International Peacebuilding - Essay Example

International Peacebuilding - Chapter Review The article “International Peacebuilding and the ‘mission civilisatrice’” by Roland Paris discusses the role of the peacebuilding organizations in the post Cold War period in countries which have been shattered by war. With an idea to bring about stabilization in these nations the peacebuilders promote liberal market economies in these countries. The paper aims at showing not merely the operations through which these peacebuilders promote peace in the dependent nations (which have normally been the focus of researchers’ studies), but to prove that through these operations these organizations promote a particular structure of functioning of the economies. While the peacebuilding operations have gained pace, the studies with respect to the challenges and operations of peace building have also come into focus. They try to bring about therefore, a globalization of not merely the goods and services but the way a state should function. They promote democracy and free market mechanism. These standards are thus getting transmitted from the western regions (serving as the core) to the periphery (the nations undergoing reconstruction). This is the main point of argument in this research paper. The idea is not to proclaim that such globalization is not appropriate, but to focus on the perspectives of peacebuilding operations leading to promotion of a single kind of framework in terms of economy and administration. In this context, the activities of the peacebuilders might be related to the idea behind ‘mission civilisatrice’, which is the policy of civilizing the dependent countries followed by Europe during the colonial period. The analysis followed for the paper is qualitative in nature and secondary research method is followed to empirically show how the peace promoting organizations have promoted the liberal market democracies in the war-shattered nations. In the first section the author presents this empirical analysis and explains the mechanisms through which this process is put into action by the peacebuilders. In the second section the author first connects the idea of peacebuilding and that of ‘military civilisatrice’. Next, he associates peacebuilding operations with globalisation. The paper describes in the empirical analysis, how organizations like US Agency for International Development (USAID), The Organisation of American States (OAS) etc have promoted the western ideologies of liberal market democracy in peripheral countries like Namibia, Angola, Rwanda, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cambodia, Yugoslovia. For instance, “The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has also acted upon its pledge to encourage ‘the development of societies based on pluralistic democracy and the rule of law’ in overseeing the electoral process in Bosnia and Kosovo. (Paris, 2002, p. 639)” The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have always forwarded financial aids to the less developed nations on conditions supporting a free market economy. The peacebuilders assume that the state has the institutions for promotion of just mechanism. If not, then the first task is to build the necessary institutions for promotion of free market mechanism. Infrastructure is the main area where these institutions stress upon before producing the financial loan. According to the author the peacebuilders try to hide the point that liberal market mechanism is the only option for the states to follow. However the author also adds a positive note to this process of transformation by calling it “considerably more charitable and consensual than the behaviour of many colonial powers” (Paris, 2002, p.543) The article takes up a modern issue for study and argues with a soft tone to show the real intention of the peacebuilders for the sake of economic benefits. The study however does not focus much upon why they intend to promote liberal free market mechanism in the war shattered peripheral nations. The idea of core and periphery is very tactfully presented. This emerged from the trade model where the developed economies would lie at the center and produce expensive finished products and the peripheral developing economies would exchange their raw materials with the core for these finished goods. The article outlines the operations of the peacebuilders in these war-affected regions, and also reveals the hidden motive of promoting the single kind of mechanism in all the economies, but it does not reveal the actual intentions working behind their hidden motive or the explanation behind the motives. The article also lacks a methodology section and state-by-state analysis for the peacebuilding operations at work. These are the limitations of this study. As a further scope one might lead to a research on the actual reasons behind the peacebuilders’ trying to implement the single economic and institutional framework. Also as an extended study one might elaborate on the comparison of the modern day’s peacebuilders with the previous days’ colonizers. This point has been mentioned to some extent but not elaborated upon. The article also lacks a clear set of defined objectives along with the aim. We come to know of some points covered in the paper as we proceed with the reading. However the article is mainly useful as it skillfully and neutrally highlights the real motive behind the peacebuilding operations, leaving the rest to the readers’ thoughts and analysis. The best part of the article is the diplomacy with which the author deals with the topic and issue at hand, which could have otherwise led to several controversies. Hence despite the limitations mentioned previously, the article is an essential read for the researchers who have essentially studied the operations of peacebuilding. From the above discussion it is clear that all students researching on this topic or studying political science, history, and/or economics should read the article in order to gain a clear vision about the impact of the peacebuilders’ activities and their long-term effect might be gauged on this basis. The policymakers of the developing nations might study this article in order to understand the broader perspective of the entire set of operations. Finally, Paris reveals only what he wants to reveal and what he hides carefully also raises important questions for future researchers to answer through their studies. Hence even the hidden points urge the reader to speculate and study further on this issue to explore and resolve their doubts. Work Cited Paris, R. (2002) International Peacebuilding and the Mission Civilisatrice. Review of International Studies, 28(4), pp. 637-656 Read More