Critical Approaches to Peacebuilding

The goal

The course aims to introduce students with the concept of peacebuilding in conflict-affected and post-conflict societies. This international practice has been globally present in the last thirty years and has had a profound influence on the post-war developments of the countries in the Global South. By focusing on the Balkan, Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa case studies, the course tries to assess achievements and shortcomings of the dominant form of peacebuilding - liberal peacebuilding. It also offers a deeper understanding of the liberal peacebuilding critique and its alternative forms - local (bottom-up) peacebuilding, everyday peace, and hybridity. Finally, the course provides a comparative overview of the impact of peacebuilding on political and socio-economic institutions in post-conflict and conflict-affected societies. The course is grounded in critical peace and conflict studies and offers the perspective of a Global South scholars who have personal encounters with the practice of peacebuilding.

The outcome

By the end of the course, students should be able to:
- Inform themselves about the process of peacebuilding and international interventions in the Global South;
- Identify and critically analyse key actors, processes and modes of intervention in contemporary peacebuilding missions;
- Evaluate political and socio-economic effects of liberal peacebuidling in post-conflict and conflict-affected societies;
- Recognize and critically assess responds made by local populations in relations to development model enforced upon them;
- Understand how violent conflict and peacebuilding could affect human development indicators in post-conflict and conflict-affected societies.

Contents of lectures

1. Introductory lecture
2. Global Violence Revisited
3. Peacebuilding in post-conflict societies
4. Liberal peacebuilding
5. The hybridity, local peace and the resistance
6. The case study: Bosnia and Herzegovina
7. Coffee talk: Discussion about the book “Peaceland” by Severine Autesserre
8. Midterm assignments presentation
9. Reconciliation in divided societies
10. The case study: Reconciliation in former Yugoslavia
11. Peacebuilding, gender and sexual violence: Discussion about the movie “The Whistlerblower”
12. Student presentations
13. Reading week
14. Reading week
15. Exam

1. Autesserre, Severine. 2014. Peaceland. New York: Cambridge University Press

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2. Mac, Andrew. 2007. Global Political Violence: Explaining the Post-Cold War Decline. International Peace Academy

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3. Ramsbotham, Oliver, Woodhouse, Tom and Miall, Hugh. 2016. Contemporary Conflict Resolution. Cambridge: Polity, 68-109

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4. Bellamy, Alex and Paul Williams. 2010. Understanding Peacekeeping. London: Polity, 173-278

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5. Mac Ginty, Roger. 2010. “Hybrid Peace: The Interaction Between Top-Down and Bottom-Up Peace.” Security Dialogue 41 (4): 391–412

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6. Mac Ginty, Roger. 2014. “Everyday Peace: Bottom-Up and Local Agency in Conflict-Affected Societies.” Security Dialogue, 45 (6): 548-564

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7. Mac Ginty, Roger. 2011. International Peacebuilding and Local Resistance: Hybrid Forms of Peace. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.19-47

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8. Richmond, Oliver. 2014. Failed Statebuilding. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 62-103 only

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9. Paris, Roland. 2010. “Saving Liberal Peacebuilding.” Review of International Studies 36 (2): 337-365

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10. Chandler, David. 2014. “Resilience and the ‘Everyday’: Beyond the Paradox of “Liberal Peace”.” Review of International Studies 41 (1): 27–48

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11. Lemay-Hebert, Nicolas. 2011.The "Empty-Shell Approach: The Setup Process of International Administrations in Timor-Leste and Kosovo, Its Consequences and Lessons." International Studies Perspectives 12: 190–211

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12. Chandler, David. 2006. "State-Building in Bosnia: The Limits of ‘Informal Trusteeship’" . International Journal of Peace Studies 11 (1)

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13. Franks, Jason and Richmond, P. Oliver. 2008. "Coopting Liberal Peace-building: Untying the Gordian Knot in Kosovo." Cooperation and Conflict 43: 81-103

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14. Belloni, Roberto. 2001. "Civil Society and Peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina." Journal of Peace Research 38 (2): 163-180

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15. David, Lea. 2017. “Against Standardization of Memory.” Human Rights Quarterly 39 (2): 296-318

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16. Jansen, Stef. 2013. “If Reconciliation Is the Answer, Are We Asking the Right Questions?” Studies in Social Justice 7 (2): 229-243

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17. Miloš Bešić and Nemanja Džuverović. 2020. “How many truths are there? Reconciliation and agonistic dialogue in the former Yugoslavia.” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 20 (3): 455-472

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18. Hamber, Brandon, Dineo Nageng and Gabriel O'Malley. 2000. “Telling It Like It Is...: Understanding the Truth and Reconciliation Commission from the Perspective of Survivors.” Psychology in Society 26: 18-42

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19. Theidon, Kimberly. 2007. "Gender in Transition: Common Sense, Women, and War." Journal of Human Rights 6(4): 453-478

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20. Hromadzic, Azra. 2006. "Challenging the Discourse of the Bosnian War Rapes." In Johnson, Janet E., and Jean C. Robinson, eds., Living with Gender after Communism. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, pp. 169-184

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21. Das, Veena. 2004. "Language and Body: Transactions in the Construction of Pain." In Scheper-Hughes and Bourgois, eds., Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 327-333

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22. Levy, Barry S., et.al. 2008. "Part IV: Vulnerable Populations." In Levy and Sidel, eds. War and Public Health. Second Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 179-226

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23. (movie) Why We Fight, directed by Eugene Jarecki, 2005

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24. (movie) The Whistleblower, directed by Larysa Kondracki, 2010

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25. (movie) No Man’s Land, directed by Danis Tanovic, 2001

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26. (movie) Tangerines, directed by Zaza Urushadze, 2013

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27. (movie) Hotel Rwanda, directed by Terry George, 2004

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lectures, book discussions, movie discussions, ethnographic fieldwork, visit to museums, protests and rallies, student presentations, one on one supervision, peer mentorship