Recent literature has argued that a ‘dominant peacebuilding culture’ has precluded the contextualisation of peacebuilding to local dynamics. The article explores the ‘peacekeeping-peacebuilding nexus’ in practice, where civilian peacekeepers are increasingly considered to be early peacebuilders. Drawing on examples from United Nations (UN) civilian peacekeeping involvement in local peacebuilding in South Sudan, this article argues for a less reductionist and more nuanced view of local peacebuilding and the social interactions and dynamics which take place. It recognises the discrepancies between official UN Headquarters (HQ) policy and action in the “field”, and thus explores the relationship between policy and practice and the location of agency and authority in civilian peacekeeping. The article argues that the critique levelled against peacekeeping and peacebuilding for being focused on actors in host country capitals does not sufficiently take into consideration the relationship between capitals and the “field”. Rather, local peacebuilding outcomes depend as much or more on negotiations, bargains and compromises between different actors at the “field” level, than on institutional policy decision-making deriving from headquarters.
This paper looks at the three-way relationship between the Government of Chad, humanitarians, and the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) from 2004 until June 2011. Chad was never comfortable with the international presence of either humanitarians or peacekeepers and asserted its sovereignty increasingly during this period. MINURCAT was deployed in 2008 to protect humanitarian workers and to facilitate the provision of humanitarian assistance in eastern Chad. This association between the UN mission and humanitarian agencies contributed to making the latter the target of repressive practices by the government, such as the imposition of armed escorts. Facing a steep learning curve, Chad and its state officials gradually appropriated the discourse of the humanitarian and international community and ultimately, in 2010, requested the departure of MINURCAT, claiming that they could meet the protection needs of vulnerable populations in eastern Chad on their own.
In recent literature on international peacekeeping and peacebuilding interventions, attention has been drawn increasingly to local level dynamics and the reciprocal relationships with national conflict dynamics. This article places local social structures and networks at the centre of analysis and action, while unpacking the category of the 'external actor'. Through a case study of UN civilian peacekeeping support to local peacebuilding in South Sudan, it argues that there are important efforts being made to contextualise peacebuilding activities for local circumstances, notwithstanding significant institutional obstacles limiting the impact of these efforts. It also argues for further empirical scrutiny of if and how international peacebuilders are engaging with the local dynamics of conflict, seeking to improve the understanding of the heterogeneity of and interaction between actors at these levels.
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