Abstract

RETTBERG, Angelika. Peacebuilding Under the Magnifying Glass: A Critical Account of the International Activity and the Academic Literature. Estud. Polit. [online]. 2013, n.42, pp.13-36. ISSN 0121-5167.

Although the world does not seem to be a more peaceful place than several years ago, it is a fact that international wars and internal armed conflicts have decreased. Against this background, this article traces, describes, and critically analyzes the vast activity that has been developed over the past twenty years by international and domestic organizations worldwide in the name of peacebuilding, a term defined in the post-Cold War as "actions aimed at identifying and supporting structures to strengthen and consolidate peace to avoid relapse into conflict" (Boutros-Ghali, 1992). Based on an extensive review of the literature, the research underlying this article finds that peacebuilding is a heterogeneous and multi-shaped terrain, which is permeated by different ways to comprehend armed conflict, peace, and peace promotion, which is composed by multiple actors with different agendas, and which debates fundamental questions regarding the required or desirable distinction between the domestic and the international level, the degree to which institutions and decisions should be centralized, and the role and responsibility of the state in transitional countries.

Keywords : Peacebuilding; United Nations; Transitional Justice; Demobilization; Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR).

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