Water Service Provision and Peacebuilding in East Timor: Exploring the Socioecological Determinants for Sustaining Peace

Abstract

This article presents an examination of post-conflict water resource management in East Timor through the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) with the aim of contributing to our understanding of the opportunities and challenges inherent to the sustainable management of water resources in post-conflict countries and of gaining insight into its potential long-term benefits for sustaining peace. The article contributes one of the first theory-centred, empirical analyses of post-conflict water resource management, in which the challenges and failures of UNTAET in East Timor shed light on the opportunities and risks inherent to post-conflict water service provision for peacebuilding.

Virtuous or Vicious Circle? Governance Effectiveness and Legitimacy in Areas of Limited Statehood

“…However, is the interplay between effective and legitimate governance really as simple and straightforward as the virtuous circle argument suggests? Works by authors such as , Schmelzle (2011), Mcloughlin (2015), and Krampe and Gignoux (2018) indicate that the causal relationship is much more complex and demanding than it might appear at first. This introduction further develops these skeptical arguments by proposing a theoretical model of a virtuous circle of governance that goes beyond the simplistic idea that effectiveness directly enhances legitimacy and vice versa by specifying necessary preconditions and intervening mechanisms.…”

Research Perspectives and Boundaries of Thought: Security, Peace, Conflict, and the Anthropocene

“…Peacebuilding research often ignores environmental factors (Matthew et al 2009), but shared environmental problems can provide incentives for cooperation between former conflict parties (Cain 2014). The provision of water services and land is also crucial to integrate former combatants into the regular economy and to boost state legitimacy (Bruch et al 2016;Krampe and Gignoux 2018).…”

The dark side of environmental peacebuilding

“…As no support was forthcoming due to the financial constraints and different strategic priorities by UNTAET, dissatisfaction with the transitional administration grew remarkably. This also raised the risk of renewed conflict escalation in the politically fragile country (Krampe & Gignoux, 2018).…”

“…The United Nations Interagency Rehabilitation Programme (UNIRP), for example, sponsored projects that helped female ex-combatants in Nepal to gain land rights and hence sustainable livelihoods as part of a joint initiative with UNEP, the UN Development Programme, UN Women and the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (2013). Environmental issues are now a key aspect of UN peacebuilding missions as well (Krampe & Gignoux, 2018;Maertens, 2019).…”

“…This is matched by an increasing interest of critical environmental security scholarship in environmental peacebuilding (e.g., Le Billon & Duffy, 2018). Consequentially, the number of statistical analyses (Barquet, Lujala, & Rød, 2014;, case studies (Huda & Ali, 2018;Krampe & Gignoux, 2018) and review papers (Dresse, Fischhendler, Nielsen, & Zikos, 2019;Ide, 2019) on the topic is rapidly increasing. In late 2019, the recently founded Environmental Peacebuilding Association hold its first general conference with more than 240 attendees from around 40 countries.…”