace framework. In the case of Guatemala, non-state actors participated to an unprecedented extent in the peace negotiations, and Guatemala has not relapsed into armed conflict. However, post-conflict Guatemala is a violent and unstable country. Consequently, the study challenges the assumption that peacemaking is necessarily more successful in those instances where provisions have been established to guarantee the participation of civil society.

Heroes and victims: economies of entitlement after violent pasts

This article analyses economies of entitlement after violent conflicts and the challenges for post-conflict peacebuilding and democratic transition arising from them. Based on two case studies of post-genocide Rwanda and post-independence Namibia, the study shows that entitlement claims premised on heroism or victimhood are important phenomena after political violence that confront peacebuilding efforts with serious dilemmas. Examining the psychological roots of entitlement and their manifestations in the wake of political violence, this article argues that entitlements targeting only particular groups of victims or heroes challenge democratic principles such as equality and citizenship and, eventually, undermine peace and social justice. The contribution tries to enrich the peacebuilding debate by, first, considering feelings of entitlement as an element of post-conflict dynamics, second, introducing the ‘hero’ as important actor in post-conflict settings, and third, discussing some effects of the rise of victimhood as core category in internationalised post-conflict contexts.

Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration in unconventional settings: the case of MINUSTAH’s community violence reduction

ABSTRACTDisarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programmes form part of standard post-conflict peacebuilding tools regularly applied in the context of UN peacekeeping operations. Yet, the limitations of such templates become evident when peacebuilders are confronted with unconventional settings, such as the urban environment. So far, there is a scarcity of research on UN-led DDR efforts in cities, even though the proliferation of urban armed groups is projected to pose an intractable challenge for decades to come. Based on six months of fieldwork in Port-au-Prince, this article presents new empirical evidence on innovative DDR programming in Haiti, the only country where a United Nations Stabilization Mission (MINUSTAH) tried to implement a traditional DDR programme for gang members. As this attempt proved to be a failure, the mission subsequently changed its approach to a more community-focused armed violence reduction and prevention programme which aims to disincentivize at-risk sections of the population from joining gangs. Even though the current community violence reduction approach is better adapted to the unconventional conflict environment in Haiti and is seen by many practitioners today as a role model, it shares a number of limitations with traditional DDR programmes and is not a panacea for urban peacebuilding.

Post Conflict Peacebuilding in Kosovo. Milestones, Actors and People.

This article presents and analyses the postconflict peacebuilding actions in Kosovo. It aims to bring a picture of external and internal actors involved in such a process from the end of the conflict up to date. The article challenges peace process in Kosovo through the issues emerging in the Society due to the unsettled status enduring as of Security Council Resolution 1244. It is structured into three sections. The first section analyses the postconflict peacebuilding and statebuilding actions undertaken by external and internal actors right after the conflict. The second section deals with the issue of transitional justice as a key element on peacebuilding and how it was addressed. Whereas the third section analyses the current situation of the population with the issues inherited from the conflict and others emerged due to undefined actions of external and internal actors.

Trends in bushmeat trade in a postconflict forest town: implications for food security

Van Vliet, N., B. Schulte-Herbrüggen, J. Muhindo, C. Nebesse, S. Gambalemoke, and R. Nasi. 2017. Trends in bushmeat trade in a postconflict forest town: implications for food security. Ecology and Society 22(4):35. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09780-220435

Why dependence on postconflict elites causes peacebuilding failures

Why dependence on postconflict elites causes peacebuilding failures

Legacies of Violence: Examining the Relationship Between Gender and Ethnic Cleansing

Traditional examinations of genocidal violence tend to focus on ethnic divisions and often fail to consider the impact of gender with respect to conflict. Building from the work that critical gender studies has made in post-conflict peacebuilding, this paper will look at cases that illustrate how targeting women within specific ethnic groups is an effective means of achieving genocidal goals. It will pay particular attention to the well-known events of the Rwandan genocide and draw comparisons to the legacies of the Indigenous genocide in Canada. Moreover, it will argue that the current crisis of murdered and missing Indigenous women in Canada is related to a project of genocide fuelled by settler colonialism.

Challenging identity hierarchies: Gender and consociational power-sharing

Consociational democracy has become the most influential paradigm in the field of power-sharing institutional design and post-conflict peacebuilding. Consociation institutes representation for certain formerly excluded groups. However, it simultaneously inhibits effective political representation for groups that do not align with the societal divisions that consociation seeks to accommodate, specifically the ‘additional’ cleavage of gender. Given the extensive use of the consociational model as a peacebuilding tool in divided states and the growing awareness of the disproportionate negative effect of conflict on women, there is a surprising lack of consideration of the effect that consociational power-sharing has on women’s representation. This article considers the specific impact that the consociational model has on women’s representation. We argue that because gender is an integral factor in conflict, it should therefore be integral to post-conflict governance. With empirical reference to contemporary Northern Ireland, it is illustrated that consociationalism is a ‘gender-blind’ theory.

Local experiences of liberal peace

Over the past 20 years scholars have repeatedly highlighted the complex relationship between conflict, peace and economics. It is today accepted that economic factors at the global, regional, national and local levels can promote conflict in various ways and that economic factors are therefore central in establishing a sustainable post-conflict peace. However, while the scholarly literature includes much nuance regarding the precise nature of these complex relationships, practices of peacebuilding are often far less nuanced. Instead there is a tendency to pin the hopes of fragile post-conflict states on establishing a liberalized and supposedly peace-promoting economy and a worrying absence of grounded assessments of the impacts of such policies. This article argues that the resulting lack of clarity regarding the local impacts of such peacebuilding mechanisms contributes to continued unwarranted enthusiasm for marketization among policymakers and practitioners. This issue is addressed directly by exploring the destabilizing and potentially conflict-inducing impacts of one foreign direct investment (FDI) project in rural Sierra Leone. The dominance of liberal approaches to economic policy within peacebuilding has recently combined with a surge in large-scale FDI projects, often labelled as ‘land-grabs’, which can be interpreted as a direct embodiment of the liberal peace paradigm. While the liberal peace assumes that such projects will help by paying taxes, rebuilding state capacity and employing idle young males, the article illustrates that among local populations such projects can be experienced as deeply disruptive and potentially conflict-promoting. It therefore describes four specific mechanisms by which the project in this setting endangers Sierra Leone’s still precarious transition to peace. The article concludes with recommendations for peacebuilding theorists, policy advocates and practitioners trying to navigate the difficult waters of post-conflict peacebuilding by way of large-scale FDI and marketization in general.