From Liberal Peacebuilding to Stabilization and Counterterrorism

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War, international interventions have increasingly been deployed to deal with internal conflict. Liberal peacebuilding has been a guiding concept for many of these interventions, in particular those deployed by the UN. This article argues that liberal peacebuilding is waning in importance, both as a guiding concept and in practice. After long engagements in Afghanistan and the enduring effects of the financial crisis, Western states are shifting their strategy from liberal peacebuilding to stabilization and counterterrorism. In Africa, regional ad hoc coalitions set up to fight terrorists and other armed groups are on the rise, and progressively included in UN peacekeeping operations. To examine these shifts more closely, the article focuses on the crisis in Mali since 2012 and the growing Western security presence in neighbouring Niger. The article concludes that the turn from liberal peacebuilding to stabilization and counterterrorism is likely to be counterproductive, as it will lead to more oppressive governments and more disillusioned people joining the ranks of opposition and terrorist groups, as well as undermine the UN in general and UN peace operations in particular.

The Fragility Dilemma and Divergent Security Complexes in the Sahel

“…MINUSMA has had limited success in these tasks, primarily due to the stalled peace agreement signed between the Malian government and armed groups in northern Mali (van der Lijn et al 2019). MINUSMA has also been criticised for shifting its strategy from liberal peacebuilding to a greater focus on militarised stabilisation and counterterrorism efforts (Karlsrud 2019). Moreover, the UN has a number of other bodies and coordinating mechanisms in place, in particular the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) and the UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel (UNISS).…”

From liberal interventionism to stabilisation: A new consensus on norm-downsizing in interventions in Africa

“…Such consensus has become increasingly discernible in intervention strategies across Africa (see also Karlsrud 2019aKarlsrud , 2019b. This includes the much debated mission in Mali, interventions in the Sahel more widely, and missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (in particular since 2013), the Central African Republic (CAR) and Somalia, where Western intervention actors collaborate with governments and regional counterparts with the aim of assisting them to combat, and regain territory from, armed non-state contenders.…”

“…Furthermore, the increasing emphasis on state-centred stabilisation, has resulted in contemporary UN and AU missionsand related regional ad hoc coalition initiativesbeing increasingly ill-fitted to address the root causes of the given conflicts; such as absent, undemocratic or abusive governments, lack of human security and development, and intercommunal conflicts over resources and land (Charbonneau 2017;Karlsrud 2019a). By focusing narrowly on strengthening the defence sector, stabilisation and counterterrorism interventions may in fact exacerbate these problems.…”

State-building

“…Military operations shifted their focus from providing security to the population and ensuring states' monopoly of violence to more selective, "enemycentric," missions. United Nations peace enforcement operations increasingly worked alongside and resembled American-led counter terrorist missions (Karlsrud 2019). Some suggest that new �08 forms of "liquid warfare" made the control of territory (and thus state-building) abundant and counterproductive (Demmers and Gould 2018).…”