The Institutionalist Approach

Abstract

Peacebuilding-as-statebuilding was informed by the institutionalist approach: the belief that external experts can help to provide the institutional scaffolding which would form the preconditions for successful peacebuilding. This approach of external institution-building was developed in Bosnia first, then expanded to Kosovo and East Timor and, to all intents and purposes, reached its highpoint with the discussions over governance reform in Iraq in 2003, where many policymakers turned to the Bosnia and Herzegovina experience for lessons in peacebuilding. The key lesson advocated at this point by international officials was the prioritisation of the ‘rule of law’ rather than the focus on political processes and elections. It was held that while regular elections merely reinforced the dominance of political elites hostile to reform, internationally imposed legal changes could galvanise the peacebuilding process. This approach was captured well in the work of Roland Paris who reflected the impasse of peacebuilding in advocating ‘Insitutionalization before Liberalization’. For Paris, holding elections would be problematic if the institutional framework of democracy, markets and the rule of law were not in place beforehand (see, Paris, At war’s end: Building peace after civil conflict, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).