Peacebuilding: From Concept to Commission

224 Pages·2012·1.413 MB·English

by  Robert Jenkins

Peacebuilding
ThecreationoftheUnitedNationsPeacebuildingCommission(PBC) in
2005 was the culmination of a long and contentious process. In this
bookRobJenkinsprovidesaconciseintroductionthattracestheorigins
andevolutionofpeacebuildingasaconcept,theestablishmentandfunc-
tioning of the PBC as an institution, and the complicated relationship
between these two processes.
Jenkinsexamineshowcontinuedcontestationoverwhatexactlypeace-
building is, and how its objectives could most effectively be achieved,
influencedtheinstitutionaldesignoftheUN’snew“peacebuildingarchi-
tecture.” He then analyzes the roles that the organizations which com-
prise this new architecture have carved out for themselves during their
firstyearsinexistence.ThebookarguesthattheUN’sapproachtorebuild-
ingwar-torn states will continue to be profoundly influenced by persis-
tent political faultlines between member states as well as institutional
rivalrieswithin the UN’s sprawling bureaucracy.
The theory and practice of peacebuilding have assumed increasing
importanceoverthelastdecade,andthisworkisessentialreadingforall
studentsofconflictresolution,peacestudies,andinternationalrelations.
Rob Jenkins is Professorof Political Science at Hunter College and the
Graduate Center at The City University of New York. Formerly Pro-
fessor of Politics at the University of London, he has publishedwidely
on Indian politics, movements for democratic accountability, and the
politics of international economic and security assistance.
Routledge Global Institutions Series
Edited by Thomas G. Weiss
The CUNY Graduate Center, New York, USA
and Rorden Wilkinson
University of Manchester, UK
About the series
TheGlobalInstitutionsSerieshastwo“streams.”Thosewithbluecovers
offer comprehensive, accessible, and informative guides to the history,
structure, and activities of key international organizations, and intro-
ductions to topics of key importance in contemporary global govern-
ance. Recognized experts use a similar structure to address the general
purpose and rationale for specific organizations along with historical
developments, membership, structure, decision-making procedures, key
functions,andanannotatedbibliographyandguidetoelectronicsources.
Thosewithredcoversconsistofresearchmonographsandeditedcollec-
tions that advance knowledge about one aspect of global governance;
theyreflectawidevarietyofintellectualorientations,theoreticalpersua-
sions,andmethodologicalapproaches.Togetherthetwostreamsprovide
acoherentandcomplementaryportraitoftheproblems,prospects,and
possibilities confronting global institutions today.
The most recent related titles in the series include:
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
(2nd edition, 2012)
by Gil Loescher, Alexander Betts, and James Milner
The Responsibility to Protect (2011)
edited by Rama Mani and Thomas G. Weiss
Humanitarianism Contested (2011)
by Michael Barnett and Thomas G. Weiss
Shaping the Humanitarian World (2009)
by Peter Walker and Daniel G. Maxwell
The International Committee of the Red Cross (2007)
by David P. Forsythe and Barbara Ann Rieffer-Flanagan
Peacebuilding
From concept to commission
Rob Jenkins
Firstpublished2013
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2013RobJenkins
TherightofRobJenkinstobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeen
assertedbyhiminaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatent
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Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproduced
orutilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,
nowknownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,
orinanyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissionin
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Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor
registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationand
explanationwithoutintenttoinfringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Jenkins,Rob,1965–
Peacebuilding:fromconcepttocommission/RobJenkins.
p.cm.–(Routledgeglobalinstitutionsseries)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.UnitedNations–Peacekeepingforces.2.Peace-building–History.I.
Title.
JZ6374.J462012
341.5'84–dc23
2012019656
ISBN:978-0-415-77643-1(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-415-77644-8(pbk)
ISBN:978-0-203-08105-1(ebk)
TypesetinTimesNewRoman
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
Foreword vi
Acknowledgments ix
List of abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1 Peacebuilding: A contested and evolving concept 18
2 The UN peacebuilding architecture: Structure, mandate, and
origins 44
3 Institutional survival: The peacebuilding architecture in
action, 2006–08 74
4 Institutional revival: The peacebuilding architecture in
action, 2008–10 108
5 Conclusion 135
Notes 149
Bibliography 177
Index 188
Foreword
The current volume is the seventy-second title in a dynamic series on
global institutions. These books provide readers with definitive guides
to the most visible aspects of what manyof us know as “global govern-
ance.”Remarkable as it may seem, there exist relatively few books that
offerin-depthtreatmentsofprominentglobalbodies,processes,andasso-
ciated issues, much less an entire series of concise and complementary
volumes.Those that do exist are either out of date, inaccessible to the
non-specialist reader, or seek to develop a specialized understanding of
particularaspectsof an institution or process rather than offer an over-
all account of its functioningandsituateitwithintheincreasinglydense
globalinstitutional network. Similarly, existing books have often been
written in highly technical language or have been crafted “in-house”
and are notoriously self-serving and narrow.
Theadventofelectronicmediahasundoubtedlyhelpedresearchand
teachingbymakingdataandprimarydocumentsofinternationalorga-
nizations morewidely available, but it has complicated matters aswell.
The growing reliance on the Internet and other electronic methods of
findinginformationaboutkeyinternationalorganizationsandprocesses
has served, ironically, to limit the educational and analytical materials
to which most readers have ready access—namely, books. Public rela-
tions documents, raw data, and loosely refereed websites do not make
forintelligentanalysis.Officialpublicationscompetewithavastamount
of electronically available information, much of which is suspect
becauseofitsideologicalorself-promotingslant.Paradoxically,agrow-
ingrange of purportedly independent websites offering analyses of the
activities of particular organizations has emerged, but one inadvertent
consequence has been to frustrate access to basic, authoritative, read-
able,critical,andwell-researchedtexts.Themarketforsuchresourceshas
actually been reduced by the ready availability of often poor-quality
electronic materials.
Foreword vii
For those of us who teach, research, and operate in the area, such
restricted access to information and analyses has been frustrating. We
weredelightedwhenRoutledgesawthevalueofaseriesthatbucksthis
trend and provides key reference points to the most significant global
institutions and issues. They are betting that serious students and pro-
fessionalswillwantseriousanalyses.Wehaveassembledafirst-rateteam
of authors to address that market. Our intention is to provide one-stop
shoppingforallreaders—students(bothundergraduateandpostgraduate),
negotiators, diplomats, practitioners from nongovernmental and inter-
governmentalorganizations,andinterestedpartiesalike—seekinginsights
into the most prominent institutional aspects of global governance.
Peacebuilding
What should be done when the dust of conflict has settled? Answering
that question has become arguably the most essential challenge facing
the UN system in the aftermath of the Cold War. The growth in civil
warsandthechallengesfacingwar-tornsocietieshavefiguredprominently
inahostofvolumesinthisseriespreciselybecausepickingupthepieces
after war has become the growth industry in the United Nations’ con-
flict business. Indeed, even a RAND Corporation study has demon-
strated that the UN is better able to re-knit societies than the US
militaryand government.1 Manyof the topics that arise in the margins
of this book—from Security Council priorities to the shape of huma-
nitarian responses to contemporary wars—are also topics for detailed
analyses elsewhere in the series.2
Among the few concrete decisions3 agreed at the UN 2005 World
Summit was the creation of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) and,
subsequently, the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO). As the theory
andpracticeofpeacebuildingassumedincreasingimportanceoverthelast
decade,wewerepersuadedthatthetopicwouldbecentraltothisseries,
and so we were delightedwhen Rob Jenkins agreed to write this book.
His interpretation of the literature on peacebuilding and of the fledg-
lingeffortsbythePBCandPBSOareinformednotonlybyhisteaching
at Hunter College and The CUNY Graduate Center, but also by his
experienceasaconsultanttothePBSO,whereheservedasleadauthor
of the 2010 Report of the Secretary-General on Women’s Participation
in Peacebuilding. Among Rob’s earlier publications ofinterestaretitles
on democratic accountability, sexual violence and peace negotiations,
and the PBC itself.4 Few analysts are aswell positioned to write about
anissuethatisevolvingcontinuallyasthisandotherbooksintheseries
go into print. Rob’s substantial exposure to developing countries and
viii Foreword
tovarious idiosyncratic UN bureaucracies is very much in evidence on
every page of this compelling book.
Wearedelightedtohavethisbookintheseriesbecauseitenrichesthe
literature on global institutions and governance with a much needed
title on the nature of peacebuilding and of international efforts to help
mendsocieties.Wewholeheartedlyrecommenditand,asalways,welcome
comments from our readers.
Thomas G. Weiss, The CUNYGraduate Center, New York, USA
Rorden Wilkinson, Universityof Manchester, UK
May 2012
Acknowledgments
Theresearchforthisbookwascarriedoutduring2006–11.Duringthis
time,Ibenefittedfromrecollectionsandobservationsprovidedbyscores
of people who agreed to be interviewed, who responded to queries (by
phone,e-mail,andSkype),whosuppliedinvaluabledocumentation,and
who (in several cases) subjected themselves to impromptu interroga-
tions in and around United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York.
There are too many people to mention by name, and a good number
spoke on condition of anonymity, but I thank them nonetheless.
The first phase of the project (2006–08) was supported by a grant
from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (project no. 000-
22-2051). I received useful comments from the editors of publications
inwhichinitialfindingsfromtheresearchappeared,includingtheSeton
Hall Law Review, the Working Paper Series of the London School of
Economics (LSE) Crisis States Programme, and the organizers of a
collaborative project on the Future of the Peacebuilding Commission,
supportedbytheCarnegieCorporationofNewYork.Intheprocessof
producing these papers, I received helpful feedback from Roland Paris,
Cedric de Coning, Necla Tschirgi, Thomas Bierstecker, Graciana del
Castillo, and Laurie Nathan.
I amgrateful to Joanne Sandler and Inés Alberdi of UNIFEM (now
UN Women), and Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Sup-
port JudyCheng-Hopkins,forfurnishingtheopportunitytoworkatthe
UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) during February–September
2010.AsleadauthoroftheReportoftheSecretary-GeneralonWomen’s
Participation in Peacebuilding (A/65/354-S/2010/466), I had a ring-side
seat from which to observe the evolution of the UN’s peacebuilding
architecture.RachelDore-Weekswasasourceofexpertise,guidance,and
goodhumorthroughouttheprocessofproducingthatreport.Iamindebted
to UN staff members, within and beyond the PBSO, who generously
supplied their views on the challenges of building lasting peace. The