Claiming Impartiality
Peacebuilding Organizations as Actors in Multiple Fields of Global Governance
Uncovering the foundational dilemma between the objectives and the institutional mandates of peacebuilding agencies
Description
Why has multilateral peacebuilding in conflict-ridden states emerged as a depoliticized practice that rarely engages with local actors and agendas? And why has depoliticization persisted despite continued criticisms? Claiming Impartiality offers an innovative answer to the puzzling persistence of depoliticization in post-war peacebuilding that focuses on the institutional mandates, interests, and practices of those international and bilateral organizations that design and implement most peacebuilding interventions.
Drawing on and expanding a Bourdieusian field perspective, the book examines international organizations as actors in multiple fields of global governance. Using the case studies of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Timor-Leste, it traces the emergence and transformation of peacebuilding practices by leading international and bilateral organizations during the first two decades of the field’s existence. The organizational lens highlights the tensions that exist between the objectives of simultaneously acting as a peacebuilding organization and as a peacekeeping, humanitarian, or development organization whose practices are to varying degrees committed to observing the twin principles of impartiality and neutrality. By thinking through these sometimes contradictory roles, the book offers new insights into how these organizations sideline questions of political agency in favor of expanding their influence into related fields of global governance. Claiming Impartiality discusses the future of peacebuilding and explores avenues for addressing political challenges to peace itself.
Andrea Warnecke is Assistant Professor in International Relations and European Studies at Leiden University.
Reviews
“Claiming Impartiality breaks open new space to think about peacebuilding and IOs in these fields of peace, development, and humanitarianism. The precise and detailed analysis of this book allows scholars and practitioners alike to continue thinking about how to best organize peacebuilding to serve the people on the ground.”
- Catherine Goetze, University of Tasmania
“This is a fantastic manuscript, offering a critical contribution to the fields of peacebuilding and practice theory. Andrea Warnecke very aptly put in conversation the literature on humanitarian, peacebuilding, and development interventions. The result is very convincing.”
- Nicolas Lemay-Hébert, University of Manchester
“To have any chance of success, peacebuilders need to understand and engage local sources of conflict. Yet this is precisely what they fail to do, focusing instead on macro-level structural causes so as to preserve their much vaunted value of impartiality. In this pathbreaking book, Andrea Warnecke provides a powerful and highly innovative explanation for this mismatch between the imperatives of peace building and dysfunctional organisational responses. Combining the deft application of Bourdieusian practice theory with detailed case studies, Warnecke has written a book of singular importance for both scholars and practitioners.”
- Christian Reus-Smit, University of Melbourne