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ABSTRACT
This contribution increases the understanding of the EU's role in post-conflict settings by exploring perceptions of EULEX by local rule of law experts. Drawing on critical peacebuilding and the decline of normative power Europe literatures, we develop an analytical framework, underlining the importance of the intention–implementation gap and the implementation–perception gap in understanding how EU missions are perceived. By comparing local expert narratives to those of EULEX judges, prosecutors, and legal officers, we contend that the core problem for the negative perception of the mission results from what we call the double proximity paradox in peacebuilding. The first paradox is one of implementation and transpires when an actor commits substantial resources to address structural problems in a post-conflict territory due to its centrality for its own interests, but fails to uphold its commitment as its immediate interests can only be achieved through agents who contribute to these problems. The second paradox relates to perception and transpires as high commitments raise expectations of structural impact. The visibility of the actor's investment makes any implementation failures more tangible. The actor is therefore, paradoxically, the most open to criticism in a territory where it is doing the most.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Beti Hohler, Tringa Naka, Florian Qehaja and Henriette Ullavik Erstad for their help in preparing this article. They would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers and the editorial team for their invaluable feedback.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Kari M. Osland is a Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), where she leads the research group Peace, Conflict and Development.
Mateja Peter is a Lecturer at the University of St. Andrews, where she co-directs the Centre for Global Constitutionalism. She is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI).
Data availability statement
Data is made available in line with the conditions of the grant agreement.
Notes
1 Police and customs reform have been viewed more favourably in the literature and among the local population (Keukeleire and Thiers Citation2010).
2 Interviews are anonymised following ethical guidelines of the EUNPACK project and are referenced stating the name of the interviewer and the code of the interviewee.
3 Parallel structures are institutions in Kosovo not mandated by the UN Security Council resolution 1244. Such institutions have been operating under de facto authority of the Serbian government (Baylis Citation2007).
4 Peter, EULEX staff 1, 3 and 6, 23 and 24 October 2017. Also, EU (n.d.).
5 Osland and Peter, local actor 10, 26 October 2017.
6 Peter, EULEX staff 9, 27 October 2017.
7 Peter, EULEX staff 7 and 8, 27 October 2017.
8 Peter, local judge 1, 25 October 2017.
9 Peter, local judge 2, 25 October 2017.
10 Peter, EULEX staff 5, 24 October 2017.
11 Osland, local actor 6, 28 November 2017.
12 Osland, local actor 1, 23 October 2017
13 Osland, local actor 1.
14 Osland and Peter, local actor 11, 26 October 2017.
15 Osland and Peter, local actor 10.
16 Osland, local actors 7 and 6, 25 October and 28 November 2017
17 Osland, local actor 5, 24 October 2017.
18 Peter, local judge 1.
19 Peter, local judge 2.
20 Peter, EULEX staff 4 and 8, 24 and 27 October 2017.
21 Peter, EULEX staff 6, 24 October 2017.
22 Peter, EULEX staff 7.
23 Peter, EULEX staff 8, 27 October 2017.
24 Peter, EULEX staff 6.
25 Osland and Peter, local actor 9, 26 October 2017
26 Peter, local judge 2.
27 Peter, local judge 1.
28 Peter, EULEX staff 4, 24 October 2017.
29 Peter, EULEX staff 10, 27 October 2017.
30 Peter, EULEX staff 1, 23 October 2017.
31 Peter, EULEX staff 6.
32 Peter, EULEX staff 4.
33 Osland, local actor 5.
34 Osland, local actor 6.
35 Osland, local actors 1 and 7.
36 Peter, EULEX staff 6.
37 Osland, local actor 8, 25 October 2017.
38 Osland, local actor 1.
39 To completely protect the anonymity of interviewees on this sensitive issue, no reference to specific interviews is made in this paragraph. This is something that was promised to the interlocutors explicitly (Peter). For further information, please consult EUNPACK Ethical Guidelines.
40 Peter, EULEX staff 2, 23 October 2017.
41 Peter, EULEX staff 4.
42 Peter, EULEX staff 9.
43 Peter, EULEX staff 6.
44 Peter, EULEX staff 4 and 6.
45 Peter, local judge 2.
46 Peter, local judge 1.
47 Peter, EULEX staff 1.
48 Osland, local actor 6.
49 Osland, local actor 7.
50 Osland and Peter, local actor 9.
51 Peter, EULEX staff 5.
52 Peter, EULEX staff 6.