Reconceptualizing Peacebuilding through Networks of Influence and Support

• In Event: Networked Peace? Network Approaches to Peace and Conflict

Abstract

International peacekeeping, peacebuilding, and development actors are increasingly focusing their efforts in conflict-affected states. In any single fragile or conflict-affected country, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of international actors operating with the aim of building peace, preventing violent extremism, reducing poverty, saving lives, or rebuilding infrastructure that was destroyed by conflict. They are connected to each other and to domestic state and non-state actors through formal contracts, informal relationships, and regular coordination meetings. Existing scholarship on international intervention in conflict-affected states largely ignores these networks and contractual relationships, instead treating all intervening actors as a single monolith, investigating only the behavior of a single type of intervenor, such as peacekeepers, or identifying the impact of a single peacebuilding intervention (Autesserre, 2009, 2010, 2014; Blair et al., 2022; Doyle and Sambanis, 2000, 2006; Fortna, 2008; Narang, 2014). Using original data collected on the networks of influence and support in Colombia, we argue that it is important to redress this gap in the literature by examining the effect of networks among intervening actors and their domestic counterparts on peace and security outcomes in conflict affected states.

Authors

• Jessica Maves Braithwaite, University of Arizona

• Alex Bruens, University of Arizona

• Susanna Campbell, American University

• Hatem Zayed