The Chinese approach to peacebuilding: contesting liberal peace?

Conflict management or conflict resolution: how do major powers conceive the role of the United Nations in peacebuilding?

“…For instance, China focuses to a large extent on economic reconstruction (CH_6897_2012; CH_6903_2013; CH_7217_2014). This is not surprising in light of the Chinese perspective of economic underdevelopment as a root cause of conflict and their concept of “developmental peace” (Wong, 2021 ; Yuan, 2020 , 2022 ). China also makes some references to other conflict resolution tasks, such as the rule of law (CH_5187_2005; CH_6472_2011; CH_6533_2011) and reconciliation (CH_6270_2010; CH_6592_2011; CH_6805_2012; CH_6987_2013).…”

“…Scholars have inquired into non-Western states’ approaches to peacebuilding, mainly through case studies (Adhikari, 2021 ; Bratersky & Lukin, 2017 ; Fung, 2016 ; Call & de Coning, 2017b ; Jütersonke et al, 2021 ; Kobayashi, 2020 ; Kobayashi et al, 2022 ; Lewis, 2022 ; Peter & Rice, 2022 ; Yuan, 2020 , 2022 ). They have explained that traditional and rising powers may differ in their conceptions of peacebuilding, in that the latter emphasize national sovereignty and ownership, have longer-term perspectives, prefer technical cooperation over aid, and mostly work with national governments rather than directly with civil society actors (Call & de Coning, 2017a ; Peter & Rice, 2022 ).…”

“…They have explained that traditional and rising powers may differ in their conceptions of peacebuilding, in that the latter emphasize national sovereignty and ownership, have longer-term perspectives, prefer technical cooperation over aid, and mostly work with national governments rather than directly with civil society actors (Call & de Coning, 2017a ; Peter & Rice, 2022 ). One emerging critique of this literature is that non-Western states’ conceptions have often been framed as illiberal, producing two main categories according to which countries are grouped: liberal and Western versus illiberal and non-Western (Jütersonke et al, 2021 ; Yuan, 2022 ). More generally, scholars debate the influence of these trends on the future of UN peacebuilding.…”

Emerging trends in peacebuilding: The case of Colombia

“…The gradual erosion of liberal rules‐based order also meant that many of the overarching normative frameworks of peacebuilding were challenged by the emergence of alternative forms and sources of peacebuilding coming from emerging powers (Zartman & Vuković, 2023). Most notably, from the early 2010s, China started pushing a peacebuilding format that was primarily developmental (He, 2014, 2019; Yuan, 2022), through bilateral engagement as well as multilateral platforms—for example, UN Peace and Development Trust Fund; the Forum on China‐Africa Cooperation; the China‐Africa Peace and Security Forum. Peacebuilding through economic development, however, is neither new (Clemens & Kremer, 2016; Collier, 2007, 2009, 2018; Ferreira, 2022) nor original to China.…”