Description
The current crisis in multilateral peacekeeping and peacebuilding raises questions about the extent to which it can be salvaged in its essentials in the context of current global geo-political tensions. This paper argues that there may still be geo-political space for significant multilateral, if not always UN-mandated, peacebuilding missions in some regions. But it is not clear that the international ‘good practice’ guidelines for multilateral peacebuilding that have been developed since 2000 through a series of ‘lessons-learned’ reviews will provide useful guidance for any such future peacebuilding missions. Not only can they be critiqued in their own terms but also the international resources and political space they require are unlikely to be available. The paper proceeds to assess which elements of international peacebuilding efforts are most important to maintain or salvage, and what this implies coalitions of willing ‘progressive’ states and INGOs that remain concerned with supporting peacebuilding in fragile and conflict-affected countries. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for peace studies research.
