Contextualising Liberal Peacebuilding for Local Circumstances: Unmiss and Local Peacebuilding In South Sudan

Abstract

In recent literature on international peacekeeping and peacebuilding interventions, attention has been drawn increasingly to local level dynamics and the reciprocal relationships with national conflict dynamics. This article places local social structures and networks at the centre of analysis and action, while unpacking the category of the ‘external actor’. Through a case study of UN civilian peacekeeping support to local peacebuilding in South Sudan, it argues that there are important efforts being made to contextualise peacebuilding activities for local circumstances, notwithstanding significant institutional obstacles limiting the impact of these efforts. It also argues for further empirical scrutiny of if and how international peacebuilders are engaging with the local dynamics of conflict, seeking to improve the understanding of the heterogeneity of and interaction between actors at these levels.

Keywords:

• local peacebuilding
• peacekeeping-peacebuilding nexus
• liberal peacebuilding
• South Sudan

Notes

^*Both authors have contributed equally to this article.

¹ The article sees peacekeepers as early peacebuilders, as defined by the Secretary-General in his opening remarks of the Security Council discussion on peacebuilding on October 13, 2010 (UN 2010a). He stressed that peacekeeping missions should be enabled to have an impact as ‘early peacebuilders’. For an affirmation of this understanding and further guidance on how the Department of Peacekeeping Operations defines early peacebuilding, see UN, 2012a.

² Fieldwork was undertaken as part of a Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)-led project Contextualising Peacebuilding to Local Circumstances, which looked to explore the peacekeeping-peacebuilding nexus at local level through the role of Civil Affairs officers in three UN peacekeeping missions, namely the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the UN Integrated Mission in Haiti and the UN Mission in Liberia. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded the project.

³ The Civil Affairs section has increased from around 500 officers in 2010 to more than 1,000 mandated posts in 2012 and about 870 actually filled worldwide (UN, 2012b, 2012c).

⁴ While the ACCORD report (2010) refers to the work being done before independence, there were no significant changes in the Civil Affairs mandate.

⁵ The terms are those used by the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations and Department of Field Support in the Policy Directive: Civil Affairs, April 1, 2008.

⁶ These claims are based on the authors’ fieldwork conducted for NUPI (2012).

⁷ This is a ‘triple-hatted post’: the Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator is also a Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General – the deputy to Hilde Johnson, the head of UNMISS and UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General.

⁸ The RRP officers build on the experiences with the referendum support bases established prior to the referendum for southern independence in January 2011. They also build on experiences with the county support teams in Liberia.

⁹ This was decided after an exemption of the regular ceiling of $25,000.

¹⁰ Clifford Geertz's (1973) notion of ‘thick description’ refers to the importance of describing and understanding the context through which events and actions are given meaning.