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RETHINKING PEACE AND CONFLICT STUDIES
Series Editor: Oliver P. Richmond
Peacebuilding
in the
United Nations
Coming into Life
Fernando Cavalcante
Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies
Series Editor
Oliver P. Richmond
University of Manchester
Manchester, UK
This agenda-setting series of research monographs, now more than a
decade old, provides an interdisciplinary forum aimed at advancing inno-
vative new agendas for approaches to, and understandings of, peace and
conflict studies and International Relations. Many of the critical volumes
the series has so far hosted have contributed to new avenues of analy-
sis directly or indirectly related to the search for positive, emancipatory,
and hybrid forms of peace. New perspectives on peacemaking in practice
and in theory, their implications for the international peace architecture,
and different conflict-affected regions around the world, remain crucial.
This series’ contributions offers both theoretical and empirical insights
into many of the world’s most intractable conflicts and any subsequent
attempts to build a new and more sustainable peace, responsive to the
needs and norms of those who are its subjects.
Peacebuilding in the
United Nations
Coming into Life
Fernando Cavalcante
United Nations
Kabul, Afghanistan
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
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This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Acknowledgements
v
vi Acknowledgements
Lopes, every step of the way. In Coimbra, Bradford and elsewhere, aca-
demics and fellow colleagues offered their friendship and constructive
comments to my research at various stages, facilitated contacts and often
went the extra mile to help me reach the next step. They include, among
many others: Alistair Edgar, André Barrinha, Branislav Gosovic, Calin
Trenkov-Wermuth, Charles Call, Christian Bueger, Fernando Ludwig,
Gearoid Millar, Gilberto Oliveira, James Wanki, Jim Whitman, Johan
Galtung, José Manuel Pureza, Lisa McCann, Maria João Barata, Maria
Raquel Freire, Marisa Borges, Nizar Messari, Oliver Richmond, Pascoal
Pereira, Pedro Pezarat Correia, Piki Ish-Shalom, Ramon Blanco, Roberta
Maschietto, Roger A. Coate, Sharon Wiharta, Shepard Forman, Stefano
Guzzini, Teresa Cravo, Thomas Weiss, Timothy Sisk and Vanessa Wyeth.
I am also grateful to the dozens of interviewees who graciously offered
their time and insights so that I could try to have a better understanding
of how the United Nations (UN) worked.
James Sutterlin and Tapio Kanninen kindly granted me access to their
personal files and offered their time generously on different occasions,
helping to shed light on the inner workings of the UN of the early 1990s.
At Yale University, Jean Krasno facilitated my access to records of the War
Risk Reduction Project. Neshantha Karunanayake, Amanda Leinberger
and Cheikh Ndiaye, from the UN Archives, and Susan Kurtas and Joëlle
Sciboz, from the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, spared no efforts to help
identify and sort out old UN documents.
Finally, research leading to this book would have never been com-
pleted without the never-ending love, support and encouragement from
my parents, my brother, my entire family and my dearest friends—whom
I hope will forgive me for omitting their names to respect their privacy.
And, of course, M. offered all the motivation for my application to a
Ph.D. programme in the first place, as well as unfaltering inspiration and
energy to complete it—which she also did by walking the entire journey
with me.
Despite their gracious support, the views advanced in this book are
my own and I take full responsibility for any inaccuracies, mistakes and/
or omissions.
Finally, a disclaimer: I have joined the United Nations after completing
the Ph.D. thesis upon which this book is based. Therefore, nothing in
this book is attributable to my current position as an international civil
servant. The views herein expressed are my own and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the United Nations.
Contents
1 Introduction 1
9 Conclusion 273
References 285
vii
List of Figures
ix
List of Tables
xi
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
In the UN, those actions have often, albeit not always, been carried out
against the backdrop of peacekeeping operations.1 From El Salvador
(1991–1995) and Mozambique (1992–1994), to Cambodia (1991–
1992) and Yugoslavia (1992–1995), to Kosovo (1999–Present) and
Timor-Leste (2006–2012), UN-led peacebuilding initiatives included,
but were not limited to: support to and management of electoral pro-
cesses; reforms of institutions in the security sector; training of police,
judges and other law enforcement officials; promotion of human rights;
drafting of national laws, including constitutions; and, on occasions,
the administration of the most basic services in countries and territo-
ries. As of writing, the UN has more than 20 missions, including multi-
dimensional peacekeeping operations carrying out peacebuilding tasks and
special political missions, operating all over the world. At UN headquar-
ters in New York, the establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission
(PBC), the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) and the Peacebuilding
Fund (PBF) in 2005–2006 represents the ultimate embodiment of the
concept of peacebuilding in the UN. From the ‘written word’ contained
in Boutros-Ghali’s An Agenda for Peace, the concept of peacebuilding has
fully come into life in the UN context, that is, it has become influential to
the extent of having concrete, tangible, manifestations in world politics.
My main argument in this book is that the way peacebuilding
appeared and gained prominence in the context of the UN in the early
1990s had a profound and lasting influence in the Organisation’s pro-
vision of support to societies affected by armed conflict, not only influ-
encing the core meaning underlying peacebuilding in the UN but also
preventing substantial changes in that meaning. Peacebuilding has
come into life via a process of simplification and politicisation of aca-
demic theories about the democratic peace thesis, which holds that
democratic societies rarely fight with each other (see e.g., Russett 1993;
Doyle 1983a, b). In the early 1990s, a simplified and politicised inter-
pretation of such theories gained foothold in the UN as a strong polit-
ical view about the promotion, via peacebuilding, of democracies in
1 Herein understood as field operations deployed “to preserve peace, however fragile,
where fighting has been halted and to assist in implementing agreements achieved by the
peacemakers” (DPKO and DFS 2008: 97). Peacebuilding tasks are often, although not
always, carried out by multi-dimensional peacekeeping operations, which comprise a “a mix
of military, police and civilian components working together to lay the foundations of a
sustainable peace” (DPKO and DFS 2008: 97).
1 INTRODUCTION 3
2 In what concerns the UN, a particularly interesting initiative on the influence of ideas
in world politics was the UN Intellectual History Project, which produced 17 studies over
a period of more than 10 years focusing on different social and economic ideas connected
with the Organisation. A summary with some conclusions of the project was published as
Jolly et al. (2005). In IR, the recent attention to the role of ideas in world politics is linked
with the development of constructivism, a theoretical framework further explored in the
following chapter.
4 F. CAVALCANTE
3 Given their focus on developments in the field, it is puzzling that some of those studies
overemphasised desk research over in loco first-hand observation. Compare, for instance,
the heavy reliance on fieldwork found in Richmond and Franks (2009) with the statistical
methodology adopted by Doyle and Sambanis (2000).
1 INTRODUCTION 5
Agenda for Peace as a case study to analyse the agency, autonomy and leadership of the
Secretary-General and the Secretariat in world politics. I only came across her research, in
the format of an undated working paper, as I was finalising my own research. Some of the
sources in her chapter were also used in this book; some of the individuals Karns and I
interviewed are the same.
1 INTRODUCTION 7
his June 1992 An Agenda for Peace, while retaining the original contrast
between peacebuilding, peacekeeping and peacemaking. (Ramsbotham
2000: 171)
5 For good references, see, among many others, the works of Richmond (2002, 2004a, b,
2005, 2011, 2013), Roberts (2011), Mac Ginty (2006, 2011), Chandler (2006, 2010),
Richmond and Franks (2009), Duffield (2001, 2007), Pugh (1995, 2005) and Paris
(1997, 2002, 2004). For good edited volumes exploring crosscutting themes or case
studies, see, for instance, Campbell et al. (2011), Tadjbakhsh (2011), Richmond (2010),
Newman et al. (2009b), and Pugh et al. (2008). For literature reviews, see, for instance,
Chandler (2011), Paris (2010), and Cooper (2007).
1 INTRODUCTION 9
from the Panel’s report were still under the scrutiny of the UN
Secretariat and member states—at this stage, a commission for peace-
building was in practice a ‘work in progress’.
A few years later, exploring the origins and the process leading to
the establishment of the PBC, Lisa McCann analysed the creation of
the PBC as a case of global public policy, identifying the proposal of a
Strategic Recovery Facility (SRF) as the “direct precursor” of the PBC
(McCann 2012: 81) and exploring how purposive individuals contrib-
uted to bring that proposal to the political agenda of the UN around
2004. Salomons, one of the authors of the original SRF proposal,
goes further back in time and connects the earlier seeds of the PBC as
we know it with the process leading to the establishment of the UN
Development Programme (UNDP) in the 1960s and 1970s. According
to him, the PBC may be seen as part of the evolving extension of the UN
development activities towards states in transition (Salomons 2010: 196).
In both analyses, the Commission and the associated PBSO and PBF are
perceived to emerge as part of a gradual process that sought to overcome
concrete problems identified with peacebuilding, particularly the lack of
coordination among global peacebuilding actors. McCann and Salomons
provide insightful information on the origins of the new UN institutional
arrangement, but they do not engage with questions related to broader
topics in world politics, such as the potential connections between those
entities and underlying norms and representations of global order.
Roland Paris’ analysis on the origins and early workings of the PBC,
PBSO and PBF points out how certain peacebuilding challenges, such
as the “coordination problem”, has on occasions become a “catch-all for
deeper disagreements and uncertainties over the strategy and purposes of
peacebuilding” (Paris 2009: 60). The author does not deny that lack of
coordination is a cause of severe problems for contemporary peacebuild-
ing at several levels (Paris 2009: 56). He notes, however, that there is
“something peculiar” (Paris 2009: 58) about the extent to which claims
for better coordination are often assumed to solve and overcome such
deeper disagreements, rightly claiming that too many issues have been
misplaced under the rubric of ‘lack of coordination’. In the process lead-
ing to the establishment of the PBC, for instance, negotiations were
frequently marked by overwhelmingly technical and procedural issues
that hid deeper tensions and problems, which oftentimes obscured the
“highly political—and contentious—core” of the challenges associated
with peacebuilding (Paris 2009: 60).
1 INTRODUCTION 11
6 See also Traub (2006: esp. 359–398), who accompanied Annan on several occa-
sions during this period and describes important events in the run-up to the 2005 World
Summit.
12 F. CAVALCANTE
The single major difference between both works, however, is that this
book departs from the scholarship produced by the critique of the liberal
peace to offer insights on both the ‘coming into life’ and the implica-
tions of this process to the UN approach to societies affected by armed
conflict. Whereas Jenkins (2013: 4, 26) only briefly refers to the critique
of the liberal peace or to the notion of liberal peacebuilding, they both
constitute the key objects of analysis in this book. In addition, this book
seeks to uncover and identify underlying assumptions about world pol-
itics that are replicated and/or simply taken for granted in and around
the UN in what concerns peacebuilding. My analysis, as such, is firmly
based on a critical, rather than on a problem-solving approach to peace-
building (see Pugh 2004; Bellamy 2004).
In sum, studies on the workings of the PBC, PBSO and PBF have
thus far mostly focused on descriptions about their establishment and
functioning. Fewer analyses, however, have delved into issues such as the
normative underpinnings that led to the establishment of those organs
in the first place, or on whether and how their workings may relate to
broader representations of global order and norms. The literature on the
PBC, PBSO and PBF, in other words, has been more often informed
by problem-solving than by critical approaches. By the same token, criti-
cal scholars have largely focused their analyses of peacebuilding initiatives
and power disparities reproduced in the field, but they have not always
elaborated on those aspects from the perspective of political dynam-
ics inside and around UN headquarters, where UN-led peacebuilding
initiatives are conceptualised and designed in the first place. By focus-
ing on the New York-based implications of the ‘coming into life’ of the
concept of peacebuilding in the UN, this book thus establishes a dia-
logue between those two strands of scholarship, potentially facilitating
a broader dialogue between students of international organisations and
peacebuilding scholars.
Studying how the concept of peacebuilding gained life and its subse-
quent trajectory in the UN is only possible if one embraces the impor-
tance of ideational, non-material aspects in shaping policymaking and its
outcomes in world politics. In IR, this understanding has been pushed
forward perhaps most notably by social constructivism (or, more simply,
14 F. CAVALCANTE
Book Outline
The remainder of the book is organised into eight chapters. Chapter 2
outlines the ontological and epistemological assumptions underlying this
research, which are influenced by constructivism due to its emphasis on
the study of world politics as a reflection of not only material but also
ideational aspects. In reviewing the origins of constructivism in IR and
exploring the implications of assuming reality as socially constructed, this
chapter provides the basis for analysing the influence of ideational aspects
in social reality in general and world politics in particular. As construc-
tivism is herein understood as a set of social science tenets for the study
of world politics, the chapter also presents a theory about how social sci-
ence theories may influence policy outcomes and political action in world
politics via a hermeneutical mechanism that attaches meaning to political
concepts (Ish-Shalom 2006a, 2013).
The framework for the analysis herein carried out is elaborated in
Chapter 3, which outlines the main questions to be addressed and pro-
vides an analytical ‘toolkit’ for answering them. After defining precisely
the core elements analysed in the book, namely the liberal peace frame-
work and the concept of peacebuilding, the chapter theorises about the
dynamics that contribute to understanding how the latter came into life
1 INTRODUCTION 17
influenced by the former in the context of the UN, as well as the implica-
tions of this process for the UN approach to societies affected by armed
conflicts. Finally, the methodological strategy adopted for the proposed
analysis is also articulated in this chapter, according to the understanding
that constructivist-inspired research should develop both subjective and
objective knowledge about social reality.
Chapters 4 through 6 explore how peacebuilding gained life in the
context of the UN, shedding light into how a particular meaning of
peacebuilding, that of liberal democratic peacebuilding, was constructed
and became minimally intelligible in and around the UN. In Chapters 4
and 5, I explore the meaning that would be associated with peacebuild-
ing in the UN in the early 1990s by contending that the liberal demo-
cratic peace is a successful case of theory as a hermeneutical mechanism
that attaches meanings to concepts and that may potentially drive polit-
ical action (Ish-Shalom 2006a, 2013). The two chapters analyse the
functioning of this mechanism by creating a narrative on the migration
of theories about the democratic peace thesis from academe to public
spheres, and on the subsequent simplification and politicisation of such
theories in and around the UN. Simplified and politicised, a particular
understanding of theories about the democratic peace was eventually
embodied in a key UN document at the time: Boutros-Ghali’s report An
Agenda for Peace. The document essentially articulated a political view
about the promotion of democratic procedures in post-armed conflict
situations via peacebuilding. In order to capture this process, Chapters 4
and 5 explore in detail the drafting of Boutros-Ghali’s report, highlight-
ing how this politicised version of a social science theory was eventually
incorporated in the document and subsequently in the UN lexicon.
In Chapter 6, I explore how that specific meaning of peacebuilding
became generally accepted in and around the UN, subsequently serv-
ing as the main framework through which individuals understood and
conceptualised peacebuilding. I contend that this occurred via the grad-
ual assimilation of the meaning of peacebuilding pushed forward in An
Agenda for Peace in the constitutive dimensions of the UN, both ide-
ational and material. In the ideational dimension, concepts and ideas
related to liberal democratic peacebuilding were pushed forward rhe-
torically both in oral statements and in relevant UN documents. In the
material dimension, bureaucratic structures were created and/or mod-
ified based on the assumptions of the liberal democratic peace. While
offering an overview of peacebuilding initiatives concretely carried out
18 F. CAVALCANTE
by the UN in the field between the early 1990s and the mid-2000s, this
chapter also starts to analyse some of the implications associated with
how peacebuilding came into life in the UN.
Chapters 7 and 8 focus on some of the implications associated with
liberal democratic peacebuilding for the UN approach to societies
affected by armed conflicts. Following the proposal to focus on devel-
opments taking place where peacebuilding policies and initiatives are
conceptualised and designed in the first place, the two chapters seek for
traces of the liberal democratic peace in the establishment and function-
ing of the so-called ‘peacebuilding architecture’, which encompasses the
PBC, PBSO and PBF, to ascertain its continued influence in the UN
approach to peacebuilding more than 20 years after the publication of
An Agenda for Peace. The three entities are discussed as a response to
some of the challenges and problems associated with liberal democratic
peacebuilding, such as repeated failures to avoid relapses into armed con-
flict or the need to more actively involve local civil society actors. The
two chapters show, however, that the establishment and the functioning
of those three entities have provoked little substantial changes in the area
due to the continued influence of the liberal democratic peace in and
around the UN. As a result of such continued influence, the function-
ing of those entities has often contributed instead to reproducing and
replicating the liberal democratic peace framework that informs the UN
concept and practice of peacebuilding.
The conclusion summarises the proposed analysis and recovers the
main argument of this research study, highlighting some of its academic
and policy implications.
References
Bibliography
ActionAid, CAFOD, & CARE International. (2007, October). Consolidating
the Peace? Views from Sierra Leone and Burundi on the United Nations
Peacebuilding Commission (41 pp.). Johannesburg and London: ActionAid,
Catholic Agency for Overseas Development and CARE International UK.
http://www.actionaid.org/publications/consolidating-peace-views-sierra-le-
one-and-burundi-united-nations-peacebuilding-commiss. Last accessed 24
January 2019.
Adler, E. (1997). Seizing the Middle Ground: Constructivism in World Politics.
European Journal of International Relations, 3(3), 319–363.
1 INTRODUCTION 19
[418]
Then winde and streame hath set the seas in rore. 1578.
[448] In such state. 1578.
[449] They soone depriued. N.
[450] Easely put me downe of late. 1559, 63.
[451]
[461]
[545] A, omitted. N.
[546] For him that did so ill. 1578.
[547] The vayne desires, when wit doth yeeld to will. 1578.
[548] Fly false prophets. N.
[549] Lyinge skill. 1578.
[550] Owen and his sedicious fautors, which beyng dismaied
and in maner desperate of all comfort by the reason of the
kynge’s late victory fled in desert places and solitary caues,
where he receiued a finall reward mete and prepared by
Godde’s prouidence for suche a rebell and sedicious seducer.
For beyng destitute of all comfort, dreadyng to shewe his face
to any creature, lackyng meate to sustain nature, for pure
hunger and lacke of fode miserably ended his wretched life.
This ende was prouided for suche as gaue credence to false
prophesies. This ende had they that by diabolical deuinations
wer promised great possessions and seignories. This ende
happeneth to suche as beleuyng suche fantasticall folies,
aspire and gape for honor and high promocions. Hall.
[551] Thomas Phaer. The above signature first added in ed.
1578, is omitted in ed. 1587, though confirmed by the next
note. The name is subscribed in Niccols.
[552] Whan mayster Phaer had ended the tragedy of thys
hunger staruen prynce of Wales, it was well liked of al the
company that a Saxon would speake so mutch for a Brytton,
then sodenly one found a doubt. 1578.
[553] That. 1559, 63.
[554] Percy, added. 1571.
[555] Sir, added. 1571.
[556] As followeth, added. 1571.
[557] Anno 1407, added. 1571.
[558] Kynsfolke. 1559, 63.
[559] For our peers. N.
[560] For few there were, that were so much redoubted. N.
[561] My valyauntise were. 1559, 63.
[562] Through our foes. N.
[563] Foes. N.
[564] In favour and offyce. 1559, 63.
[565] I had a son. 1559, 63.
[566] Foes. N.
[567] Syr Henry Hotspur they gaue hym to name. 1559, 63.
[568] Clere from. 1559, 63, 71. N.
[569] And openly proclaymed trayterous knight. 1559, 63. A
most disloyall knight. N.
[570] And soone. N.
[571] This alonely. 1559, 63.
[572] Nor age. N.
[573] Foes. N.
[574] With chaines fast bound. N.
[575] ’Gainst Mortimer and me. N.
[576] That. 1559, 63.
[577] To. N.
[578] Our. N.
[579] Seased. N.
[580] Into Scotland fled. N.
[581]