Catherine Goetze - The Distinction of Peace: A Social Analysis of Peacebuilding

Peacebuilding serves as a catch-all term to describe efforts by an array of international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and even agencies of foreign states to restore or construct a peaceful society in the wakeor even in the midstof conflict. Despite this variety, practitioners consider themselves members of a global profession. In this study, Catherine Goetze investigates the genesis of peacebuilding as a professional field of expertise since the 1960s, its increasing influence, and the ways in which it reflects global power structures.

Step-by-step, Goetze describes how the peacebuilding field came into being, how it defines who belongs to it and who does not, and what kind of group culture it has generated. Using an innovative and original methodology, she investigates the motivations of individuals who become peacebuilders, their professional trajectories and networks, and the good peacebuilder as an ideal. For many, working in peacebuilding in various waysas an aid worker on the ground, as a lawyer at the United Nations, or as an academic in a think tankhas become not merely a livelihood but also a form of participation in world politics. As a field, peacebuilding has developed its techniques for incorporating and training new members, yet its internal politics also create the conditions of exclusion that often result in practical failures of the peacebuilding enterprise.

By providing a critical account of the social mechanisms that make up the peacebuilding field, Goetze offers deep insights into the workings of Western domination and global inequalities.

Catherine Goetze is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Tasmania.

Catherine Goetze

University of Michigan Press
Ann Arbor

Page iv Copyright 2017 by Catherine Goetze
All rights reserved

This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher.

Published in the United States of America by the
University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data has been applied for.

ISBN: 978-0-472-07341-2 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-0-472-05341-4 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-472-12268-4 (e-book)

Page v Meiner Mutter

BNUBUnited Nations Office in Burundi

CIACentral Intelligence Agency

CICCenter on International Cooperation

CSCEConference for Security and Cooperation in Europe

DPKODepartment of Peacekeeping Operations

ECEuropean Communities

ICVAInternational Council of Voluntary Agencies

IMFInternational Monetary Fund

IRInternational Relations

KFORKosovo Force

KPIkey performance indicators

MINURSOUnited Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara

MINUSCAUnited Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic

MINUSMAUnited Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali

MINUSTAHUnited Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti

MONUCUnited Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

MONUSCOUnited Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Page x NAACPNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People

NATONorth Atlantic Treaty Organization

NGOnongovernmental organization

OASOrganization of American States

OCHAOffice for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

OECDOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

ONUBUnited Nations Operation in Burundi

ONUCOpration des Nations Unies au Congo/United Nations Operation in the Congo (196064)

OSCEOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

P5Five permanent members of the Security Council

SFORStabilization Force

SWOTstrengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats

UNUnited Nations

UNAMAUnited Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan

UNAMIUnited Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq

UNAMIDAfrican Union/United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur

UNDPUnited Nations Development Programme

UNFICYPUnited Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus

UNHCHRUnited Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

UNHCRUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

UNIOBGISUnited Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau

UNMIKUnited Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo

UNMILUnited Nations Mission in Liberia

UNMISSUnited Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan

UNMOGIPUnited Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan

UNOCIUnited Nations Operation in Cte dIvoire

UNPROFORUnited Nations Protection Force

UNSCOLUnited Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon

UNSMILUnited Nations Support Mission in Libya

UNSOAUN Support Office for African Union Mission in Somalia

It took seven years to do the research for this book and write it. That is a long time. And yet I would not have been able to achieve this had I not been privileged to get so much support from all sides. My biggest thanks go to to all the friends with whom I had discussed my experiences as consultant to the German Red Cross in the early 2000s: Vanessa and Mladen Pupavac, Uta Bronner, Dejan Guzina, David Chandler, Roland Albert, Wolf-Dieter Eberwein.

The grant application that was born out of these discussions, Who Governs? A Social Analysis of UNMIK, was successful, and without the generous support of the British Academy I would not have started working on this topic. Luckily, I had a brilliant research assistant who not only led all the interviews in Kosovo much better than I would have been able to do, but who also subsequently became a great friend and coauthor. Thank you, Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, for accompanying this project and all the support.

For most of of the time working on this book I have been Head of the School of International Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. I have to thank the University of Nottingham and in particular Richard Aldrich and Roger Woods for this great opportunity. Yet the wonders of discovering China and the enigma of university management drained a lot of time and energy from this project, and without the most wonderful support from my colleagues David Kiwuwa, May Tan-Mullins and Teresa Wang I would never have been able to even dream of writing Page xii this book. Xiexie! Rosaria Franco, Joseph Askew, Anna Greenwood, Gernot Klantschnig, Ivaylo Gatev, and Raffaela Puggioni, too, have done all they could to keep my back free. Thank you! At UNNC I also benefited from the research support of Rob Avery-Phipps, Mesach Ampwera, Li Kanzhen, Hong Shuning, Huang Antian, Hu Mengyao, Le Tian, Liu Haoran, Liu Xianan, Li Xiaochen, Li Yunze, Ren Yujia, Wang Danyan, Wang Zhou, You Yue, Zhang Naitong, Zhang Yifan, Zheng Xiaojie, Dong Jacob, and Chini Okorie. Thank you all, you did a great job!