Learning in Peacebuilding – Mission Impossible?

A common recommendation in the peacebuilding literature is that missions must learn from experiences on the local ground. Yet, if often remains unclear who has the authority to propose and diffuse new or critical knowledge. The article argues that peacebuilding can be understood as a socio-professional field in which education and professional careers condition the legitimacy to author new or critical insights. Hence, peacebuilding privileges knowledge that has been produced and is diffused in OECD-country research and academic institutions and the business world, most notably in strategic management consulting. Inversely, local knowledge is disparaged and, hence, unlikely to be promoted.