Subcontracting Peace

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have emerged as crucial actors in peacebuilding processes in post-conflict zones, contributing to the liberal state building project. NGOs, like any other organizations, have certain strengths and weaknesses, and face tradeoffs and contradictions in peacebuilding. Given increasing NGO experience in peacemaking and peacebuilding, this volume examines their relatively positive record, as well as the constraints, limitations, and sometimes contradictory impact of their activities and interventions.

With inevitable major economic and political transformations ahead, NGOs need to acknowledge and manage their policy dilemmas so that they can anticipate the many inevitable problems that consistently arise in attempting to avoid the return of war by building peace over the medium to long-term

This open access book discusses the impact of protracted peace processes on identities in conflict. It is concerned with how lingering peace processes affect, in the long-term, patterns of othering in protracted conflicts, and how this relates with enduring violence. Taking Israel and Palestine as a case study, the book traces different representations of success and failure of the protracted peace process, as well as its associated policies, narratives, norms and practices, to analyze its impact on identity and its contribution to the maintenance and/or transformation of the cultural component of violence. On the one hand, drawing from an interdisciplinary approach comprising International Relations (IR), History and Social Psychology, this book proposes an analytical framework for assessing the specificities of the construction of identities in protracted conflicts. It identifies dehumanization and practices of reconciliation in ongoing conflicts – what is called peace-less reconciliation – as the main elements influencing processes of othering and violence in this kind of conflicts. On the other hand, the book offers an empirical historical analysis on how the protracted peace process has impacted identity building and representations made of the ‘other’ in the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the end of the 19th century to the present day.

Beyond UN Subcontracting sheds light, through a series of post-Cold War case studies, on whether one United Nations' efforts both to devolve responsibility for security to regional institutions and the delivery of some of their services to international nongovernmental organisations are a step toward or away from better global governance. The cases are designed to explore patterns of interaction and to provide lessons for the future.

This book focuses, for the first time ever, on the protection roles of human rights NGOs since the establishment of the United Nations and the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It also looks at how NGOs are responding to future challenges such as artificial Intelligence, robots in armed conflicts, digital threats, and the protection of human rights in outer space. Written by leading NGO human rights practitioners from different parts of the world, it sheds light on the multiple roles of the leading pillar of the global human rights movement, the Non-Governmental Organizations.

The post-Cold War world allows space for less powerful states to develop influential roles in responding to specific international problems. Norway has focused on the persistent issue of violent ethno-political conflict. This book explains why Norway chose its peace policy and demonstrates what is has been able to achieve.

In the five years since the first edition of Conflict and Development was published the awareness of the relationship between conflicts and development has grown exponentially. Developmental factors can act as a trigger for violence, as well as for ending violence and for triggering post-conflict reconstruction. The book explores the complexity of the links between violent conflict (usually civil wars) and development, under-development and uneven development. The second edition incorporates significant changes in the field including the G7+ initiative, the New Deal on Fragile States, World Trade talks, major policy documents from the UNDP and World Bank and updates on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

How can sustainable peace be achieved? The book identifies potential supranational, state and non-state actors involved in peacebuilding processes. Further - more, it develops strategies to address the problems and dilemmas of international peacebuilding. An important contribution to a highly topical debate. Hopes for a less conflict-prone world after the end of the Cold War were bitterly disappointed. Instead, the international community is faced with protracted wars and violent conflicts today. In addition, social, economic and cultural insecurities as well as fragile statehood challenge the post-Westphalian environment. As a result, scholars and policy-makers alike are trying to develop viable strategies for sustainable peace. The book contributes to this debate, as it illustrates current research results on the topic and addresses the complex problems and dilemmas that various international peace - building actors are confronted with.