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ABSTRACT
Driven by the failure of internationally led top-down peacebuilding interventions, international donors have increasingly posited that civil society actors can play a crucial role in peacebuilding and conflict resolution. This has led to a notable increase in the support for civil society in order to integrate local perspectives into peacebuilding and statebuilding interventions over the past decades. Using the case of Cyprus, this paper challenges this premise and argues that this support continues to create homogenized discourses that are not representative of the diversity of local notions of peace. Rather, most types of international support cause civil society actors to adapt their agendas to external priorities, and exclude alternative, less professionalized and critical voices. Local peace actors who resist liberal governmentality have access neither to the monetary support needed to sustain their peace work, nor to international protection for their cause. At the same time, those actors working in line with the international endeavour remove themselves from the ‘everyday’ of local realities so that peace interventions yet again fall into the old trap of top-down interventions.
Acknowledgements
I am most grateful to Jessica Field, Roger Mac Ginty and Oliver Richmond for their inspiring comments on this paper. Previous versions were presented at a workshop at the University of Tromsø (2015) and the International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Many thanks for all comments and suggestions; all errors are solely mine.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on Contributor
Birte Vogel is a Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester, UK. She is Assistant Editor of the Taylor and Francis journal Peacebuilding. She has, amongst others, published articles in International Peacekeeping and Peace Review, as well as a range of book chapters related to the Cyprus conflict ([email protected])
Notes
1. The author is aware of falling in the trap of setting up a binary between ‘local’ and ‘international’ actors, and the fluidity of these identities. However, when it comes to receiving and distributing funding the boundaries are quite clear. A nuanced account on these identities can be found in Kappler (Citation2015).
2. The same is true for the case of the Occupy Buffer Zone Movement that the article will discuss later; a specific example that should not be over-generalized. However, it has been chosen because of its clear illustration of the theoretical point made on exclusion. While many organizations retreated silently when excluded, OBZM did not shy away from the confrontation with internationals. The case connects further with a range of experiences of local groups that have retreated from the internationally sponsored peace process—such as the artist movement.
3. Public Facebook post by Kays Al Amir, July 8 ,2015, available from: https://www.facebook.com/kays.alamir?fref=nf The original text is Arabic and reads:
- التاليين الخيارين من واحد نصير بدنا شي آخر و:
- دعوة و ذكر حلقات نشاطاتنا كل و .. مشايخ .
- شو المدري نشر و مين المدري تمكين مشاريعنا كل و .. ***عر ..
––# ال _بده _ هيك Donor
4. Interview with representative of multi-ethnic youth centre, March 23, 2016, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
5. Almost all of these funds are in fact provided by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and only translated into programmes by United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)/UNDP.
6. The acquis communautaire is the common foundation of rights and obligations which binds together the member states of the European Union.
7. For a detailed analysis of the EU's engagement with Turkish Cypriots see Kyris (Citation2013).
8. Funds are not provided by the UN directly, but by USAID, and have been only translated into programmes by UNDP/UNPOS.
9. Interview with UNDP employee, Confidential Source, October 29, 2012, Nicosia.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Interview with NGO funder, November 3, 2011, Nicosia.
13. Interview with UNDP employee, Confidential Source, October 29, 2012, Nicosia.
14. Interview with NGO funder, November 3, 2011, Nicosia.
15. Fieldwork notes, Nicosia, October–December 2012.
16. Interview with NGO employee, December 5, 2012, Nicosia.
17. Interview with NGO employee I, October 15, 2012, Nicosia.
18. Ibid.; Fieldwork notes, Nicosia September–December 2012.
19. Interview with NGO founder, October 15, 2012, Nicosia.
20. Interview with USAID Diplomatic Source, November 3, 2011, Nicosia; Interview European Commission, Diplomatic Source I, November 8, 2011, Nicosia.
21. Interview with UNDP, Diplomatic Source, December 4, 2012, Nicosia, see also Louise and Morgan (2013, 69).
22. Lisa M. Buttenheim, Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, presentation at UNSCR 1325 Conference, December 6, 2012, Nicosia; Interview UNDP, Diplomatic Source, December 4, 2012, Nicosia.
23. Interview with former activist, October 9, 2012, Nicosia; Interview with NGO employee I, October 15, 2012, Nicosia.
24. Interview with academic at Eastern Mediterranean University, March 5, 2013, Famagusta.
25. The ‘Occupy Movement’ refers to an international protest movement against social and economic inequality. It consists of independent segments around the world aiming to make economic and political relations in all societies less hierarchical and more democratic. Local groups often have different foci, but among the movement's core concerns is that multinational corporations and the global financial system control the world in a way that disproportionately benefits a wealthy minority. For more on the diversity and goals of occupy movements see for example: Macpherson (Citation2013).
26. Antonsich (Citation2013) and Ilican (Citation2013) provide some maps and spatial analysis of the OBZM.
27. Interview with Occupy Buffer Zone Movement, February 26, 2012, Nicosia.
28. Occupy Flyer 2012, ‘Our Cultural Centre’, print.
29. Interview with Occupy Buffer Zone Movement, February 26, 2012, Nicosia.
30. Interview with Occupy Buffer Zone Movement I, February 26, 2012, Nicosia.
31. For an auto-ethnographic study of the OBZM, information about its scale and social outreach see Ilican (Citation2013); the article provides detailed information about the various phases of the movement.
32. Interview with Occupy Buffer Zone Movement, February 26, 2012, Nicosia.
33. Interview with European Commission, Diplomatic Source II, March 1, 2012, Nicosia; Interview with UNFICYP employee, March 7, 2013, Nicosia.
34. It needs to be acknowledged that the end of OBZM was caused by massive internal quarrels about the direction of the movement, and questions of inclusion and exclusion.
35. Interview with UNFICYP, Confidential Source, March 7, .2013, Nicosia.
36. Interview with European Commission, Diplomatic Source II, November 8, 2011, Nicosia.