A post-liberal peace: Eirenism and the everyday

Abstract

The ‘liberal peace’ is undergoing a crisis of legitimacy at the level of the everyday in post-conflict environments. In many such environments; different groups often locally constituted perceive it to be ethically bankrupt, subject to double standards, coercive and conditional, acultural, unconcerned with social welfare, and unfeeling and insensitive towards its subjects. It is tied to Western and liberal conceptions of the state, to institutions, and not to the local. Its post-Cold War moral capital, based upon its more emancipatory rather than conservative claims, has been squandered as a result, and its basic goal of a liberal social contract undermined. Certainly, since 9/11, attention has been diverted into other areas and many, perhaps promising peace processes have regressed. This has diverted attention away from a search for refinements, alternatives, for hybrid forms of peace, or for empathetic strategies through which the liberal blueprint for peace might coexist with alternatives. Yet from these strategies a post-liberal peace might emerge via critical research agendas for peacebuilding and for policymaking, termed here, eirenist. This opens up a discussion of an everyday ‘post-liberal peace’ and critical policies for peacebuilding.

Peace building and the depoliticisation of civil society: Sierra Leone 2002–13

“…Overall, there is a widespread consensus in the literature that liberal peacebuilding and development interventions are provoking legitimate resistance and opposition from those who are directly affected by the implementation of a liberal agenda in fragile states (Dudouet, 2011;Galvanek, 2013;Mac Ginty, 2010;Richmond, 2009Richmond, , 2011. In the context of the critique of liberal peacebuilding and development interventions, resistance is commonly understood as a reaction taking on various forms.…”

“…Richmond, 2009;Galvanek, 2013): be it to simply recognise resistance for what it is, or for developing creative ways of responding to various acts of resistance and modifying current initiatives accordingly (Galvanek, 2013, p. 15).…”

Everyday Resistance, Peacebuilding and State-making : Insights from 'Africa's World War'

“…In the attempt to offer a more nuanced account of peacebuilding, resistance has been made central to the critique of the liberal peace. Over the decade since 2006, different works have offered a more sustained theorisation of resistance in this context (Keranen 2013;Mac Ginty 2006Mitchell 2011a;Newman and Richmond 2006;Richmond 2009aRichmond , 2011aRichmond , 2011bRichmond , 2012Richmond and Mitchell 2012a;Zanotti 2006). They have argued that international peacebuilding is a complex process that local societies shape and oppose with multiple strategies.…”

Citizenship and Local Empowerment in Peacebuilding Scenarios

“…O debate em torno do 'local' tem evidenciado dinâmicas de poder e espaços políticos não considerados anteriormente e que são um ponto de partida para questionar a condição de cidadania. Richmond apelida estes espaços de pós -liberais, onde diferentes agências políticas se estão a afirmar como resistência às imposições da paz liberal (Richmond, 2009;. Esta afirmação é, porém, feita em oposição à presença internacional, visibilizando apenas parte das dinâmicas políticas locais.…”