Fernando Cavalcante COMING INTO LIFE: The concept of peacebuilding in the United Nations, from An Agenda for Peace to the Peacebuilding Commission Tese de Doutoramento em Relações Internacionais – Política Internacional e Resolução de Conflitos apresentada à Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra. Coimbra, 2013 Fernando Carlos Cavalcante Barros Rodrigues Coming into life: The concept of peacebuilding in the United Nations, from An Agenda for Peace to the Peacebuilding Commission Tese de Doutoramento em Relações Internacionais — Política Internacional e Resolução de Conflitos apresentada à Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra para obtenção do grau de Doutor. Orientadora: Prof. Doutora Paula Duarte Lopes Coimbra, 2013 À minha família. And to peacebuilders everywhere. iii iv Acknowledgements In my first session as a PhD student, I was told that completing a doctoral research was a rewarding, but equally long, tortuous, challenging and solitary experience. I certainly agree, although I would now say that ‘solitary’ is, at a minimum, an inaccurate qualification. Of course, writing a monograph is by definition a lonely endeavour. But doing research, I learned, despite including periods of seemingly unending confinement for writing purposes, is an inherently social practice. It is about making sense of the world(s) in which we live by constantly interpreting ours and others’ experiences. It necessarily requires establishing dialogues and lines of communication with audiences in particular (and often distinct) contexts. And it requires documenting our progress to ensure that others can engage with our interpretations. This thesis represents a partial product of my social experience as a PhD student and a testament to the invaluable support I received from a range of institutions and individuals over the last five years. And I am afraid a short acknowledgment note would not do them justice. This thesis would not have been written without a doctoral scholarship granted by Portugal’s Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), which enabled me to conduct research full time and supported a three-month stay in New York in 2010. A fellowship from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme enabled me to write the bulk of this thesis based at the University of Bradford, in England. Research leading to this thesis also benefited from the support of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST), which funded a Short-term Scientific Mission that allowed me to carry out bibliographic research in Sweden. For ultimately financing this research, even in difficult times, I am grateful to the Portuguese and to the European taxpayer. I also thank the Academic Council of the United Nations System (ACUNS) for enabling my participation in its 2011 Summer Workshop, where I presented parts of this research to a most knowledgeable audience. Dozens of individuals played a direct or indirect role in the process leading to the completion of this thesis. My supervisor, Paula Duarte Lopes, offered indescribable v guidance, support and encouragement throughout the entire journey, starting even before I first arrived in Portugal. She was a patient interlocutor and a meticulous reader, helping to flesh out emerging ideas and going through several (often unclear and poorly written) drafts of this thesis or parts thereof. Not rarely, Paula went out of her way to help coming up with solutions to bureaucratic hassles – and there were a few along the way! Despite the years, her ability to do so creatively never cesead to surprise me. In Coimbra, professors and fellow PhD colleagues contributed to create a stimulating and friendly environment for dialogue and exchange of views. Maria Raquel Freire, Gen. Pedro Pezarat Correia and José Manuel Pureza led seminars most conducive to thought-provoking conversations on a range of topics of interest in contemporary peace and conflict studies. Over the years, they also posed challenging questions and made constructive comments that helped shape much of the scope and design of my research. I am also indebted to other faculty members and colleagues who generously offered their time on countless occasions to provide feedback and comment on early ideas and draft papers, including but not limited to: Maria João Barata, André Barrinha, Ramon Blanco, Marisa Borges, Teresa Cravo, Fernando Ludwig, Tatiana Moura, Daniela Nascimento, Gilberto Oliveira, Pascoal Pereira, Catarina Pimenta, Mónica Rafael, Rita Santos, Sofia Santos and Licínia Simão. Sharon Wiharta was an unfailing host at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), granting me unrestricted access to a most specialised library and offering invaluable insights into the world of United Nations (UN) peace operations. Nenne Bodell and Olle Persson helped me navigate through the library’s collection and facilitated my access to a wealth of bibliographic resources across Scandinavia. The Permanent Mission of Brazil to the United Nations agreed to host me for the first period of field research in New York and offered instrumental support in subsequent visits. João Lucas Quental created the opportunity and Norberto Moretti warmly welcomed me in the Security Council team. Norberto invariably found a way to accommodate any request related to my research and frankly shared his thoughts and experiences on multilateral diplomacy with me. Marcelo Böhlke, Christiano Figueirôa, Daniel Nogueira Leitão, Juliano Maia, Kassius Pontes and João Vargas were most kind and generous in sharing their insights and experiences into the workings of the Peacebuilding Commission and the Security Council, as well as in helping establish contact with their counterparts. I am vi grateful for the unending patience, availability and support of the Mission staff during my stay and subsequent visits. At the University of Bradford, Jim Whitman opened the doors of the Department of Peace Studies and offered unfaltering support in the writing-up phase of this thesis. He carefully examined the first full draft, helping me find the right way to construct and the precise tone to convey my own narrative. Among several others individuals in the peace studies community, Libby Kerr (in memoriam), Roberta Maschietto, Laura O’Connor and James Wanki ensured that the writing process was not too overwhelming. I have a great debt of gratitude to dozens of individuals who took the time to share their experiences and views with me, during either interviews or impromptu informal conversations in the corridors of the UN and elsewhere. I am also deeply indebted to several scholars and researchers who supported my work in different ways over the last few years. Some of them acted as discussants and/or participants in conferences, offering insightful comments on preliminary versions of different chapters of this thesis. Some facilitated contacts with experts on specific topics or helped me reach out to potential interviewees. Others went out of their way to share preliminary or unpublished versions of their work. And a few did all of the above. Among those, I would like to thank especially: Christian Bueger, Charles T. Call, Roger A. Coate, Alistair Edgar, Shepard Forman, Johan Galtung, Branislav Gosovic, Stefano Guzzini, Piki Ish-Shalom, Lisa McCann, Gearoid Millar, Daniel Pinéu, Oliver Richmond, Timothy Sisk, Calin Trenkov-Wermuth, Thomas Weiss, Susan Woodward and Vanessa Wyeth. James Sutterlin and Tapio Kanninen kindly granted me access to their personal files and offered their time generously on different occasions during a period of more than a year. Their extraordinary memories, as well as their profound knowledge of the intricacies of the workings of the Secretariat, gave life to names and events, contributing to make my research on the UN in the late 1980s and early 1990s a lot more vivid. At Yale University, Jean Krasno facilitated by all possible means my access to some of the paperwork related to the War Risk Reduction Project. Via correspondence, Nancy Watson provided support and invaluable information about records in the papers of Richard Thrnoburgh, kept at the Univerisy of Pittsburgh. vii 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 me identify and go through relevant old records and documents. Of course, despite the support of all those institutions and individuals, the views herein advanced are my own and I take full responsibility for any mistakes and/or omissions in this thesis. I extend my gratitude to Projeto Portinari and to the copyright owner for the kind and generous permission to reproduce in the cover a detail of the panel Peace, by Candido Portinari. The full image stands opposite to the twin panel War at the entrance hall of the UN General Assembly. The two timeless representations of the joys of everyday life in nonviolent times and of the unbearable suffering caused by armed conflicts, respectively, constantly remind officials and delegates of the UN mission to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” (United Nations, 1945: Preamble). Nenhuma palavra de agradecimento, nem mesmo na minha língua materna, fará jus ao apoio que recebi de amigos/as e da minha família durante a realização desta pesquisa. De perto ou de longe, conscientes ou não, deram-me o apoio e o ânimo necessários à consecução deste trabalho. Agradeço aos/às meus/minhas queridos/as amigos/as de Teresina, Brasília e Coimbra, da ‘turma XK’, e àqueles/as espalhados pelo mundo afora. Eles/as sabem os motivos. A minha família foi e sempre será fonte de constante inspiração, motivação e encorajamento. Há mais dela nesta tese do que jamais poderão imaginar. Os meus pais fizeram a maior e mais difícil parte do trabalho, uma vez que deram a mim e ao meu irmão oportunidades com as quais não puderam sequer sonhar. Os seus esforços e a sua dedicação proporcionaram-me uma enorme vantagem ao iniciar o percurso que levou a esta tese.