Local Ownership of Peacebuilding in Afghanistan
Shouldering Responsibility for Sustainable Peace and Development
By (author) Chuck Thiessen
Not available to order
Publication date:
08 November 2013Length of book:
200 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9780739181577
The international community has followed up its 2001 invasion of Afghanistan with a complex, multi-faceted peacebuilding project. However, informed observers believe that this Western-led mission in Afghanistan has failed to address the inherent peacebuilding needs of Afghanistan and has hindered the formation of a locally experienced sustainable peace. In response, emerging peacebuilding theories and rhetoric have pointed to an urgent need for revised peacebuilding paradigms and strategies that hold local, Afghan ownership of peacebuilding activities as a central concern.
This book responds to this need for revised peacebuilding paradigms and: (1) introduces the topic of local ownership of peacebuilding in Afghanistan; (2) surveys current shifts in peacebuilding theory and practice that are only starting to be realized on the ground; (3) sets the context for a discussion of local ownership of peacebuilding; (4) reports on the perceptions of foreign and Afghan peacebuilding leaders working in Afghanistan in regards to the journey towards local ownership of peacebuilding; and (5) suggests the creation of a locally designed and led conflict transformation system that might help restructure local-foreign relations and advance the journey towards Afghan ownership of peacebuilding.
This book responds to this need for revised peacebuilding paradigms and: (1) introduces the topic of local ownership of peacebuilding in Afghanistan; (2) surveys current shifts in peacebuilding theory and practice that are only starting to be realized on the ground; (3) sets the context for a discussion of local ownership of peacebuilding; (4) reports on the perceptions of foreign and Afghan peacebuilding leaders working in Afghanistan in regards to the journey towards local ownership of peacebuilding; and (5) suggests the creation of a locally designed and led conflict transformation system that might help restructure local-foreign relations and advance the journey towards Afghan ownership of peacebuilding.
Chuck Thiessen outlines the complexity and tension between the international community's ownership of local peacebuilding efforts and local Afghans striving to shape peacebuilding efforts on the ground. This pathbreaking study is a must-read for policy makers, peacebuilders, and international donors.