Local Practices and Normative Frameworks in Peacebuilding

Abstract

Peacebuilding without cultural sensitivity is empty; cultural sensitivity without cosmopolitan values is blind. Sustainability considerations require that peacebuilding approaches are locally accepted, and this local acceptance depends not least on the degree to which these approaches are commensurate with local understandings and cultural practices. The problem with the recommendation of focusing on local cultures, however, is that these practices are neither monolithic nor necessarily compatible with the aim of working towards less violent societies. Some value basis is therefore inevitable. Essentially, peacebuilding agendas need to start with fostering mutual recognition among former adversaries. On the basis of mutual recognition and on the grounds of values such as equality and compassion as framework principles, more detailed guidelines for political and socioeconomic rearrangements can be negotiated, while ideals of discourse ethics partially entail and partially supplement this value ground.

Notes

Monica Llamazares and Laina Reynolds Levy, ‘NGOs and Peacebuilding in Kosovo’, Working Paper No.13, Centre for Conflict Resolution, Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, 2003, p.11.

For example, Johan Galtung, ‘Cultural Violence’, Journal of Peace Research, Vol.22, No.2, 1990, pp.291–305.

Roland Paris, At War's End: Building Peace after Civil Conflict, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Oliver Richmond, The Transformation of Peace, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005; Richmond, Peace in International Relations, London: Routledge, 2008.

Richmond, Transformation (see n.4 above), p.83.

Michael Pugh, ‘Peacekeeping and Critical Theory', International Peacekeeping, Vol.11, No.1, 2003, p.40.

For the concept of Human Security, see Oliver Ramsbotham, Tom Woodhouse and Hugh Miall, Contemporary Conflict Resolution, 2nd edn, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005, pp.147–48.

Mary B. Anderson, Do No Harm: How Aid Can Support Peace – or War, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1999, p.10.

Paris (see n.3 above).

See, for example, Steven Lukes, ‘Equality and Liberty: Must They Conflict?’, in David Held (ed.), Political Theory Today, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991 pp.48–66; Adam Swift, Political Philosophy: A Beginners Guide for Students and Politicians, 2nd edn, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2006, pp.30–39.

See Rama Mani, Beyond Retribution: Seeking Justice in the Shadows of War, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002, p.136.

Lukes (see n.10 above); Swift (see n.10 above).

Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done about It, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, p.161.

Paris (see n.3 above), p.235.

Ibid., p.167.

Mani (see n.11 above), p.137.

Torsten Persson and Guido Tabellini, ‘Growth, Distribution, and Politics’, in Alex Cukierman, Zvi Hercowitz and Leonardo Leiderman (eds), Political Economy, Growth, and Business Cycles, Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1992, pp.6–7,18–19.

Collier (see n.13 above), p.171.

Ramsbotham et al. (see n.7 above), pp.197–210.

Ibid., p.199.

Richmond, Peace (see n.4 above), p.164.

Ramsbotham et al. (see n.7 above), p.199.

Oliver Richmond and Jason Franks, ‘Liberal Peacebuilding in Timor Leste: The Emperor's New Clothes?’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.15, No.2, 2008, p.187.

Paris (see n.3 above), p.235

Mani (see n.11 above), p.84.

Hizkias Assefa, ‘Reconciliation’, in Luc Reychler and Tania Paffenholz (eds), Peacebuilding: A Field Guide, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2001, p.342.

Ibid., p.338.

Richmond, Peace (see n.4 above), p.162 (original emphasis).

Ibid., p.145.

Filip Reyntjens, and Stef Vandeginste, ‘Traditional Approaches to Negotiation and Mediation: Examples from Africa; Burundi, Rwanda, and Congo’, in Reychler and Paffenholz (see n.26 above), p.129.

Assumpta Naniwe-Kaburahe, ‘The Institution of Bashingantahe in Burundi’, in Luc Huyse and Mark Salter (eds), Traditional Justice and Reconciliation after Violent Conflict: Learning from African Experiences, Stockholm: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2008, p.155.

Ibid., p.170.

Ibid.

Peter Just, ‘Conflict Resolution and Moral Community among the Dou Donggo’, in Kevin Avruch, Peter W. Black and Joseph A. Scimecca (eds), Conflict Resolution: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, New York: Greenwood Press, 1991, p.135.

Ibid.

Carolyn Nordstrom, ‘The Backyard Front’, in Nordstrom and Joann Martin (eds), The Paths to Domination, Resistance and Terror, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1992, pp.260–74.

Ramsbotham et al. (see n.7 above), p.229.

Thomas Harlacher, Francis Xavier Okot, Caroline Aloyo Obonyo, Mychelle Balthazard and Ronald Atkinson, Traditional Ways of Coping in Acholi: Cultural Provisions for Reconciliation and Healing from War, Kampala: Thomas Harlacher and Caritas Gulu Archdiocese, 2006, p.10.

Ibid., p.114.

Mani (see n.11 above), p.83.

Richmond, Peace (see n.4 above), pp.149–65.

Ibid., p.162.

Jürgen Habermas, in, e.g., Moralbewusstsein und kommunikatives Handeln [Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action], Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1983.

Vivian Jabri, Discourses on Violence, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996.

Richmond, Transformation (see n.4 above), p.197.

Habermas (see n.43 above); James Gordon Finlayson, Habermas: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Finlayson (see n.46 above), p.78.

Habermas (see n.43 above), p.193.

Bhikhu Parekh, Gandhi: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, pp.64–5.

Richmond, Peace (see n.4 above), p.164.

For a discussion of these positions, see, for example, Alasdair MacIntyre, A Short History of Ethics: A History of Moral Philosophy from the Homeric Age to the Twentieth Century, London: Routledge, 1998; Hilary Putnam, ‘The Fact/Value Dichotomy and Its Critics’, public lecture, Ulysses Medal Award, University College Dublin, 5 Mar. 2007.

Hilary Putnam, Ethics without Ontology, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005, p.29.

Ibid., pp.24–7.

Ibid., p.30.

Putnam (see n.51 above).

Ibid., p.13.

Bhikhu Parekh, A New Politics of Identity: Basic Principles for an Interdependent World, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Hilary Putnam, ‘Capabilities and Two Ethical Theories’, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Vol.9, No.3, 2008, pp.377–88. See also Putnam (n.51 above).

Putnam, ‘Capabilities’ (see n.58 above), p.385.

Ken Booth, ‘Human Wrongs and International Relations', International Affairs, Vol.71, No.1, 1995, p.115.

Ibid.

MacIntyre (see n.51 above), pp.254–5.

Putnam (see n.52 above), p.75.

See MacIntyre (n.51 above).

Richmond, Peace (see n.4 above), p.146.

Putnam, Renewing Philosophy, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992, pp.172,177 (original emphasis), referring to Wittgenstein, On Certainty, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1969, §605, §508–9.

Adam Curle, Another Way: Positive Response to Contemporary Violence, Oxford: Jon Carpenter, 1995.

Ibid., p.129.

Putnam (see n.58 above).

Habermas (see n.43 above), p.193.

Putnam (see n.52 above), pp.102–3; John Dewey, ‘Ethics’, in Jo Ann Boydston (ed.), The Middle Works of John Dewey, Vol.5, Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978, [1908].

Putnam (see n.52 above), p.103 (original emphasis).