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Diplomats: Peace as Governance

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Book cover Visions of Peace of Professional Peace Workers

Part of the book series: Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies ((RCS))

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Abstract

This chapter shows that when Dutch diplomats talk about peace, they talk about governance. Out of all the groups described in this book, they are the only ones working directly on the institutional embedding of peace, or peace-as-governance. The argument is made that this is still not a liberal peace, mostly because diplomats stress that peace is always a rather limited goal that should be distinguished from work on development or human rights. For some, this goal can also be the signing, or upholding, of a peace agreement, in line with work on peacemaking rather than peacebuilding. More personal visions of peace do not play any role in their work, diplomats all stress that peace is a political objective. This clashes with the non-Western consensus observed in Chap. 3

In practice of course it is about how countries and governments and institutions within and between those countries are organized.

(Anonymous interview diplomat #2 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Stabilization and Humanitarian Aid Department (DSH)))

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Chap. 3, Sect. 3.1.

  2. 2.

    Using the interview guide that can be found in Appendix E.

  3. 3.

    Anonymous interview Dutch diplomat #1 (MoFA, Stabilization and Humanitarian Aid Department (DSH)).

  4. 4.

    Anonymous interview diplomat #2 (MoFA, DSH). Similar views were expressed by former diplomat #2, diplomat #3 (MoFA, Stabilization and Humanitarian Aid Department (DSH)), Koen Davidse (MoFA, Director of Multilateral Institutions and Human Rights (DMM)/ Special envoy post-2015 development goals), Peter van Walsum (former permanent representative to the United Nations, retired) and the anonymous diplomat #1 quoted above.

  5. 5.

    Anonymous interview former diplomat #2. Similar associations were made by e.g. former diplomat #1 and Peter van Walsum.

  6. 6.

    E.g. interviews former diplomat #1, Heino van Houwelingen (European External Action Service (EEAS)), diplomat #3 (MoFA, DSH), Louise Anten (MoFA, former director of the Peacebuilding and Governance Department).

  7. 7.

    E.g. interviews diplomats #1, #2, #4 (MoFA, Security Policy Department(DVB)), #5 (MoFA, North Africa and Middle East Department (DAM)) and #7 (United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office (UNPBSO)).

  8. 8.

    Interview diplomat #7 (UNPBSO).

  9. 9.

    E.g. interviews diplomat #1 (MoFA, DSH), former diplomat #1, Koen Davidse.

  10. 10.

    As was suggested in Chap. 3, Sect. 3.1.2.

  11. 11.

    Anonymous interview diplomat #1 (MoFA, DSH).

  12. 12.

    Anonymous interview diplomat #1 (MoFA, DSH).

  13. 13.

    E.g. former diplomat #2. This is reminiscent of Galtung’s notion of ‘structural violence’ and positive peace as the absence of such violence, as introduced in Chap. 2.

  14. 14.

    Interview Anten.

  15. 15.

    Interviews Anten and diplomat #2 (MoFA, DSH).

  16. 16.

    E.g. interviews diplomat #1 (MoFA, DSH), former diplomats #1 and #2 and Van Houwelingen.

  17. 17.

    Interview diplomat #1 (MoFA, DSH).

  18. 18.

    Interview diplomat #1 (MoFA, DSH).

  19. 19.

    Anonymous interview diplomat #6 (Dutch Permanent Representation to NATO). Similar views were expressed by Valerie Sluijter (MoFA, retired), Anten and diplomat #5 (MoFA, DAM).

  20. 20.

    Although it could be argued that more comprehensive peace agreements also deal with institutional aspects, the point here is that working on the establishment of peace-as-agreement (regardless of the scope of such an agreement) means working with individuals, usually political leaders, on a rather narrowly-defined goal: getting their signature under an agreement.

  21. 21.

    The exceptions are one diplomat who holds that ‘the international usage of the word peace is empty rhetoric’ since peace is always a personal experience. However, he conceded that what he had mostly been doing in his professional life was working on the political conditions that should (but far from always do) allow people to experience this kind of peace. The other similarly talked about the need for people to ‘feel at peace’, remarking that the international community he is a part of almost always fails to deliver this kind of peace. Interviews Peter Knoope (International Center for Counter Terrorism) and Van Houwelingen.

  22. 22.

    Interview Davidse.

  23. 23.

    We saw in Chap. 3 that personal peace is not necessarily a psychological phenomenon, but the tendency to equate the two is quite strong amongst diplomats.

  24. 24.

    Interview diplomat #2 (MoFA, DSH).

  25. 25.

    As was done in Chap. 3.

  26. 26.

    E.g. interviews Carstens and former diplomat #2.

  27. 27.

    Interview diplomat #3 (MoFA, DSH).

  28. 28.

    Interview Davidse.

  29. 29.

    Interview Carstens.

  30. 30.

    Interviews Sluijter, Anten and diplomats #5 (MoFA, DAM) and #6 (NATO).

  31. 31.

    Anonymous interviews diplomats #1 (MoFA, DSH) and #6 (NATO).

  32. 32.

    Interview diplomat #2 (MoFA, DSH).

  33. 33.

    Interview Davidse.

  34. 34.

    Interview Van Walsum.

  35. 35.

    Interview diplomat #4 (MoFA, DVB).

  36. 36.

    Interview Van Walsum.

  37. 37.

    Cf. the description of the vision of ‘peace-as-process’ (vision IV) in Chap. 3.

  38. 38.

    Anonymous interview diplomat #1 (MoFA, DSH). Similar views were presented by Anten and anonymous diplomats #3 (MoFA, DSH) and #5 (MoFA, DAM).

  39. 39.

    Anonymous interview diplomat #7 (UNBPSO).

  40. 40.

    E.g. anonymous diplomats #3 (MoFA, DSH) and #5 (MoFA, DAM), Van Houwelingen and Anten.

  41. 41.

    Interviews diplomat #4 (MoFA, DVB), Knoope and Singleton (International Centre for Counter Terrorism).

  42. 42.

    The latter finding is not directly relevant for our present purposes, but offers an interesting lead for further research into the intricate relationship between peacebuilding and terrorism (see e.g. Richmond and Tellidis 2012; Wagner 2006).

  43. 43.

    Interview diplomat #1 (MoFA, DSH).

  44. 44.

    Interview diplomat #2 (MoFA, DSH). Emphasis added.

  45. 45.

    Interview diplomat #5 (MoFA, DAM).

  46. 46.

    Interview diplomat #5 (MoFA, DAM).

  47. 47.

    Interview Davidse.

  48. 48.

    For Hobbes, the natural state of living for mankind was in a ‘war of all against all’, an image he probably came up with because he lived at the time of the English civil war (1642–1651). (Hobbes 2003 [1651]).

  49. 49.

    Interview Sluijter.

  50. 50.

    Interview Sluijter.

  51. 51.

    E.g. interviews Anten, Sluijter, anonymous diplomat #4 (MoFA, DVB).

  52. 52.

    Interview Sluijter.

  53. 53.

    Interview Anten.

  54. 54.

    Interview diplomat #4 (MoFA, DVB).

  55. 55.

    Interviews Knoope, Singleton and anonymous diplomat #4 (MoFA, DVB).

  56. 56.

    E.g. interviews Anten, Knoope and Van Houwelingen.

  57. 57.

    E.g. interviews Sluijter, anonymous diplomat #5 (MoFA, DAM) and Ernesto Braam (MoFA, North Africa and Middle East Department).

  58. 58.

    As suggested by e.g. anonymous diplomats #2 (MoFA, DSH) and #5 (MoFA, DAM).

  59. 59.

    A similar concern was raised by Sluijter and anonymous diplomat #1 (MoFA, DSH).

  60. 60.

    Interview Sluijter.

  61. 61.

    See Chap. 2, Sect. 2.4.

  62. 62.

    With the exception of lowering global inequality for diplomats with a background in development assistance. E.g. interviews former diplomat #2, Rentenaar, Anten.

  63. 63.

    Interview diplomat #1 (MoFA, DSH).

  64. 64.

    To name two countries that feature heavily in the liberal peace literature.

  65. 65.

    Interview diplomat #6 (NATO).

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  1. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gijsbert M. van Iterson Scholten

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van Iterson Scholten, G.M. (2020). Diplomats: Peace as Governance. In: Visions of Peace of Professional Peace Workers. Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27975-2_5

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