Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Peace-building

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Peace Infrastructures and State-Building at the Margins

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

  • 260 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter reviews the emergence and evolution of peace-building as a distinct area of (international) intervention into internal armed conflicts. The primary focus of this chapter is the process through which peace-building, at least its institutional variety became increasingly coterminous with state-building. This was not predetermined from the beginning; rather it came about through the influence of prevailing ideologies and systemic pressures. For these reasons also, the liberal peace-building package has been eagerly—and selectively—endorsed by states addressing their own internal conflicts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The influence of various strands of feminism may be discerned in peace-building projects, though the most common is liberal feminism with its individualistic orientation and focus on political rights, economic participation (particularly prominent in microloan schemes), and (reproductive) health. Conflict transformatory approaches may also draw on socialist feminism inasmuch as they seek to transform patriarchal family- and community structures through the empowerment of women.

  2. 2.

    The five goals are:

    • Legitimate Politics

    • Security

    • Justice

    • Economic Foundations

    • Revenues & Services

    One is compelled to ask, what is so new about the content of this new deal?

  3. 3.

    At that point China was not yet the major power it has since become.

  4. 4.

    It is interesting to note that the creation of lasting peace, along with democracy was one of the original objectives of international economic development (Truman, 1949). As the Cold War unfolded, these fields—development, peace operations, democracy promotion—became increasingly articulated and compartmentalised. While there have always been points of contact, they generally have been conceptualised and practiced in independence. It is in the post-Cold War that attempts are made to bring them closer to each other (e.g. J. Barnett, 2008; Carothers, 2009).

  5. 5.

    It was not exactly apolitical, rather it did not seek to transform the polities where it was implemented.

  6. 6.

    Let us not dwell on the curious fact that interventions in these ‘unpoliced and ungoverned’ areas appear to have multiplied them.

  7. 7.

    Michael Barnett’s work on applying Darwinian evolutionary theory to peace-building provides an excellent analysis of the formation and distribution of norms and structure at the highest, international level of this ecosystem (Michael Barnett, 2009; Michael Barnett et al., 2007).

  8. 8.

    Although that may be the case when international organisations have the power to shut down “uncivil society”, hate-mongering media and the like (Belloni, 2008; Paris, 2004, pp. 160–161; Pouligny, 2005).

  9. 9.

    I thank D.B. Subedi for this point.

  10. 10.

    ‘Survival’ of states does not mean what it used to prior the League of Nations, when states were destroyed and gobbled up by other states by the hundreds. The conquest of one state by another, for example, is nearly unthinkable in the present. The survival of regimes, governments, power groups and powerful individuals, however, remains precarious.

  11. 11.

    Personal communication.

  12. 12.

    As winners and losers emerge from this integration, this idea is re-evaluated.

  13. 13.

    The concept came into widespread use with the Enlightenment, contractarianism, and liberalism and to describe a specific (desirable) relationship between society and state. In this instance I use it more expansively to encompass the more general human experience of self-governing and relative (political) autonomy.

  14. 14.

    Such ‘withdrawals’ are not equally complete. The hill tribes of Zomia, for example, did not lose contact with the states of Southeast Asia while tribes in the Amazon have.

  15. 15.

    A note on copying in cultural transmission: deciding what constitutes ‘success’ and for whom or what components of a complex phenomenon are responsible for its perceived success are not straightforward. Relations of power also play an important role in it, as well as how the copied cultural trait fits with already existing ones.

List of References

  • Ballentine, K., & Sherman, J. (Eds.). (2003). The Political Economy of Armed Conflict—Beyond Greed and Grievance. Lynne Rienner Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnett, J. (2008). Peace and Development: Towards a New Synthesis. Journal of Peace Research, 45(1), 75–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnett, M. (2009). Evolution Without Progress? Humanitarianism in a World of Hurt. International Organization, 63(4), 621–663.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnett, M., Kim, H., O’Donnell, M., & Sitea, L. (2007). Peacebuilding: What Is in a Name? Global Governance, 13, 35–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belloni, R. (2008). Civil Society in War-to-Democracy Transitions. In A. K. Jarstad & T. D. Sisk (Eds.), From War to Democracy: Dilemmas of Peacebuilding (pp. 182–210). Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berdal, M. (2009). Building Peace After War. The International Institute for Strategic Studies—Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berdal, M., & Malone, D. M. (Eds.). (2000). Greed and Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, M. E. (1996). The Causes and Regional Dimensions of Internal Conflict. In M. E. Brown (Ed.), The International Dimensions of Internal Conflict (pp. 571–601). The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Call, C. T., & Cousens, E. M. (2008). Ending Wars and Building Peace: International Responses to War-Torn Societies. International Studies Perspectives, 9(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1528-3585.2007.00313.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Call, C. T., & Wyeth, V. (Eds.). (2008). Building States to Build Peace. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carothers, T. (2009). Democracy Assistance: Political Vs. Developmental? Journal of Democracy, 20(1), 5–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chandler, D. (2006). Empire in Denial: The Politics of State-Building. Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandler, D. (2013). Peacebuilding and the Politics of Non-Linearity: Rethinking ‘Hidden’ Agency and ‘Resistance’. Peacebuilding, 1(1), 17–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/21647259.2013.756256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chesterman, S., Ignatieff, M., & Thakur, R. (Eds.). (2005). Making States Work: State Failure and the Crisis of Governance. Tokyo and New York: United Nations University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chetail, V. (2009a). Introduction: Post-Conflict Peacebuilding—Ambiguity and Identity. In V. Chetail (Ed.), Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: A Lexicon. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chetail, V. (Ed.). (2009b). Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: A Lexicon. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chua, A. L. (2000). The Paradox of Free Market Democracy: Rethinking Development Policy. Harvard International Law Journal, 41, 287–379.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collier, P. (2001). Economic Causes of Civil Conflict and Their Implications for Policy. In C. A. Crocker, F. O. Hampson, & P. Aall (Eds.), Turbulent Peace: The Challenges of Managing International Conflict. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collier, P. (2007). The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collier, P. (2010). Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places. Harper Perennial.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collier, P., & Hoeffler, A. (2004). Greed and Grievance in Civil War. Oxford Economic Papers, 56(4), 563–595. https://doi.org/10.2307/3488799

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cousens, E. M. (2001). Introduction. In E. M. Cousens & C. Kumar (Eds.), Peacebuilding as Politics: Cultivating Peace in Fragile Societies. Lynne Rienner Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cramer, C. (2006). Civil War is Not a Stupid Thing: Accounting for Violence in Developing Countries. London: Hurst & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cramer, C. (2009). Trajectories of Accumulation Through War and Peace. In R. Paris & T. D. Sisk (Eds.), The Dilemmas of Statebuilding: Confronting the Contradictions of Postwar Peace Operations (pp. 129–148). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cubitt, C. (2013). Constructing Civil Society: An Intervention for Building Peace? Peacebuilding, 1(1), 91–108. https://doi.org/10.1080/21647259.2013.756274

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dayton, B. W., & Kriesberg, L. (Eds.). (2009). Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding: Moving from Violence to Sustainable Peace. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dress, T. P. (2005). Designing a Peacebuilding Infrastructure: Taking a Systems Approach to the Prevention of Deadly Conflict. New York and Geneva: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duffield, M. R. (2007). Development, Security and Unending War: Governing the World of Peoples. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fry, G., & Kabutaulaka, T. T. (2008). Political Legitimacy and State-Building Intervention in the Pacific. In G. Fry & T. T. Kabutaulaka (Eds.), Intervention and State-Building in the Pacific: The Legitimacy of ‘Cooperative Intervention’ (pp. 1–36). Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukuyama, F. (1989, Summer). The End of History? The National Interest.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukuyama, F. (2005). State-Building: Governance and World Order in the Twenty-First Century. Croydon: Profile Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • G7+. (2011). A NEW DEAL for Engagement in Fragile States. In I. D. o. P. a. Statebuilding (Ed.), International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galtung, J. (1976). Three Approaches to Peace: Peacekeeping, Peacemaking, and Peacebuilding. In J. Galtung (Ed.), Peace, War and Defence: Essays in Peace Research Volume II (Vol. II, pp. 282–304). Copenhagen: Christian Ejlers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gat, A. (2006). War in Human Civilization. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghani, A., Carnahan, M., & Lockhart, C. (2005, August/September). Making States. The World Today, 61, 18-19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghani, A., & Lockhart, C. (2008). Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghani, A., Lockhart, C., & Carnahan, M. (2006). An Agenda for State-Building in the Twenty-First Century. The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, 30(1), 101–123.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goetschel, L. (2009). Conflict Transformation. In V. Chetail (Ed.), Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: A Lexicon. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holden, W. N. (2012). A Neoliberal Landscape of Terror: Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 11(1), 145–176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holling, C. S. (2001). Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems. Ecosystems, 4(5), 390–405. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-00

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ISN. (2013). Intrastate Conflict: Data, Trends and Drivers. Retrieved June 12, 2015, from http://www.isn.ethz.ch/Digital-Library/Articles/Special-Feature/Detail/?id=158597&contextid774=158597&contextid775=158596

  • Jarstad, A. K., & Sisk, T. D. (Eds.). (2008). From War to Democracy: Dilemmas of Peacebuilding. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahler, M. (2009). Statebuilding After Afghanistan and Iraq. In R. Paris & T. D. Sisk (Eds.), The Dilemmas of Statebuilding: Confronting the Contradictions of Postwar Peace Operations. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaldor, M. (2001). New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, R. D. (1993). Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, R. D. (1994, February). The Coming Anarchy: How Scarcity, Crime, Overpopulation, Tribalism, and Disease Are Rapidly Destroying the Social Fabric of Our Planet. The Atlantic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keen, D. (1998). The Economic Functions of Violence in Civil Wars. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kfir, I. (2012). Peacebuilding’ in Afghanistan: A Bridge Too Far? Defence Studies, 12(2), 149–178. https://doi.org/10.1080/14702436.2012.699721

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krause, K. (2005). Peace, Security and Development in Post-Conflict Environments. Security Dialogue, 36(4), 447–462. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010605060449

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krause, K. (2009). Human Security. In V. Chetail (Ed.), Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: A Lexicon (pp. 147–157). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lederach, J. P. (1997). Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linz, J. J., & Stepan, A. (1996). Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mac Ginty, R., & Richmond, O. P. (2013). The Local Turn in Peace Building: A Critical Agenda for Peace. Third World Quarterly, 34(5), 763–783. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2013.800750

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Monshipouri, M. (2003). NGOs and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan. International Peacekeeping, 10(1), 138–155. https://doi.org/10.1080/714002393

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Monshipouri, M. (2005). The NGOs’ Dilemmas in Post-War Iraq: From Stabilisation to Nation-Building. In O. P. Richmond & H. F. Carey (Eds.), Subcontracting Peace: The Challenges of NGO Peacebuilding. Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neethling, T. (2005). The Security-Development Nexus and the Imperative of Peacebuilding with Special Reference to the African Context. African Journal on Conflict Resolution, 5(1), 33–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD. (2011). Supporting Statebuilding in Situations of Conflict and Fragility: Policy Guidance. DAC Guidelines and Reference Series.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ottaway, M. (2003). Promoting Democracy after Conflict: The Difficult Choices. International Studies Perspectives, 4(3), 314–322. https://doi.org/10.1111/1528-3577.403007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paris, R. (2000). Broadening the Study of Peace Operations. International Studies Review, 2(3), 27–44. https://doi.org/10.2307/3186304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paris, R. (2002). International Peacebuilding and the ‘Mission Civilisatrice’. Review of International Studies, 28(4). https://doi.org/10.1017/s026021050200637x

  • Paris, R. (2004). At War’s End: Building Peace After Civil Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Paris, R. (2009a). Does Liberal Peacebuilding Have a Future? In E. Newman, R. Paris, & O. P. Richmond (Eds.), New Perspectives on Liberal Peacebuilding (pp. 97–111). United Nations University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paris, R. (2009b). Understanding the “Coordination Problem” in Postwar Peacebuilding. In R. Paris & T. D. Sisk (Eds.), The Dilemmas of Statebuilding: Confronting the Contradictions of Postwar Peace Operations (pp. 53–78). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pouligny, B. (2005). Civil Society and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: Ambiguities of International Programmes Aimed at Building ‘New’ Societies. Security Dialogue, 36(4), 495–510. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010605060448

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pouligny, B. (2009). Local Ownership. In V. Chetail (Ed.), Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: A Lexicon (pp. 174–187). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pugh, M. (2009). Towards Life Welfare. In E. Newman, R. Paris, & O. P. Richmond (Eds.), New Perspectives on Liberal Peacebuilding. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reychler, L. (2008). Sustainable Peace-Building Architecture. In L. Kurtz (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, & Conflict (2nd ed., pp. 2027–2043). Oxford: Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Richmond, O. P. (2004). The Globalization of Responses to Conflict and the Peacebuilding Consensus. Cooperation and Conflict, 39(2), 129–150. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836704042865

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richmond, O. P. (2009). The Romanticisation of the Local: Welfare, Culture and Peacebuilding. The International Spectator, 44(1), 149–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/03932720802693044

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richmond, O. P. (2015). The Impact of Socio-Economic Inequality on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding. Civil Wars, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698249.2014.985876

  • Rubin, B. R. (2002). Blood on the Doorstep: The Politics of Preventive Action. New York: The Century Foundation Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schellhaas, C., & Seegers, A. (2009). Peacebuilding: Imperialism’s New Disguise? African Security Review, 18(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2009.9627524

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J. C. (2009). The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selwyn, B. (2015, June 9). Friedrich Hayek: In Defence of Dictatorship. OpenDemocracy.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spears, I. S. (2012). The False Promise of Peacebuilding. International Journal, 67(2), 295–311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Truman, H. S. (1949). Inaugural Address. Retrieved December 20, 2016, from https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/50yr_archive/inagural20jan1949.htm

  • Tschirgi, N. (2003). Peacebuilding as the Link Between Security and Development: Is the Window of Opportunity Closing? In Studies in Security and Development. New York: International Peace Academy.

    Google Scholar 

  • Türk, V. (2009). Capacity Development. In V. Chetail (Ed.), Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: A Lexicon. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNDP. (1994). Human Development Report. New York: United Nations Development Programme.

    Google Scholar 

  • UN Peacebuilding Support Office. (2010). UN Peacebuilding: An Orientation. In United Nations (Ed.). http://www.un.org/en/peacebuilding/pbso/pdf/peacebuilding_orientation.pdf

  • UNSG. (1992). An Agenda for Peace: Preventive Diplomacy, Peacemaking and Peace-Keeping (A/47/277-S/24111). New York: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNSG. (1995). Supplement to an Agenda for Peace: Position Paper of the Secretary-General on the Occasion of the United Nations (A/50/60-S/1995/1, 3 January 1995). New York: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNSG. (2001). No Exit Without Strategy: Security Council Decision-Making and the Closure or Transition of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. United Nations Security Council.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNSG. (2005). In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All. New York: UN General Assembly.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNSG. (2014). Peacebuilding in the Aftermath of Conflict. UN General Assembly/Security Council.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Creveld, M. (1991). The Transformation of War. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodward, S. L. (2007). Do the Root Causes of Civil War Matter? On Using Knowledge to Improve Peacebuilding Interventions. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 1(2), 143–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/17502970701302789

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Bank. (2011). World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security, and Development. The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wyeth, V. (2012). Knights in Fragile Armor: The Rise of the “G7+”. Global Governance, 18, 7–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Žižek, S. (2006). Philosophy, the “Unknown Knowns,” and the Public Use of Reason. Topoi, 25(1–2), 137–142. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-006-0021-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mindanao, Philippines

    Balázs Áron Kovács

Authors
  1. Balázs Áron Kovács
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Kovács, B.Á. (2019). Peace-building. In: Peace Infrastructures and State-Building at the Margins. Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89566-6_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation