Transnational Flows and Local Outcomes: International Donors and Peacebuilding in Croatia

• In Event: 505 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. Global Standards and Local Practices

Abstract

This paper examines the ways in which international actors shaped community and national peacebuilding organizations in Croatia following the breakup of Yugoslavia. This meso-level analysis uses archival data, interviews, and 18 months of ethnographic research to trace three transnational flows: legitimation, expertise, and money. These flows both formed the institutional environment for local peacebuilding organizations and shaped the organizations themselves.

My research shows that top-down understandings of international peacebuilding interventions miss the ways in which local actors shape and strategically deploy transnational flows and resources. Legitimacy was the most useful flow for Croatian peacebuilding organizations, giving them moral support in a hostile political environment and a position from which to challenge the policies of the nationalist Croatian government. While international officials may have seen legitimizing Croatian NGOs as a means to discipline the Croatian government toward democratic values, Croatian peacebuilders used it as a means to gain a wider audience and political voice in an oppressive space where they had minimal grassroots support. Flows in expertise were primarily oriented toward the NGOization of the peacebuilding sector in Croatia. NGO status gave peacebuilders access to international funds and helped sustain their work over the long term, but at the cost of developing and sustaining community support. Money likewise flowed downward from donors, but was shaped by local actors. I find that the structure of international funding has built-in incentives for both donors and NGOs that undermine the intentions of both.

Author

• Laura J. Heideman, Northern Illinois University