Understanding Power in Hybrid Political Orders: Applying Stakeholder Analysis to Land Conflicts in Cambodia

Abstract

Current peacebuilding debates centre around the idea that international and local activities need to be better aligned. However, the distinction between ‘local’ and ‘international’ actors and processes obscures both power and interest differentials among actors and the various interconnections between international, national and local actors and discourses. This article proposes stakeholder analysis as a way to help understand power relations among various actors. This approach is applied to an empirical sample of land conflicts in Cambodia, in which local residents saw their livelihoods threatened by collusion between international private investors and national and local political interests. The findings suggest that building peace in insecure settings is not just a matter of harmonising approaches to strengthen the state with initiatives to support local groups. The reflex of international peacebuilders to strengthen the state and promote the rule of law overlooks the fact that governments may be unaccountable and laws may be illegitimate.

Keywords::

• peacebuilding
• vertical integration
• hybridity
• Cambodia
• land conflicts
• stakeholders
• networks
• power

Notes

^* This paper is written as part of the NWO-WOTRO funded Integrated Programme, ‘Competing Hegemonies: Foreign-dominated processes of development in Cambodia’. The research was conducted during the authors’ post-doctoral fellowship provided by the Programme.

¹ For detailed complaining processes that involve various agencies, see Pel et al. (2008), Diprose et al. (2005) and O'Keefe (2009).

² This paper's analysis has drawn on a number of sources and methods. First, we did a content analysis of 30 randomly selected, land-related articles published between 2009 and 2011 by an English-language Cambodian newspaper called the Cambodia Daily. Second, this analysis was further expanded by adding data from land dispute cases described in secondary literature. Third, empirical research was conducted into one CF case in Kampong Thom province and the PLN, a community-based network protecting a forest area encompassing four provinces.

³ These cases constituted conflicts directly and indirectly involving various actors, ranging from individual villagers, communities, private companies, NGOs and donor agencies to local and national authorities.

⁴ For anonymity, the full name of the CF is not disclosed.

⁵ A CF is a local community organisation that manages and uses a state forest in a sustainable manner as agreed with the Forestry Administration.

⁶ As part of patronage politics, politically cemented businessmen contribute to their party in terms of finance and in-kind support (such as building infrastructure for and giving gifts to villagers) (Un 2005; Un & So 2011).

⁷ Out of the 30 media cases, only nine directly involved NGOs and donors.

⁸ This issue particularly came up in the PLN case.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chanrith Ngin

DR. CHANRITH NGIN is Dean of Faculty of Development Studies at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He was a post-doc researcher with VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands, from January 2010 to December 2012.

Willemijn Verkoren

DR. WILLEMIJN VERKOREN is Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for International Conflict Analysis and Management (CICAM), Institute of Management Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands.