Is There Still a Place for Liberal Peacebuilding?

Abstract

For the past 20 years the concept of liberal peacebuilding has ostensibly guided the efforts of Western governments, the United Nations and other international institutions to stabilise and rebuild conflict-affect states.² Liberal peacebuilding sought to build state institutions that adhere to the key tenets of the ‘liberal peace’: democracy, the rule of law and human rights, and which provide the conditions for capitalist market economies to flourish. The concept was based on the assumption that liberalism was inherently attractive and offered the most likely path to peace and prosperity. Its authority was buttressed by the claim that promoting liberal peace