UN Stabilisation Operations and the Problem of Non-Linear Change
A Relational Approach to Intervening in Governance Ecosystems
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22010268 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Adam Day (0000-0002-8529-9990), Adam C Day, Charles T Hunt (0000-0002-3172-3901, MIT University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2020-03-13 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Stability International Journal of Security and Development (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2165-2627 • E-ISSN: 2165-2627 |
| Publisher | Department of Peace Studies and International Development, University of Bradford (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.5334/sta.727 |
| OpenAlex | W3011464030 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 21 |
In recent years, the United Nations (UN) has increasingly turned towards stabilisation logics in its peace operations, focusing on the extension of state authority in fragile, conflict-prone areas. However, this concept of stabilisation relies upon a series of binaries — formal/informal actors, licit/illicit activities, governed/ungoverned space — which often distort the far more complex power relations in conflict settings. As a result, UN peace operations tend to direct resources towards state institutions and ignore a wide range of non-state entities, many of which are crucial sources of governance and exist at the local and national level. In response, this article places the UN’s stabilisation approach within a recent trend in peace research focused on the hybrid nature of socio-political order in conflict-affected regions, where non-state forms of governance often have significant and legitimate roles. Rather than replicate misleading state/non-state binaries, the article proposes a relational approach and develops a novel analytical framework for analysing a wide range of governance actors in terms of different forms of symbiotic relationships. It then applies this approach to specific examples in Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), demonstrating the highly networked power arrangements present in conflict settings. The article posits that a relational approach would avoid many of the false assumptions at the heart of today’s stabilisation interventions and would instead allow the UN to design more effective, realistic strategies for pursuing sustainable peace in modern conflict settings. It concludes that relationality could be used more generally, including to explain the waning potency of the so-called ‘third wave’ of democratisation
Corporate governance · Democracy · Economic system · Economics · Law and economics · Management · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Computer Science · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security · Political Conflict and Governance · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East
Proactive and reactive responses to pregnancies resulting from sexual exploitation and abuse
Beyond Ouagadougou
Environment and armed conflict in Colombia
His Future will not be Bright”
How Many Turns Make a Revolution? Whither the ‘Dialogue of the Deaf’ Between Peacebuilding Scholars and Practitioners
Distractions, Distortions and Dilemmas
A Perturbed Peace
Adaptive Peace Operations
Organized Crime and Conflict in the Sahel-Sahara Region
Engaging non-state armed actors in state- and peace-building
Beyond the binaries
From Liberal Peacebuilding to Stabilization and Counterterrorism
All necessary means to what ends? the unintended consequences of the ‘robust turn’ in UN peace operations
Hybrid Political Orders, Not Fragile States
Rebel movements in the DRC
Deconstructing the fragile city
Good governance’ and ‘state failure’
The UN at war
Links Between Terrorism, Organized Crime and Crime
Crime, Coping, and Resistance in the Mali-Sahel Periphery
States, Insurgents, and Wartime Political Orders
Warlords, Intervention, and State Consolidation
One hippopotamus and eight blind analysts
Mainstreaming the non-state in bottom-up state-building
Twenty-first century UN peace operations
African peacekeeping in Africa
Adaptive peacebuilding
Mission without end? Peacekeeping in the African political marketplace
| Citations per year | 1.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2023 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |