Beyond liberal institution (re)building

Conversations on peacebuilding and statebuilding in Sierra Leone

Bibliographic Data

ID5680876
AuthorsEka Ikpe (0000-0002-4859-3592, African Leadership Centre, King’s College London, UK, corresponding author), Abiodun Alao (0000-0002-8223-0592, African Leadership Centre, King’s College London, UK), Kamau Nyokabi (African Leadership Centre, King’s College London, UK)
Year2021
Volume21
Issue4
Pages431-453
Publication date2021-07-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueConflict Security and Development (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1467-8802 • E-ISSN: 1478-1174
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14678802.2021.1974685
OpenAlexW2886147332
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited43

This paper contributes to debates on the relationship between peacebuilding and statebuilding with its analysis of post-independence Sierra Leone. It considers the extent to which peacebuilding has returned Sierra Leonean society to post-independence statebuilding conversations and how the issues that have emanated from such conversations have interacted with settlement and post-settlement arrangements. This paper analyses original data from focus group discussions and interviews in fieldwork from January 2016. It finds that the situation in Sierra Leone heralded opportunities for peacebuilding processes to engage concerns that have been linked with historical statebuilding conversations. Yet formal statebuilding processes, which were particularly focused on liberal institution building in the post-conflict context, were not sufficiently attentive to their antecedents. Nonetheless there are suggestions of some engagement with extant statebuilding conversations particularly in relation to how ethnicity continues to colour the statebuilding project, the significance of intergroup dynamics across intergenerational exchanges and gender and the challenges of socio-economic exclusion

Ethnology · Geography · Institution · Peacebuilding · Political economy · Political science · Sierra leone · Social science · Sociology · International Development and Aid · Peacebuilding and International Security · Political Conflict and Governance