Lecture 10: Peacebuilding and its critics

Question 1

5 challenges facing peacebuilding

Answer 1

1. Increasing number of places affected by instability
2. New conflict actors
3. Displacement is on the rise
4. Number of fatalities are declining, but is offset by increasing number of conflicts overall
5. Countries are not on track to achieve sustainable development goals

Question 2

How many ongoing peacebuilding operations today?

Answer 2

12, concentrated mainly in Africa, Middle East, and one each in Asia and Europe

Question 3

2 definitions of peacebuilding

Answer 3

1. “Action to identify and support structures which will tend to strengthen and solidify peace in order to avoid a relapse into conflict” (post-conflict measures)
2. “Peacebuilding involves a range of measures targeted to reduce the risk of lapsing or relapsing into conflict by strengthening national capacities at all levels for conflict management, and to lay the foundations for sustainable peace and development” (pre- and post-conflict measures)

Question 4

3 varieties of peacebuilding

Answer 4

1. Actor-based (single state, coalition, regional IGO, UN etc.)
2. Intention-based (biased in favor of one side vs impartial)
3. Content-based (diplomatic, political, economic, military, police, support infrastructure and relations, enhance information flow to avoid security dilemma)

Question 5

2 different generations of peacekeeping

Answer 5

Traditional post-WW2: military observation, inter-positional peacekeeping

Multi-dimensional 1990s: sustain new government, build peace by demobilizing fighters, promoting elections etc.

Question 6

A mandate is

Answer 6

A legal framework for peace operation’s activities

Question 7

Do peacekeepers have to do everything stated in their mandate?

Answer 7

No

Question 8

Mandates are written in and reported by

Answer 8

Written in SC resolutions, reported on by UN Secretary General for achievements and revisions

Question 9

4 phases of international peace-promoting intervention in civil wars

Answer 9

1. Inter-positional peacekeeping: prevent two sides from getting to each other
2. Multidimensional peacekeeping: demobilizing fighters, supporting elections
3. Traditional peacekeeping
4. Multidimensional peacekeeping and peace enforcement (fighting to generate peace through own military capacity)

Question 10

Two new concepts from The Brahimi Report and Reform

Answer 10

Improve UN operations given high-profile failures;
1. Human security (focus on protection of individuals, not just being responsible to the government)

2. The Responsibility to Protect (intervening to stop the conflict)

Question 11

Characteristics of the UN mandate (first version) in Rwanda

Answer 11

1. Inspired by civil war in Rwanda
2. Ensure security of capital city, monitor ceasefire agreement, transitional government elections, reconstruction

Question 12

What changed with version 2 of the UN mandate in Rwanda? (3 points)

Answer 12

1. Mandate didn’t change for weeks after the genocide started
2. Mandate does not acknowledge killing of peacekeepers
3. UN should act as intermediary to try and get a ceasefire agreement, monitoring the safety of individuals and development of conflict

Question 13

What is a structural problem of peacekeeping?

Answer 13

Peacekeepers operate with the consent of the government of the country they work in and are not allowed to violate the consent of the government

Question 14

What changed with version 3 of the UN mandate in Rwanda? (4 points)

Answer 14

1. More direct action to contribute to security and protection of civilians and refugees
2. Contributing to security for relief operations
3. Provide police
4. Is still not very clear on what it means to contribute to security

Question 15

What caused the genocide in Rwanda?

Answer 15

In the wake of the civil war, the Hutu government became more extremist and polarized the population ethnically and encouraged genocide. This was partly caused by the introduction of a multi-party system by international pressure leading to Hutu fragmentation and an attempt to unify the group (including own Hutu opposition) by identifying a common enemy. Genocide thus started very quickly but had been building up for a long time ideologically and politically

Question 16

How many people were killed in the Rwandan genocide?

Answer 16

800,000 people (=10% of the population), including the leadership of the Hutu opposition

Question 17

What were some of the 4 problems that peacekeepers had in Rwanda?

Answer 17

1. No clear mandate
2. Being cut off from the rest of the world
3. No access to clean water
4. High-profile UN figures and other states did not want to believe a genocide was happening, unwilling to accept the situation

Question 18

According to The Genocide Fax, what did the UN know at the time before the genocide?

Answer 18

1. They knew that violence was building up
2. They were made aware of a list of people that were supposed to be killed through a fax
3. They were aware once the violence started that it was a genocide
4. They did not want to believe it, even if they had the information

Question 19

What could the UN have done differently in handling the Rwandan genocide?

Answer 19

1. Military intervention
2. Changed mandate differently and earlier
3. Communicated more publicly what was going on, going into discussions with Rwandan government
4. But UN dependent on individual contributions, which might limit the resources available to act

Question 20

3 ways of evaluating the success of peacebuilding

Answer 20

1. Stopping the war
2. Supporting the war to peace transition (e.g. lower expectations - UN not prevent violence but help transition to peace)
3. Investing in political and social infrastructure to prevent future war (making system more resilient to conflict, supporting the economy, building institutions etc.)

Question 21

What is negative peace?

Answer 21

Sovereignty: the absence of conflict/violence and reestablishing the sovereignty of the government

Question 22

What is positive peace?

Answer 22

Participation: absence of violence + democratic participation in society. Long-term more likely to contribute to peace

Question 23

What is the peacebuilding triangle?

Answer 23

Theory by Doyle and Sambanis to understand what is more likely to lead to the two kinds of peace. Consists of
1. International capacities
2. Hostility
3. Local capacity

Question 24

What is the hypothesis of Doyle and Sambanis

Answer 24

That peace operations prevent the return to war when they are matched to the conflict “ecology”, e.g when they fit with the nature of the conflict

Question 25

Regarding the peacebuilding triangle, when is peace most likely to last?

Answer 25

The lower hostiltiy is and the more international and local capacities

Question 26

Conflict of coordination and the role of peacebuilding

Answer 26

Two different sides to a conflict, but each would like to do the same thing (e.g. reach peace). The problem is how to be sure of what the others intentions and likely actions are.

Peacebuilding role is to share information about interests and intentions (since they are fundamentally the same) to facilitate the transition to peace, assuring the two sides of their mutual interests, and building up capacity for cooperation

Question 27

Conflict of cooperation and the role of peacebuilding

Answer 27

The two sides of the conflict do not have the incentive to do the same thing, and the incentives of the groups are to not coordinate with each other.

Role of peacebuilding it to overcome incentives, need for transformative operation. Could be imposing costs for noncompliance, mitigate costs of exploitation, and increase benefits to compliance

Question 28

How do UN peacebuilding operations help to improve the prospects for peace despite its prominent failures?

Answer 28

UN only sends multidimensional peacebuilding operations to difficult situations which we must control for in analysis. Once you do that, they do actually make a contribution

Question 29

The peacebuilding puzzle - Barma

Answer 29

Research must take into account 10-15 years later and the quality of the society build after the conflict. Change does not happen easily as political elites try to hold onto power by putting themselves in the new institutions

Question 30

Which type of peacekeeping significantly improves the chances of stable peace?

Answer 30

Transformative peacekeeping (multidimensional and enforcement)

Question 31

True or false: UN peace operations more likely than non-UN operations to prevent recurrence of conflict

Answer 31

True

Question 32

Threats to inference regarding studies on peacebuilding

Answer 32

Only looking at cases where peacebuilding efforts were present, none where there weren’t any

Question 33

Reading: The Genocide Fax - Philip Gourevitch

Answer 33

UN force commander in Rwanda send fax to UN detailing a list of Tutsis to be killed. There are questions about whether it reached the secretary-general of UN, but he had probably heard of its content

UN force was demanded to refrain from taking any direct preventative action

Reasons for UN possibly not taking action: not acknowledging the fax because they were hesitant to want to take action to stop it, not antagonizing the ally they had in the Rwandan government, system too slow to react

Question 34

Peacebuilding - Roland Paris

Answer 34

Peacebuilding (helping societies make the transition from civil violence to durable peace) is UN’s principal security activity.

As instrument for prolonging ceasefires, peacebuilding missions have performed well, but if goal is to address underlying sources of conflict, they have performed less well

‘Easier’ conflicts have been resolved, leading the most difficult cases for the UN to manage.

Possible remedies of UN shortcomings:
- Prioritizing building inclusive and legitimate governance structures
- Local-level sources of conflict resolution
- Economic assistance to promote long-term growth and address conflict risks

Funding and coordination of peacebuilding remain outstanding problems

Question 35

Why dependence on postconflict elites causes peacebuilding failures - Naazneen Barma

Answer 35

The underlying theory of peacebuilding leads to state-building and democratization to become captures by elites who co-opt interventions to achieve their own political objectives and preferred version of the political order

Peacebuilders should focus on incremental governance improvements (instead of transplanting institutional forms) that align with the incentives of postconflict leaders, while ensuring that the political space is expanded beyond these elites. They should still cooperate with elites on the reconstruction process, but these elites should be ineligible for elected office for some time specificed period of time