Peacebuilding: quest for professionalism

Violent conflicts, and the aftermath – or threat – of such conflicts, are a fact of life for two thirds of the world’s countries; and peacekeeping and peacebuilding have become essential elements of engaged foreign policymaking. But how do we plan for peace, and how do we measure it? How can we ensure that development cooperation or humanitarian aid do not have unintended negative effects on conflict dynamics?

There are no easy answers to these questions – the root causes and dynamics of every conflict are too complex. Over the past ten years, debate has been intense, both on how to professinalise peacebuilding and how to make it a cross-cutting issue of development assistance as well as humanitarian aid. Thania Paffenholz and Luc Reychler played significant roles in this debate, the current state of which their new book outlines.

The book is mainly meant for practitioners. Reychler and Paffenholz first introduced their theoretical approach in “Peacebuilding: a field guide”, a collection of essays of 2001. “Aid for peace” is the practitioner’s follow-up. The new book’s Part 1 is devoted to the overarching “Aid for peace” approach, which aims to systematically integrate conflict analysis into all stages of aid projectes and programmes, from planning and implementation, to impact monitoring and final evaluation. Part 2 describes the relevance of “Aid for peace” when planning or evaluating peacebuilding interventions. Part 3 is about how to apply the approach to other interventions of development cooperation or humanitarian aid. A very useful Part 4 discusses various details of implementation.

Paffenholz and Reychler repeatedly emphasise that peacebuilding is not an impartial process. Rather, it is based on ethical assumptions. This serves as a guard against taking an over-technical and over-optimistic stand. The authors also introduce a detailed catalogue of all available peacebuilding tools, which is essential for any sense of professionalism supported by ethical prerogatives. Even though it is not feasible to “make” peace, the aims and methods of intervention – and the indicators for evaluation – must be specified as accurately as possible. The book offers logical sequences of steps and criteria towards this end. It underlines that all those affected by a conflict must be involved throughout the process. Otherwise, sustainable conflict transformation will remain unachievable.

Reychler and Paffenholz do not claim to be able to plan or evaluate reliably the long-term impact of interventions in complex conflicts. This is where experience, political sensitivity and communicative ability come into play. Therefore, their recommendation to incorporate beginners in teams of experienced experts makes sense. The book, which was co-sponsored by the German Development Ministry, addresses everyone working in the emerging field of peacebuilding. They should make full use of it.

Tilman Evers