[Studies in Strategic Peacebuilding] Daniel Philpott, Gerard Powers - Strategies of Peace (2010, Oxford University Press) - libgen.lc (1)

AN OVERVIEW 35
politics, economic development, the requirements of vibrant civil societies, the
religious and cultural dynamics of deadly conflict, and religiously and culturally
nuanced methods of conflict transformation. Accordingly, any comprehensive
effort to build sustainable peace must draw on the experiences and writings of
reflective practitioners and scholars working in the fields of conflict resolution,
security studies, human rights advocacy, international law, and economic development,
as well as psychological studies, trauma healing, ethnic and cultural
studies, and religion and spirituality. These disciplines are not often marshaled
together in the same enterprise, but, as we argue, strategic peacebuilding thrives
on such unlikely alliances.
This confluence of actors, competencies, and resources underscores our
definition of peacebuilding as a set of complementary practices aimed at transforming
a society riddled by violent conflict, inequality, and other systemic
forms of injustice into a society oriented toward forging a justpeace. Strategic
peacebuilding encompasses practices of mediation and conflict resolution that
bring a stop to open warfare, as well as measures to perpetuate peace agreements
(monitoring, enforcing, and the like), demobilization of armed parties,
accountability for human rights violators, economic development, reconciliation
efforts, and the resettlement of displaced peoples. It also involves a multiplicity
of institutions, including international nongovernmental and civil
society organizations and religious groups.
Taking all these factors into account and attempting to discern a path forward
is a formidable task. If peacebuilding begins and ends with the local, even
while calling the national and international communities to reform; is attuned
to culture and cultural particularity; envisions and unfolds within a long-term,
even multigenerational horizon of change; draws consistently on a array of
competencies; and requires the art of healing and reconciliation of victimized
peoples, it is indeed a vast undertaking!
We come then to the key framing question: out of this vastness, how does
the word strategic enhance the art of peacebuilding?
The Art of Strategic Peacebuilding
As we have seen, a multiplicity of actors, originating from and working at all
levels of society, with different capacities and areas of expertise, constitutes
the reality of peacebuilding today. None of these actors, considered in isolation
from the others, has provided the conditions for a sustainable and comprehensive
peace in societies divided or threatened by violence. Their collective
efficacy increases, however, when they work together—that is, when their operations
are interdependent and coordinated to some degree.
That, at least, is the conclusion of the Human Security Report (HSR), the
most extensive, comprehensive, and conclusive study of peacebuilding to date.
In accounting for the gradual reduction in wars and other forms of deadly
violence in recent years, HSR author Andrew Mack writes: “Not one of the
peacebuilding and conflict prevention programs on its own had much of an