Conclusion

Abstract

This work has sought to reappraise two overly simplistic notions that have taken hold in the literature of peace and conflict studies. The first notion is that the liberal peace, or dominant form of internationally supported peacemaking, is an all-powerful Leviathan and that its dominance is assured. The second notion rests on a romanticisation of local and indigenous responses to conflict and social change. In some parts of the literature, it is almost as though there is a hunt for ‘the last native’, or the unspoiled local individuals and communities who are a repository of common sense and sustainable peacemaking. Both advocates and opponents of the liberal peace engage in this hunt for ‘the last native’. The purpose of this book has been to revise arguments that caricature both the local and the international into simplistic categories. At the same time, the book has sought to continue (not retreat from) the critique of the liberal peace. Given that it is the dominant form of internationally supported peacemaking, and given that leading states and international organisations use liberal rhetoric to justify their interventions, it is legitimate to subject this form of peace intervention to critical scrutiny. The book, with its concentration on hybridity, has also sought to emphasise the agency of local communities and institutions and to show how this can represent resistance to international peacebuilding.