www.isp.unu.edu

number 2, 2010

Overview In recent decades, international Towards a Human Security peacebuilding and reconstruction after civil wars have managed to promote stability and contain conflict in many Approach to Peacebuilding regions around the world, ending violence and enabling communities to rebuild their lives and societies. HAT IS THE RECORD, EFFECTIVENESS AND LEGACY However, the peacebuilding record of liberal approaches to peacebuilding in conflict-prone and post-conflict indicates that there are problems W societies? Aside from promoting stability and containing conflict, why does related to the effectiveness and international peacebuilding have a mixed—or even poor—record in promoting legitimacy of peacebuilding, especially welfare, equitable human development and inclusive democratic politics? Have these related to the promotion of liberal shortcomings jeopardized overall peacebuilding objectives and contributed to democracy, market reform and state questions about its legitimacy? How might alternative approaches to peacebuilding, institutions. This brief considers these based upon welfare and public service delivery, promote a more sustainable and limitations and argues that a new human security-based approach may inclusive form of peace? These questions allude to a core concern regarding offer insights for a more sustainable international peacebuilding: the limitations of existing approaches and the need form of peacebuilding. for greater emphasis upon welfare economics, human development and local engagement. Peacebuilding in conflict-prone and post-conflict countries—aimed at preventing the resumption or escalation of violent conflict and establishing a durable and self- sustaining peace—has generated a range of academic and policy debates, and controversies. A key element of these debates relates to the nature and impact of liberal peacebuilding: the top-down, institutionalist promotion of democracy, Written by Madoka Futamura, market-based economic reforms and a range of other institutions associated with 1 Edward Newman and Shahrbanou “modern” states as a driving force for building “peace”. Tadjbakhsh Despite notable successes in promoting stability and containing conflicts, the record in terms of promoting durable peace—based on sustainable economic growth, © United Nations University, 2010 service delivery, self-sustaining institutions, inclusive democratic practices, personal ISBN 978-92-808-3517-5 security, and the rule of law—has been questionable. The reasons for such ISSN 1816-5796 shortcomings, insofar as the role of the international peacebuilding and development Licensed under the Creative Commons donor community is concerned, may be sought in two areas. One is the rationale Deed “Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs 2.5” behind the peacebuilding agenda, which has increasingly conflated the need for stability in fragile states as an international security imperative. The other is the problems related to the liberal institutionalist models that guide peacebuilding and development programmes, and the implementation of these models in post-conflict settings. Despite noble intentions, peacebuilding by international actors has often resulted in a heavy reliance on top-down approaches and—according to some observers—a

Towards a Human Security Approach to Peacebuilding 1 www.unu.edu

lack of sensitivity towards local needs becomes a priority, international About this Research Brief and desires. More importantly, although peacebuilding tends to rely on top-down This Research Brief presents the importance of local ownership has mediation amongst power brokers and some preliminary conclusions been increasingly emphasized, there is on building state institutions, rather of a United Nations University still very limited knowledge of and than bottom-up, community-driven research project entitled research conducted on local opinions, peacebuilding or the resolution of the “Peacebuilding in Conflict- perceptions and experiences that shape underlying sources of conflict. The Affected Societies: Comparative or react to externally-led peacebuilding peacebuilding agenda itself often Experiences and Local processes. becomes an externally (often donor) Perspectives”, which is directed driven exercise, without a genuine by Madoka Futamura and Peacebuilding as International understanding of local political culture, Edward Newman. In connection “Securitization” desires or needs. As a result, this with the project, a workshop The first challenge to successful durable approach can be insensitive towards was organized at the Kofi Annan peacebuilding concerns the motivations local traditions and institutions, if not International Peacekeeping behind interventions in the first place. intrusive. When reduced to a technical Training Centre in Accra, Ghana, There is a wide—although not exercise, the implication is that in September 2009. The authors uncontested—consensus that unstable peacebuilding assistance is essentially would like to acknowledge and and conflict-prone societies pose a value-free and does not represent thank the participants of the threat to international security and important choices and interests. Yet the workshop: stability. Many analysts—especially apolitical model of peacebuilding can Irae Baptista-Lundin after 9/11—now consider these miss the reality on the ground and fail to Pascaline Barankeba situations as the primary security create conditions conducive to durable Mytaher Haskuka challenge of the contemporary era. In stability. In some cases, the process of Bonny Ibhawoh recent years, international peacebuilding identifying and addressing the root- Yasuko Kusakari activities in conflict-prone and post- causes of conflict can itself become Eugene Nkubito conflict countries have increased not politicized and manipulated. Memunatu Pratt only in number and complexity, but The mixed record of peacebuilding, Debey Sayndee also in scope. Peacebuilding has been therefore, owes a lot to its prevailing increasingly conflated with state- rationale to promote strong states building, based upon the assumption and contain conflict as a matter of that effective—preferably liberal— international security, rather than to states form the greatest prospect for a resolve conflicts through meeting the stable international order. Peacebuilding, everyday needs of citizens in local and by extension state-building, has contexts. therefore increasingly become integral to the security agenda. The Liberal Institutionalist Viewing intrastate conflict, weak Approach to Peacebuilding statehood and underdevelopment as The second challenge is the implemen­ threats to international security has tation of a liberal institutionalist brought much-needed resources, aid and model in post-conflict situations, capacity-building to conflict-prone disregarding local contexts, experiences countries in the form of international and institutional legacies. The liberal assistance. This has contributed to a institutionalist approach to peace­ reduction in the absolute numbers of building and development in fragile civil wars and the consolidation of peace states is driven by the belief that in many countries. the principal “problem” with conflict- However, “peacebuilding as prone and post-conflict states is the securitization” has also raised a number absence of effective state institutions. of critical challenges. When stability With this rationale, (re)building viable

2 Research Brief www.isp.unu.edu

institutions—often based on generic, The liberal peacebuilding agenda Western models—becomes a priority emphasizes constrained public and an end in itself. The institutionalist expenditure, deregulation and view assumes that state institutions are privatization. There is thus an internal enough to generate material objectives contradiction: peacebuilding implies the of peacebuilding and concentrates strengthening (or (re)construction) of on institutional benchmarks, such the state, yet the liberal economic/social as sequences and capacity. This policies that are promoted arguably “International peacebuilding is motivated by the desire to promote strong states and contain conflict in the interests of international security.” approach often neglects the idea that undermine the state. Furthermore, there peacebuilding is fundamentally about is ample evidence that marketization is social relations, and in particular, unhelpful in volatile conflict-prone trust. societies, which have been characterized In practice, a wide range of by inequality and social grievances. different case studies have illustrated Contrary to a liberal economic the shortcomings of the liberal approach, the evidence suggests that the institutionalist approach to emphasis should be upon poverty peacebuilding and development. alleviation and employment generation. Externally led state-building based on institutionalist models may undermine Problems and Challenges traditional indigenous authority While aiming to contain instability structures, raising questions of and build generic state institutions legitimacy in addition to efficiency. Self- based upon “external” models, liberal About the Authors sustaining public institutions often fail institutionalist peacebuilding often to take root. When economic growth is neglects the welfare needs of local Madoka Futamura is an Academic largely unregulated and concentrated populations and fails to engage with Programme Officer at the amongst the elite, large sections of the indigenous traditional institutions. United Nations University’s population depend upon the informal This approach also fails to grasp the Institute for Sustainability and economic sector to survive—and in turn underlying motivations that may be the Peace. fail to pay taxes and shun public root-causes of conflict in the first place: Edward Newman is a senior institutions. Where institutions are not social, economic and political exclusion lecturer in the Department organic and thus not durable in the and grievances. If the state-building of Political Science and absence of external support, local efforts embodied in the peacebuilding International Studies, University ownership is jeopardized. In these agenda fail to take root in local societies, of Birmingham. circumstances citizens continue to not only can instability and conflict Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh is support sectarian political forces which ensue, but dependency on international co-director of the Human prolong the polarization of society and sponsorship can become the norm. Security Programme in the in the worst cases threaten violence and The result of institutionalist state- Master’s of Public Affairs, insecurity. The efforts—and resources— building has been the alienation of Sciences Po, Paris, and an of donor agencies do not fully achieve significant sections of the populations, Associate Researcher at the their goals, aid is wasted, and the society who not only fail to embrace the core Peace Research Institute (PRIO), may be prone to the danger of falling objectives of peacebuilding, but engage Oslo. again into cycles of conflict. in reactionary practices, such as

Towards a Human Security Approach to Peacebuilding 3 www.unu.edu

shunning state institutions or turning to shortcomings, neglects the needs of war- extremist forms of politics, which torn societies. The critical response, directly endanger not only peace, but whilst intellectually stimulating, often also the peacebuilding agenda itself. fails to offer a way forward, beyond These patterns are demonstrated in problematizing and deconstructing the cases of Kosovo, Timor-Leste, liberal peacebuilding. Sierra Leone, Liberia, Bosnia, amongst many others. In such situations, huge Human Security: An Alternative investments by international actors may Approach to Peacebuilding? have led to the cessation of conflicts— A human security approach to what can be called “negative peace”—but peacebuilding can offer some solutions “If state-building efforts fail to take root in local societies dependency on international sponsorship can become the norm.”

danger signs are present: the peace to these problems. Human security dividend is not equitably spread, suggests that public policy must be disillusionment and social exclusion are directed above all at enhancing the widespread, reconciliation is obstructed personal security, welfare and dignity and volatility persists. of individuals and communities. This The literature on peacebuilding, in suggests ways to strengthen the addressing the challenges to liberal legitimacy of peacebuilding activities, approaches, has relied on two dif- make them more oriented around local ferent responses. One set of scholars needs and conditions, and therefore emphasize the necessity of having strengthen local buy-in and support institutions in place before political and while restoring dignity to post-crisis economic liberalization are undertaken.2 societies. A number of implications arise However, this problem-solving response from the human security concept. is still premised upon the idea of top- First, the human security approach down generic institutions as the primary is not only centred on people as objects goal of peacebuilding, assuming that of interventions, including of development, growth and stability will peacebuilding or development. It automatically follow. The second provides an “agency” to individuals as response is provided by more “critical” subjects, as referents of security and, analysts who are sceptical of the role of ultimately, as providers of security. The markets and formal institutions of normative objective is therefore to take democracy in post-conflict situations.3 into consideration the needs of the Some critical scholars go as far as populations, their capacities and, denouncing the entire international fundamentally, their judgement. Change peacebuilding agenda as a hegemonic is brought about not because it has been exercise undertaken at the behest of imposed from the outside, or is required powerful states, aimed at controlling or to adhere to cosmopolitan values of exploiting developing countries.4 liberalism, but because communities The problem-solving approach, perceive the benefits of change and which prescribes institutions to attempt assess the trade-offs in terms of local to make liberalism fit the local context meanings at the everyday level. In and mitigate against its fundamental practice, it means not just “doing”

4 Research Brief www.isp.unu.edu

peacebuilding for others, or even duty to protect, care for and empower engaging local populations in a set of its citizens.6 A “failed state” therefore is formulaic interventions, but allowing one that is weak in the eyes of its own for conditions so that responsibility is citizens primarily and cannot provide brought directly to local actors. for their survival, livelihoods and dignity, Second, the approach recognises the as opposed to being seen as a root-causes of conflicts in terms of “dangerous” menace to international social and political exclusion, horizontal security. The legitimacy of state inequality or structural violence, in institutions comes therefore not merely addition to power politics and spoiler from its existence, capacity or leadership, “Human security demands that public policy must be directed at enhancing the personal security, welfare and dignity of individuals and communities.” activities. This recognition therefore but the extent to which populations requires root-cause analysis, preventive perceive its capacity and will to action, early warning indicators, and distribute justice, basic human needs, strategic planning, taking the exercise of public goods and space for participation. peacebuilding beyond a quick impact project with short-term goals. It will Human Security and the Everyday also create space for the pursuit of Needs of Citizens in Post-Conflict so-called “transitional justice”, which Settings seeks to address and redress human The human security approach therefore rights abuses and war crimes conducted provides a number of critical answers for during conflicts. A sense of injustice and addressing the legitimacy problems of unfairness amongst victims is a source peacebuilding. The more populations of distrust to new governments and even and their perceptions of the common a source of instability. A number of cases good are included, the more difficult it show that societies and people after would be to simply impose particular conflict are heavily traumatized, and are ideals, values or models deemed willing to address their past sufferings in universally applicable but proven a range of forms.5 problematic in local contexts. However, Third, the human security approach this does not mean a mere adherence to does not rely on preconceived the principles of participation or local institutional benchmarks—such as ownership to improve the success of establishments of state, democracy or reforms or to prevent inertia or a hostile the market—as the end goals, but rather local response. Perceptions count as means for protecting and providing because those who are directly suffering for citizens. This is a marked departure in crisis situations have a moral right to from the liberal institutionalist approach freedom from that suffering. This which takes externally-driven visions of approach to peacebuilding builds upon security, the market and the state as its and is sensitive to—without benchmark. From a human security “romanticizing”—indigenous perspective, a weak state is one which institutions, and is locally driven. cannot exercise its primary function of Such critical assessments of social protection and therefore fails in its peacebuilding, from the human security

Towards a Human Security Approach to Peacebuilding 5 www.unu.edu

point of view, have a number of problem- involved in post-conflict situations. Ever solving, practical approaches. When since the publication of the Brahimi individuals and communities, instead of Report on peace operations, there has institutions, are put at the centre of been emphasis on integration in order analysis, there are implications for the to achieve increased efficiency: to avoid assessment, planning, implementation duplication and incoherence and to and evaluation of peacebuilding capitalize on potential complemen­ initiatives. All these require in-depth tarities with a more efficient division of knowledge of the situation and context- tasks. However, too often coordination specific solutions, instead of adherence is emphasized among international to external models. actors which still tend to focus on Providing for security and stability individual mandates instead of may remain as a priority. However, the integration based on coherence and the human security approach also needs of specific situations. The essence recognizes that meeting welfare goals— of the human security approach is to ranging from immediate basic needs recognize the interconnectedness of and public service delivery to job threats and insecurities which are linked security through employment creation in a domino effect. For instance, the and poverty alleviation—as well as coordination of economic development For related discussions, see addressing grievances is absolutely and the security sector is crucial. In New Perspectives on Liberal essential. A failure to do so, and the the case of Afghanistan for example, Peacebuilding, edited by Edward alienation and exclusion that results security itself depends on a wide Newman, Roland Paris and from this, threatens both the legitimacy range of factors that cannot be Oliver P. Richmond (United and efficiency of peacebuilding efforts. addressed on the basis of military Nations University Press, The question of sequencing and strategies alone. Food aid, for instance, 2009, ISBN 978-92-808- prioritization, therefore, is not whether must be coordinated with rural 1174-2). For more details on security comes first, but how security is economic recovery and not carried out this book, please visit www. provided and what the expanded notion in vacuum. Economic strategies for the unu.edu/unupress/2009/ of security really means in people’s agricultural sector must, in turn, match liberalpeacebuilding.html. everyday lives. with mine clearance. The opening up Similarly, it also suggests that of markets may provide new opportu­ peacebuilding must go beyond material nities for the private sector, but if the factors—such as economic growth— political system does not have effective and address social relations, in accounting or auditing mechanisms in particular restoring or building trust place, or if there is an inequitable social within a broader context of inclusive system in which one group benefits development and social integration. from economic gains at the cost of the Because conflicts erode trust, the need rest of the society, market opening to support reconciliation and coexistence could potentially reignite competition cannot be ignored. A human security and tension between parties in conflict. approach to peacebuilding implies a The human security approach requires process of “trust-building”, that is, trust peacebuilders to think about these types and confidence in peaceful community of interactions and feedback effects, and relations and in the national project. to analyze how actions in one sector The human security approach to may impact upon actions in other peacebuilding also offers something to sectors and have unintended outcomes, the eternal problem of coordination a process that seems to have been among various actors and sectors lacking or deficient in past and current

6 Research Brief www.isp.unu.edu

peacebuilding operations. This requires the agency of the people involved. A applying an inter-sectorality or failure to achieve this results in citizens externalities framework in the planning, remaining disillusioned, marginalized, implementation and evaluation of susceptible to manipulation by extremist peacebuilding interventions. political elites and spoilers, and unlikely to support efforts towards Concluding Remarks “reconciliation”. In conclusion, this alternative approach, Is a human security approach to by suggesting the articulation of local peacebuilding realistic? Clearly, it is ideas, norms, culture, needs and ambitious and rests upon an optimistic perceptions in peacebuilding—in assumption of donor motivations and contrast to institutional, state-centric local good will. However, it may be the frameworks—contributes to improved alternative path to addressing current peacebuilding in theory and practice. It gaps in peacebuilding that make them proposes for the politics of unsustainable and exclusive, neither peacebuilding to spring organically from wholly effective nor legitimate.

Notes 1. Edward Newman, Roland Paris and Oliver P. Richmond, New Perspectives on Liberal Peacebuilding (Tokyo: UNU Press, 2009). 2. Roland Paris, At War’s End: Building Peace after Civil Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). 3. Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh “Human Security and the Legitimization of Peacebuilding”, in Oliver P. Richmond (ed.), Palgrave Advances in Peacebuilding: Critical Developments and Approaches (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010); Michael Pugh, Neil Cooper and Mandy Turner (eds.), Whose Peace? Critical Perspectives on the Political Economy of Peacebuilding (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008); Omar G. Encarnacion, “The Follies of Democratic Imperialism”, World Policy Journal 22, no. 1 (2005): 47–60. 4. Mark Duffield, “Development, Territories, and People: Consolidating the External Sovereign Frontier”, Alternatives 32, no. 2 (2007): 225–246; Tim Jacoby, “Hegemony, Modernisation and Post-war Reconstruction”, Global Society 21, no. 4 (2007): 521–537; David Chandler, Empire in Denial. The Politics of State-building (London: Pluto Press, 2006). 5. For the potential and limitations of transitional justice in peacebuilding, see for example: Madoka Futamura “Transitional Justice in the Afghan Peacebuilding Process: The Potential and Limitations”, in Yuji Uesugi (ed.), Toward Bringing Stability in Afghanistan: A Review of the Peacebuilding Strategy, IPSHU English Research Report Series No. 24 (2009): 101–118. 6. Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh and Anuradha M. Chenoy, Human Security: Concepts and Implications (London: Routledge, 2007).

Towards a Human Security Approach to Peacebuilding 7 www.unu.edu www.isp.unu.edu

INSIDE: Research Brief UNU Institute for Sustainability and Peace (UNU-ISP) is a research and Towards a Human training centre of the United Nations University. UNU-ISP takes an innovative, integrated approach to sustainability—one that encompasses Security Approach to global change, development, peace and security. The Institute bridges these cross-cutting issues through research, education and collaborative Peacebuilding initiatives with the aim of solving current problems and anticipating future challenges. UNU-ISP is based at the United Nations University A human security headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. approach to post-conflict peacebuilding may offer the best chance for long-term recovery, reconciliation and the emergence of sustainable

institutions.

Japan

Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8925 Tokyo Shibuya-ku,

53-70, Jingumae 5-chome Jingumae 53-70,

and Peace and

Institute for Sustainability for Institute

University Nations United

8 Research Brief