june 21,2011 volume 5,number 12 pages 291-314 www ...€¦ · nations’ top repre - sentative in...

PeacebuildingCAN IT STABILIZE COUNTRIES AFTER THE FIGHTING STOPS?

Peacebuilding is the international community’s newest approach to ending cycles of conflict in hot spots

around the world. It recognizes that even if conflict has officially ended, the risk of violence often re-

mains ever-present. In fact, roughly 40 percent of post-conflict countries have faced renewed violence

within a decade. Peacebuilding tries to improve the prospect for lasting peace by helping to stabilize

societies, strengthen institutions and reinforce governments. Since 2005, the United Nations has spent $250 million on

peacebuilding projects in 19 countries — most of them in Africa but also in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Haiti and Kyrgyzstan.

But does this approach work, and can it be replicated in countries with drastically different histories and cultures?

Is a democratic society a prerequisite for lasting peace? Critics of peacebuilding say it will take more than a new

philosophy to fix the world’s most fragile

states. Proponents say it is the best at-

tempt yet at dealing with the aftermath

of conflict.

A pro-government demonstrator’s sign declares, “Noto rebellion, no to division, we want peace, not war,”

during a rally outside the National Parliament in Bangui,capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), in May2010. Tensions had escalated after the presidential

election was delayed. The U.N. PeacebuildingCommission and Fund have budgeted $31 million forpeacebuilding projects designed to help CAR stabilize

after several insurgencies ended.

JUNE 21, 2011 VOLUME 5, NUMBER 12 PAGES 291-314 WWW.GLOBALRESEARCHER.COM

PUBLISHED BY CQ PRESS, A DIVISION OF SAGE WWW.CQPRESS.COM

P

292 CQ Global Researcher

PEACEBUILDING

THE ISSUES

293 • Does peacebuildingwork?• Does peacebuilding re-quire democracy?• Is peacebuilding replicable?

BACKGROUND

301 Prior Peace PathsAbout 60 percent of civilwars reignite.

302 Roots of PeacemakingU.N. failures in Rwandaand Bosnia led to peace-building movement.

305 Limits of InterventionUncooperative local partnerscan limit peacebuildingsuccess.

CURRENT SITUATION

306 Looking for DonorsLiberia’s success means itreceives more peacebuild-ing money than manyother countries.

308 After the RevolutionsArab Spring countriesprobably won’t get long-term peacebuilding pro-grams because most aremiddle-income nations.

OUTLOOK

309 Power of TechnologyNew high-tech tools areimproving peacebuilding’seffectiveness.

SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS

294 Africa Has Most U.N.Peacebuilding ProjectsFourteen of the 19 countriesreceiving U.N. peacekeepingfunds are in Africa.

295 African Nations ReceiveMost Peacebuilding FundsOf 182 projects, only 12 arein other regions.

296 Peacebuilding Begins withDisarming Ex-CombatantsThe process also involves de-mobilization and reintegration.

298 U.N. Projects Foster Peace-ful CoexistenceNearly 75 percent of 2010projects promoted peacemak-ing or conflict resolution.

303 ChronologyKey events since 1942.

304 Success and Failure onthe Road to PeacebuildingIt worked in Sierra Leone,but not in Burundi.

307 At IssueCan outsiders build lastingpeace?

314 Voices from AbroadHeadlines and editorials fromaround the world.

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

311 For More InformationOrganizations to contact.

312 BibliographySelected sources used.

313 The Next StepAdditional articles.

313 Citing CQ Global ResearcherSample bibliography formats.

Cover : CQ Press/Jina Moore

MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy [email protected]

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Thomas J. [email protected]; Thomas J. Colin

[email protected]

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Roland Flamini,Sarah Glazer, Reed Karaim, Robert Kiener,

Jina Moore, Jennifer Weeks

DESIGN/PRODUCTION EDITOR: Olu B. Davis

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darrell Dela Rosa

FACT CHECKER: Michelle Harris

A Division of SAGE

PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER:John A. Jenkins

DIRECTOR, REFERENCE SOLUTIONS:Todd Baldwin

Copyright © 2011 CQ Press, A Division ofSAGE. SAGE reserves all copyright and otherrights herein, unless pre vi ous ly spec i fied inwriting. No part of this publication may bereproduced electronically or otherwise, with-out prior written permission. Un au tho rizedre pro duc tion or trans mis sion of SAGE copy -right ed material is a violation of federal lawcar ry ing civil fines of up to $100,000.

CQ Press is a registered trademark of Con-gressional Quarterly Inc.

CQ Global Researcher is pub lished twicemonthly online in PDF and HTML format byCQ Press, a division of SAGE Publications.Annual full-service electronic subscriptionsstart at $500. For pricing, call 1-800-834-9020,ext. 1906. To purchase CQ Global Researcherelectronic rights, visit www.cqpress.com orcall 866-427-7737.

June 21, 2011Volume 5, Number 12

June 21, 2011 293www.globalresearcher.com

Peacebuilding

THE ISSUESM ichael von der Schu-

lenburg, the UnitedNations’ top repre-

sentative in Sierra Leone, re-members driving into a riot in2009, surrounded by a crowdof about 5,000 people. Al-though the country’s brutal civilwar had ended seven yearsbefore, a provincial electionhad stirred controversy — andviolence — between the twomain political parties.

The conflict, which manyfeared would reignite hostilitiesacross the country, had spreadto the coastal capital of Free-town, where a mob of angryruling party members hadgathered outside the opposi-tion’s headquarters. Twenty-twomen were trapped on the head-quarters roof. Below them,von der Schulenburg remem-bers, rioters shouted, “Handthem over! Hand them over!”

He tried to contain thesituation by talking with theleaders of the angry moband with police standing near-by. Eventually, he was able to get themen off the roof, and the police dis-pelled the crowd. A few weeks later,the feuding political parties agreed torules for future political interactions,including elections.

Thanks to von der Schulenburg’s in-tervention — and the subsequent agree-ment — violence was averted. Theagreement, von der Schulenburg says,was possible because of a process calledpeacebuilding — a new internationalapproach to the age-old problem ofputting an end to war. Unlike peace-making, in which politicians negotiatean agreement to end ongoing conflict,and peacekeeping, which sends foreignsoldiers to monitor peace agreements

and protect civilians in conflict zones,peacebuilding involves stabilizing statesand strengthening institutions to buildlasting peace in post-conflict societies.

“Everybody understands peacemaking. . . and peacekeeping,” says Judy Cheng-Hopkins, U.N. assistant secretary-generalfor peacebuilding support. “Peacebuildinggoes beyond either.”

Peacebuilding is the slow, difficulttask of rebuilding post-conflict statesand societies. “Peacebuilding helps putin place all the pieces that would dothat,” says Edward Luck, senior vicepresident of the International PeaceInstitute, a think tank in New York.

After a decade of intense global con-flict in the 1990s, peacebuilding spe-

cialists now believe they un-derstand many of the mea-sures needed to move acountry toward stability. Thelaundry list of needs grew outof wrenching conflicts inBosnia and Rwanda in the1990s, and in West Africa andSoutheast Asia in the early21st century. 1

Peacebuilding includes avariety of activities, such as:• Disarming ex-combatants; un-less former soldiers feel pro-ductive and engaged as civil-ians, they might cause trouble;• Establishing truth and rec-onciliation commissions;• Creating a legal process tohelp returning refugees dealwith people living on theirold homesteads;• Jump-starting economies;building roads and generatingelectricity;• Training competent judgesand lawyers;• Building functioning armybarracks and jails.

A generation ago, the in-ternational community dealtwith each of those needs in-dividually. That changed in

2005, when the United Nations estab-lished its Peacebuilding Commission(PBC), the first global entity to focusexclusively on the new approach toending conflict. The U.N. is rapidlydefining the peacebuilding terrain, al-though other well-known organizations— from religious groups such as theQuakers’ American Friends ServiceCommittee to large international orga-nizations like the International RescueCommittee — also have incorporatedpeacebuilding concepts into their work.

The U.N.’s peacebuilding budget —$389 million spent since 2007 on pro-jects in 19 countries — pales in com-parison to the $7.3 billion spent eachyear on peacekeeping operations. The

BY JINA MOORE

CQ Press/Jina Moore

Tigie Koroma, a weaver in Makeni, Sierra Leone, is one of many small entrepreneurs who receive support through amicroenterprise grant from the U.N. Peacebuilding Fund. The agency has budgeted $45 million for peacebuilding

activities in Sierra Leone — more than in any other country —since a brutal civil war ended there in 2002.


peacebuilding funds are donated by47 U.N. members. 2

The PBC advises governments bothon how to better stabilize their soci-eties and maintain peace after the gunshave gone silent. While the U.N.Peacebuilding Fund supports projectsin 19 countries, the PeacebuildingCommission itself works with only sixAfrican countries that have requestedhelp: Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia andSierra Leone (in West Africa) and theCentral African Republic and Burundiin central Africa.

The diplomatic challenges alone aredaunting. Heads of state don’t lookvery kindly on the U.N. telling themhow to run their governments. Butwhen the General Assembly voted to

create the PBC, it gave the commis-sion a “political mandate” — permis-sion to engage foreign governmentson political questions. Many observersthink the PBC’s mandate gives it thebest shot at making a real difference.

“The mandate is to work with lead-ers, to look them in the eyes and say,‘Look, thank you for your coffee, butI think you need to be doing some-thing different,’ ” says Michael Massaquoi,Sierra Leone’s liaison to the PBC.

Others suggest privately that thePBC’s permission to be so direct andpolitical can provide cover for othergroups, especially nongovernmental or-ganizations (NGOs), which typicallyhave to be less confrontational whenworking with government officials.

Grassroots efforts are also crucial topeacebuilding. If U.N. efforts can sup-port community-level work and targetlarge-scale needs — such as buildingarmy barracks, prisons, roads or courts— local groups can work at the grass-roots level more effectively, some argue.Sierra Leone’s Fambul Tok (Krio for“family talk”) program brings ordinarypeople together, village by village, totalk about the 11-year civil war thatended in 2002. By the time local human-rights activist John Caulker foundedthe community-based reconciliation pro-gram in 2007, the country had alreadybeen through a peace process, a truthand reconciliation commission and na-tional elections. But many villagers saythose activities hadn’t brought the

PEACEBUILDING

HUNGARY M

Haiti

Sierra Leone

GuineaGuinea-Bissau

Liberia

SudanChad

Nepal

Ivory Coast

DemocraticRepublic

of the Congo

Central African Republic

East Timor

Comoros

BurundiUganda

Somalia

Kyrgyzstan

SriLanka

Kenya

Africa Has Most U.N. Peacebuilding ProjectsFourteen of the 19 countries with peacebuilding projects Þnanced by the U.N. Peacebuilding Commission in 2010 were in Africa. Peacebuilding tries to stabilize societies, strengthen institutions and reinforce post-conßict governments to build lasting peace. Besides the United Nations and numerous individual countries, many international organizations fund peacebuilding projects, such as the Quakers’ American Friends Service Committee and Geneva-based Interpeace.

Recipients of U.N. Peacebuilding Funds in 2010

Source: “Trust Fund Factsheet,” Multi-Donor Trust Fund OfÞce, United National Development Programme, www.mdtf.undp.org/factsheet/fund/PB000; map by Lewis Agrell


kind of communal peace they need-ed to help heal from the atrocitiesof a war in which children were kid-napped into armies and drugged,women were raped and resistersmutilated.

“We feared one another. We werenot even allowing the people to getnear us. . . . The perpetrator wouldnot allow his own children or familyto mix with mine,” says George Sam-bayo, who lives in a small village innortheastern Sierra Leone. “If the per-son is coming your way, you changedirection. If you have malaria, or ifyou have a naming ceremony — noth-ing, he doesn’t even go there.”

Peacebuilding is also about issuesthat don’t usually come up in formalpeace negotiations, such as poverty,national histories and management ofnatural resources.

The infamously chronic conflict inCongo, Africa’s second-largest country,also would benefit from micro-levelattention, says Séverine Autesserre, anassistant professor of political science atBarnard College in New York City andauthor of The Trouble With Congo. 3

Most international efforts to end theconflict in Congo have focused on im-posing settlements at the national andinternational level, she says. “There hasbeen a lot of money spent on orga-nizing big international conferences andgeneral elections . . . but there has re-ally been barely any support to thelocal actors who were trying to re-solve the conflict at the local level,”she writes. As a result, “local conflictsfestered, [and] they eventually escalat-ed and jeopardized the national andinternational settlements.” 4

As the United Nations, NGOs andgovernments strive to implement effec-tive peacebuilding programs, here aresome of the questions being asked:

Does peacebuilding work?Although the word itself has been

in use for some 20 years, the diplo-matic consensus and political will need-

African Nations Receive Most Peacebuilding FundsSince its creation in 2005, the U.N. Peacebuilding Fund has budgeted $250 million for projects in 19 post-conßict countries — 14 of them in Africa. Of the 182 projects undertaken so far, only 12 were not in Africa.

Source: “Trust Fund Factsheet,” Multi-Donor Trust Fund OfÞce, United National Development Programme, www.mdtf.undp.org/factsheet/fund/PB000; research by CQ Global Researcher

U.N. Peacebuilding AccomplishmentsThe four biggest recipients of U.N.-funded peacebuilding projects are in West and Central Africa, where 108 projects have been undertaken. Here are some examples of those projects:

Countries Receiving Peacebuilding FundsCountry Approved Number of PBF budget projects

Sierra Leone $45,008,170 33Burundi $39,623,868 21Central African Republic $31,001,975 26Liberia $20,047,444 28Sudan $18,726,228 6Democratic Republic of Congo $17,174,751 11Uganda $13,999,756 4Guinea $12,850,829 11Nepal $10,000,000 7Comoros $9,400,000 13Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) $8,527,750 3Guinea-Bissau $6,268,653 7Haiti $3,800,000 2Somalia $3,000,000 5Sri Lanka $3,000,000 1Kyrgyzstan $2,999,948 1Chad $2,728,500 1Kenya $1,000,000 1East Timor $993,625 1

Total $250,151,497 182

Sierra LeoneTransitional justice — 20,000 war victims were paid reparations after a four-year delayJustice/courts — More than 70 percent of backlogged cases cleared

LiberiaDemobilization/reintegration — 800 ex-combatants trained in farming, growing rubber, raising livestockYouth employment — More than 5,000 young people trained in community mediation, leadership, political participationSocial welfare — 40 social workers trained; addressed more than 600 referrals in two years

Central African RepublicPeace deals — Rebellions ended by political dialogueChild soldiers — More than 600 former child soldiers disarmed, reintegrated into their villagesMedia — Two rural radio stations built; two teams of journalists trained to cover local issuesElections — Peaceful presidential elections held

BurundiLand — 3,000 land disputes settled peacefullyJustice/courts — 17 local tribunals set upCorruption — $400,000 returned to public treasury after corruption investigationsBarracks — 23,000 soldiers housed


ed to implement peacebuilding agen-das in failing states did not developuntil the U.N. General Assembly votedto establish the Peacebuilding Com-mission at its 2005 annual meeting.

Trying to help failing states is hard-ly a new enterprise, and the successrecord of such programs has beenmixed. In Somalia, efforts at creatinga stable, working government infa-mously failed in the early 1990s, andhostilities continue today, as AfricanUnion peacekeepers try to help theU.N.-supported transitional governmentprevent Islamic extremists from takingover the country. 5 In Iraq andAfghanistan, U.S.-led efforts at stabi-lizing the two countries continue toface obstacles, including insurgencies.Meanwhile, the Central African Re-public, despite international interven-

tions, still does not control its easternterritory, which borders war-torn Dar-fur, Sudan, and has become a refugefrom which Uganda’s Lord’s ResistanceArmy rebels terrorize the region.

On the other hand, Bosnia-Herzegovinahas stabilized since the civil war andgenocide in the 1990s. And East Timor,which the U.N. administered from1999 to 2002, is making significantprogress toward post-conflict stability. 6

Peacebuilding philosophy andpractice are based on a mix of lessonslearned over a generation — some-times from failure, sometimes from suc-cess. “They’re based on a lot of ex-perience but not a lot of [scientific]evidence about things that we knowcan help support peace,” says VanessaWyeth, co-editor of the book, BuildingStates to Build Peace.

The list of countries targeted by theU.N. for peacebuilding is daunting, in-cluding Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire (IvoryCoast), Nepal, Chad, Sri Lanka andHaiti. “Success is too high a hurdle insome of these places,” says the Inter-national Peace Institute’s Luck. Still, heremains optimistic that, “on balance,chances of [peacebuilding] being amoderate success over time are rela-tively good.”

Getting donors to support peace-building efforts is another major goal,but measuring success is difficult. TheUnited Nations attributes any increasein donor giving to peacebuilding ac-tivities, although it does not ask donorswhat motivated the higher level of giv-ing, according to U.N. officials.

In other instances, successful peace-building efforts are clearly visible. In

PEACEBUILDING

The top priority of most peacebuilding programs is trans-forming rebels into civilians: getting them to give up theirguns and rejoin civilian life.

The process — called “DDR,” for disarmament, demobiliza-tion and reintegration — usually is led by the United Nations,which has worked on DDR in 20 countries since its first suchproject in 1990, in Nicaragua. 1 Today, the U.N. maintains 13 activeDDR programs, most of them in Africa. 2

The process reflects a shift in rebel groups’ missions: fromviolently pursuing their grievances against governments to pur-suing those grievances nonviolently as civilians — and some-times as statesmen — through politics and civil society. “Theincentive of DDR is political will: ‘We will go toward disarma-ment because we have decided within our organization that’show we want to grab power, to share it by integrating intothe government,’ ” says a U.N. staffer, who asked not to benamed because he was not an official spokesperson.

The process requires militants to renounce armed rebellion.“In order to be part of the political process, they need to dis-arm — to become political, and not military, actors,” says TinoKreutzer, who worked with the U.N. on DDR in the CentralAfrican Republic (CAR), where dissatisfaction over a 2005 elec-tion sparked rebellions in much of the country.

The former insurgents — or their leaders — often hope toexchange military power for political power. But not all mem-

bers of an ex-rebel group are likely to get an equal share ofthe post-conflict political spoils. While leaders of former rebel-lions may make presidential bids or receive high political ap-pointments, the foot soldiers frequently are left to return tocivilian life with little or no income and few prospects for agood livelihood.

Rebel groups often raise funds by extorting “taxes” — es-sentially, bribes — from civilians. “The way in which rebelgroups fund themselves is largely by preying on the popula-tion — ‘taxing’ roads, ‘taxing’ . . . traders or villagers on theirway to the market,” notes Ned Dalby, a Nairobi-based researcherfor the International Crisis Group, a nongovernmental organi-zation dedicated to resolving conflicts. In the CAR and in neigh-boring Democratic Republic of Congo, rebel groups extort taxesfrom local, independent miners. 3

For such groups, disarmament is against their interest be-cause ongoing conflict assures an income. Thus, whatever agree-ment rebel leaders may make at a negotiating table may notbe followed by their subordinates — at least not without somekind of supplement for their lost income.

That’s where reintegration comes in. Once combatants handover their weapons, they usually are offered food assistance,skills training or even cash when they return to their villages.“The idea is that they don’t depend on the movement to feedtheir family,” says Kreutzer. Reintegration support “helps them

Peacebuilding Begins with Disarming Ex-CombatantsThe process also involves demobilization and reintegration.


Sierra Leone roads are being built,sanitation trucks regularly cart awayresidential and commercial trash inthe capital and newly trained lawyersand paralegals are helping to reduceby more than 70 percent the backlogof unresolved cases in the program’sfirst year. 7

Elsewhere, success depends on thework being done behind the scenes.Carolyn McAskie, the first U.N. assistantsecretary-general of peacebuilding, re-members how crucial quiet diplomacywas between Burundi’s U.N. ambassadorand the Peacebuilding Commission. “Insubtle ways, without fanfare and with-out headlines or public statements, thevery fact that Burundi was on the PBCagenda helped to bring it back from thebrink,” she says. “We changed behaviorsin Burundi in [some] instances.”

But changing day-to-day behaviorcan be difficult in societies suffering

from cyclical violence. For generations,violence has defined power in Guinea-Bissau — first during the country’s longand bloody war for independence fromthe Portuguese in the 1960s and ’70sand thereafter in frequent military coups.Though more recent political violencehas been confined to the capital andoften the halls of power, the instabili-ty affects all Bissau-Guineans.

“There’s a kind of inversion of val-ues,” says Fafali Koudawo, director ofVoz di Paz, a civil society organiza-tion in Bissau, the capital. “Before, hewho steals was a bad guy. Now, hewho steals a huge amount of moneyis great. Because the state is weak, vi-olence has overturned all the values.”

In most of the troubled countries,however, successes and failures unfoldsimultaneously, and incrementally. In theCentral African Republic (CAR), for ex-ample, peacebuilding efforts helped ad-

vance a political dialogue that ultimate-ly resulted in a major rebel group sign-ing a cease-fire and agreeing to give upits guns. 8 But most observers considerthe agreement fragile. “We’re not talkingabout real peace,” says Frederick Cook,then-U.S. ambassador to the CAR. “We’rejust talking about not fighting.”

The decision whether to use, orcontinue to use, violence doesn’t nec-essarily respond to outside pressure,according to Ned Dalby, a Nairobi-based researcher on the CAR for theInternational Crisis Group, a non-governmental group that works to re-solve conflicts. One must “think care-fully about the multiple factors behindviolence and whose interest it wouldserve,” he warns. The answer varies acrossdifferent conflicts.

The sheer number of programs andinterventions also makes it difficult toevaluate peacebuilding, partly because

reestablish households and provide for their family [until theycan] find a job.”

That support can take several forms. Former combatantsmay be given pots and pans, blankets and cooking oil. Some-times they are given food directly; sometimes they are offeredseeds to plant. Occasionally, they may be given money fortransport or other immediate needs.

Cash, though, can complicate the picture. For instance,peacebuilders have learned that buying back guns — anearly approach to disarmament — is usually counterpro-ductive. More often than not, it just drives up the local priceof weapons. And sometimes the money is spent on newweapons. 4

Peacebuilders also have learned that post-conflict econom-ic development and nation-building go hand-in-hand with DDR.After all, says Laurent Banal, the DDR operations chief in theCAR, “These armed movements are, in fact, rebellion againstpoverty, mainly, and lack of presence of the state.”

— Jina Moore

1 “DDR in peace operations: a retrospective,” U.N. Department of Peace-keeping, undated, p. 3, http://unddr.org/docs/DDR_retrospective.pdf.2 “Country Programmes,” United Nations Disarmament, Demobilization andReintegration Resource Center, www.unddr.org/countryprogrammes.php.

3 For background, see Josh Kron, “Conflict in Congo,” CQ Global Researcher,April 5, 2011, pp. 157-182.4 “Operational Guide to the Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization andReintegration Standards,” United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group onDisarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, 2010, p. 142.

Militiamen loyal to Ivory Coast’s former President Laurent Gbagbo— who gave up power after a deadly months-long post-electionconflict — gather for a disarmament ceremony on April 29, 2011,in the country’s commercial capital, Abidjan. Troops loyal to the new president, Alassane Ouattara, and U.N. peacekeepers also

attended. Disarmament is a peacebuilding priority.

AFP/Getty Images/Sia Kambou


it is difficult to balance successes againstfailures and determine a net effect. Forexample, the CAR’s point man for dis-armament and demobilization was firedafter allegedly embezzling more thanhalf a million dollars in donations ear-marked for reintegrating former com-batants. But the same peacebuildingoperation succeeded in demobilizing600 child soldiers, at a cost of $2 mil-lion, according to local U.N. staff. Evenin a perfect world, where programsrun efficiently and corruption is min-imal, it would be hard to prove thatpeacebuilding succeeds at preventingwar. “Prevention obviously is a difficultthing to prove. It’s counterfactual,” saysLuck. “It [is about what] didn’t happen.”

All of which begs the question: Whatdoes peace look like to those outsidethe international decision-making process?In the CAR, international organizationsand local politicians talk about peacefrom their desks in the capital, Bangui,but some Central African citizens thinksuch talk is premature.

“We have peace in the town, butnot in the provinces,” says ArletteNgarina, who lives in the capital.“Our families live in the provinces. If

they are not in peace, we cannot bein peace, either.”

Does peacebuilding requiredemocracy?

Telling new governments what kindof governing bodies to establish istricky. And, officially, peacebuilding isagnostic about which kind of govern-ment is needed to build a stable state.

“If you look at the U.N. charter,”says Philip Dive, head of strategicplanning with the U.N.’s Sierra Leonemission, “I don’t see the word ‘democ-racy’ in the preamble.” Instead, hepoints out, the charter focuses onlyon general goals, such as peace, se-curity, justice and respect for humanrights. “We’re not lobbyists,” Dive says.The purpose of the U.N. is not toachieve a specific type of government,he argues, but to achieve the valuesset out in the charter. “There are manyways to do that.”

Nevertheless, international donors “in-creasingly make democratization a cen-tral tenet of the post-conflict recon-struction plan,” writes Irfan Nooruddin,a political scientist at Ohio State Uni-versity. “Holding elections is thought to

signal a move to peace and to providean avenue for former combatants to enterpeaceful discussions with one anotherabout the future of their countries.” 9

Political scientists Dawn Brancati ofWashington University in St. Louis andJack L. Snyder of Columbia Universityin New York City say elections are morefashionable these days. For example,after analyzing 136 civil wars endingafter World War II, they found that:

• Wars that ended after the ColdWar were more likely to involveelections;

• U.N. interventions increased acountry’s likelihood of having post-conflict elections;

• U.N. peacekeeping missions in-creased the likelihood of early elec-tions, and

• Elections were more likely to fol-low a rebel victory than a gov-ernment victory. 10

The authors think elections are morepopular today because of a combina-tion of international pressure and theinterests of the formerly warring parties.

But, if neither side is a clear-cutwinner and the fighting ended onlythrough negotiation, the result can bedisastrous. “[T]he increasingly commoncombination of early elections and in-conclusive civil war outcomes createsexactly the conditions that make elec-tions especially dangerous,” they write.“International pressures in favor of ne-gotiated settlements, together with quickelections, have contributed to thistrend over the past two decades.” 11

Yet a country’s ability to organizeand hold a successful national elec-tion is itself seen by the internation-al community as an indicator of sta-bility. Though the U.N. peacebuildingstaff insists elections are not a pre-requisite for their work, the historyof U.N. peacebuilding suggests oth-erwise. The West African nation ofGuinea — where government sol-diers killed 157 pro-democracy pro-testers and raped at least 109 womenin the capital in 2009 12 — joined the

PEACEBUILDING

Types of U.N. Peacebuilding Projects, 2010(by percentage of total, andnumber of projects)

U.N. Projects Foster Peaceful CoexistenceMore than 40 percent of the 162 U.N. peacebuilding projects in 2010 promoted peaceful coexistence and conßict resolution. About one-third supported peace agreements and political dialogue.

Source: “Fourth Consolidated Annual Progress Report on Activities Implemented under the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF),” U.N. Development Programme, May 2011

Promote coexistence, conßict resolution

43% (69)

Support peace agreements and political dialogue

31% (51)8% (13)

18% (29)

Revitalize economy

Build or rebuild essential services, infrastructure


U.N.’s peacebuilding body earlier thisyear, only after holding elections inDecember 2010 deemed fair by in-ternational observers. 13

Guinea’s neighbor, Côte d’Ivoire, onthe other hand, was refused PBC mem-bership because elections there weredelayed for five years. And when avote finally was held in November2010, the country erupted into violencethat was worse than anything since theend of the 2005 civil war. 14

Meanwhile, the PBC has advocat-ed elections elsewhere. In the CAR,for instance, elections were a key partof the 2008 agreement between a majorrebel group and the government, whichpeacebuilders facilitated. In Burundi,the U.N. established a political dia-logue to pave the way for last year’sbizarre presidential election. While itunfolded without the violence manyfeared, the only candidate was the in-cumbent president. 15

In such “democratic” elections, theresults are often less important to theU.N. than the peacefulness of the process,and true democracy is not always theoutcome, some observers acknowledge.“It really depends more on [whether]that country is stable enough to havethe trust of the international communi-ty to advance the cause of peace-building,” says Frank Jarasch, a formeradviser to PBC Chairman Peter Wittig,Germany’s permanent U.N. representa-tive. “If the impression to the memberstates at the U.N. is that [the govern-ment] has this kind of ownership ofthe coming peacebuilding process, then. . . it doesn’t have to be 100 percentdemocratic elections.”

Running a successful election is notalways the same as practicing democ-racy. “[F]rom the point of view of aself-interested political leader,” otheroptions are “superior . . . to the toughand unreliable option of trying to bea good government,” writes Paul Col-lier, a professor of economics at Ox-ford University and a leading thinkeron the causes of conflict. They include

taking bribes, intimidating voters andintentionally miscounting votes, whichmay explain why incumbents win re-election 60 percent more often in de-veloping countries than in developedcountries. 16 “Electoral competitioncreates a Darwinian struggle for po-litical survival in which the winner isthe one who adopts the most cost-effective means of attracting votes,”Collier continues. 17

Burundi’s 2010 presidential election— the first direct presidential poll sincethe end of the civil war in 2000 — wasa case in point. Although the rhetoricfocused on “free and fair” elections, thenational electoral commission was ac-cused of bias and fraud, and ruling partycabinet ministers interfered in the op-position campaign. Ultimately, all of theopposition candidates pulled out of theelection, leaving the incumbent presi-

Paulino Rodrigues Santim, a blacksmith in Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau, will buy agenerator using a microloan financed by the U.N. Peacebuilding Fund. Helping young people

establish small businesses is seen as an effective way to maintain peace in post-conflict countries.

CQ Press/Jina Moore


dent as the only contender. Despite thecontroversy and suspicion that swirledwithin the country, the United Nationsand the European Union’s Election Ob-servation Mission stood by the process.

The Burundi debacle, and peace-builders’ hesitation about promotingdemocracy, may be less about peace-building than about old-fashioneddiplomacy. Says the U.N.’s McAskie:“It’s not so much that they’re agnos-tic on what kind of government there

should be; most of them know. Butthey’re not prepared to pronounce [it],. . . partly because governments don’ttell governments off often enough.”

Is peacebuilding replicable?Proponents of peacebuilding hope

that countries can copy each other’sways of maintaining peace. “Whetherin Africa, Asia, Europe — anywhere,almost always one has to focus on” thesame objectives, says Cheng-Hopkins,the U.N.’s chief peacebuilding official.Those goals include improving accessto justice, reforming the military andpolice and jump-starting the economy.

McAskie, Cheng-Hopkins’ prede-cessor, says replicability is equallyabout flexibility. “There are certain tra-ditional ideas we have of what peace-building is — sorting out the correc-tions system, getting the justice systemup and running . . ., classic inter-ventions that are generic and appliedto all situations,” she says. “Then youalso maintain a second track [ofpeacebuilding], which is flexible tothe local situation.”

In Sierra Leone in 2008, that meantfunding something that seemed to havealmost nothing to do with conflict:repairing the country’s only powerplant. Traditionally, this would be con-sidered a long-term development pro-ject and not a U.N. peacebuilding ac-tivity, which usually involves short-terminterventions to help maintain a stablepeace during a fragile time.

“We had a very useful and quiteheated debate about whether supportfor getting the electricity up and run-ning in Sierra Leone was peacebuild-ing,” McAskie remembers. The SierraLeonean speakers “all made a very

convincing argument that if the lightsare out in Freetown, you’re not goingto have peace — you’re going to haveriots in the street, crime at night, rape.”The commission gave $9 million toavert a break in power services in thecapital and to supplement the supplyin two rural districts. 18

Another approach to peacebuild-ing focuses on analyzing the histo-ry of conflict to understand “incen-tives or motives for violence.” Thisprocess involves identifying “rootcauses of conflict” — what the U.S.Agency for International Develop-ment (USAID) calls the “the raw ma-terial” of conflict. 19 The causes dif-fer from country to country and,perhaps more importantly, from onepolitical circumstance to another.

Addressing root causes is a com-mon and replicable approach, but agree-ing on the causes is not always easy.Some people in Sierra Leone say theroot cause of the war was frustrationamong unemployed youth; others sayit was a breakdown in traditional powerstructures that prevented local conflictsfrom being resolved easily. Still othersblame the war on a desire by someto control the country’s diamond trade.

Sometimes the interpretation of a rootcause transforms into a peacebuildingsolution. The U.N. gave $4 million inpeacebuilding funds to develop a youthempowerment and employment programin Sierra Leone, for instance, citing youthunemployment as a root cause of theconflict. Another $4 million was ear-marked to clear backlogged legal com-plaints, with the same justification. 20

While “root cause” has become abit of a buzzword in peace operations,many observers agree there’s no guar-antee that using financial or pro-grammatic interventions to target whatsome believe caused a conflict 15 yearsago will necessarily stop current con-flicts or prevent future ones.

Furthermore, there are limits to iden-tifying and addressing root causes. InGuinea-Bissau, for example, most inter-

PEACEBUILDING

Relatives of those killed during Kyrgyzstan’s violent 2010 political crisis commemorate theone-year anniversary of their deaths with prayers near their graves at a cemetery outside of

the capital Bishkek on April 7, 2011. Peacebuilding efforts in the country have focused on improving the livelihoods of youths and empowering women to

participate in peace, security and reconstruction efforts.

AFP/Getty Images/Vyacheslav Oseledko


national organizations acknowledge thatthe army’s frequent coups promote in-stability. But engaging the military di-rectly is too sensitive for most non-governmental organizations, which insteadfocus on socio-economic programming.

Such political engagement has beena major strength of U.N. efforts in Sier-ra Leone, however. “If those issues arenot dealt with, no matter how muchthe [U.N.] gives in additional resources,no matter how much governmentcommits itself, no matter how glossyyou present it to [diplomats in] NewYork, things will never work,” saysMassaquoi, Sierra Leone’s peacebuild-ing liaison to the PBC.

Von der Schulenburg, the U.N. spe-cial representative in Sierra Leone,says some elements of the mission’sapproach can be replicated elsewhere:closely reading the political landscape,engaging key figures, gaining the trustof the country’s political elite. But thoseare diplomatic tools that existed longbefore peacebuilding became an in-ternational priority.

Get more specific than that, otherssay, and peacebuilding becomes moreand more difficult to replicate. “In re-ality, you cannot compare Burundi atall to the Central African Republic orGuinea Bissau,” says Jarasch, of theGerman mission to the U.N. “Thatdoesn’t mean there shouldn’t be anylessons learned, but certainly you’dneed [lessons] from lots of differentcountries [on which] to base futureinvolvement.”

BACKGROUNDPrior Peace Paths

Since 1648, when the Treaty of West-phalia ended the Thirty Years’ War

in Europe, peace has been the byprod-

Providing Clean Water and ShelterHaitian medical workers wash their hands using a portable water supply at St.Nicolas Hospital in St. Marc, north of Port-au-Prince, on Oct. 24, 2010 (top).The country has suffered from several cholera outbreaks since the massive January2010 earthquake, primarily because of a lack of clean water. Peacebuilding aidfor Haiti has focused on providing clean water and improving sanitation. In SriLanka, peacebuilding funds have been used to aid internally displaced persons(IDPs) like these members of the Tamil minority group, waiting to leave an IDPcamp in Vavuniya on Dec. 23, 2009 (bottom). Hostilities ended in Sri Lanka inMay 2009, when government troops defeated a long-running insurgency by theTamil Tigers.

AFP/Getty Images/Lakruwan Wanniarachchi

AFP/Getty Images/Thony Belizaire


uct of agreements between modernnation states. Interstate wars endedwith treaties, signed by officials fromall sides. Civil wars were crushed oroccasionally crushed the governmentthe insurgents rose up against.

Since 1945, at least 260 wars and357 successful military coups haveerupted. 21 And civil wars in particu-lar are prone to reignite; nearly 60 per-cent of countries that have experi-enced civil wars since 1945 have seena return to violence. 22

A vast body of research suggestsseveral factors influence post-conflictpeace, including whether the con-flict ended with a “total win” by oneside or whether parties negotiatedthe peace. Which terms they nego-tiated — and which they ignored —also influence the peace, along withother factors.

In the Westphalian model, peacetalks and peace accords are a signthat a conflict has ended. Peacebuild-ing, on the other hand, looks at what’shappening outside the halls of power.For instance, peacebuilders scrutinizewhat’s happening in the fields, wheremen who once fought each other nowfarm side-by-side; in the schools, wherechildren once forced to serve as childsoldiers are learning trades; and in thecourtrooms and legislative chambers,where problems once solved withweapons are addressed through tediousdemocratic processes.

The word peacebuilding was intro-duced in 1992, when U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali outlineda post-Cold War vision for the worldbody in his “Agenda for Peace.” It wouldtake another decade, however, for se-rious movement on that agenda. Yet,even in Boutros-Ghali’s early sketch,peacebuilding was a way of seeing theeconomic and social dimensions toconflict as well as the political aspects.Today, peacebuilding crafts interven-tions designed to address them all.

“We’re talking about a specific setof challenges in a specific set of cir-

cumstances,” says Wyeth, of the In-ternational Peace Institute.

Wyeth and other observers recog-nize the same needs from country tocountry: restoring law and order; pro-viding for minimal livelihoods; re-building infrastructure and jumpstart-ing the economy.

For generations, the internationalcommunity has taken a patchwork ap-proach to these challenges, dividingits work into three main areas, ac-cording to Dive at the U.N. office inSierra Leone. Peace and security ex-perts focused on peacekeeping patrolsand ceasefire agreements; humanitarian-affairs officers focused on food andmedical aid; and development expertsfocused on preparing countries for long-term, post-conflict economic growth —usually in that order.

Over time, says Dive, it becameclear this “silo” approach didn’t work.“The peace and security people can’tgo up on the hill, and the humani-tarian people can’t go off by the riverand the development people can’t havetheir bunker under the hill. It has tocome together,” he says.

Roots of Peacemaking

That lesson came into clear focusin central Africa after the 1994

Rwandan genocide, in which nearly800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutuswere murdered over a three-monthperiod. 23 Following the genocide, ap-proximately 2 million Rwandan refugeescrossed the border into Zaire (mod-ern Democratic Republic of Congo).Among the refugees were many per-petrators of the genocide, some ofwhom — operating from inside refugeecamps run by international aid agen-cies — bought weapons and tried toreorganize militias to return to Rwan-da and continue the slaughter. 24

But because the aid workers viewedthemselves as neutral and the aid wasseen as emergency help, the hu-

manitarian agencies did little to haltthe activity. The Rwandan govern-ment later used their inaction to jus-tify a war against Congo, which last-ed until 2002. 25

Peacebuilding has its roots in boththe U.N. failure in Rwanda and laterin Bosnia. U.N. peacekeepers were onthe ground when the genocide beganin Rwanda in 1994 but were not al-lowed to intervene to stop the mas-sacre they saw unfolding. A year later,in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Dutch peace-keepers abandoned the “safe haven”they had established in Srebrenica, leav-ing 8,000 Muslim men and boys to bemurdered by Serb soldiers. 26 In bothinstances, peacekeepers were follow-ing rules against the use of force inconflict zones — rules designed toprotect their “neutrality.”

Each tragedy spurred U.N. “lessonslearned” documents. In a 2004 re-port, Secretary-General Kofi Annanacknowledged, “[P]eace agreementsby Governments or rebels that en-gage in or encourage mass human-rights abuses have no value and can-not be implemented. These contextsare not appropriate for consent-basedpeacekeeping; rather, they must bemet with concerted action.” 27 Thougharticulated in tame, diplomatic prose,this idea marked a radical departurefrom the principle of neutrality, andthe admonition against peacekeepersusing force that had led to the atroc-ities in Srebrenica and Rwanda.

Power to Be Political

The move away from a posture ofneutrality paved the way for U.N.

peacebuilding’s greatest strength: its free-dom to tackle politics. In most cases,international organizations — includingsome U.N. agencies — are barred, di-rectly or tacitly, from overt political en-gagement. Few heads of state want tobe told how to run their countries.

PEACEBUILDING

Continued on p. 305


Chronology1940s United Nationsis created to “prevent thescourge of war.”

1942Twenty-six countries sign the Unit-ed Nations Declaration, paving theway for creation of the interna-tional organization.

1945Forty-five nations — all formerWorld War II Allies — gather inSan Francisco to write the U.N.charter, which formally establishesthe United Nations.

1948U.N. launches first peacekeepingmission, along Arab-Israeli border.

•

1960s-1980sThe Cold War polarizes worldpolitics and diplomacy, mar-ginalizing the United Nationsas a global player.

1960U.N. sends its first peacekeepersinto Congo.

1964U.N. launches peacekeeping missionon the island of Cyprus; mission isstill operating today.

1989Berlin Wall falls, symbolizing thecollapse of communism and usher-ing in a new era of activity at theUnited Nations.

•

1990s Ethnic conflictbecomes the predominant form

of warfare; the U.N.’s image istarnished by genocides in Europe and Africa.

1990Rwanda civil war begins when theTutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Frontinvades Rwanda from Uganda.

1992U.N. Secretary-General BoutrosBoutros-Ghali introduces the word“peacebuilding” in his “Agenda forPeace” document, which lays outthe U.N.’s post-Cold War vision.

1993U.N. Mission in Rwanda deploysto Kigali, the capital, to monitor apeace agreement ending the coun-try’s three-year civil war.

April 1994Rwandan president dies in a planecrash, sparking a three-monthgenocide that unfolds as U.N.peacekeepers stand by.

July 1995More than 8,000 men and boysare massacred at Srebrenica, inBosnia-Herzegovina, after Dutchpeacekeepers abandon a U.N.“safe haven.”

1999In a speech to the U.N. GeneralAssembly, Secretary-General KofiAnnan, who had refused to permitU.N. peacekeepers to stop theRwandan slaughter, argues forstronger U.N. interventions to pro-tect civilians in conflict zones.

•

2000s In an attemptto address the previous decade’speacekeeping failures, the U.N.adopts peacebuilding as a focus.

2002Kofi Annan outlines the U.N.’s vi-sion for peacebuilding.

2005Security Council and General As-sembly create U.N. PeacebuildingCommission (PBC).

2007PBC activities begin in Burundiand Sierra Leone. . . . Sierra Leoneholds its first presidential electionsince the end of a brutal civil warin 2002.

2008PBC begins to work with CentralAfrican Republic and Guinea-Bissau.

2009Local elections spark political vio-lence in Sierra Leone for the firsttime since the end of the coun-try’s civil war. Political parties signa dialogue protocol, facilitated byU.N. peacebuilders.

2010In advance of presidential elec-tions in October 2011, PBC beginsto work with Liberia on politicalissues. . . . Guinea-Bissau militaryleaders seize the prime minister,prompting the European Unionand United States to withdraw mili-tary aid. . . . Burundi holds single-candidate presidential election afterthe country’s opposition parties al-lege fraud and pull out of therace. . . . Burundian president re-leases independent survey on truthand reconciliation commission,after seven months’ delay.

2011After a successful national election,Guinea joins the list of countriesworking with the PBC. . . . CentralAfrican Republic holds peaceful elec-tions after a delay of nearly one year.


PEACEBUILDING

Peacebuilding began at roughly the same time in SierraLeone and Burundi. Both countries received attentionfrom a steering committee at U.N. headquarters, and both

received $35 million in peacebuilding funds.Four years later, Sierra Leone has become a poster child for

what peacebuilding can achieve, while Burundi is an experi-ment some peacebuilders would rather forget.

In Sierra Leone, the peacebuilding mission has trained para-legals, helped catalyze sustained attention and funding for youthprograms and literally kept the lights on in Freetown, the cap-ital. But U.N. staff on the ground and people who work forthe government say the most meaningful achievement wasstreamlining myriad development strategies into a single agen-da, designed to support the government’s goals. While it soundsto outsiders like nothing more than an example of improvedefficiency, it is difficult to imagine how much time mid- and

senior-level civil servants spend filling out forms and docu-ments related to international aid efforts. The streamlining hasmade that process faster and more effective, say U.N. and gov-ernment staff in Freetown.

Meanwhile, U.N. peacebuilders — using their crucial autho-rization to engage the Sierra Leone government on political is-

sues — helped to defuse an election-related dispute that mostobservers worried might reignite conflict nationwide. (See “TheIssues,” p. 293.) After a standoff was averted, the two politicalparties negotiated a Joint Communiqué — outlining new rulesfor political discourse and action — that will provide the foun-dation for the 2012 presidential elections.

But in Burundi, peacebuilding has stalled. The 2010 presi-dential election — rather than showcasing Burundi as a stable,post-conflict country — only heightened political tensions.

Opposition parties accused the ruling party of fraud andthe election commission of bias, and neither group would meetwith opposition candidates to discuss the issues — even thoughopposition politicians, ruling party members and the electioncommission president all had participated in a $3 million, peace-building “political dialogue” program. An independent evalua-tor had called the dialogue program one of Burundi’s mostsuccessful peacebuilding efforts, but the fact that participantsrefused to hold a dialogue after the electoral controversy sug-gests the program was a failure.

Meanwhile, human-rights advocates reported killings of op-position politicians, the murder of an anti-corruption investiga-tor and the arbitrary arrest of journalists and perceived politi-cal opponents. 1

The peace accords that ended Burundi’s civil war called fora truth and reconciliation commission, the promotion of whichbecame a centerpiece of the U.N.’s peacebuilding strategy inthe country. 2 Using peacebuilding funds, a joint committee rep-resenting government, civil society and the United Nations fileda report outlining the need for such a commission and howit might operate. The president, however, delayed the releaseof the report until December 2010, undermining its findings.No action has been taken so far. 3

The political situation in each country, of course, is differ-ent, and not every peacebuilding intervention in Sierra Leonehas been a success. While the U.N. mission in Burundi oper-ates in a rather constricted political context, the mission alsolacks the tough leadership that many credit for Sierra Leone’ssuccess. The U.N. mission has had four different leaders in thelast six years — each removed at the request, directly or tac-itly, of the Burundian government.

— Jina Moore

1 “Closing Doors? The narrowing of democratic space in Burundi,” HumanRights Watch, November 2010, p. 14, www.hrw.org/node/94300.2 For background, see Jina Moore, “Truth Commissions,” CQ Global Researcher,Jan. 1, 2010, pp. 1-24.3 Une commission doit enquêter sur le comportement des forces de sécurité,Amnesty International declaration publique, May 10, 2011, www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR16/004/2011/en/29ff9871-5d37-46d2-aa06-70cc36c663b7/afr160042011fr.html.

Success and Failure on the Road to PeacebuildingThe process worked in Sierra Leone, but not in Burundi.

A woman in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura, votes during the 2010presidential election — the first direct presidential poll since thecivil war ended in 2000. The vote that re-elected incumbentPresident Pierre Nkurunziza indicated that a $3 million

peacebuilding “political dialogue” program did not work asintended, since opposition parties pulled out of the election after accusing the ruling party of fraud and

the election commission of bias.

AFP/Getty Images/Esdras Ndikumana


But the Peacebuilding Commissionwas specifically authorized — by theGeneral Assembly and the SecurityCouncil — to engage heads of state,ministers and other officials on po-litical issues. In U.N. jargon, havingsuch a “political mandate” is key: EveryU.N. mission is deployed to a coun-try under Security Council rules. Un-less the council gives a mission a po-litical mandate, it can’t get involvedin politics.

U.N. missions have political man-dates in countries where the PBC op-erates. Many observers say the com-bination of the mandate and the PBC’srationale give peacebuilding thepower to make a real difference —as when U.N.’s von der Schulenburghelped defuse the tense election sit-uation in Sierra Leone in 2009. Asthe mob gathered around the mentrapped on the roof of the minorityparty’s headquarters, he literallystepped in, negotiated with the riotleaders, engaged the police and fa-cilitated meetings that led to a trucebetween the two parties.

“I could do that because I have apolitical mandate,” he explains.

But some experts say the PBCoften lacks the courage or organiza-tional structure to use its mandate ef-fectively.

Limits of Intervention

Regardless of an organization’s man-date, peacebuilding can be only as

effective as its country partners.In the Central African Republic, for

instance, money and partnerships couldnot overcome government inertia toestablish a local radio station in Paoua,a town near the northern border withChad — a 12-hour drive on terribleroads from the capital of Bangui. Withno local news available that far north,the U.N. offered to pay for trainingand equipment to build a radio sta-

tion — if the community could finda building and the government wouldpay for the antenna.

The mayor donated her own prop-erty, and a local committee collectedfunds and donated labor to refurbishit. But the government dawdled onthe $2,000 antenna, holding up theradio station for more than a year be-fore providing the antenna. The jour-nalists trained by the U.N., meanwhile,had begun looking for other work.

Meanwhile, Burundi’s demobiliza-tion of former combatants is a goodexample of how an unwilling or un-cooperative local partner can limit thesuccess of peacebuilding. Some ofthe ex-combatants from the 12-yearcivil war were integrated into theBurundian army after the war endedin 2005. But many still are waiting tobe officially discharged. Although de-mobilization is part of most peace-building operations, many of Burundi’sformer rebels feel they have beenmisled by empty political promises.For example, many received seedmoney to start small businesses, butthe enterprises couldn’t be sustainedafter initial funding ran out.

“There were lots of promises forex-soldiers from different institutions,”says Jean-Marie Nindorera, who leadsan association of nearly 150 formercombatants near Gitega, Burundi’ssecond-largest city. “When they didn’tcome true . . . [the ex-soldiers] werenot satisfied.” In 2006, an ex-combatantbriefly commandeered the local out-post of the demobilization office.“He destroyed windows,” Nindorerasays, “but they could . . . kill peo-ple or steal.”

The former combatants’ frustrationis palpable — and dangerous, saysOscar Ndiswarugira, with the Ministryfor Peace and Reconciliation Under theCross (Mi-PAREC), a grassroots Lutheran-sponsored Burundian organization inGitega. “I can see they’re just waiting,waiting. They’re very angry. . . . Someof them are very powerful. . . . The

issue is how long they are going tobe patient.”

In the Democratic Republic of Congo,where the U.N. is conducting peace-keeping and peacebuilding simultane-ously, the problems are decidedlylocal, says political scientist Autesserreof Barnard College. “We’re talking aboutconflict over political, social and eco-nomic agendas . . . at the level of theindividual, the family, the clan,” shesaid. Yet, she noted, “Most of the in-ternational peacebuilders are based inthe capital, Kinshasa.” 28

Some post-conflict countries havedecided to go it alone, in part becauseof the gap between what people inthe hinterlands say they need andwhat foreign civil servants based incapitals perceive is needed. For in-stance, Mozambique — often labeleda post-war success — has seen rela-tive peace and a growing economysince its civil war ended in 1992 aftermore than a decade of fighting. Butits success can be attributed in largepart to patient peace negotiations be-tween Mozambicans themselves, ac-cording to Lucia van den Bergh, a for-mer liaison between Mozambique andthe European Parliament. The talkswere facilitated, she notes, by theCatholic Church, supported by a U.N.envoy and driven primarily by the ac-tors involved, not by international orregional concerns.

Van den Bergh also attributesMozambique’s success to its lack ofa truth-telling mechanism. “Therewas no punishment, not even sys-tematic identification and documen-tation of war crimes,” she writes. Al-though that leaves the victims ofwartime atrocities neglected, she ac-knowledges, state stability has re-sulted from the willingness of mostMozambicans to move on. 29

Likewise, Rwanda — anotherparagon of post-conflict success — re-cently has taken a staunchly defiantattitude toward outside assistance. Lessthan 20 years after the 1994 genocide,

Continued from p. 302


PEACEBUILDING

Rwanda boasts universal health care,free education and one of Africa’s mostrapidly growing economies. In 2009 itwas the first sub-Saharan African coun-try to top the World Bank’s list of busi-ness reformers. 30 And last year thebank named Rwanda one of the world’s10 most-improved economies. 31

When he was inaugurated for asecond term last September, Rwan-da’s president, Paul Kagame, railedagainst international organizations“who are not accountable to anyonethemselves [and] think they have the

right to dictate the conduct of legit-imate state actors.” He insisted such“external actors” lack legitimacy and“do not relate to the majority of thepeople and deserve nothing morethan to be ignored.”

He claimed the country’s progresshas been self-made, saying, “For morethan a decade and a half now, thepeople of this country have increas-ingly come together as one to deter-mine and share their destiny.” 32

Critics say that’s a whitewashed view.Rwanda’s state-building may havebeen led by a domestic vision, butmore than half of Rwanda’s budgetcomes from outside aid. 33 And thesupport has been growing. 34

Rwanda’s go-it-alone attitude led itin 1998 to launch a four-year war againstneighboring Congo, where former per-petrators of the genocide were reor-ganizing and rearming from refugeecamps overseen by U.N. agencies.Kagame saw the U.N.’s inaction instopping the activity as an echo of the

U.N.’s failure to prevent the genocidein 1994. In 1997, Kagame — then vicepresident of Rwanda — told SouthAfrica’s Weekly Mail and Guardiannewspaper that in August 1996 he haddelivered “a veiled warning” to the in-ternational community: If they failedto take action against the Huturefugees rearming in Congo, then“Rwanda would take action.” But theworld’s response, he said, “was reallyno response at all.” 35

Unlike in Mozambique, however,Rwanda did not sacrifice truth-telling,which peacebuilders often pre-scribed. Nor did it want a quasi-in-ternational process, like the truth andreconciliation commissions in SierraLeone and Liberia. Instead, the coun-try implemented gacaca, a grassrootssystem of justice in which allegedgenocide perpetrators were tried bytheir village peers. Though the processhas attracted criticism from Westernhuman-rights observers for not providingadequate due process, the gacaca courtshave tried approximately 1 million per-petrators over roughly four years. 36

Their proceedings, currently beingarchived, are expected to serve as avaluable historical record of what hap-pened in the genocide.

CURRENTSITUATION

Looking for Donors

Many post-conflict countries stillface serious obstacles to stabili-

ty. But in Sierra Leone, after the com-bustible years immediately followingthe civil war, some people are finallybeginning to feel optimistic.

Inside a Freetown branch of a majorAfrican bank, tellers Joseph Sam andTejan Sesay stack fat turquoise bricksof Sierra Leone’s currency, the leone.After they run the bills through a count-ing machine, Sam and Sesay pass tow-ering stacks of cash to patiently wait-ing customers. A 10,000 leone note, thecountry’s largest, is worth about $3.

“In Sierra Leone,” jokes Sam, “every-one can be a millionaire.”

The two young men, 28, would havebeen teenagers during the civil war

Continued on p. 308

Andreson Masabo, left, fled ethnic conflict in Burundi in 1972. When he returned 36 yearslater, he found Terrance Sabukiza, right, living on part of his property in the rural southwestern

district of Rumonge. The two mediated their land dispute with help from the local land commission, supported by the U.N. Peacebuilding Fund.

Land disputes are often a cause of hostilities.

CQ Press/Jina Moore

no


At Issue:Can outsiders build lasting peace?yes

yesVANESSA WYETHRESEARCH FELLOW, PEACEBUILDINGAND STATE FRAGILITYINTERNATIONAL PEACE INSTITUTE

WRITTEN FOR CQ GLOBAL RESEARCHER, JUNE 2011

s ince Liberia’s civil war ended in 2003, the country hasbenefited from strong domestic leadership, billions ofdollars in international support and the presence of

15,000 U.N. peacekeepers. As Liberia prepares for elections laterthis year, it is widely hailed as a peacebuilding success story.

Other countries have not been so lucky. In the DemocraticRepublic of Congo and Haiti, years of peacekeeping and bil-lions of aid dollars have not led to peace and stability. Evencases once hailed as successes warrant a closer look. Recently,international observers warned that Bosnia faces a political cri-sis that threatens to undo the peace that has lasted theresince 1995. The murder rate in Guatemala is now higher thanit was at the height of the civil war in the 1980s.

Peacebuilding is a high-stakes political enterprise: It is com-plex and messy and requires tough compromises. And it takesa long time: The World Bank estimates that it takes at least ageneration to move a country from where war-torn Liberiawas in 2003 to where peaceful Malawi is today.

That requires domestic political leadership, the restoration oftrust between citizens and their institutions and the slow workof transforming political processes so societal conflict can bemanaged without violence. Peace cannot be imposed from theoutside, as the United States has learned in Afghanistan andIraq. Lasting peace can be built only from within.

But resources matter. How can a country establish the ruleof law if it can’t pay its judges, let alone its police and prisonguards? How can a government win the confidence of citizenswho can’t feed their families? International aid alone is notenough, but it can be essential, especially in the short- andmedium-term. In 2008, for example, international aid to Liberiawas worth 180 percent of the country’s gross national income.International actors also provide crucial political support, tech-nical assistance, training and security in the form of peace-keeping. Without international support for mediation efforts,there often would be no peace to build.

We still have much to learn about the impact — good andbad, intended and unintended — of international peacebuild-ing assistance and the complex political dynamics of war andpeace. At the end of the day, peacebuilding contains a catch-22: Peace cannot be built from the outside. But it also mightnot survive without outside support.no

JOHN CAULKERFOUNDER, FAMBUL TOK*SIERRA LEONE

WRITTEN FOR CQ GLOBAL RESEARCHER, JUNE 2011

u ltimately, peace is sustainable when it is internalized bythose who experienced the conflict. They are in a bet-ter position to identify lasting solutions to the post-con-

flict problems of rebuilding state and society. As the saying goes:“He who wears it feels it.” Within communities, local peopleknow who can credibly lead a process, for example, and whoinstills confidence. This is only achieved when those people leadthe peacebuilding process. The process and methodology mustbe designed, owned, led and contextualized by the people.

Effective peacebuilding involves constructive dialogue be-tween all relevant stakeholders with the aim of finding a last-ing solution to the underlying problems. Trust and respect areprerequisites for such open dialogue. These values can onlybe built by the parties themselves, not by outsiders.

Externally designed and led mechanisms can include, forexample, truth and reconciliation commissions, special tribunalsand support for the police and military in various forms. Butthese will not likely be sufficient to develop a lasting peace.Looking at Sierra Leone and Liberia as case studies, the ongo-ing threats to the fragile peace are clear, because people atthe grassroots were not consulted in designing transitional jus-tice institutions suitable for their contexts. The ownership thenbecomes questionable. Consequently, even with all the re-sources put into these countries there is little to show as a re-sult of outside contributions toward lasting peace.

But by understanding the importance of the kind of dia-logue I have described, and by providing the support neededto make it happen, outsiders can play a valuable facilitativerole, if they work alongside local leadership.

In three-and-a-half years running Fambul Tok in SierraLeone, I’ve seen ordinary people come up with creative ap-proaches and follow their own route toward lasting peace —a process that comes when both victim and perpetrator ac-knowledge what went wrong, the dignity of victims is restoredand the offenders seize the opportunity to apologize and toexplain why they committed atrocities.

A process that allows this to happen can play an importantrole in reknitting the fabric of community that is torn by war.My hope is that Fambul Tok’s example will open the way forothers to work in similar ways.

* Krio for “family talk”


that tore Sierra Leone apart for 11years, when child soldiers were infa-mously forced into militias and druggedinto committing atrocities. It’s a his-tory they don’t know, about a coun-try they wouldn’t recognize. For them,the war is over — and the word“peacebuilding” inspires disinterest.

“Nobody needs to tell me not to goto the bush and take up arms. We arehere at 7 in the morning and we leaveat 7 at night. It takes an hour to get

to and from home. We don’t have timefor fighting,” says Sam. “We already havepeace,” Sam adds. “What we need isinvestment. . . . So-called donors needto push money into industry.”

Others share Sam’s sentiments. WhileSierra Leone is still far from developed,or even from securing long-term stabili-ty, many Sierra Leoneans agree with thecommon Krio phrase: “The war don don”— “The war is past.”

Thus, in Freetown, peacebuildingis beginning to look more like devel-opment. But elsewhere, things aren’tso rosy. In the Central African Re-public, for example, after interminabledelays, the focus is on disarmamentand demobilization. In Burundi, a newU.N. mission chief — the country’sfourth in less than a decade — hassaid and done very little since arriv-ing in early 2011.

And in Guinea-Bissau — where thecountry seems unlikely to steer awayfrom the cycle of coups that landedit on the commission’s agenda in thefirst place — peacebuilding seems ir-relevant. President João Bernardo Vieirawas killed by a military faction in 2009.In April 2010, a high-level military of-ficer kidnapped the army chief andthe prime minister. The prime minis-ter was released, and the leader of theApril mutiny was appointed the newarmy chief in June. The European

Union and the United States then sus-pended aid for military reform. TheEU said the effort seemed “hopeless,”while the United States cited the mil-itary’s alleged involvement in drug traf-ficking. 37 The deposed army chiefwas released in December 2010, afterseven months. 38

Peacebuilding officials say they willcomplete the projects they are funding— new army barracks, prisons andmicro-loan assistance to small entre-preneurs. But concerns persist aboutthe country’s stability and the govern-ment’s intentions about democracy ina place notorious for corruption, evenbefore it became a drug-traffickinghub. Looking back, Jarasch, the for-mer adviser to the German missionto the U.N., says “Guinea-Bissau wasmaybe, in a way, a wrong evaluation[by] the PBC.”

Recently, the PBC has added Liberiaand Guinea to its peacebuilding agen-da, which make an interesting studyin contrasts as the commission tries tocatalyze donor interest. Though neigh-bors, the two countries have vastly dif-ferent post-conflict stories, especiallywhen it comes to donors.

Liberia is already a “donor darling,”taking in more than 10 times the amountof development assistance Guinea re-ceived in 2008. 39 Liberia’s popularpresident, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a for-mer World Bank economist, is expect-ed to be re-elected in October in thecountry’s second presidential poll sincethe end of its civil war. Guinea, bycontrast, hosted elections only after itsmilitary massacred 157 pro-democracyprotesters in 2009.

Observers often suggest Liberia’sspecial relationship with the UnitedStates — freed American slaves found-ed the capital of Monrovia in 1822 —generates special interest. In 2010,Liberia received $230 million in U.S.aid, while Guinea received less than10 percent of that. 40 (As a formerFrench colony, Guinea has closer po-litical and financial ties with France.)

After the Revolutions

Anew wave of events in Arab coun-tries has captivated the world’s at-

tention — and raised new questionsabout the role of peacebuilding be-yond catalyzing outside cash.

“Let’s be honest. There’s a kind ofstigmatization, but I think it’s ill-placed,”says Cheng-Hopkins, head of U.N.peacebuilding support. The PBC is“not a poverty commission,” she says,even though the countries that receiveaid from the panel “belong to the verypoorest in the world.” But the valueof U.N. peacebuilding is to focus on“conflict drivers.”

The U.N. is now funding a nationalreconciliation project in Lebanon, Cheng-Hopkins points out, and conflict ana-

PEACEBUILDING

Continued from p. 306

“The mandate is to work with leaders, to look them in

the eyes and say, ‘Look, thank you for your coffee, but

I think you need to be doing something different.’ ”

— Michael Massaquoi,

Sierra Leone’s liason to the

Peacebuilding Commission


lysts are focused on other countries inthe Middle East and North Africa. Thisspring, the leaders of some of NorthAfrica’s notoriously autocratic countries— Egypt, Libya and Tunisia — facedoff against citizens angered by risingfuel and food costs, unemployment andcorruption. The popular uprisings trig-gered similar upheavals in Syria, Yemenand other Middle Eastern countries. 41

Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who hadruled Tunisia as president for 23 years,fled the country in January, after near-ly a month of public protests. 42 In Feb-ruary, Egypt’s leader of 30 years, HosniMubarak, resigned following three weeksof mass protests. 43 In Libya, Col. Moam-mar Gadhafi, famous for lavishing moneyon pet projects across Africa, continuesto battle rebels in an uprising that beganin February and has been supportedby NATO.

These are not classic peacebuildingscenarios. “If you look at Egypt orTunisia, they are a very different cat-egory of country” from those in whichU.N. peacebuilding operations usuallywork, says Wyeth, of the InternationalPeace Institute. To begin with, in Egyptand Tunisia, the power transitions werelargely peaceful. “There wasn’t an armedgroup challenging the government, likethere is in Libya — or there was inBurundi or Sierra Leone.”

But there’s another critical differ-ence. Except for Yemen, “These aremiddle-income countries with very, verystrong institutions in certain areas,” shesays. That changes how the interna-tional community might engage thetransitions there, Wyeth says. “The senseI have from what, for example, donorsare thinking about in Tunisia, is ‘Let’ssupport elections and make sure theygo well; let’s give them support in draft-ing new constitutions — but we don’tsee a long-term, big conflict-preventionor aid package,’ ” she says.

Wyeth and others acknowledge that,despite the size of their economies, in-come disparities in places like Egyptand Tunisia have been a serious, long-

standing problem. 44 British economistand best-selling author Niall Fergusonargues that the economic consequencesof these revolts — contracting economiesand capital flight — will have debili-tating effects on the coming transitions.

“Egyptian businessmen complain ofsoaring crime in the cities, the diffi-culty of carrying out normal transac-tions and, above all, nerve-wrackingpolitical uncertainty,” he said. 45

OUTLOOKPower of Technology

Technology is rapidly changing whatpeacebuilding can do and how ef-

fective it might be — in part by pro-viding more, and often better, informa-tion about the violence that precedes it.

For instance, during the violencefollowing Kenya’s 2008 presidentialelection, Harvard Law School gradu-ate and popular Kenyan blogger OryOkolloh subverted a government banon live reporting by blogging in real-time about what was happening,based on reports readers sent her onviolence in their neighborhoods.

“I got overwhelmed by the amountof information coming in,” she re-members. With the help of some tech-nically savvy volunteers, Okolloh in-vented Ushahidi, an open-sourcemapping software.

A Harvard study found that duringthe crisis Ushahidi generated more in-formation, more quickly and withmore geographical details than localmainstream media. 46

After the violence subsided, a KenyanNGO used Ushahidi to map “peace he-roes,” using reports about people whointervened during the crisis or other-wise helped neighbors or strangers. Theidea was to strengthen post-conflictpeacebuilding — in part by creating a

“map of peace” as visually impressiveand arresting as the map generated byreports of violence. 47

Ushahidi also has been adapted tomap the availability of medicine inUganda, violence in eastern Congoand earthquake response in Haiti.

But not everyone agrees that thisprocess of collecting user-generatedinformation, called “crowdsourcing,” al-ways gives a clearer or more accuratepicture of reality.

Jim Fruchterman, the founder andCEO of the technology-for-human-rightscompany Benetech, argues thatcrowdsourcing is sometimes an ex-pensive distraction from less fancy toolsthat may provide information just asreadily. “Misunderstanding relationshipsin data . . . can lead to choosing lesseffective, more expensive data insteadof choosing obvious, more accuratestarting points,” he writes. 48 Benetechstatisticians have warned against usingcrowdsourced data to understand anykind of patterns — of violence, ofneed, of aid — because of inherentlimitations in data generated by users.

Technology is also changing theuse of individual stories from theground. The explosion of video overthe last 20 years has also improvedpeacebuilding efforts. WITNESS, aNew York-based video advocacy or-ganization co-founded by popularBritish musician Peter Gabriel, trainshuman-rights activists around the worldin videography and coaches activistson how to use video footage in com-pelling and appropriate ways.

In eastern Congo, WITNESS-trainedadvocates made a film for parents ofchildren who want to join militia groups,composed predominantly of testimo-ny from young boys who had madethe choice and regretted it. Their sec-ond film, intended for the internationalcommunity, highlighted underreportedcrimes in eastern Congo, especiallysexual violence against female recruits.Their third production, broadcast inCongo, summarized International Crim-


inal Court proceedings against an ac-cused Congolese war criminal.

The United Nations, too, is gettinginto the technology game. Some peace-keeping missions are using mobilegeographic information systems tocollect data on conflict, allowing usersto more easily recognize patterns inattacks. 49 Other U.N. agencies are de-veloping mobile-based tools to improvefood delivery, refugee services andhuman-rights monitoring. 50

While tech enthusiasts can makethem sound downright utopian, the newtools are more than just fancy bells andwhistles. They help to repair the imbal-ance between elite-level conversationsamong international actors and the localpeople. “What you have now is a muchmore symmetrical relationship in whichpeople who are recipients of the mes-sage can also become part of the con-versation,” says Nathaniel Whittemore,founder of the Center for Global En-gagement at Northwestern University.

Travel and reporting for this issue of CQGlobal Researcher was supported in part bythe Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Notes1 For background, see Jina Moore, “TruthCommissions,” CQ Global Researcher, Jan. 1,2010, pp. 1-24.

2 “Trust Fund Factsheet,” Multi-Donor TrustFund Office, U.N. Development Programme,www.mdtf.undp.org/factsheet/fund/PB000.3 For background, see Josh Kron, “Conflict inCongo,” CQ Global Researcher, April 5, 2011,pp. 157-182.4 “How We Got Here: The Trouble withCongo,” Public Radio International’s “The World”podcast, Nov. 22, 2010, www.theworld.org/2010/11/the-trouble-with-the-congo/.5 For background, see Jason McLure, “TroubledHorn of Africa,” CQ Global Researcher, June 1,2009, pp. 149-176.6 Michael W. Doyle and Nicholas Sambanis,Making War and Building Peace (2006), pp.230-256.7 “Update on the Implementation of PBF Pro-jects,” Government of Sierra Leone, 2008, www.unpbf.org/docs/Sierra_Leone_PBF_Updates_SC_October_2008.pdf.8 “Central African Republic: Keeping the di-alogue alive,” International Crisis Group, AfricaBriefing No. 69, Jan. 12, 2010, pp. 2-4, http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/reliefweb_pdf/node-339891.pdf.9 Irfan Nooruddin, “Voting for Peace? Do elec-tions help or hinder recovery?” Paper preparedfor presentation in Yale University’s Interna-tional Relations Seminar Series, 2008, p. 1, www.psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/faculty/nooruddin/research/15nooruddin_voting_for_peace.pdf.10 “Rushing to the polls: The causes of pre-mature post-conflict elections,” Journal of Con-flict Resolution (forthcoming), pp. 7, 19-23. Draftpaper, http://brancati.wustl.edu/Rush2Polls.pdf.11 Ibid., p. 23.12 For background, see Jina Moore, “Con-fronting Rape as a War Crime,” CQ GlobalResearcher, May 1, 2010, pp. 105-130.

13 “Final Statement on Run-off Election inGuinea and the Post-Election Period,” The CarterCenter, Dec. 2, 2010, www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/guinea-120210.html.14 “Ivory Coast Timeline,” BBC, April 12, 2011,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1043106.stm. For background, see JasonMcLure, “Sub-Saharan Democracy,” CQ GlobalResearcher, Feb. 15, 2011, pp. 79-106.15 “Review of the United Nations PeacebuildingArchitecture,” U.N. General Assembly and Se-curity Council, July 21, 2010, p. 12, www.un.org/ga/president/64/issues/pbc/PBCReport.pdf.16 Paul Collier, Wars, Guns and Votes: Democ-racy in Dangerous Places (2009), pp. 30-32.17 Ibid.18 “Sierra Leone Peacebuilding Fund ProjectSummary,” U.N. Development Program, July 15,2008, PBF/SLE/I-1, http://mdtf.undp.org/factsheet/project/00066695.19 “Conducting a Conflict Assessment: A frame-work for strategy and program development,”U.S. Agency for International Development,April 2005, p. 15, www.usaid.gov/our_work/cross-cutting_programs/conflict/publications/docs/CMM_ConflAssessFrmwrk_May_05.pdf.20 “Peacebuilding Fund in Sierra Leone, Pro-ject Summaries,” United Nations PeacebuildingFund, 2007, www.unpbf.org/sierraleone/sierraleone-progress.shtml.21 “PRIO Armed Conflict Database, UppsalaConflict Data Program,” www.prio.no/CSCW/Datasets/Armed-Conflict/UCDP-PRIO/; Collier,op. cit.22 Barbara F. Walter, “Conflict Relapse andthe Sustainability of Post-Conflict Peace,” WorldBank, Sept. 13, 2010, p. 1, http://wdr2011.worldbank.org/conflict-relapse-and-sustainability-of-post-conflict-peace.23 For background, see Sarah Glazer, “Stop-ping Genocied,” CQ Researcher, Aug. 27, 2004,pp. 685-708.24 Linda Polman, “Crisis Caravan: What’s wrongwith humanitarian aid,” Metropolitan Books,2010, pp. 33-35.25 Gérard Prunier, Africa’s World War (2008)[electronic edition].26 Abi Daruvalla, “Anatomy of a Massacre,”Time, April 21, 2002, www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,232505,00.html.27 “A More Secure World: Our shared re-sponsibility: Report on the High-level Panelon Threats, Challenges and Change,” U.N.General Assembly, Dec. 2, 2004, www.un.org/

PEACEBUILDING

About the Author

Jina Moore is a multimedia journalist who covers humanrights and foreign affairs from the United States and Africa.Her work has appeared in The Christian Science Monitor,Newsweek, Foreign Policy, The Columbia Journalism Reviewand Best American Science Writing. Her report for the May2010 CQ Global Researcher, “Confronting Rape as a WarCrime,” received an honorable mention in the Best Reportingon a Significant Topic category of the American Society ofJournalists and Authors’ 2010 awards.


secureworld/report.pdf.28 In “How We Got Here: The Trouble withCongo,” PRI’s The World podcast, Nov. 22,2010, www.theworld.org/2010/11/the-trouble-with-the-congo/.29 Lucia van den Bergh, “Why Peace Worked:Mozambicans look back,” Association ofEuropean Parliamentarians with Africa, 2009,pp. 127-130, www.antenna.nl/images/mozambique.pdf.30 “Doing Business: Reforming through diffi-cult times,” press release, World Bank, 2009,www.doingbusiness.org/reports/global-reports/~/media/FPDKM/Doing%20Business/Documents/Press-Releases/2010/DB10-PR-Global.doc.31 “Doing Business 2011: Making a Differencefor Entrepreneurs,” press release, World Bank,2010, www.doingbusiness.org/reports/global-reports/~/media/FPDKM/Doing%20Business/Documents/Press-Releases/2010/DB11-PR-Global.pdf.32 Paul Kagame, Second Inaugural Address,Amahoro Stadium, Kigali, Rwanda, Sept. 6, 2010,www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j1FyczU0pk.33 Mailan Chiche, “Putting Aid on a Budget,”Case Studies for the Collaborative Africa Bud-get Reform Initiative and the Strategic Part-nership with Africa, Mokoro Ltd., 2008, p. 25.34 Ibid. See also “Rwanda budget aid to rise66 percent,” New Vision, May 10, 2010, www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/220/720181.35 Interview with Mahmood Mamdani, Week-ly Mail and Guardian, Aug. 8, 1997, quotedin Prunier, op. cit., accessed electronically.36 Telephone Interview with Professor Tim-othy Longman, then at Vassar College, April2009. Today he runs the African Studies pro-gram at Boston University.37 Marco Vernaschi, “The Cocaine Coast,” Vir-ginia Quarterly Review, Winter 2010; “Timeline:Guinea Bissau,” BBC News, December 2010,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1043376.stm.38 “G Bissau bars military leaders from leav-ing,” Radio Netherlands, Dec. 30, 2010, www.rnw.nl/africa/bulletin/gbissau-bars-military-leaders-leaving.39 “HDR 2010 Statistical Tables, 15: Enablingenvironment, financial flows and commitments,”Human Development Index 2010, http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/data/.40 U.S. Agency for International DevelopmentFact Sheets on Liberia and Guinea, www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/countries/liberia/liberia_fs.pdf and www.usaid.gov/

locations/sub-saharan_africa/countries/guinea/guinea_fs.pdf.41 For background, see Roland Flamini, “Tur-moil in the Arab World,” CQ Global Researcher,May 3, 2011, pp. 209-236.42 “Tunisia: Ex-president Ben Ali flees to SaudiArabia,” BBC News, Jan. 15, 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12198106.43 “Egypt Unrest: Crowds celebrate Mubarak’sdeparture, BBC News, Feb. 12, 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12438355.44 “HDR 2010 Statistical Tables: Inequality-ad-justed HDI,” Human Development Index 2010,http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/data/.45 “The Revolution Blows Up,” Newsweek, June6, 2011, www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-06-06/niall-ferguson-on-egypts-stock-market-plunge-the-revolution-blows-up/.46 “Crisis Mapping Kenya’s Election Violence:Comparing Mainstream News, Citizen Jour-nalism and Ushahidi,” Harvard HumanitarianInitiative, 2008, http://irevolution.wordpress.

com/2008/10/23/mapping-kenyas-election-violence.47 “Peace Initiative Uses the Ushahidi Platform,”Ushahidi blog, April 13, 2010, http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2010/04/13/peace-initiative-uses-the-ushahidi-platform-building-bridges/.48 “Issues with Crowdsourced Data Part 2,”Benetech Blog, April 21, 2011, http://benetech.blogspot.com/2011/03/issues-with-crowd-sourced-data-part-2.html.49 Nicholas C. Martin, Charles Martin-Shieldsand Walter Dorn, “Without the most advancedtechnology, the UN isn’t reaching its full po-tential in danger zones,” The Mark, June 2, 2011,www.themarknews.com/articles/5470-smartphones-for-smart-peacekeeping?page=1.50 “New Technologies in Emergencies andConflict: The role of social information,” UNFoundation-Vodafone Foundation Partnership,2009, pp. 39-42, www.unfoundation.org/press-center/publications/new-technologies-emergencies-conflicts.html.

FOR MORE INFORMATIONAlliance for Peacebuilding, 1320 19 St., N.W., Suite 410, Washington, DC 20036;(202) 822-2047; www.allianceforpeacebuilding.org. A network of peacebuilders andadvocates devoted to fostering new peacebuilding collaborations.

American Friends Service Committee, 777 United Nations Plaza #5, New York,NY 10017-3521; (212) 682-2745; http://afsc.org/office/quaker-united-nations-office.The U.N. branch of the pacifist Quaker organization, which works with peace-building partners around the world.

Fambul Tok, 47 Robert St., Freetown, Sierra Leone; (232) 78-500500; www.fambultok.org. A grassroots reconciliation group that takes a village-by-village approachto peacebuilding.

Interpeace, 7-9 Chemin de Balexert, 1219 Châtelaine, Geneva, Switzerland; (41)(0) 22 917 8593; www.interpeace.org. Nongovernmental organization that workswith 300 local peacebuilders around the world to strengthen civil society.

Mi-PAREC, Ministry for Peace and Reconciliation Under the Cross, Musinzira Ave.,Gitega, Burundi; (257) 22 40 3837; www.miparec.org. A local organization spon-sored by the Lutheran church, devoted to nonviolent, community-based peace-building interventions.

Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, 1779 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Suite #615,Washington, DC 20036; (202) 332-0982; http://pulitzercenter.org. A nonprofit jour-nalism organization that funds coverage of under-reported topics, including athree-month investigation into U.N. peacebuilding.

Timap for Justice, 4E Mudge Farm, Freetown, Sierra Leone; (232) 22-229-911;www.timapforjustice.org. A hybrid local-international nonprofit focused on trainingparalegals to provide free legal services for Sierra Leoneans.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Books

Autesserre, Séverine, The Trouble with Congo: Local vi-olence and the failure of international peacebuilding,Cambridge University Press, 2010.An assistant professor of political science at Barnard Col-

lege at Columbia University analyzes the causes of local vi-olence and criticizes international engagement for failing toaddress — or for exacerbating — them.

Call, Charles T., and Vanessa Wyeth, eds., Building Statesto Build Peace, Lynne Rienner Publishing, 2008.Academics and specialists examine the relationship between

peacebuilding and state-building, including case studies ofsuccesses and failures.

Collier, Paul, Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dan-gerous Places, Harper, 2009.Using engaging prose written for nonspecialists, the director

of the Centre for the Study of African Economics at OxfordUniversity examines the relationship between holding elec-tions and preventing — or renewing — violence.

Cortright, David, Peace: A History of Movements andIdeas, Cambridge University Press, 2008.A professor of peace studies at the University of Notre

Dame puts peacebuilding in its historical context, from theVietnam War through the nonproliferation movement to today’sconflicts.

Doyle, Michael W., and Nicholas Sambanis, Making Warand Building Peace, Princeton University Press, 2006.A professor of international affairs, law and political sci-

ence at Columbia Law School (Doyle) and a professor ofpolitical science at Yale University examine the history ofU.N. peace operations.

Kamara-Umunna, Agnes Fallah, and Emily Holland, AndStill Peace Did Not Come: A Memoir of Reconciliation,Hyperion, 2011.A woman who survived Liberia’s civil war tells the stories

of hundreds of victims and perpetrators, from child soldiersto “bush wives” — girls and women forced to marry sol-diers in wartime — based on post-war interviews.

Lederach, John Paul, Building Peace: Sustainable Rec-onciliation in Divided Societies, United States Instituteof Peace, 1998.A professor at the Kroc Institute for International Peace

Studies at the University of Notre Dame draws lessons fromworking with local communities in 25 countries on five con-tinents.

Reports

“Review of the United Nations Peacebuilding Architec-ture,”U.N. General Assembly and Security Council, A/64/868-S/2010/393, July 21, 2010.The U.N.’s assessment of five years of peacebuilding efforts

recommends a greater focus on youth employment, bettercoordination with other international organizations and a re-duced administrative burden.

Bascuti, Dawn, and Jack Snyder, “Rushing to the polls:The causes of premature post-conflict elections,” Journalof Conflict Resolution (forthcoming).A statistical analysis of the relationship between elections

and conflict suggests that the preference for polls can desta-bilize as much as develop states and societies after conflict.

Futamura, Madoka, Edward Newman and ShahrbanouTadjbakhsh, “Research Brief: Toward a Human SecurityApproach to Peacebuilding,” United Nations University,2010.The authors argue that peacebuilders should give priority

to the needs of ordinary people in post-conflict countries.

Futamura, Madoka, and Mark Notaras, “Local perspectiveson international peacebuilding,” United Nations University,June 2011.A workshop on peacebuilding focused on improving the

balance between domestic and international voices.

Milner, James, “Refugees and the Regional Dynamics ofPeacebuilding,”Refugee Survey Quarterly, Vol. 28, Issue 1,2009.A Carlton University professor argues that peacebuilding takes

too simple an approach to refugee problems, which can ulti-mately scuttle peacebuilding efforts after mass repatriations.

Documentaries

“Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” Fork Films, 2008.The film tells the story of female Liberian activists who

tried to end the country’s civil war — by literally standingbetween the belligerents.

“Acting Together on the World Stage,” Brandeis University,2010.The documentary examines the work of peacebuilders

around the world.

“Degrees of Separation,” Al Jazeera, 2010.Journalists talk with ordinary Sudanese on the eve of their

historic referendum on whether to split Africa’s largest country.

Selected Sources


Bibliography

Burundi

“Nkurunziza States Priorities,” East African BusinessWeek (Uganda), Sept. 6, 2010, www.busiweek.com/10/page.php?aid=1224.President Pierra Nkurunziza of Burundi says consolidating

peace and security will be a top priority during his secondterm in office.

Baddorf, Zack, “Burundi’s Ethnic Groups Live to Rec-oncile,”Voice of America News, Aug. 31, 2010, www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Burundis-Ethnic-Groups-Live-to-Reconcile-101873303.html.Hutus and Tutsis have come to live together as neighbors

five years after Burundi’s civil war ended.

Delany, Max, “After 16 Years of War, Burundi Rebels StartNew Lives,”The Christian Science Monitor, June 14, 2009,p. 6, www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2009/0618/p06s29-woaf.html.The peace process in Burundi closely mirrors that of neigh-

boring Rwanda, which has a similar ethnic makeup.

Conflict Resolution

Accioly, Juliana, “Miamian Teaches Reconciliation in Nige-ria,”South Florida Times, Nov. 19, 2010, p. B1, www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5889&Itemid=144.An American conflict-resolution company has been hired

to lead a rehabilitation program in Nigeria for former guer-rilla fighters.

Lirri, Evelyn, “Post Conflict Recovery Still a Challenge,Says EU,” The Monitor (Uganda), Nov. 10, 2010, www.allafrica.com/stories/201011110443.html.The European Union’s deputy ambassador to Uganda says

conflict resolution remains a challenge for women and chil-dren in the northern part of the country.

Nkomo, Dumisani, “Why the AU Fails to Resolve Conflicts,”Zimbabwe Independent, April 1, 2011, www.theindependent.co.zw/local/30490-why-the-au-fails-to-resolve-conflicts.html.Political conflicts within the African Union make it largely

incapable of resolving conflicts within its member states.

Disarmament and Demobilization

“Minister Kussumua Highlights Government’s Main Pro-grammes,” Angola Press Agency, Nov. 4, 2010, www.allafrica.com/stories/201011040470.html.The Angolan government is paying special attention to pro-

grams that aim to reintegrate ex-combatants.

“Missing Guns Delay Demobilization Process,” U.N. In-tegrated Regional Information Network, Jan. 31, 2011,www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportID=91790.Hundreds of weapons used in a revolt in the Comoros re-

main unaccounted for, causing the government to changeits disarmament, demobilization and reintegration strategy.

“Southern Sudan Demobilized 3,600 Ex-Combatants,”TheCitizen (Sudan), Oct. 26, 2010.Sudan’s Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration

Commission is working to ensure that ex-combatants haveenough skills to earn a living in their communities.

U.N. Peacebuilding Fund

“Ban Advises Extension of UN Peacebuilding Office,”U.N. News Service, Dec. 3, 2010, www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=36949.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has recommended that

the Security Council extend the organization’s peacebuildingmandate in the Central African Republic.

“China Donates 1 Million Dollars to UN PeacebuildingFund,” Philippines News Agency, Dec. 23, 2010.The Chinese government is supporting projects that promote

stability in post-conflict countries.

Davies, Chrispin, “Master and Registrar Speaks on ‘Accessto Justice,’ ” Concord Times (Sierra Leone), Nov. 27, 2010,www.allafrica.com/stories/201011291582.html.Sierra Leone is using money from the U.N. Peacebuilding

Fund to support judicial reforms that will increase access tolegal resources for the country’s citizens.

Additional Articles from Current Periodicals

CITING CQ GLOBAL RESEARCHER

Sample formats for citing these reports in a bibliography

include the ones listed below. Preferred styles and formats

vary, so please check with your instructor or professor.

MLA STYLEFlamini, Roland. “Nuclear Proliferation.” CQ Global Re-

searcher 1 Apr. 2007: 1-24.

APA STYLEFlamini, R. (2007, April 1). Nuclear proliferation. CQ Global

Researcher, 1, 1-24.

CHICAGO STYLEFlamini, Roland. “Nuclear Proliferation.” CQ Global Researcher,

April 1, 2007, 1-24.

www.globalresearcher.com June 21, 2011 313

The Next Step:

Voices From Abroad:

ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAFPresident, Liberia

It’s about human needs,too

“Peacebuilding in the con-text of Liberia, while ad-dressing the root causes andbuilding institutions to man-age and prevent conflict, isalso about meeting basichuman needs. This, togetherwith the creation of jobs andother livelihood opportunitiesfor our young people, remainsa major challenge to our Ad-ministration. I am, neverthe-less, convinced that with con-certed effort, with commitmentand dedication, the tasksahead are surmountable.”

The Analyst (Liberia) November 2010

MICHAEL VON DERSCHULENBURG

Executive Representative,U.N. Integrated Peace-

building Office Sierra Leone

No rush to judgment“Nation-building in all of

our countries has been anextremely long, bloody af-fair. . . . [Sierra Leone] is acountry which still tries tocreate a nation that peoplefeel like they belong to, to-gether. They’re trying to bringdemocracy and to do itpeacefully. That’s not beendone in history. So let’s notbe arrogant about the wholething. Let’s see how we canhelp to speed it up.”

The Christian Science MonitorApril 2011

PETER WITTIGGerman Ambassador to

U.N.

More commitment needed“By linking the Peace-

building Commission’s workto that of peacekeeping, de-velopment and political actorsin the field, the Commissionhas added considerable value.The challenge facing theCommission in demonstratingits full potentials, however, isto ensure that its work isbacked by a higher level ofpolitical commitment fromMember States and the SeniorUnited Nations leadership.”

U.N. News Service, March 2011

BAN KI-MOONSecretary-General United Nations

Women play a key role“Enabling women to con-

tribute to recovery and re-construction is integral tostrengthening a country’sability to sustain peace-building efforts. . . . [P]eace-building strategies cannotbe fully ‘owned’ if half thenation is not actively involvedin their design and imple-mentation.”

Philippines News Agency October 2010

SERGEY LAVROVMinister of Foreign Affairs

Russia

Don’t impose assistance“The success of [Russia’s]

peacekeeping and peace-building efforts in the Mid- C

artoon Movement/Giacomo Cardelli

DUMISANI NKOMOCEO, Habakkuk Trust

Zimbabwe

African Union ineffective“The multiplicity of internal

contradictions and conflictinginterests within leading mem-ber states makes the [AfricanUnion] ineffective as an in-strument of promoting peaceon the continent. The AU ap-pears to be enmeshed in in-ternal conflict on which of itsobjectives it should prioritise.”

Zimbabwe Independent April 2011

JOSE SOLERE.U. Deputy Ambassador

to Uganda

Reintegration is a chal-lenge

“Uganda is now starting torecover from two decades ofconflict. However, the impactof that conflict on women andgirls and their particular needsin the process of demobili-sation and reintegration is avery real challenge.”

The Monitor (Uganda) November 2010

dle East, Afghanistan, Africa,Haiti and East Timor lies inthe ability to consider theinterests and priorities of thereceiving side. Any assistancefrom the international com-munity should not be im-posed.”

Statement before U.N. SecurityCouncil, September 2010

MAM-SAMBA JOOFExecutive Director, Agency

for the Development ofWomen and Children

The Gambia

Recovery takes time“Wars and other conflicts

leave societies destroyed, andpost-conflict recovery takes[a] much longer time and re-quires a lot of financial re-sources to attain. The highhuman, financial, social andmaterial costs of conflict arewell documented, and . . .nearly 60 countries aroundthe world — many of whichare in sub-Saharan Africa —are in conflict or have re-cently come out of conflict.”

Daily Observer (The Gambia),September 2010