Reychler, Luc and Thania Paffenholz, eds. Peacebuilding: A Field Guide. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2001.
Peacebuilding: A Field Guide, edited by Luc Reychler and Thania Paffenholz, is a comprehensive collection of articles on peace-building meant to make the reader more aware of the bigger picture involved in building a sustainable peace. The editors masterfully bring together the knowledge and experience of over 50 scholars and practitioners to cover a wide range of topics. The focus of contributors ranges from a macro perspective, discussing coordination efforts between different agencies, to a micro perspective, addressing the stresses and trauma that individuals experience following violent conflict. There is a good balance between practical lessons and more theoretical understandings of the process of peace-building. Two themes are apparent throughout the book that emphasize how important such a collection of lessons is for improving the peace-building process. First, that "there are no blueprints for rebuilding societies after war." (Stiefel, p. 268) There is no single solution to restore order in a wartorn country. Each study helps highlight the many important factors that must be considered in developing a unique response to unique conflict conditions. Second, peace does not come quickly. Many relief agencies are structured to respond to immediate crises, but do not have a long-term perspective to see structural and social changes made that will prevent future violence. In addition, the lessons learned in the field are not often passed on to new personnel and are not "learned" by the organizations. This book consolidates much of the knowledge gained through experience and can serve future practitioners well.
The extensive number and variety of articles does not allow for a complete summary of all the contributions, but a number of important themes can be identified in the organization of the volume. The book is divided into four sections: preparing for the field, working in the field, surviving in the field and the conclusion. The first section poses a number of difficult questions that organizations must consider as they prepare to enter the field. Organizations must consider where they will intervene, and what their goals and operational guidelines will be. Michael Lund identifies a host of different peace-building tools falling into the categories of official diplomacy, non-official conflict management methods, military measures, economic and social measures, political development and governance measures, and judicial and legal measures. Arno Truger and Jo Wouters both consider the selection and training of field workers. Field workers need not only general training in the concept of peace-building, but also need task specific and mission specific preparation to fully prepare them to operate in the field. Angelika Spelten discusses the importance of awareness of the multicultural environment in which workers find themselves.
The second section of the book is devoted to working in the field and is the largest section. Some of the topics have been discussed in detail in other literature, such as the value of track one versus track two diplomacy, but are nonetheless neatly summarized in the volume. The addition of case specific examples greatly contributes to the discussion of two track diplomacy as well as the other topics covered in this section. The importance of identifying key leaders is addressed by John Paul Lederach who discusses negotiations with different levels of leadership. Ahmedou Ould Abdallah notes the importance of including a wide variety of actors in negotiations. The complexities of designing the mediation process are examined by Ron Kraybill. Laurie Nathan applies these designs to the African context. Nathan emphasizes that mediation cannot be centered around power-based diplomacy, but must be flexible, non-partisan and non-punitive; to act otherwise merely heightens the suspicion, fear and anger of the disputants and is counterproductive.
The task of monitoring is discussed in terms of human rights protection, electoral monitoring and minority rights. H. Gajus Scheltema's article on the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities highlights some of the successes the OSCE has had in limiting tensions surrounding minority rights issues. Several articles address the importance of coordinating relief aid and longer term development programs. Mary B. Anderson notes that relief aid is not neutral and relief workers must be aware of their impact on the conflict. Vivien Erasmus points out the value of community mobilization to help with relief efforts and to promote peace-building and development. Kent Arnold also addresses local capacity for peace-building in his discussion of training local peacebuilders.
The role of the media in conflict situations is explored by Ellen Gardner and Bettina Peters. They note the negative and positive roles that the media can play in perpetuating hate or in promoting peace. The challenge of dealing with the civil and human rights violations of the past is addressed by Luc Huyse. Huyse discusses a number of possible solutions to handling past offenders, including absolute amnesty, restricted amnesty, "forgiving but not forgetting," and disqualification to serve in public office in the future. Huyse examines the case of South Africa. Sabine Kurtenbach explores Latin American cases of amnesty. Howard Zehr contributes to this discussion by noting the distinctions between restorative justice and retributive justice. He describes retributive justice as punitive, conflictual and impersonal. It often assumes that justice and healing are separate issues. In contrast, restorative justices assumes that justice can and should promote healing, both individual and societal.
Finally, the issue of security is addressed in several articles on small arms, demobilization, mines and rebuilding police forces. In order to promote security in both the short and long-term, combatants must be demobilized and reintegrated into society. Kees Kingma points to lessons that have been learned regarding demobilization, recognizing that "demobilization is no 'magic bullet' - politics comes first." (p. 411) It can only succeed if the parties are committed to ending the conflict.
The third section of the book deals with surviving in the field. The contributors offer practitioners advice on managing stress, dialogue and listening techniques, dealing with moral dilemmas and coordination. All highlight the challenging environment in which peacekeepers and aid workers find themselves. Thania Paffenholz writes the conclusion in section four, reiterating the need for field workers to be aware of the part they play in the larger conflict. Some of the overarching themes include the need for all relevant actors to participate in peace-building, a careful structuring of the mediation process itself, the need for long-term commitments and visions, and the need for organizations and institutions to learn from past experiences to improve future operations.
As a whole the collection of essays is excellent, although some are more valuable than others. A few are simply "to do" lists without any real life examples to make them more meaningful. Many of the articles, however, are thought provoking and raise some interesting questions that are worth exploring in more detail. These questions arise from the juxtaposition of the more theoretical articles written by academics and the field experiences described by practitioners. There are notable differences between what "ought" to work and what has actually worked in the field. For example, Jan Van Eck's article on multitrack efforts in Burundi raises an interesting question regarding the linkage between trust (in society) and democracy. (p. 81) A number of studies emphasize the value of establishing a democratic government, including its impact on the strengthening of trust in society. Van Eck notes, however, that in Burundi the peace negotiations could not move forward and that there was no chance of creating a democratic government before Burundians learned to trust each other to a minimal degree. Can the big step of creating a democracy be taken without some level of trust in society? Or must smaller trust building steps be taken prior to trying to create a democratic government that will eventually lead to a greater degree of trust in society?
A comparison of the articles also reveals that there is not a single solution to resolving conflicts, the context must be taken into account. Although there is general agreement on a number of points of importance (long-term solutions, coordination of efforts, better training as well as debriefing of field workers), there are also some points on which authors are in direct disagreement. For example, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah discusses the involvement of "extremists" in negotiations (p. 159) and concludes that they ought to be excluded. Participation by these extremists in negotiations is tantamount to recognizing their "right" to blackmail, kill and abuse the rights of others. This exclusionary view is rejected by Laurie Nathan who notes that denying citizens the opportunity to be fully involved in political decision making is a primary cause of civil wars, it makes little sense to reproduce the problem in efforts to resolve such conflicts. (p. 189)
One problem that is raised by a number of contributors, but not satisfactorily resolved, is the need for better coordination among multiple agencies and actors. As Winrich Kühne notes "everybody wants coordination, but nobody wants to be coordinated." (p. 387) Although agencies recognize the need for and potential value of greater coordination, there is no agreement on how such coordination can be achieved. Clearly this problem needs to be considered further. It may be that coordination efforts, just like the overall peace-building process, need to be adapted to the specific conditions for each case. Until a variety of coordination efforts have been tried, however, it will be difficult to assess which ones might work best under certain conditions.
This comprehensive volume could be very useful to practitioners as well as in the classroom. The brief articles are written accessibly for introductory courses and could nicely supplement other course materials on conflict resolution. As practitioners and aid organizations make a greater effort to learn from their past experiences, this volume provides a good foundation on which to build in the future.
Although some of the material in this volume has been covered in detail elsewhere, the wide range of topics addressed in Peacebuilding: A Field Guide have not been brought together systematically before. The book is a notable contribution to the study of conflict resolution.
Carolyn Shaw
University of Texas at Austin