Peacebuilding Operations Out of Touch with Local Needs?

Peacebuilding Operations Out of Touch with Local Needs?
Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies - University of Sydney
This plenary focuses on a critique of the mainstream "liberal peace" discourse: the theory behind the practice in conflict interventions from the "securitization" of Sierra Leone to the Nato "surge" in Afghanistan.The Plenary is followed by a Commission session which picks up more in-depth issues raised in the plenary. Both the plenary and the Commission session provide opportunities to discuss alternatives which are grounded in the every day practices of local actors affected by violent conflict. They combine new theoretical perspectives and practitioners' experiences in order to develop options for alternative post-conflict peacebuilding approaches.Instead of a traditional plenary, where papers are presented, the panel of academics and practitioners respond to a set of questions posed by the facilitator (and in addition by the audience), focusing on local responses and bottom-up approaches, reflecting on how externally imposed models of peacebuilding are hybridized, diverted and/or resisted. This format for the plenary aims at a more interactive approach that can also draw on expertise from the audience.