OBSERVARE

Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

PEACEBUILDING: ASSUMPTIONS, PRACTICES AND CRITIQUES

Teresa Almeida Cravo

teresacravo@ces.uc.pt

Assistant Professor of International Relations, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra

(Portugal) and Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies. Co-coordinator of the CES-FEUC PhD

programme "Democracy in the XXI Century". PhD in Politics and International Studies at the

University of Cambridge.

Abstract

Peacebuilding has become a guiding principle of international intervention in the periphery

since its inclusion in the Agenda for Peace of the United Nations in 1992. The aim of creating

the conditions for a self-sustaining peace in order to prevent a return to armed conflict is,

however, far from easy or consensual. The conception of liberal peace proved particularly

limited, and inevitably controversial, and the reality of war-torn societies far more complex

than anticipated by international actors that today assume activities in the promotion of peace

in post-conflict contexts. With a trajectory full of contested successes and some glaring

failures, the current model has been the target of harsh criticism and widespread scepticism.

This article critically examines the theoretical background and practicalities of peacebuilding,

exploring its ambition as well as the weaknesses of the paradigm adopted by the international

community since the 1990s.

Keywords

Peacebuilding; Interventionism; Liberal peace; Galtung; Criticism

How to cite this article

Cravo, Teresa Almeida (2017). "Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques".

JANUS.NET e-journal of International Relations, Vol. 8, Nº. 1, May-October 2017. Consulted

[online] on the date of last consultation, http://hdl.handle.net/11144/3032

Article received on January 12, 2017 and accepted for publication on February 6, 2017

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

PEACEBUILDING: ASSUMPTIONS, PRACTICES AND CRITIQUES

Teresa Almeida Cravo

Introduction

Peacebuilding has become a guiding principle of international intervention in the

periphery since its inclusion in the United Nations’ (UN) Agenda for Peace in 1992. With

the objective of creating the conditions for a self-sustaining peace in order to prevent a

return to armed conflict, peacebuilding is directed towards the eradication of the root

causes of violence and is necessarily a multifaceted project that involves political, legal,

economic, social and cultural institutions and security practices, which are understood as

complementary and mutually reinforcing.

However, the transition from armed violence to lasting peace has not been easy or

consensual. The conception of liberal peace proved particularly limited, and inevitably

controversial, and the reality of war-torn societies far more complex than anticipated by

international actors that assume activities in the promotion of peace in post-conflict

contexts today. With a career full of contested successes and some glaring failures, the

current model has been the target of harsh criticism and widespread scepticism.

This article critically examines the theoretical background and practicalities of

peacebuilding, exploring its ambition as well as the weaknesses of the paradigm adopted

by the international community since the 1990s. In this sense, it first addresses the

intellectual origins of the concept to then focus on its co-optation as a canon for UN

action. The exploration of peacebuilding with regards to the institutionalised pattern of

international interventionism is divided into three parts: assumptions, institutional

practice and critical assessment. Its principles and objectives are discussed, followed by

a brief explanation of its implementation on the ground in terms of four dimensions –

military and security, politico-constitutional, socio-economic and psycho-social. The

article finishes by reflecting on recurrent and most damning criticisms of peacebuilding,

highlighting the problems and limitations that have plagued this intervention model over

the last twenty years.

The English translation of this article was funded by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência

e a Tecnologia - as part of OBSERVARE project with the reference UID/CPO/04155/2013, with the aim of

publishing Janus.net. Text translated by Thomas Rickard.

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

1. Johan Galtung and the intellectual origins of peacebuilding

The concept of peacebuilding was introduced in the academic lexicon long before it

became consensual in the world of policymaking. Johan Galtung, a Norwegian who is

considered the founder of Peace Studies, first introduced this term in his 1976 article

"Three Approaches to Peace: Peacekeeping, Peacemaking and Peacebuilding", setting the

tone for the theoretical and operational exploration that would follow a few years later

and which still remains prolific today.

To understand the origins of the concept in question, we have to, however, take a step

back in relation to the theoretical contribution of this author. The three approaches to

peace developed in the article are intimately and directly related to his innovative

proposal to redefine peace and violence, presented in the 1960s.

Galtung defines peace

as the absence of violence; and defines violence as any situation in which human beings

are being influenced so that their actual somatic and mental realizations are below their

potential (1969:168). This definition intended at the time to go beyond the dominant

notion of violence as a deliberate act by an identifiable actor to incapacitate another,

which the author considered too limited: "if this were all violence is about, and peace is

seen as its negation, then too little is rejected when peace is held up as an ideal" (ibid.).

For conceptual clarification, Galtung begins by exploring a dual definition of peace:

negative peace as the absence of violence and war and positive peace as the integration

of human society (1964: 1-4). Research for peace would be, in this perspective, the study

of the conditions that bring us close to both, which ultimately produce what Galtung calls

"general and complete peace" (ibid.: 2).

This conceptualisation was not without criticism – particularly for being considered too

vague and of no practical use – and, later, Galtung presents what can be considered as

his greatest contribution to the theoretical assumptions of Peace Studies: the

identification of the triangle of violence and the respective triangle of peace. In the

triangle of violence the author distinguishes three aspects: direct violence, structural

violence and cultural violence – the first two concepts presented in 1969 and the latter

in 1990. For the author, direct violence is the intentional act of aggression with a subject,

a visible action and an object. Structural violence is indirect, latent and deriving from the

social structures that organise human beings and societies – for example, repression in

its political form and exploitation in its economic form (Galtung, 1969). And lastly,

cultural violence is a system of norms and underlying behaviours of – and which legitimise

– structural and direct violence; that is, the social cosmology that allows one to look at

repression and exploitation as normal or natural and, therefore, more difficult to uproot

(Galtung, 1990).

With this formulation, Galtung points out the problems and limitations of the definitions

of violence that only cover social conflicts of a large scale (war), and encourages the

understanding of peace in its broadest sense as a direct, structural and cultural peace,

exposing and studying the global structural dynamics of repression and exploitation as

well as the symbolic violence that exists in ideology, religion, language, art, science, law,

the media and education.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the next step in the conceptual path of the Norwegian

author was to confront this understanding with the concrete practice of international

For a more detailed analysis of Galtung’s conceptual contribution see Almeida Carnation, 2016b.

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

intervention, specifically in his article that develops the concepts of peacekeeping,

peacemaking and peacebuilding. According to Galtung, peacekeeping constituted a

"dissociative" approach, whose goal was the promotion of distance and a "social vacuum"

between antagonists through the assistance of a third party (1976: 282). This strategy

is sinned for understanding conflict as an interruption of the status quo and for

prescribing the return to status quo ante as a solution. It did not question whether this

status quo ante should effectively be regained and preserved; it merely aimed for the

maintenance of the absence of direct violence between actors in conflict, and therefore

inadvertently contributed to continued structural violence (ibid.: 283-284). Since the

preservation of structural violence ultimately promotes direct violence – and thus the

likely return to open conflict in the long term (ibid.: 288) – this was not a satisfactory

approach for Galtung.

Peacemaking, on the other hand, represented a more comprehensive approach, anchored

in conflict resolution, whose aim went beyond the cessation of hostilities to focus on ways

to transcend inconsistencies and contradictions between parties (ibid.: 290). However,

while recognising the potential “radicality” of the conflict resolution approach, Galtung

claims that this is usually directed toward preservation – and not at the dispute – of the

(violent) status quo, and oriented towards actors – and not necessarily to the system

(structure) – that (re)produces violence (ibid.: 294-296). Peacemaking and conflict

resolution are thus primarily understood as residing in the "minds of the conflicting

parties" and achieved as soon as an agreement is signed and ratified – a conception that

Galtung denounces as "narrow", "elitist "and negligent when considering the structural

factors that are essential in building a sustainable peace (ibid.: 296-297).

Galtung’s understanding of peacekeeping and peacemaking leads him to develop a new

concept: peacebuilding. Unlike the other two approaches, peacebuilding is necessarily an

associative approach to conflict, able to cope with the direct, structural and cultural

causes of violence in their broadest sense – and hence in line with his concept of positive

peace. The removal of the root causes of violence would focus on principles such as

"equity" (as opposed to domination/exploitation and towards horizontal interaction);

"entropy" (as opposed to elitism and towards a sense of inclusion); and "symbiosis" (as

opposed to isolation and towards a sense of interdependence) (ibid.: 298-100). While

acknowledging the difficulty and complexity above, Galtung’s conception of peacebuilding

is undoubtedly maximalist, ambitious and anchored in the idea of the struggle for peace

as comprehensively covering "several fronts" (ibid.: 104).

This theoretical discussion proposed by Galtung on different ways of understanding

violence and peace went far beyond a mere academic exercise – having had clear

practical implications, especially once it was adopted by the UN in 1992, as we shall see

below.

2. The theoretical assumptions of the model

Galtung’s reflection inspired Boutros-Ghali, a United Nations Secretary-General

enthusiastic about the prospect of a more dynamic and interventionist world organisation,

following the profound change in global affairs. It was essentially a combination of three

factors that prompted a strong reaction from the international community and, in

particular, the UN in the early 1990s. First, the end of the Cold War resulted in the easing

of relations between the major powers within the Security Council and a renewed

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

commitment to the founding principles of the organisation (Miall, Ramsbotham &

Woodhouse, 1999: 2), as well as the triumph of liberalism (Jakobsen, 2002) and its

emphasis on human rights and democracy. Second, the dramatic increase in the number

of violent conflicts in the periphery, which affected 50 countries on different continents

in 1991 (Wallensteen & Sollenberg, 2001: 632), finally gained visibility and prominence

on the international agenda. And lastly, the nature of these same conflicts – particularly

devastating civil wars that challenged centralised state power (Ayoob, 1996), considered

immoral and destabilising for the regional and international system – created, mainly in

the West, a public opinion favourable to interventionism.

Taking advantage of this historic moment of “multilateral optimism” and facing these

wars of the 1990s as "wars of the international community" that required the organisation

to respond with determination (Almeida Cravo, 2013), Boutros-Ghali presented an

ambitious proposal to address the challenges to international peace and security in the

post-Cold War period, embodied in the Agenda for Peace (1992). This document practises

an institutionalised model of peace that gives the UN a more consistent, dynamic and

bolder remit, as well as a considerable increase in international importance in relation to

previous decades.

There are four interrelated strategies proposed by the Secretary-General: preventive

diplomacy, peacemaking, peacekeeping and, ultimately, peacebuilding (UN, 1992).

Preventive diplomacy has two goals: first, to prevent a situation of latent conflict

developing into a de facto violent situation; and, second, to contain the potential spread

of a de facto situation of violent struggle to other regions and social groups. Peacemaking

aims to support conflicting parties in peace negotiations toward an agreement, making

use of the peaceful means contained in Chapter VI of the Charter of the United Nations.

Peacekeeping involves sending UN forces – so-called peacekeepers – to the ground, after

an agreement between parties and with their expressed consent, to stabilise volatile

areas and ensure that the peace process is effectively fulfilled. Novelty is undoubtedly in

the concept of "post-conflict peacebuilding", announced then as a new priority of the

organisation.

Objectives and principles

Defined as "action to identify and support structures to strengthen and solidify peace in

order to avoid a return to conflict" (UN, 1992: para 21), peacebuilding thus encompasses

two different but simultaneously complementary tasks: on the one hand, the negative

task of preventing the resumption of hostilities; and on the other, the positive task of

"addressing the root causes of the conflict" (ibid.: para 15). This articulation closely

follows Galtung’s theoretical proposal on peace and violence discussed above that

promotes a maximalist agenda for positive peace as essential to a lasting negative peace

– that is the end of direct violence (Ramsbotham, 2000: 171, 175). Boutros-Ghali is

indeed clear in his ambition: the model he proposes ultimately wishes to deal with

"economic despair, social injustice and political oppression" as sources of the violence

plaguing the system (UN, 1992: para 15). And to achieve this goal, the UN stands ready

and willing to be involved as an “external guarantee” at all stages of conflict situations.

The Agenda for Peace also refers to peace enforcement, included in the UN Charter, as an instrument

available within this new framework for action (UN, 1992: para 42-45).

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

The four strategies contained in the Agenda for Peace are therefore seen as

complementary, where the various stages of the transition from violent conflict to peace

share common goals that require an integrated approach. Peacebuilding begins to take

shape within the framework of peacekeeping operations that are, in turn, sent to the

ground as a result of negotiated peace agreements. Progressively, the responsibility of

peacebuilding moves to nationals of countries emerging from conflict, with the help of

external actors, so that foundations are built for a self-sustaining peace and, thus, new

conflicts are prevented.

Reflections in individual reports that followed – among them, Supplement to the Agenda

for Peace, 1995; the Brahimi Report, 2000; United Nations Peacekeeping Operations:

Principles and Guidelines, 2008; and Peacebuilding: an orientation, 2010 – continued to

emphasise this idea of interconnection:

"peace operations are rarely limited to a single type of activity", and

"the boundaries between conflict prevention, peace-making,

peacekeeping, peacebuilding and peace enforcement have become

increasingly diffuse", highlights the 2008 report (UNDPKO, 2008:

18).

Peacebuilding is understood as a preventive tool (UN, 1995: para 47), essential to "heal

the wounds" of conflict (ibid.: para 53) and significantly reduce the risk of return to

hostilities (UNPSO, 2010: para 13). Peacekeeping and peacebuilding are dubbed

"inseparable partners" (UN, 2000: para 28) and peacekeepers as "early peacebuilders"

(UNPSO, 2010: 9), since peacebuilding cannot act without peacekeeping and the latter

does not have an exit strategy without the first. In other words, the central idea, then,

is of continuum: between negative peace and positive peace, between stabilisation and

development, and between structural prevention and consolidation.

Liberal peace

If the adoption of a maximalist vision of peace – coinciding with Galtung’s theoretical

proposal – was clearly due to the intellectual and political environment triggered by the

end of the Cold War, the specific conception of the model to implement in conflict zones

also reflected those who emerged triumphant from the bipolar confrontation.

In fact, the approach that gave shape to this new ambition to promote peace in the

periphery, and was subsequently integrated in the new collective security instruments,

was the Western approach of so-called liberal peace (see Doyle, 2005). As explained by

Clapham, the winners of the bipolar conflict – not only capitalist, liberal democracies but

also their civil societies, and the great mass of non-governmental organisations and

international institutions that they control – sought to restructure the international

system in accordance with the values that emerged victorious at that time (1998: 193-

194) and presented liberal democracy and the market economy as the "global recipe for

development, peace and stability" (Yannis, 2002: 825).

In relation to this, Paris states that peacebuilding is effectively "an enormous experiment

in social engineering – an experiment that involves transplantating Western models of

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

social, political and economic organisation into war-shattered states in order to control

civil conflict: in other words, pacification through political and economic liberalisation"

(1997: 56). The fall of the Communist Bloc and its alternative model meant that this

interventionist approach was readily encouraged, and it was imposed without rival in the

four corners of the world – something Lizée (2000) calls the "end of history syndrome”.

By introducing political and economic conditionalities through peace operations and

development assistance programmes, the model of market democracies spread

throughout the Third World (Jakobsen, 2002).

The great potential for opening the concept of peacebuilding to numerous definitions

based on different understandings and approaches – which could have gained a multitude

of concrete forms in post-conflict contexts – was instead reduced to the specificity of the

Western and liberal worldview, and therefore closed to other experiences and

alternatives.

3. The model in practice

There was, since its beginning, a convergence around what Kahler called the "New York

Consensus" (2009), despite the absence of a central organ for all peacebuilding activities

within the UN during the first decade, on the one hand, and the constant presence of

several other international actors who arrogated responsibilities under international

interventions on the other. The "New York Consensus" reflected the liberal dream of

creating multiparty democracies with market economies and strong civil societies, as well

as promoting Western liberal practices and values, such as secular authority, centralised

governance, the rule of law and respect for human rights (Newman et al., 2009: 12).

As Richmond explains, peace is thought by Western international community as an

"achievable ideal form, the result of top-down and bottom-up actions, resting on liberal

social, political and economic regimes, structures and norms" (2005: 110). To think of

"peace as governance" (ibid.: 52-84) also involves looking at peacebuilding as a means

to an end: that is, as an institutionalised model embodied in a set of steps needed to

build liberal peace. No wonder, therefore, that the practice of peacebuilding has involved

a standardised framework for action that sought to take on a universal and hegemonic

character.

Multidimensionality

It is the involvement of the UN in Namibia in 1989 that represents the first attempt to

implement this paradigm. This peace operation goes far beyond the traditional

supervision of ceasefires and is mandated to assist the establishment of democratic

political institutions as well as monitor elections that would ensure the country’s

independence. The relative success of the mission attested the organisation's capacity

and willingness to undertake more ambitious and large-scale peace operations, with

activities going far beyond those until then undertaken, and in a variety of countries

emerging from armed conflicts in Asia, Africa, Europe and Central America (Han, 1994:

842-845). We therefore witnessed, during the nineties, a dramatic expansion of the

liberal peace model that Ramsbotham calls the "UN's post-settlement peacebuilding

standard operating procedure" (2000: 170), which is embodied, on the ground, by four

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

interdependent dimensions: (1) military and security, (2) politico-constitutional, (3)

socio-economic and (4) psycho-social.

The military and security dimension

The security dilemma that assaults groups involved in intrastate conflicts is considerably

higher than among countries involved in interstate conflicts, to the extent that the

strengthening of state authority involves the recovery of the monopoly of the legitimate

use of force and control of the entire territory; that is, it entails precisely the

reconstitution of a central political power with the capacity to impose itself over the

remaining political and military powers. It is therefore necessary to institutionalise

safeguards to neutralise the understandable feeling of insecurity that pervades the

various actors who fear exclusion and fear that the centralisation of political and military

power favours the opposing group to their detriment. The military and security dimension

of the peacebuilding model therefore has two objectives: to establish a balance between

the warring parties and to restrict the ability of combatants to return to hostilities. There

is, accordingly, a programme specifically aimed at soldiers, which includes the

standardised phases known as "DDR": (1) demobilisation, (2) disarmament and (3)

reintegration into civilian life or the national armed forces.

The international community's attention is later focused on security sector reform (SSR),

which covers military, police and intelligence services, and seeks to establish more

transparent, efficient and democratic control (see Sedra, 2010). Pointing to a generic

notion of good governance and the rule of law, SSR is a long-term, comprehensive

approach, concerned not only with the capacity to provide security to citizens but also

accountability through civil and democratic supervision.

The politico-constitutional dimension

This dimension seeks to carry out a political transition that involves the legitimation of

government authority; reform of the State’s administration dismantled during the

conflict; and the transfer of tensions among conflicting groups to the institutional level –

that is the idea of politics as a continuation of the conflict through non-violent means, a

notion which comes from Michel Foucault and that Ramsbotham calls "Clausewitz in

reverse" (2000: 172).

The political regime that underlies these changes is liberal democracy, which is

considered more prone to peace both internally and internationally.

As the "dominant

political philosophy" (Barnes, 2001: 86) of the international post-Cold War community,

it was successively promoted and imposed on intervened societies, focusing primarily on

reform and promotion of the rule of law and of those elements with the most impact on

the process of democratisation and the creation of a democratic culture: political parties,

media and civil society.

The introduction of this democratic model in post-conflict scenarios can, however, take

different forms. A first approach was to hold short-term multi-party elections, which

symbolised the immediate responsibility of national actors and the legitimacy of new

On the link between peacebuilding, the rule of law and SSR see Almeida Cravo, 2016.

For the democratic peace theory see Hayes, 2012.

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

political power (such as in Angola in 1992). The winner-takes-all logic of the zero-sum

game in highly unstable contexts led, however, to the emergence of a second approach

considered less destabilising: coalition governments, which aimed to socialise actors in

terms of sharing negotiated power and the practice of consensus before holding first

elections (e.g., in Afghanistan in 2002). One last way – only for cases where there is a

large commitment from the international community in terms of financial provisions,

human resources and time – is the “international protectorate”, in which the transitional

administration is upheld by an external actor (e.g., East Timor with the UN between 1999

and 2002).

The socio-economic dimension

This dimension aims to reverse the particularly devastating impact of armed conflict on

a country’s socio-economic fabric, drawing upon international financial aid. Following a

continuum between relief, recovery and development (Macrae, 2001:155), the

international community usually begins with humanitarian aid and also has a crucial role

in medium- to long-term support for the reconstruction of basic infrastructure and the

application of macroeconomic stabilisation policies. It should be noted that the

understanding of this economic recovery, as well as monetary and fiscal (im)balances,

has been guided by neoliberal ideology (see Harvey, 2005). During the eighties and

nineties, this economic philosophy materialised in the so-called structural adjustment

programmes, applied all over the developing world by international financial institutions

loyal to the so-called “Washington Consensus” (Williamson, 2008). These economic

policies advocated liberalisation, privatisation and deregulation of countries’ economies,

opening them to the market; they were accompanied by weakening and concomitant

cutbacks in the interventionist role of the State in a context of strict fiscal discipline and

tax reform aimed at attracting foreign investment.

Devastating criticism of this neoliberal model related to difficulties in favourably

integrating these post-conflict economies into the world market and in a sustainable

manner led to strong calls for the easing of economic practices, the regaining of the State

as a development agent and the need to reconcile the imperatives of short-term

stabilisation and long-term imperatives of growth and development (see Stiglitz, 2008).

In general, however, the reforms of the "post-Washington Consensus" that followed,

mainly in the late 1990s, were towards a “neoliberal-light package” rather than a real

challenge to the model’s assumptions.

The psycho-social dimension

One of the most serious costs of war is the enduring nature of the impact of the culture

of rooted violence in societies plagued by conflicts over a long period (Lederach, 2001).

The restoration of the social fabric of war-torn countries depends on the deconstruction

of stereotypes and the conditions that fuelled the conflict and polarised communities,

requiring, therefore, a change of individual attitudes and, more generally, the behaviour

of society as a whole towards reconciliation.

Different societies have dealt with their psycho-social trauma resulting from conflicts in

different ways. Some opted for what we call here the “Amnesia formula” – that is burying

the past – through amnesties lest to cause instability. This path is difficult to follow since

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

sufferers are normally cursed with good memory. There are fundamentally three other

recurring practices in dealing with the past in these contexts (which may exist

simultaneously or even be associated with amnesty laws): through (1) truth and

reconciliation commissions, as in El Salvador; (2) the courts (judicial settlement, either

domestically or internationally), such as in Rwanda; and (3) traditional reconciliation

practices (rituals entirely dependent on local cultural resources), as in East Timor.

This is, ultimately, a painful and slow process that involves readapting to each other and

rebuilding peaceful relations. Reconciliation in its broadest sense is thus ultimately the

end goal of a transition to peace.

Consensus on peacebuilding’s institutional practice was generalised. The global

organisation sought to strengthen it and streamline monitoring missions through

administrative reforms such as the creation of the Department of Peacekeeping

Operations as early as 1992, and also through the more systematic use of the Special

Representatives of the Secretary-General. In particular, the creation of the Peacebuilding

Commission in 2005 intended to fill an institutional gap with regards to the UN’s capacity

to act in contexts of violence and state fragility, as well as to learn from its mistakes and

best practices within a framework of liberal peace.

Given the growing complexity of threats to international peace and security, the logic of

complementarity between the work of the UN and multiple regional organisations and

civil society also gained momentum. Putting into practice what had been envisaged by

Chapter VIII of the UN Charter, partnerships with regional organisations – considered a

privileged space for crisis resolution and peace promotion – became stronger. Institutions

such as the OECD, the EU, NATO and the African Union began to play an increasing role

in peacebuilding, following, in general, the institutionalised model. In particular, the

enlargement of both NATO and the EU on the European continent and, subsequently, the

expansion of their operations beyond Europe intensified the application of the paradigm

and further legitimised the liberal peace model as a standard action. Simultaneously, the

prominence on the international agenda of the concept of human security (see UNDP,

1994) and subsequent appeals for intervention provided more space for civil society

organisations in the discourse and practice of peace and conflict. Viewed as more focused

on individuals and tending to be bottom-up in their approaches, these organisations

gained momentum and their participation in the various stages of the promotion of peace

have become regarded as essential to the success of a sustainable peace process.

As pointed out by Newman et al., this understanding of both the challenge and the most

appropriate response, which quickly spread to other organisations, reflects not only the

dominant consensus but also normative progress towards weakening the inviolability of

territorial integrity and, concomitantly, the growing acceptance of international

interventionism (2009: 5).

4. Criticism of the model

Expectations for this new era of global interventionism were high and soon dashed, giving

rise to widespread pessimism, in large part because of the dramatic and newsworthy

failures of missions in Angola, Bosnia, Somalia and Rwanda. Statistics on the recurrence

of violent conflicts in societies previously ravaged by war – about 50% in the first five

years following the signing of peace agreements (Collier, 2003: 83) – led the favoured

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

model being openly questioned. But even where there was no blatant return to hostilities,

the materialisation of formal peace faced serious difficulties and, in many cases, the initial

effusive statements of success proved premature.

The main protagonist of this ambitious interventionist project attracted much of the

responsibility for the setbacks and failures. In fact, the complexity of the problems faced

in peace and security with the end of the Cold War egregiously defied the institutional

capacity of UN missions of this scale on several levels: financial resources; qualified and

experienced staff; information gathering and planning; communication; coordination;

and operational knowhow (see Roberts & Kingsbury, 1993). The undeniable difficulty of

operationalisation of the UN proposal – evident right from the start – confirmed glaring

weaknesses and difficult dilemmas that were undermining the credibility, legitimacy and

intervention capacity of the organisation.

It would, however, be criticism of the model of peacebuilding itself, advocated both by

the UN and by other more interventionist actors of the international system, that would

prove to be more forceful. Of these, it is possible to distinguish two groups of critics

through their analytical positons: (1) reformist critiques (the problem-solvers

) – who,

while recognising relevant defects in the model, advocate its continuation, refining the

process without challenging its ideological foundation; and (2) structural critics – who

question the legitimacy of the model itself, its values, interests and the reproduction of

hegemonic relations, challenging, thus, the order accepted as an immutable reality.

More and better interventionism: the reformist critiques

Both in terms of numbers and influence in the world of policymaking, most authors who

focus on the theme of promoting peace in peripheral States belong to the so called

mainstream and may be labelled problem-solvers. They are authors who advocate the

existing order and whose concern is to increase the practical relevance and efficiency of

the liberal peace model.

Believing ultimately that, despite the disappointing results,

external intervention is more beneficial than harmful and that the alternative is the

abandonment of millions of people from the periphery to a condition of insecurity and

violence, this line of thinking accuses the "hyper-critics" (Paris, 2010) of widespread

scepticism and focuses on the improvement of the model in order to minimise its

destabilising effects and improve its capabilities.

Paris and Sisk (2009) generally represent this position and point to five contradictions

inherent in the model that hinder its applicability: (1) external intervention is used to

promote self-government; (2) international control is required to create local ownership;

(3) universal values are promoted to tackle local problems; (4) the break with the past

is concomitant with the affirmation of history; and (5) short- and long-term imperatives

often conflict. These tensions materialise in practical challenges to peacebuilding in the

field of: (1) international presence (i.e. the degree of interference in the internal affairs

of the host State – size of the mission, nature of the tasks, consent versus

compliance/enforcement, combination of violent and/or non-violent means); (2) duration

of the mission (post-war reconstruction as necessarily a long-term activity versus

See, for example, criticism of operations in Mozambique (Weinstein, 2002) and Cambodia (Lizée, 2000).

For the concept of "problem-solver" see Cox, 1986.

See, for example, Fukuyama, 2004; Paris, 2004; Doyle and Sambanis, 2006; Call and Cousens, 2008;

Jarstad and Sisk, 2008.

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

accountability of national actors); (3) local participation (elites versus population,

international priorities versus local priorities); (4) dependence (on international actors

versus self-sustaining peace); and (5) consistency (organisational coordination and

normative clout) (ibid .: 306-309).

The realization of these dilemmas does not lead to rejection of this kind of response from

the international community; on the contrary, this analysis is seen as a "realistic" way of

trying to manage contradictory imperatives in order to improve performance and

efficiency of missions, adjust expectations and thus "save" the liberal peace project

(Paris, 2010). The ideological foundations of liberal peace in transforming countries

devastated by civil wars into liberal market democracies are therefore not questioned.

Over the years, the incorporation of reformist critiques entailed only some adaptation in

terms of methodology, with the adoption of more gradual reforms – of

"institutionalisation before liberalisation" (Paris, 2004: 179) – in order to build and

strengthen autonomous governance institutions that are effective and legitimate before

the introduction of winner-takes-all elections and drastic reforms to open up markets.

This strategy, more sensitive to the adverse effects of "shock therapy", maintained,

however, the two global goals governing the implementation of the paradigm since the

early nineties: (1) the reproduction of the Western Weberian State in the periphery –

with the strengthening of the SSR, the rule of law and good governance (the three most

prominent pillars of the model in its second decade); and (2) the integration of these

spaces in the world capitalist economy – generally preserving the neoliberal framework,

while safeguarding against its most devastating socio-economic impact by supporting

development and poverty reduction programmes (Harrison, 2004).

The challenge to the global power structure: structural critiques

Structural critiques are mainly concerned with the ideology behind the thought and

practice of peacebuilding and what this (re)produces in terms of the functioning of the

international system. Unlike the perspective analysed above, the aim of the authors is

transformative, looking to explicitly resist hegemonic forms of power.

This normative

commitment aims to transform the model itself – as opposed to an adjustment in line

with the preservation of the dominant paradigm of liberal peace – as well as the broader

system of power relations – as opposed to the preservation of the status quo.

Among the sharpest critiques are those who emphasise the Western hegemonic model

of peacebuilding and its hierarchical, centralised and elitist nature. From a postcolonial

perspective, liberal peace is understood as promoting Western culture, identity and

norms over others (Lidén 2011: 57). The analogies between the peacebuilding and

colonialism are therefore recurrent, considering both as contributing to power

asymmetries between the Global North and the Global South. The structural problems of

the design and implementation of peacebuilding models are thus seen in their relationship

with the inequality of the international system: interventions impose a top-down model,

create and reinforce a clear hierarchy between intervenors and the intervened and act

as an instrument of global governance of the West in the periphery, consolidating its

hegemony, defending its geostrategic interests and promoting its values (Chandler,

2010). Its function is then the legitimacy of the world order which followed the victory of

See, for example, Duffield, 2001; Pugh, 2005; Chandler, 2006; Richmond, 2006; Darby, 2009.

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

the Western Bloc in the Cold War, while serving the interests of Western states and

international financial institutions controlled by them. Furthermore, the supposed

technical solutions proposed and imposed by the Global North, such as the neoliberal

strategies of post-war reconstruction, reproduce the conditions of conflict and cause the

very violence they intend to solve (Duffield, 2001; Pugh, 2005), ultimately contributing

to the system’s instability.

Looking to overcome this logic of the international imposing on the local, several authors

have more recently explored the idea of a “post-liberal peace” model. The contribution,

for example, of Richmond (2011) and Mac Ginty (2011) focuses mainly on the theory of

hybrid peace, where peace is a cumulative and long-term hybrid of endogenous and

exogenous forces. Refusing both the universality of liberal peace (as a principle and

practice) as well as the romanticised “purity” of the local, the hybrid perspective notes

local agency in resisting, subverting, renegotiating, ignoring, delaying and producing

alternatives to the current paradigm. Recognition of this heterogeneity opens the way to

think about Southern epistemologies (Sousa Santos, 2014) and, in particular, about

forms of State-building and societal governance that are distinct from those proposed by

the hegemonic model. The central idea is that, paying attention to worldviews that are

culturally different from the Western, is it possible to recognise and create a multiplicity

of "peaces" that are not exhausted by the overwhelming hegemony of liberal peace.

Notwithstanding their different characteristics and intentions, these critiques effectively

put in question: (1) the goodwill of the intervention model – drawing attention to the

imperialist features of the paradigm and the way it serves the interests and particular

agendas of Northern countries in the South; (2) its nature – challenging the centrality

of security (which favours order and stability at the expense of emancipation) and its

elitist, technocratic and standardised essence; (3) its legitimacy – questioning the

presumption of the universality of Western liberalism as well as its Eurocentric, imposing

and curtailing approach to local participation; and (4) its efficacy – stressing the

maintenance of conflicting relationships, dependency on external actors and the adverse

consequences of downplaying endogenous contributions.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that the model of peacebuilding undertaken by the various actors who

today take the lead in international interventionism is a particularly ambitious project.

From the mere freezing of armed conflicts, we have moved rapidly to attempt to settle

their root causes through an institutionalised paradigm that dramatically changed the

objectives and traditional functions of promoting peace in the periphery.

The results of this interventionist project were, however, far short of the desired,

particularly for those who enthusiastically foresaw a new era able to solve the challenges

to international peace and security of the post-Cold War. Two decades of internal and

external criticism of the peacebuilding model did produce some reforms towards a modus

operandi that is occasionally more flexible and more sensitive to other approaches. These

adjustments did not, however, truly question the cultural and ideological assumptions of

this paradigm, neither the global North’s interests underlying the international action in

conflict and post-conflict contexts. In fact, they could not even suitably solve most of the

problems identified by the problem-solvers, as shown by the successive reports and

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

assessments of peace operations led by international actors themselves. Indeed most of

the criticism over the past twenty years remains valid today.

The appreciation of peacebuilding as a response to extreme levels of violence plaguing

the system cannot, in this sense, fail to reveal an impact that is at least disappointing

and often counterproductive. Although praising the will to go beyond the militarised

model of negative peace – as well as how the fact translates into a renewed commitment

of the international community towards the periphery devastated by violence and in need

of help – scepticism about international efforts have clearly been justified. Serious

limitations in the way the concept has been conceived and materialised on the ground –

to which complaints can be added regarding the agendas and interests that are truly

served with these interventions – are particularly serious problems that are still, in fact,

far from being resolved.

References

Almeida Cravo, Teresa (2016), “Linking Peacebuilding, Rule of Law and Security Sector

Reform: The European Union’s Experience”, Asia-Europe Journal, Special Issue: The Rule

of Law as a Strategic Priority in the European Union’s External Action, vol.14 (1), pp.107-

124.

Almeida Cravo, Teresa (2016b), “Os Estudos para a Paz”, in Duque; Noivo & Almeida e

Silva (eds.), Segurança Contemporânea. Lisboa: PACTOR–Edições de Ciências Sociais e

Política Contemporânea, pp.69-84.

Almeida Cravo, Teresa (2013), “Duas décadas de consolidação da paz: as críticas ao

modelo das Nações Unidas”, Universitas: Relações Internacionais, UniCEUB, vol.11(2),

pp.21-37.

Ayoob, Mohammed (1996), "State-Making, State-Breaking and State Failure: Explaining

the Roots of 'Third World' Insecurity", in Goor et al. (eds.), Between Development and

Destruction. An Enquiry into the Causes of Conflict in post-Colonial States. London:

Macmillan Press Ltd, pp.67-90.

Barnes, Samuel (2001), “The Contribution of Democracy to Rebuilding Postconflict

Societies”, American Journal of International Law, vol.95(1), pp.86-101.

Call, Charles; Cousens, Elizabeth (2008), “Ending Wars and Building Peace: International

Responses to War-Torn Societies”, International Studies Perspectives, 9, pp.1-21.

Chandler, David (2006), Empire in Denial: The Politics of State-building. London: Pluto.

Chandler, David (2010), The uncritical critique of liberal peace, Review of International

Studies 36(1), pp.137-155.

Clapham, Christopher (1998), "Rwanda: The Perils of Peacemaking", Journal of Peace

Research, vol.35(2), pp.193-210.

Collier, Paul et al., (2003), Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil War and Development Policy.

New York: Oxford University Press and World Bank.

Cox, Robert (1986), “Social Forces, States and World orders: Beyond International

Relations Theory,” in Keohane (ed.), Neorealism and Its Critics. New York: Columbia

University Press, pp.204-254.

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

Darby, Philip (2009), ‘Rolling Back the Frontiers of Empire: Practising the Postcolonial’,

International Peacekeeping, vol.16(5), pp.699-716.

Doyle, Michael (2005), “Three Pillars of the Liberal Peace”, American Political Science

Review, vol.99(3), pp.463-466.

Doyle, Michael; Sambanis, Nicholas (2006), Making War & Building Peace. Princeton:

Princeton University Press.

Duffield, Mark (2001), Global Governance and the New Wars. The Merging of

Development and Security. London: Zed Books.

Fukuyama, Francis (2004), State-building: Governance and World Order in the 21st

Century. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Galtung, Johan (1964), “An Editorial”, Journal of Peace Research, vol.1(1), pp.1-4.

Galtung, Johan (1969), “Violence, Peace and Peace Research”, Journal of Peace

Research, vol.6(3), pp.167-191.

Galtung, Johan (1976), “Three Approaches to Peace: Peacekeeping, Peacemaking and

Peacebuilding”, in Galtung, Essays in Peace Research. Copenhagen: Ejlers, Volume II,

pp.283-304.

Galtung, Johan (1990), “Cultural Violence”, Journal of Peace Research, vol.27(3),

pp.291-305.

Han, Sonia (1994), "Building a Peace that Lasts: The United Nations and Post-Civil War

Peacebuilding", New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, vol.26 (4),

pp.837-892.

Harrison, Graham (2004), The World Bank and Africa: The Construction of Governance

States. London: Routledge.

Harvey, David (2005), A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hayes, Jarrod (2012), “The Democratic Peace and the new Evolution of an old Idea”,

European Journal of International Relations, vol.18(4), pp.767-791.

Jakobsen, Peter Viggo (2002), “The transformation of United Nations Peace Operations

in the 1990s: Adding Globalization to the Conventional ‘End of the Cold War Explanation”,

Cooperation and Conflict, vol.37(3), pp.267-282.

Jarstad, Anna; Sisk, Timothy (eds.) (2008), From War to Democracy: Dilemmas of

Peacebuilding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kahler, Miles (2009), "Statebuilding After Afghanistan and Iraq", in Paris & Sisk (eds.),

The Dilemmas of Statebuilding: Confronting the Contradictions of Postwar Peace

Operations. London: Routledge, pp.287-303.

Lederach, John Paul (2001), "Civil Society and Reconciliation", in Crocker et al. (eds.),

Turbulent Peace. The Challenges of Managing International Conflict. Washington, D.C.:

United States Institute of Peace Press, pp.841-854.

Lidén, Kristoffer (2011), “Peace, Self-governance and International Engagement: From

Neo-colonial to Post-colonial Peacebuilding”, in Tadjbakhsh (ed.), Rethinking the Liberal

Peace: External Models and Local Alternatives. New York: Routledge, pp.57-74.

Lizée, Pierre (2000), Peace, Power and Resistance in Cambodia. Global Governance and

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

the Failure of International Conflict Resolution. London: Macmillan Press Ltd.

Mac Ginty, Roger (2011). International Peacebuilding and Local Resistance: Hybrid Forms

of Peace. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Miall, Hugh; Ramsbotham, Oliver; Woodhouse, Tom (1999), Contemporary Conflict

Resolution. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Newman, Edward et al. (2009), “Introduction” in Newman et al. (eds.), New Perspectives

on Liberal Peacebuilding. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, pp.3-25.

Paris, Roland (1997), "Peacebuilding and the Limits of Liberal Internationalism",

International Security, vol.22(2), pp.54-89.

Paris, Roland (2004), At War's End: Building Peace after Civil Conflict. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Paris, Roland; Sisk, Timothy (eds.) (2009), The Dilemmas of Statebuilding: Confronting

the Contradictions of Postwar Peace Operations. London: Routledge.

Paris, Roland (2010), “Saving Liberal Peacebuilding”, Review of International Studies,

vol.36(2), pp.337-365.

Pugh, Michael (2005), “The Political Economy of Peacebuilding: A Critical Theory

Perspective”, International Journal of Peace Studies, vol.10(2), pp.23-42.

Ramsbotham, Oliver (2000), “Reflections on UN Post-Settlement Peacebuilding”, in

Woodhouse & Ramsbotham (eds.), Peacekeeping and Conflict Resolution. London: Frank

Cass Publishers, pp.169-189.

Richmond, Oliver (2005), The Transformation of Peace. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Richmond, Oliver (2006), “The problem of peace: Understanding the ‘liberal peace’”,

Conflict, Security & Development, vol.6(3), pp.291-314.

Richmond, Oliver (2011), A Post-Liberal Peace: The Local Infrapolitics of Peacebuilding.

London: Routledge.

Roberts, Adam; Kingsbury, Benedict (eds.) (1993), United Nations, Divided World: the

UN's Roles in International Relations. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Sedra, Mark (ed.) (2010), The Future of Security Sector Reform. Ottawa: Centre for

Governance Innovation.

Sousa Santos, Boaventura (2014), Epistemologies of the South. Boulder: Paradigm,

2014.

Stiglitz, John (2008), “Is there a Post-Washington Consensus Consensus?”, in Serra &

Stiglitz (eds.), The Washington Consensus Reconsidered: Towards a New Global

Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.41-56.

United Nations (UN) (1992), An Agenda For Peace, disponível em: http://www.un-

documents.net/a47-277.htm.

United Nations Secretary-General [UNSG] (1995), Suplement to an Agenda for Peace:

Position Paper of the Secretary-General on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the

United Nations, disponível em: http://www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/50/plenary/a50-

60.htm.

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 8, Nº. 1 (May-October 2017), pp. 44-60

Peacebuilding: assumptions, practices and critiques

Teresa Almeida Cravo

United Nations (UN) (2000), Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations

[Brahimi Report], disponível em:

http://www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/55/a55305.pdf.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (1994), Human Development Report

1994, disponível em: http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-report-1994

United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UNDPKO) (2008), United

Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Principles and Guidelines, disponível em:

http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/documents/capstone_eng.pdf

United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office [UNPSO] (2010), UN Peacebuilding: An

Orientation, disponível em:

http://www.un.org/en/peacebuilding/pbso/pdf/peacebuilding_orientation.pdf.

Wallensteen, Peter; Sollenberg, Margareta (2001), "Armed Conflict, 1989-2000", Journal

of Peace Research, vol.38(5), pp.629-644.

Weinstein, Jeremy (2002), “Mozambique: A Fading U.N. Success Story”, Journal of

Democracy, vol.13(1), pp.141-156.

Williamson, John (2008), “A Short History of the Washington Consensus”, in Serra &

Stiglitz (eds.), The Washington Consensus Reconsidered: Towards a New Global

Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.14-30.

Yannis, Alexandros (2002), "State Collapse and its Implications for Peace-Building and

Reconstruction", Development and Change, vol.33(5), pp.817-835.