Local perceptions of the EU’s role in peacebuilding: The case of security sector reform in Palestine

ABSTRACT

Perception research can make a valuable contribution to the study of the local dimension in EU peacebuilding. The conceptual framework developed in this article distinguishes between perceptions of the “legitimacy,” “effectiveness,” and “credibility” of EU peacebuilding practices, which are crucial factors for successful peacebuilding. Relying on the case of the EU’s support for security sector reform (SSR) in Palestine, this article shows that local stakeholders—which participate in various EU-sponsored training and capacity-building programs—display considerable support for liberal peacebuilding norms. Yet, perceived discrepancies between the EU’s peacebuilding rhetoric and its SSR activities have severely undermined the potential of the EU’s liberal peacebuilding model in the eyes of Palestinian stakeholders. Critical local perceptions are frequently articulated with reference to the EU’s own liberal peacebuilding discourse, pointing to a lack of inclusiveness of the SSR process and deficits in terms of democratic governance and the rule of law.

KEYWORDS:

• EU foreign policy
• peacebuilding
• security sector reform
• perceptions
• local
• Palestine

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the editors of this special issue, Filip Ejdus and Ana Juncos, the journal editor Hylke Dijkstra, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. A previous version of the article was presented at the 2017 EUSA Conference in Miami and we would like to express our appreciation for the insightful comments and discussions at our panel. We also would like to thank Dimitris Bouris for facilitating contacts with EUPOL COPPS.

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest has been reported by the authors.

Notes on the contributors

Patrick Müller is Senior Research Fellow at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Bilbao, Spain. Prior he was Assistant Professor at Vienna University and Transatlantic Post-doc Fellow at the German Institute for International Security Affairs (SWP), the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), and Johns Hopkins University. Patrick also worked as a consultant for UNDP and as a project manager for NGOs in Jerusalem for a period of two years. His research interests include European foreign policy, the EU’s role in peacebuilding, Middle East and Mediterranean politics, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He has published widely on these subjects including in journals such as the Journal of Common Market Studies, the Journal of European Public Policy, the Journal of European Integration, Mediterranean Politics and International Peacekeeping, as well as with major international presses.

Yazid Zahda is a Ph.D. researcher at International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam. He worked at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Palestine for 12 years. His research interests are European Union and Palestine relations, Middle East, European Neighborhood Policy, neoliberalism, and critical realism. His current research is on neoliberalism in Palestine.

ORCID

Patrick Müller http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5967-4235

Notes

1. The interviews were mostly carried out in Arabic. For reasons of confidentiality, we do not provide information related to the identity and affiliation of the interviewees in this article. When quoting from interviews, we rely on the general distinction between PA official and civil society actors, where necessary.

2. It was only recently that perception research has been launched to explore aspects related to the EU’s role as a peacebuilder, such as the ongoing project is entitled “Crisis, Conflict and Critical Diplomacy: EU Perceptions in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine (C3EU),” further information are available at: http://www.euperceptions.canterbury.ac.nz/projects/c3eu/.