Mediation and Liberal Peacebuilding


Book Description

This book offers a state-of-the-art examination of peacemaking, looking at its theoretical assumptions, empirical applications and its consequences. Despite the wealth of research on external interventions and practices of Western peacebuilding, many scholars tend to rely on findings in the so-called 'post-agreement' phase of interventions. As a result, most mainstream peacebuilding literature pays limited or no attention to the linkages that exist between mediation practices in the negotiation phase and processes in the post-peace agreement phase of intervention. By linking the motives and practices of interveners during negotiation and implementation phases into a more integrated theoretical framework, this book makes a unique contribution to the on-going debate on the so-called Western ‘liberal’ models of peacebuilding. Drawing upon in-depth case-studies from various different regions of the world including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Sierra Leone, this innovative volume examines a variety of political motives behind third party interventions, thus challenging the very founding concept of mediation literature. This book will of much interest to students of peacebuilding, statebuilding, peacemaking, war and conflict studies, security studies and IR in general.




Adaptive Mediation and Conflict Resolution


Book Description

This open access book introduces adaptive mediation as an alternative approach that enables mediators to go beyond liberal peace mediation, or other determined-design models of mediation, in the context of contemporary conflict resolution and peace-making initiatives. Adaptive mediation is grounded in complexity theory, and is specifically designed to cope with highly dynamic conflict situations characterized by uncertainty and a lack of predictability. It is also a facilitated mediation process whereby the content of agreements emerges from the parties to the conflict themselves, informed by the context within which the conflict is situated. This book presents the core principles and practices of adaptive mediation in conjunction with empirical evidence from four diverse case studies – Colombia, Mozambique, The Philippines, and Syria – with a view to generate recommendations for how mediators can apply adaptive mediation approaches to resolve and transform contemporary and future armed conflicts.




Alternative Perspectives on Peacebuilding


Book Description

This book analyses and furthers the academic debates on post-liberal peacebuilding, through a number of conceptual, theoretical and empirical research outputs. Part I includes a review of how the recent discourse on peacebuilding has evolved, and three conceptual/theoretical perspectives relevant to post-liberal peacebuilding. In particular, the editors propose the concept of bespoke peacebuilding to articulate key features of new peacebuilding models. Part II introduces five case studies that present how alternative peacebuilding models are being shaped (or can be shaped) in practice. Essential reading for scholars and students in Peace and Conflict Studies, International Relations, and International Security Studies. Chapter 8 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.




International Peacebuilding


Book Description

International Peacebuilding offers a concise, practical and accessible introduction to the growing field of peacebuilding for students and practitioners. This new textbook comprises three parts, each dealing with a key aspect of peacebuilding: Part I defines the core concepts and theoretical discussions that provide the philosophical grounds for contemporary peacebuilding activities. Part II divides the procedures of peacebuilding into three phases and examines some of the important features of each phase. Part III examines the key areas of the practice of peacebuilding. The volume approaches peacebuilding from the viewpoints of individual actors or institutions, introducing a range of theoretical discussions with which students can critically examine contemporary peacebuilding practice, as well as presenting detailed case studies for key issues highlighted in the text. In doing so, the book aims to provide more concrete ideas on how peacebuilding programmes are planned and implemented in the field and which major issues should be addressed by peacebuilding practitioners. This book will be essential reading for all students of peacebuilding, conflict transformation and post-conflict reconstruction, and recommended reading for students of international organisations, international security and IR in general.




Liberal Peace Transitions


Book Description

This book examines the nature of 'liberal peace': the common aim of the international community's approach to post-conflict statebuilding. Adopting a particularly critical stance on this one-size-fits-all paradigm, it explores the process by breaking down liberal peace theory into its constituent parts: democratisation, free market reform and development, human rights, civil society, and the rule of law.Readers are provided with critically and theoretically informed empirical access to the 'technology' of the liberal peacebuilding process, particularly in regard to Cambodia, Kosovo, East Timor, Bosnia and the Middle East.Key Features*critically interrogates the theory, experience, and current outcomes of liberal peacebuilding*includes five empirically-informed case studies: Cambodia, Kosovo, East Timor, Bosnia and the Middle East*focuses on the key institutional aspects of liberal peacebuilding and key international actors*assesses the local outcomes of liberal peacebuilding




Routledge Handbook of Peacebuilding


Book Description

This updated and revised second edition of the Routledge Handbook of Peacebuilding contains cutting-edge analyses of contemporary attempts to reach and sustain peace. The book covers the main actors and dynamics of peacebuilding, as well as the main challenges that it faces, with accessible chapters. The volume is comprehensive, covering everything from the main international institutions for peacebuilding to the links between peacebuilding and climate change, or peacebuilding and trauma. It is also firmly interdisciplinary, with a number of chapters devoted to showcasing how different disciplines interpret peacebuilding and how they contribute to it. Bringing together leading thinkers and practitioners on peacebuilding, many from the Global South, the handbook offers a valuable “hands-on” perspective on how peace can be secured and sustained. There is a significant emphasis on comparison and the book shows how peacebuilding is best examined from the vantage point of multiple cases. The book is organised into six thematic sections: Part I: Architecture and Actors Part II: Reading Peacebuilding Part III: Issues and Approaches Part IV: Violence and Security Part V: Everyday Living Part VI: Disciplinary Approaches This book will be essential reading for students of peacebuilding, mediation and post-conflict reconstruction, and of great interest to students of statebuilding, intervention, civil wars, conflict resolution, war and conflict studies and IR in general.




The 'Local Turn' in Peacebuilding


Book Description

Contemporary practices of international peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction are often unsatisfactory. There is now a growing awareness of the significance of local governments and local communitites as an intergrated part of peacebuilding in order to improve quality and enhance precision of interventions. In spite of this, ‘the local’ is rarely a key factor in peacebuilding, hence ‘everyday peace’ is hardly achieved. The aim of this volume is threefold: firstly it illuminates the substantial reasons for working with a more localised approach in politically volatile contexts. Secondly it consolidates a growing debate on the significance of the local in these contexts. Thirdly, it problematizes the often too swiftly used concept, ‘the local’, and critically discuss to what extent it is at all feasible to integrate this into macro-oriented and securitized contexts. This is a unique volume, tackling the ‘local turn’ of peacebuilding in a comprehensive and critical way. This book was published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.




Concept of Liberal Peace Management Through Mediation


Book Description

Theoretical study of peace as dynamics of life free from violence from perspective of management science reveals instrumental potential of mediation, i.e. organization of peace in communication among people, in liberal peace management, which is process of organization and development of peaceful life by nonviolent means. Liberal peace management through mediation in private and public contexts maintains dialogue, negotiations, and decision-making ensuring maximum autonomy of the parties to achieve agreements between people and voluntary compliance with the agreements. As a peaceful way of dispute settlement, liberal peace management through mediation helps to build peace within and between societies ensuring the right of everyone to enjoy just and prosperous peace free from fear and want, as urges 2016 Declaration on the Right to Peace.




The Era of Private Peacemakers


Book Description

The field of peacemaking is in turbulent change. There are more peacemaking actors than before but fewer success stories, and an increasing number of violent conflicts tend to resist negotiated agreements. Tools and practices created for traditional inter- and intra-state conflicts have become ineffective and revision of old mediation practices is called for. This book examines how the private peacemaking organisations have faced this challenge. In the 21st century, private peacemakers have become a central part of peace diplomacy and have appeared as flexible actors whose innovative thinking paves the way for reconsidering and reinventing old practices of mediation. Instead of emphasizing the act of resolution, a new emphasis is given to the transformation of violence into a peace system, the complexity of conflict and the inadequateness of rational management. Furthermore, this shift has brought civic society actors from the field of reconciliation to the field of peace mediation. This new pragmatic approach under development can be called dialogic mediation.




Routledge Companion to Peace and Conflict Studies


Book Description

This Companion examines contemporary challenges in Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) and offers practical solutions to these problems. Bringing together chapters from new and established global scholars, the volume explores and critiques the foundations of Peace and Conflict Studies in an effort to advance the discipline in light of contemporary local and global actors. The book examines the following eight specific components of Peace and Conflict Studies: Peace and conflict studies praxis Structure–agency tension as it relates to social justice, nonviolence, and relationship building Gender, masculinity, and sexuality The role of partnerships and allies in racial, ethnic, and religious peacebuilding Culture and identity Critical and emancipatory peacebuilding International conflict transformation and peacebuilding Global responses to conflict. It argues that new critical and emancipatory peacebuilding and conflict transformation strategies are needed to address the complex cultural, economic, political, and social conflicts of the 21st century. This book will be of much interest to students of peace and conflict studies, peace studies, conflict resolution, transitional justice, reconciliation studies, social justice studies, and international relations.