Does Peacebuilding Build Peace?

Peacebuilding is one of the popular concepts underpinning United Nations (UN) missions today. Like other notions that have emerged since the end of the Cold War, particularly in coimection with UN peace operations, ‘peacebuilding’ has become common currency. Peacebuilding is an ambitious concept that enjoys wide support. In general terms the concept pertains to the rehabilitation of regions and countries ravaged by armed conflicts in order to prevent the resumption of hostilities and to establish lasting peace. In 1997 four UN missions and one NATO mission pursued objectives related to peacebuilding (International Institute of Strategic Studies, 1997, pp. 274–284): in Angola, Haiti, Eastern Slovenia (Croatia), 1 and two complementary missions in Bosnia. 2 Since the end of the Cold War and with the expanding need for international peacekeeping forces, over a dozen UN missions have included peacebuilding functions, ranging from security tasks (disarmament, demobilisation, monitoring compliance with peace agreements, police training) to political assignments (supervision of elections, administration of justice, rebuilding the political system) and socio-economic missions (repatriation of refugees, bank reform, rebuilding roads, reviving agriculture). These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.