Showing papers in "Third World Quarterly in 2015"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the fact that gender equality and women empowerment have been eviscerated of conceptual and political bite compromises their use as the primary frame through which to demand rights and justice.
Abstract: The language of ‘gender equality’ and ‘women’s empowerment’ was mobilised by feminists in the 1980s and 1990s as a way of getting women’s rights onto the international development agenda. Their efforts can be declared a resounding success. The international development industry has fully embraced these terms. From international NGOs to donor governments to multilateral agencies the language of gender equality and women’s empowerment is a pervasive presence and takes pride of place among their major development priorities. And yet, this article argues, the fact that these terms have been eviscerated of conceptual and political bite compromises their use as the primary frame through which to demand rights and justice. Critically examining the trajectories of these terms in development, the article suggests that if the promise of the post-2015 agenda is to deliver on gender justice, new frames are needed, which can connect with and contribute to a broader movement for global justice.
271 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical assessment of the local turn in critical peacebuilding scholarship is made, and it is concluded that this leads to an ignorance of local elites, provides a romanticised interpretation of hybrid peace governance structures, overstates local resistance and presents an ambivalent relationship to practice.
Abstract: This article undertakes a critical assessment of the local turn in critical peacebuilding scholarship. It comes to the conclusion that the local turn is hampered by a binary and essentialist understanding of the local and the international, which are presented as the only relevant locations of power or resistance. This leads to an ignorance of local elites, provides a romanticised interpretation of hybrid peace governance structures, overstates local resistance and presents an ambivalent relationship to practice. The article recommends a more nuanced understanding of the actors involved in peace- and statebuilding, based on more empirical scholarship and a multidisciplinary approach.
233 citations
TL;DR: A literature review of the current local turn in peacebuilding can be found in this article, where the authors focus on the local as a means of emancipation and inclusion of local agency, expressed partly through the emphasis on voices from below and partly within the critical approaches to how the local has been interpreted in PE.
Abstract: This article is a literature review of the current local turn in peacebuilding. After a short introduction on the origins of ‘the local’ in peacebuilding, it gives an overview of current research and policy debates on the issue along two different lines. First, it emphasises the local in peacebuilding as a measure to increase peacebuilding effectiveness, as explored in the literature on the benefits of decentralisation and local governments for peace, as well as in the debates on local capacity and ownership as essential parts of peacebuilding policy. Second, it focuses on the local in peacebuilding as a means of emancipation and inclusion of local agency, expressed partly through the emphasis on voices from below and partly within the critical approaches to how the local has been interpreted in peacebuilding so far, arguing for a peacebuilding that is essentially local.
210 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the concept of local legitimacy, partnership and ownership of international peace interventions are seen as a fast track to success, sustainability and exit, and it is argued that the local is a construction.
Abstract: This article is primarily a piece of conceptual scoping and considers the concept of ‘the local’ in relation to peacebuilding. It notes how the local is simultaneously held to blame for conflicts (as unenlightened, dangerous, uncivilised) and is also regarded as a saviour for international peace support operations. Local legitimacy, partnership and ownership of international peace interventions are seen as a fast track to success, sustainability and exit. The article navigates its way around this confused understanding of the local and argues that the local is a (not always helpful) construction. It further argues that, by applying a critical lens towards the concept of the local, we can seek to separate the concept of the local from territory and see it in terms of activity, networks and relationships. This has implications for practice and ‘field’ work.
164 citations
TL;DR: The UN peacekeeping operations in the Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Mali were in 2013 given peace enforcement mandates, ordering them to use all necessary measures to neutralise and disarm identified groups in the eastern DRC and to stabilize the CAR and northern Mali as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The UN peacekeeping operations in the Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Mali were in 2013 given peace enforcement mandates, ordering them to use all necessary measures to ‘neutralise’ and ‘disarm’ identified groups in the eastern DRC and to ‘stabilise’ CAR and northern Mali. It is not new that UN missions have mandates authorising the use of force, but these have normally not specified enemies and have been of short duration. This article investigates these missions to better understand the short- and long-term consequences, in terms of the willingness of traditional as well as Western troop contributors to provide troops, and of the perception of the missions by host states, neighbouring states, rebel groups, and humanitarian and human rights actors. The paper explores normative, security and legitimacy implications of the expanded will of the UN to use force in peacekeeping operations. It argues that the urge to equip UN peacekeeping operations with enforcement manda...
127 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that political identities in Syria, both national and sectarian, have developed in a complex interrelated manner in the modern era and how the recent violent mobilisation of sectarian identity is the result of long and short-term structural, economic, socio-cultural and political factors rather than unchanging ancient animosities.
Abstract: This article challenges the sectarian narrative of Syria’s current civil war, which relies on several false assumptions about the nature of political identity. It first questions how sectarian the uprising and civil war actually are, suggesting that the conflict is ‘semi-sectarian’, given the multiple other fault lines of contention, notably class, ideology and other non-sect, sub-state ties. It then draws on the theoretical debates between primordialists, ethno-symbolists and modernists to historicise political identity development in Syria. In doing so, it reasserts the modernist case, emphasising how political identities in Syria, both national and sectarian, have developed in a complex interrelated manner in the modern era and how the recent violent mobilisation of sectarian identity is the result of long- and short-term structural, economic, socio-cultural and political factors rather than unchanging ancient animosities. Of these, the most vital remain structural changes and elite reactions to them, ...
111 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a collection of conceptual and empirical articles is contextualised and introduced, painting a broad state-of-the-art of the pros and cons of the local turn.
Abstract: This introduction presents how views on ‘the local turn’ in peacebuilding has evolved into a significant discourse. Currently, it has ‘its moment’ and is widely used by theorists and practitioners alike, by normative localists as well as by liberal policy-makers, albeit for different reasons and with differing intensions. We suggest that international interventions for the purpose of peacebuilding cannot be justified a priori, but requires resonance at the ‘receiving end’, which the local dimension potentially offers. It is however an elusive and contested concept that requires thorough scrutiny and critical assessment. Here a collection of conceptual and empirical articles is contextualised and introduced, painting a broad state-of-the-art of the pros and cons of the local turn.
93 citations
TL;DR: The authors identifies three characteristics of delegative democracy, which are responsible for the lack of democratic consolidation, if not the erosion of democracy itself: anti-institutionalism, an anti-political agenda and clientelism.
Abstract: Guillermo O’Donnell’s influential work ‘Delegative Democracy’ set the discourse on a peculiar type of democracy. Lying between representative democracy and authoritarianism, the uniqueness of delegative democracy lies in its features, including an absence of horizontal accountability, strong centralised rule, individual leadership with unchecked powers, a cult figure embodying the nation and clientelist practices. While delegative democracies seem to arise out of presidential systems, Turkey, though a parliamentary system, has also displayed the distinctive features of delegative democracies. This paper identifies three characteristics of delegative democracy, which are responsible for the lack of democratic consolidation, if not the erosion of democracy itself: anti-institutionalism, an anti-political agenda and clientelism. Arguing that delegative democracy is the best concept with which to examine contemporary Turkey, the paper lays out how, post-2011, Turkey has demonstrated the three elements of dele...
87 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a land framework of food sovereignty, described as "democratic land control" or "land sovereignty", with working peoples' right to land at its core is outlined, with a normative frame to kick-start a debate and possible agenda for future research.
Abstract: Land and food politics are intertwined. Efforts to construct food sovereignty often involve struggles to (re)constitute democratic systems of land access and control. The relationship is two-way: democratic land control may be effected but, without a strategic rebooting of the broader agricultural and food system, such democratisation may fizzle out and revert back to older or trigger newer forms of land monopoly. While we reaffirm the relevance of land reform, we point out its limitations, including its inability to capture the wide array of land questions confronting those implicated in the political project of food sovereignty. Our idea of the land framework of food sovereignty, described as ‘democratic land control’ or ‘land sovereignty’, with working peoples’ right to land at its core, is outlined, with a normative frame to kick-start a debate and possible agenda for future research.
75 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the positionality of local identity is contingent on the everchanging social context and political economy of peacebuilding, and they identify the ways in which peacebuilding agency facilitates the creation of a particular set of identities (identification).
Abstract: This article challenges the notion of the ‘local’ as a static identity or set position and argues for a processual understanding of localisation, in which constant processes of delocalisation and (re-)localisation serve as tools by which peacebuilding actors position themselves in the political economy and the social landscape of peacebuilding. Peacebuilding agency and -identity are viewed as situated in time and space and subject to constant transformation. Using the cases of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Cyprus, I argue that the positionality of local identity is contingent on the ever-changing social context and political economy of peacebuilding. By viewing processes of (re-)localisation and delocalisation as markers of agency, we can overcome the binary between local and international and investigate more subtle forms of agency in a fluid peacebuilding environment. The article identifies the ways in which peacebuilding agency facilitates the creation of a particular set of identities (identification), befor...
62 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the relationship between assets and their financial derivatives, asking how far the value of "carbon" or "green" can be directly attributed to its social and narrative construction.
Abstract: This paper asks how far performativity in the Green Economy generates material or virtual assets. It examines the relationship between assets and their financial derivatives, asking how far the value of ‘carbon’ or ‘green’ can be directly attributed to its social and narrative construction. The paper draws on two case studies – one of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in South Africa, the other of the global private green bonds market – to show that both public and private climate finance can generate virtual economic activity co-produced by processes of social valuation and accumulation proper. How reliant is the Green Economy on actual economic activity?
TL;DR: The authors identified four contrasting global discourses of the green economy in contemporary usage: green resilience, green growth, green transformation and green revolution, which are manifested in recent green economy national strategies across the global South, including in Ethiopia, India, South Korea and Brazil.
Abstract: This article identifies four contrasting global discourses of the green economy in contemporary usage: green resilience, green growth, green transformation and green revolution. These four discourses are manifested in recent green economy national strategies across the global South, including in Ethiopia, India, South Korea and Brazil. Disaggregating these discourses is politically important, and shows their different implications for broader political economies of the green state in the global South.
TL;DR: This article argued that BRICS protagonism is aimed less at challenging the prevailing international order than at opening up space in the global system for more extensive integration and a less asymmetric global capitalism.
Abstract: It is commonplace for observers to see the increasingly prominent role of the BRICS in international economic and political affairs as a Southern challenge to global capitalism and the power of the core Trilateral nation-states. Extant accounts remain mired in a tenacious realist debate over the extent to which the BRICS are challenging the prevailing international order. I suggest that we shift the paradigmatic focus in discussion of the BRICS phenomenon towards a global capitalism perspective that breaks with such a nation-state/inter-state framework. Global integration and transnational capitalist class formation has advanced significantly in the BRICS. BRICS protagonism is aimed less at challenging the prevailing international order than at opening up space in the global system for more extensive integration and a less asymmetric global capitalism. The article examines agricultural subsidies, US–China relations and international trade agreements as empirical reference points in arguing that the concep...
TL;DR: The authors argue that historically rooted resistance efforts for agrarian justice, food justice and immigrant labour justice across the food system are not only drawing inspiration from food sovereignty, but helping to shape what food sovereignty means in the USA.
Abstract: As food sovereignty spreads to new realms that dramatically diverge from the agrarian context in which it was originally conceived, this raises new challenges, as well as opportunities, for already complex transnational agrarian movements. In the face of such challenges calls for convergence have increasingly been put forward as a strategy for building political power. Looking at the US case, we argue that historically rooted resistance efforts for agrarian justice, food justice and immigrant labour justice across the food system are not only drawing inspiration from food sovereignty, but helping to shape what food sovereignty means in the USA. By digging into the histories of these resistance efforts, we can better understand the divides that exist as well as the potential for and politics of convergence. The US case thus offers important insights, especially into the roles of race and immigration in the politics of convergence that might strengthen the global movement for food sovereignty as it expands ...
TL;DR: The authors argue that not all local food systems are a manifestation of food sovereignty, nor do they all help build the alternative model that food sovereignty proposes, arguing that localisation is a necessary but not sufficient condition for food sovereignity.
Abstract: The ‘localisation’ narrative is at the heart of food sovereignty in theory and practice, in reaction to the ‘distance’ dimension in the dominant industrial food system. But while it is a central element in food sovereignty, it is under-theorised and largely unproblematised. Using the theoretical concepts of food regime analysis, uneven geographical development and metabolic rift, the author presents an exploratory discussion on the localisation dimension of food sovereignty, arguing that not all local food systems are a manifestation of food sovereignty nor do they all help build the alternative model that food sovereignty proposes. The paper differentiates local food systems by examining character, method and scale and illustrates how local food systems rarely meet the ideal type of either food sovereignty or the capitalist industrial model. In order to address five forms of distance inherent in the global industrial food system, localisation is a necessary but not sufficient condition for food sovereign...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors use case studies of corporate agricultural expansion to highlight the different dynamics of incorporation and struggle in relation to women's and men's different position, class and endowments.
Abstract: The vision of food sovereignty calls for radical changes in agricultural, political and social systems related to food. These changes also entail addressing inequalities and asymmetries of power in gender relations. While women’s rights are seen as central to food sovereignty, given the key role women play in food production, procurement and preparation, family food security, and food culture, few attempts have been made to systematically integrate gender in food sovereignty analysis. This paper uses case studies of corporate agricultural expansion to highlight the different dynamics of incorporation and struggle in relation to women’s and men’s different position, class and endowments. These contribute to processes of social differentiation and class formation, creating rural communities more complex and antagonistic than those sketched in food sovereignty discourse and neo-populist claims of peasant egalitarianism, cooperation and solidarity. Proponents of food sovereignty need to address gender systema...
TL;DR: In the last three decades, quinoa has gone from a globally obscure food to an internationally traded product with rising global consumer demand This transformation has had complex social and ecological impacts on the indigenous agropastoral communities of the southern Altiplano region of Bolivia as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the last three decades, quinoa has gone from a globally obscure food to an internationally traded product with rising global consumer demand This transformation has had complex social and ecological impacts on the indigenous agropastoral communities of the southern Altiplano region of Bolivia This article analyses the role that global quinoa markets have played in the repopulation and revitalisation of this region, previously hollowed out by out-migration Yet, it also points to a number of local tensions and contradictions generated or magnified by this process, as peasants struggle to harness the quinoa boom as a force of ‘sustainable re-peasantisation’ and ‘living well’ Finally, the article suggests that the food sovereignty movement should place greater emphasis on examining the culturally and historically specific challenges facing re-peasantisation in particular places
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a framework that defines fragile statehood as deficiencies in one or more of the core functions of the state: authority, capacity and legitimacy, and suggest a route towards operationalisation that maintains this multidimensionality.
Abstract: This conceptual and methodological article makes the case for a multidimensional empirical typology of state fragility. It presents a framework that defines fragile statehood as deficiencies in one or more of the core functions of the state: authority, capacity and legitimacy. Unlike available indices of state fragility, it suggests a route towards operationalisation that maintains this multidimensionality. The methodology presented should help in future research to identify clusters of countries that exhibit similar constellations of statehood, whereby ‘constellation’ refers to the specific mix of characteristics across the three dimensions. Such an identification of empirical types would fulfil a demand that exists both in academic research and among policy circles for finding a more realistic model of fragility at an intermediate level between single-case analyses and the far-too-broad category of state fragility.
TL;DR: The authors examine the representations of empowerment in visual (image and video) material from the Nike Foundation's "Girl Effect" campaign and conclude that the relations constructed in the 'Girl Effect' campaign between the empowered Western spectator and the yet-to-be-empowered Third World Girl work to erode bonds of solidarity and entrench structural inequalities by positioning.
Abstract: Women and girls are currently positioned as highly visible subjects of global governance and development, from the agendas of the United Nations and the World Bank to the corporate social responsibility campaigns of Nike, Goldman Sachs and Coca Cola. This paper examines the representations of empowerment in visual (image and video) material from the Nike Foundation’s ‘Girl Effect’ campaign. Drawing on the works of Angela McRobbie and Lilie Chouliaraki, I suggest that this campaign is reflective of a mode of ‘post-feminist spectatorship’ that is now common to corporatised development discourses; it is manifested both in terms of the conservative mode of neoliberal empowerment proposed for distant others and the mode of ironic spectatorship imagined for the viewer. I conclude that the relations constructed in the ‘Girl Effect’ campaign between the (empowered) Western spectator and the (yet-to-be-empowered) Third World Girl work to erode bonds of solidarity and entrench structural inequalities by positioning...
TL;DR: This paper argued that post-Arab Spring politics are a product of globalisation's economic and social liberalisation, and that the global market and privatisation have fundamentally deconstructed centralised autocratic rule over state and society, while facilitating corruption and selective development, culminating in public outrage.
Abstract: This paper advances the proposition that post-Arab Spring politics are a product of globalisation’s economic and social liberalisation. The global market and privatisation have fundamentally deconstructed centralised autocratic rule over state and society, while facilitating corruption and selective development, culminating in public outrage. The political order of the Middle East and North Africa since the Arab Spring synthesises globalisation’s dialectic duality, in which economic integration has contributed to the demise of national authoritarianism, inciting communalism and political fragmentation. This paper analyses emerging political trends and challenges based on a comparative analysis of Egypt and Tunisia.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address the antagonism-agonism nexus and the political and contested nature of building peace, and propose the notion of agonistic peacebuilding, which is used as a critical case of intractable conflict to elucidate the enabling and restraining conditions for agonistic PE.
Abstract: Many contemporary conflicts are framed as antagonistic and difficult to resolve because of their zero-sum framing among the disputants. This article addresses the antagonism–agonism nexus and the political and contested nature of building peace. It has a three-fold aim: (1) to critically assess the interplay between constructive and destructive dynamics; (2) to analyse the circumstances under which conflict may move from antagonism to agonism; and (3) to advance the novel notion of agonistic peacebuilding. The Middle East Peace process is used as a critical case of intractable conflict to elucidate the enabling and restraining conditions for agonistic peacebuilding.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors build on the contributions to this special issue by examining different approaches to the local turn and what can be learnt from applying them, and suggest giving up the "one-size-fits-all" model of peacebuilding and engaging in context-based methods and research designs beyond generalisations.
Abstract: This article builds on the contributions to this special issue by examining different approaches to the local turn and what can be learnt from applying them. The contributors agree on the imperative of understanding ‘the local’ in peacebuilding; however, there seems to be a multitude of ways forward in this regard. The immediate concern is how this acknowledgement translates into practices that allow for both efficiency and local emancipation in the building of peace. The article suggests giving up the ‘one-size-fits-all’ model of peacebuilding and engaging in context-based methods and research designs beyond generalisations. One way to go about this is to strive for interdisciplinary research – combining peace studies and political science with social anthropologists and area studies – but also to involve ‘the locals’ themselves in the process of taking a few methodological steps further.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the technologies of government that proponents of REDD+ are adopting to influence forest governance in Indonesia, focusing on three aspects of the One Map Initiative: the forest moratorium, forest licensing and new standards in participative mapping.
Abstract: This paper analyses the technologies of government that proponents of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism are adopting to influence forest governance in Indonesia. It analyses the aspects of forest governance being problematised; the solutions being constructed; and who is influencing the production and content of these solutions. The research focuses on three aspects of the One Map Initiative: the forest moratorium; forest licensing; and new standards in participative mapping. Our findings show that the initiative has created new opportunities and constraints for forest reform. New disciplinary and participatory technologies have emerged that have created political spaces for activists to actively promote social and environmental justice concerns. However, our analysis also shows tensions for forest stakeholders between engaging in the new opportunities of the green economy and the risk of having political issues rendered technical.
TL;DR: A series of wide-ranging, politically challenging but ultimately feasible interventions that are necessary but not sufficient conditions for its realisation is presented in this article, where the authors argue that continuing to build food sovereignty requires changes to global and local food systems that have to be undertaken in the messy reality of the present.
Abstract: Rural social movements and urban food activists have sought to build food sovereignty because it has the potential to be the foundation of an alternative food system, transcending the deep-seated social, economic and ecological contradictions of the global food economy. However, continuing to build food sovereignty requires changes to global and local food systems that have to be undertaken in the messy reality of the present. This article therefore presents a series of wide-ranging, politically challenging but ultimately feasible interventions that are necessary but not sufficient conditions for its realisation.
TL;DR: The authors explores the historical and contemporary sources of food insecurity in Haiti and argues that the belief that Haiti can best achieve food security through the pursuit of comparative advantage, a notion advanced and supported by powerful international and domestic actors, has served to reinforce harmful historic trends.
Abstract: This paper explores the historical and contemporary sources of food insecurity in Haiti. It begins by detailing the impact of colonial legacies on the Caribbean region as a whole and on Haiti in particular. The adverse consequences associated with this period include deforestation, soil infertility and food-import dependence. The paper then turns to more contemporary trends, namely the influence of 30 years of neoliberal ideology. It argues that the belief that Haiti can best achieve food security through the pursuit of comparative advantage, a notion advanced and supported by powerful international and domestic actors, has served to reinforce harmful historic trends. We support this argument with recent fieldwork findings that highlight how the construction of a new export processing zone (EPZ), following the 2010 earthquake, has generated troubling environmental and food security concerns.
TL;DR: In this article, the use of humour as a strategy to promote increased public engagement in the countries of the global North with issues of global justice is examined, arguing that humour can be both an ethical and an effective way of attracting and sustaining public engagement.
Abstract: This article examines the use of humour as a strategy to promote increased public engagement in the countries of the global North with issues of global justice. The central argument of the article is that humour can be both an ethical and an effective way of attracting and sustaining public engagement in struggles for global justice. There are risks and limits to the use of humour to represent issues of poverty and injustice but, given low levels of public engagement in these issues in the countries of the global North, humour is a risk worth taking.
TL;DR: In this paper, the integration of food and land-based social relations in the context of localised and historical-geographical specificities of livelihood practices among Acholi peasants in northern Uganda is discussed.
Abstract: This article critically reflects upon conceptual and analytical questions that affect the practical implementation of food sovereignty in Uganda, a country often labelled as the potential breadbasket of Africa. It proposes to look at the integration of food and land-based social relations in the context of localised and historical–geographical specificities of livelihood practices among Acholi peasants in northern Uganda as a way to ground the concept. It argues that many of the organising principles at the core of the food sovereignty paradigm are inscribed in the socio-cultural and ecological practices of peasant populations in northern Uganda. Yet these practices are taking place in an increasingly adverse national and international environment, and under circumstances transmitted from the past, which enormously challenge their implementation and jeopardise the future of food security and sovereignty prospects for peasant agriculture.
TL;DR: This article explored the BRICS' emerging status as resource powers, examining how resource wealth underpins their economic development and foreign policy strategies, and thus contributes to their growing influence in international affairs.
Abstract: The rise of new economic powers has seen increasing attention focused on the international role of the BRICS countries. Importantly, a common feature uniting the BRICS is that they are all resource-rich, and many analysts (and some BRICS governments) have argued that natural resources are one of the key factors propelling the rise of the group. This article explores the BRICS’ emerging status as ‘resource powers’, examining how resource wealth underpins their economic development and foreign policy strategies, and thus contributes to their growing influence in international affairs. It is argued that through the use of nationalistic mining and energy policies, the BRICS governments have exploited natural resources for both domestic economic and international diplomatic objectives. However, there are several challenges and emerging risks facing the BRICS’ resource strategies, which mean that resource wealth is making a positive – though inherently limited – contribution to the growing international status ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze local experiences and perceptions of decentralisation and related programs, and investigate whether and how such reform provides for local participation and downward accountability, and conclude that nationally owned reform is not necessarily an alternative to externally...
Abstract: Far reaching decentralisation reform has been launched in Rwanda, intended to contribute to socioeconomic development as well as to reconstruction and reconciliation. While the reform is well in line with the international trend of a ‘local turn’, the Rwandan government makes a point of not letting donors or other external actors set the agenda. Determined to formulate its own policies, thus claiming ‘national ownership’, it has, within the frame of decentralisation, launched several development programmes to be locally implemented and to promote local participation and downward accountability. However, the reform and programmes are designed and decided upon in a top-down manner by the central national leadership. This article analyses local experiences and perceptions of decentralisation and related programmes, and investigates whether and how such reform provides for local participation and downward accountability. It concludes that nationally owned reform is not necessarily an alternative to externally...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify the failure of the liberal peace to localise and make it a part of everyday life in Cambodia and argue empirically that certain forms of local and everyday peace have emerged for the wrong reason, and may evolve further.
Abstract: The trajectory of the liberal peacebuilding project has encountered a fundamental critique of its failure to deliver the expected sustainable peace. This paper questions the approach with which it has been, and largely still is, pursued. We reflect on a more communicative, nuanced, contextual and time-bound approach. In particular, we identify the failure of the liberal peace to localise peace and to make it a part of everyday life in Cambodia. Nevertheless, we claim that liberal peace has unintentionally created space for progress, while a ‘local turn’ has proved significant. We demonstrate empirically that certain forms of local and everyday peace have emerged for the ‘wrong’ reason, and may evolve further. Hence, a local peace has gradually sunk in, although its liberal foundations remain virtual.