Peacebuilding and the Conflict Resolution Theories

Matijević, Milica V. and Ćorić Erić, Vesna (2015) Peacebuilding and the Conflict Resolution Theories. In: Twenty Years of Human Security: Theoretical Foundations and Practical Applications. Fakultet bezbednosti Univerziteta u Beogradu; Institut Français de Géopolitique - Université Paris 8, Beograd, pp. 151-162. ISBN 978-86-84069-94-0

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Abstract

Despite its great theoretical and practical importance, peacebuilding has remained an undertheorized topic. The peacebuilding literature, confined to the single case studies and problem-oriented texts, has failed to develop theoretical frameworks that could enable systematic inquiry and critical examination of the contemporary peacebuilding. The authors analyse the main concepts developed by the conflict resolution theories that have inspired the conception of peacebuilding and shaped its practice. The outline of the theoretical origins of peacebuilding given in the paper recalls the key contributions of researchers in the field of conflict theory such as Johan Galtung’s notion of structural violence, John Burton’s human needs approach, the notion of protracted social conflict developed by Edward A. Azar and John Paul Lederach’s conflict transformation approach. Born as an answer to the Realpolitik and the conflict management theories dominant in the Cold War period, the conflict resolution studies have signified radical shift in our understanding of the conflict. Their insights into the root-causes of conflict have linked the nature and the complexity of contemporary conflicts to the social, psychological and structural set-up of the society and have constructed the ideal of sustainable peace. The common denominator of these theories - the transformation of conflict into peaceful, nonviolent process of social change - has moved the focus from the state security to a more normative vision of human security and stressed the importance of the social justice and universal human needs as the paths towards sustainable peace. Yet, the question remains whether the frameworks and methods developed by the conflict resolution theory can be consistently applied within the existing international order.

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