Peacebuilding in the Balkans

Belloni, Roberto

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-14424-1_1

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Early and substantial success for landmark peace agreements such as the Oslo Accords, the Ta’if Agreement and the Dayton Peace Accords in Bosnia-Herzegovina might have sent positive signals about the LIO. Their subsequent stalemate and deterioration, by contrast, indicated a lack of unity and political will on the part of the West (Belloni, 2020), and exposed the limitations of liberal peacemaking. It became clear that powerful local actors which stand to lose privileges in a peace process may shift into a diplomatic counterinsurgency mode against peace and reform – or in Phillipe Leroux-Martin’s (2014) words,This is how losses at war are recuperated at the negotiating table and how concessions in peace treaties are neutralized through resistance in the implementation phase.…”

Section: The Failure Of the Ipa And Emerging Alternativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The international dynamics of counter-peace

Richmond

Pogodda

Visoka

2023

European Journal of International Relations

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Peace processes and international order are interdependent: while the latter provides the normative framework for the former, peacemaking tools and their underlying ideology also maintain international order. They indicate its viability and legitimacy partly by meeting local claims as well as though the maintenance of geopolitical balances. In the emerging multipolar order, the international peace architecture (IPA), dominated by the liberal international order (LIO), is contested through counter-peace processes. These processes contest the nature of the state, state-society relations and increasingly international order itself. This paper investigates the tactics and strategies of regional actors and great powers, where they engage in peace and order related activities or interventions. Given the weakness and inconsistency of the IPA and the LIO, such contestation leads to challenges to international order itself, often at the expense of the claims of social movements and civil society networks.

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Section: The Failure Of the Ipa And Emerging Alternativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The international dynamics of counter-peace

Richmond

Pogodda

Visoka

2023

European Journal of International Relations

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“…The lack of a shared narrative in post-war BiH is frequently cited as the country’s biggest challenge by scholars who point to Bosnia’s ongoing struggles to come to terms with its burdensome past and to engender reconciliation between ethnic groups (Bell, 2018; Belloni, 2019; Greiff, 2018). The Dayton Peace Accords, that in 1995 brought an end to the bloodshed of the Bosnian war, froze ethnic division into a complex system of multi-ethnic government in which a tripartite Presidency, with one candidate elected from each of the three constituent peoples – one Bosniak, one Croat and one Serb – share executive power.…”

Section: The Bosnian Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research reveals that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), rather than individualizing guilt, has served to further reinforce ethnic cleavages and distrust (Milanović, 2016). Despite billions invested in transitional justice mechanisms and international peace-building initiatives there is widespread disillusionment and cynicism amongst Bosnia citizens about the striking gap between the promises of the liberal peacebuilding agenda and day-to-day realities of deteriorating economic, political and social conditions (Belloni, 2019; Kappler, 2012).…”

Section: The Bosnian Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peace is possible: The role of strategic narratives in peacebuilding

Fairey

2023

Media, War & Conflict

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In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), scholars and practitioners often cite the lack of shared narrative as a primary challenge to long-term peace. A study of the multi-ethnic, collaborative story-telling work of the Post Conflict Research Centre (PCRC), a Bosnian peacebuilding organization, however, tells a different story. Instead of aiming to forge a singular narrative, PCRC weaves together multiple stories that express complex positions while driving narrative frames that show peace is possible. In a context where actors might not be ready for a joint narrative, the organization demonstrates how plural stories can co-exist, and be strategically mobilized and disseminated through diverse formats to actively engage others in peace-building processes. Identifying key narrative principles, tactics and frames employed by PCRC, this article proposes more attention is paid to how narrative can be strategically harnessed to de-stabilize the stories that drive entrenched division and to foster and cultivate a culture of peace.

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“…One-size-fits-all recipes for development, assistance and reforms, on the one hand, and liberal peace-building, on the other – both premised on the promotion of democracy, rule of law, civil society and market economy – attracted much criticism among scholars and practitioners for failing generate resolved, long-term and sustainable outcomes (Richmond, 2011). For example, EU's presence in the Western Balkans, in the forms of state-building, peace-building and integration of the region into the Euro-Atlantic community has been challenged on the grounds that inadequate consideration was given to local ownership and domestic expectations and views (Belloni, 2019: 175; Visoka and Musliu, 2020; see also Selenica in this Special Issue ). Rethinking large-scale, transformative, normatively-connoted involvements by external actors has resulted in a renewed call for pragmatism and situation-specific stabilization strategies.…”

Section: Bridging Ir and As Is Policy-relevantmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reaching for allies? The dialectics and overlaps between international relations and area studies in the study of politics, security and conflicts

D’Amato

Dian

Russo

2022

Riv. ital. sci. polit.

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This article sets the scene for the Special Issue ‘Reaching for allies?’ by setting out the research questions and structure of the Special Issue. Specifically, this introduction reviews the state of the art of dialectics interweaving International Relations and Area Studies. Specifically, it focuses on tracing the genealogy of these debates, identifying the actors engaged with them, as well as, mapping those sites where such transdisciplinary knowledge is produced and circulated. We also provide an assessment of the interaction between the two disciplinary traditions as scholarly disciplines by reviewing the field as it had developed in the last decade since 2013. In order to do so, we present data on the brokers of this dialogue by analysing top-ranked Journals across regions, dedicated Special Issues on the matter as well as main international conferences and participants. Overall, this article provides a threefold contribution: first, we provide an account of the globalization of knowledge production and circulation that has also increasingly decentred, valuing local peculiarities and epistemological traditions beyond the Western academia(s). Second, we assess and discuss how Western and non-Western academics have contoured concepts which demand and entail site-intensive techniques of enquiry, exposure to complexities on the grounds, ethnographic sensitivity, and, at the same time, comparative endeavours going beyond area specialisms. Third, by looking at international and regional policy-making milieus with attention to context-specificity, we believe critical policy-relevant implications can be discussed, specifically in relation to local ownership and bottom-up approaches.

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Peacebuilding in the Balkans

Cited by 4 publications

References 47 publications

The international dynamics of counter-peace

The international dynamics of counter-peace

Peace is possible: The role of strategic narratives in peacebuilding

Reaching for allies? The dialectics and overlaps between international relations and area studies in the study of politics, security and conflicts

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