Strategic Peacebuilding

This chapter argues that peacebuilding operations cannot fulfill their potential and achieve justpeace without “strategic” planning and implementation. The authors employ vignettes from Mozambique, Colombia, and the Philippines to illustrate the current challenges of conflict transformation and peacebuilding. The multiplicity of peacebuilding actors and increasing interaction between the local and global point to the need for strategic responses to conflict. The authors sketch the contours of a theory of strategic peacebuilding, arguing that it includes a confluence of disciplines, practices, and expertise that is intended to promote social change and healing that would not naturally occur. They propose principles of strategic peacebuilding and offer practical suggestions for peacebuilding practitioners.