The essential dilemmas of long-term peacebuilding: the cases of Cambodia and Mozambique

The aim of this project is to pursue in-depth research of two well-documented and “successful” cases and thus both address the long-term effects of intensive peacebuilding and identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities in its implementation.

It will contribute explicitly to the contemporary shift in peacebuilding policy towards a more contextual, human-oriented, and inclusive approach that takes into account the lessons learned regarding the long-term processes instigated by peacebuilding interventions.

The project, therefore, interrogates the trajectory of peacebuilding through a historical analysis as well as a contemporary one.

Our central research problem is: What, given the long trajectory of peacebuilding initiatives and their implementation, does not work and why in Cambodia and Mozambique? We focus on these two cases because there has been a curiously similar development and timing in the two cases.

In both sites, we will seek to identify the provenance of the recent tensions (which are jeopardising peace and stability). Particular research questions are theoretically and conceptually driven.

They focus on long-term dilemmas of peacebuilding; the dynamics of ex/inclusion; the significance of grounding peace with the population; and, the possibility of adaptive peacebuilding.