In response to the shaky record of the international community's peacekeeping and conflict management efforts, academics and policymakers have begun to re-examine conflict prevention as a key instrument for the advancement of peace in a war-torn world. In Conflict Prevention from Rhetoric to Reality, Volume 1: Organizations and Institutions conflict prevention specialists from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, with professional experience in regional organizations, the UN, and various NGOs and research organizations, argue that, as a concept as well as a policy, conflict prevention is moving beyond rhetorical commitments and symbolic, ad hoc, activities. Institutional, long-term efforts specifically targeted at the prevention of violent conflict have become more than just wishful thinking. Together with local actors, many governments, regional organizations and the UN are embracing preventive action as a viable path towards sustainable peace. The contributions to this volume trace conflict prevention efforts in various regional contexts and explain how preventive thinking is being successfully mainstreamed into the activities of regional organizations and the UN. They show that, while conflicts may not always be prevented, even in cases where reliable monitoring triggers effective early warning and preventive action, the likelihood of an outbreak of violent conflict can be greatly reduced by determined, systematic efforts to address the root causes of potential violence.

This interdisciplinary work presents a conceptual framework and brings together constructivist and rationalist accounts of how EU norms are adopted, adapted, resisted or rejected. These chapters provide empirical cases and critical analysis of a rich variety of norm-takers from EU member states, European and non-European states, including the rejection of EU norms in Russia and Africa as well as adaptation of EU practices in Australia and New Zealand. Chapters on China, ASEAN and the Czech Republic demonstrate resistance to EU norm export. This volume probes differences in willingness to adopt or adapt norms between various actors in the recipient state and explores such questions as: How do norm-takers perceive of the EU and its norms? Is there a 'normative fit' between EU norms and the local normative context? Similarly, how do EU norms impact recipients' interests and institutional arrangements? First, the authors map EU norm export strategies and approaches as they affect norm-takers. Second, the chapters recognize that norm adoption, adaption, resistance or rejection is a product of interaction and a relationship in which interdependence, asymmetry and power play a role. Third, we see that domestic circumstances within norm-takers condition the reception of norms. This book's focus on norm-takers highlights the reflexive nature of norm diffusion and that nature has implications for the EU itself as a norm exporter. Anyone with an interest in the research agenda on norm diffusion, normative power and the EU's normative dialogue with the world will find this book highly valuable, including scholars, policy makers and students of subjects including political science, European studies, international relations and international and EU law.

This book aims to understand the processes and outcomes that arise from frictional encounters in peacebuilding, when global and local forces meet. Building a sustainable peace after violent conflict is a process that entails competing ideas, political contestation and transformation of power relations. This volume develops the concept of 'friction' to better analyse the interplay between global ideas, actors, and practices, and their local counterparts. The chapters examine efforts undertaken to promote sustainable peace in a variety of locations, such as Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Sierra Leone. These case analyses provide a nuanced understanding not simply of local processes, or of the hybrid or mixed agencies, ideas, and processes that are generated, but of the complex interactions that unfold between all of these elements in the context of peacebuilding intervention. The analyses demonstrate how the ambivalent relationship between global and local actors leads to unintended and sometimes counterproductive results of peacebuilding interventions. The approach of this book, with its focus on friction as a conceptual tool, advances the peacebuilding research agenda and adds to two ongoing debates in the peacebuilding field; the debate on hybridity, and the debate on local agency and local ownership. In analysing frictional encounters this volume prepares the ground for a better understanding of the mixed impact peace initiatives have on post-conflict societies. This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, security studies, and international relations in general.

This book presents new theoretical and conceptual perspectives on the problematique of building just and durable peace.

Linking peace and justice has sparked lively debates about the dilemmas and trade-offs in several contemporary peace processes. Despite the fact that justice and peace are commonly referred to there is surprisingly little research and few conceptualizations of the interplay between the two.

This edited volume is the result of three years of collaborative research and draws upon insights from such disciplines as peace and conflict, international law, political science and international relations. It contains policy-relevant knowledge about effective peacebuilding strategies, as well as an in-depth analysis of the contemporary peace processes in the Middle East and the Western Balkans. Using a variety of theoretical perspectives and empirical approaches, the work makes an original contribution to the growing literature on peacebuilding.

This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, Middle Eastern Politics, European Politics and IR/Security Studies.

In response to the shaky record of the international community's peacekeeping and conflict management efforts, academics and policymakers have begun to re-examine conflict prevention as a key instrument for the advancement of peace in a war-torn world. In Conflict Prevention from Rhetoric to Reality, Volume 1: Organizations and Institutions conflict prevention specialists from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, with professional experience in regional organizations, the UN, and various NGOs and research organizations, argue that, as a concept as well as a policy, conflict prevention is moving beyond rhetorical commitments and symbolic, ad hoc, activities. Institutional, long-term efforts specifically targeted at the prevention of violent conflict have become more than just wishful thinking. Together with local actors, many governments, regional organizations and the UN are embracing preventive action as a viable path towards sustainable peace. The contributions to this volume trace conflict prevention efforts in various regional contexts and explain how preventive thinking is being successfully mainstreamed into the activities of regional organizations and the UN. They show that, while conflicts may not always be prevented, even in cases where reliable monitoring triggers effective early warning and preventive action, the likelihood of an outbreak of violent conflict can be greatly reduced by determined, systematic efforts to address the root causes of potential violence.

This book aims to understand the processes and outcomes that arise from frictional encounters in peacebuilding, when global and local forces meet. Building a sustainable peace after violent conflict is a process that entails competing ideas, political contestation and transformation of power relations. This volume develops the concept of 'friction' to better analyse the interplay between global ideas, actors, and practices, and their local counterparts. The chapters examine efforts undertaken to promote sustainable peace in a variety of locations, such as Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Sierra Leone. These case analyses provide a nuanced understanding not simply of local processes, or of the hybrid or mixed agencies, ideas, and processes that are generated, but of the complex interactions that unfold between all of these elements in the context of peacebuilding intervention. The analyses demonstrate how the ambivalent relationship between global and local actors leads to unintended and sometimes counterproductive results of peacebuilding interventions. The approach of this book, with its focus on friction as a conceptual tool, advances the peacebuilding research agenda and adds to two ongoing debates in the peacebuilding field; the debate on hybridity, and the debate on local agency and local ownership. In analysing frictional encounters this volume prepares the ground for a better understanding of the mixed impact peace initiatives have on post-conflict societies. This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, security studies, and international relations in general.

This book presents new theoretical and conceptual perspectives on the problematique of building just and durable peace. Linking peace and justice has sparked lively debates about the dilemmas and trade-offs in several contemporary peace processes. Despite the fact that justice and peace are commonly referred to there is surprisingly little research and few conceptualizations of the interplay between the two. This edited volume is the result of three years of collaborative research and draws upon insights from such disciplines as peace and conflict, international law, political science and international relations. It contains policy-relevant knowledge about effective peacebuilding strategies, as well as an in-depth analysis of the contemporary peace processes in the Middle East and the Western Balkans. Using a variety of theoretical perspectives and empirical approaches, the work makes an original contribution to the growing literature on peacebuilding. This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, Middle Eastern Politics, European Politics and IR/Security Studies.