Preview
Peacebuilding, Reconciliation and Justice Institutions
IB DP Global Politics — Thematic study: Peace and conflict | SL | Nature, practice and study of peace and conflict
📋 What You Will Learn
- Define peacebuilding and distinguish it from peacekeeping and peacemaking
- Explain the key components of post-conflict peacebuilding, including reconciliation and transitional justice
- Describe the main types of justice institutions used after mass atrocities (tribunals, truth commissions, hybrid courts, the ICC)
- Analyse the tensions between peace and justice in post-conflict settings
- Compare how different theoretical perspectives interpret the goals and limits of peacebuilding
- Evaluate the effectiveness of reconciliation processes and justice institutions using contemporary case studies
🔍 Guiding Question Can societies achieve lasting peace without justice — and does the pursuit of justice sometimes make peace harder to reach?
🌍 Why This Matters In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the alleged deportation of Ukrainian children — the first time a sitting leader of a permanent UN Security Council member has been so targeted. The warrant was immediately dismissed by Russia and complicated diplomatic contacts, raising a question that runs through every post-conflict society: does accountability for atrocities build durable peace, or does it make negotiated settlements impossible?
🔑 Key Concept Link Peacebuilding engages all four key concepts. Power determines who controls the peacebuilding agenda and whose version of justice prevails. Sovereignty is at stake when international tribunals or UN missions operate inside a state's territory. Legitimacy is what peacebuilding ultimately tries to rebuild — for the state, for institutions, and for the social contract between groups. Interdependence explains why conflicts in one society spill across borders and why international actors invest in post-conflict reconstruction far from home.
What Is Peacebuilding?
The word "peace" is deceptively simple. Political scientists distinguish between the mere absence of open violence and the deeper conditions that make violence unlikely to return. That distinction is the starting point for understanding peacebuilding.
📖 Definition — Negative Peace Negative peace refers to the absence of direct, organised violence — a ceasefire or the end of armed conflict. It is a necessary but insufficient condition for a stable society.
📖 Definition — Positive Peace Positive peace, associated with Johan Galtung, refers to the presence of the conditions that prevent violence from recurring: just institutions, equitable development, social cohesion, and the absence of structural and cultural violence. It is the goal that peacebuilding aims to reach.
📖 Definition — Peacebuilding Peacebuilding encompasses the range of measures taken after conflict to reduce the risk of relapse into violence, strengthen national capacities for conflict management, and lay the foundations for sustainable peace. It includes political, economic, social and justice dimensions. (UN Peacebuilding Commission, 2005)
Distinguishing related concepts
- Peacekeeping: the deployment of international forces (typically UN blue helmets) to monitor ceasefires and protect civilians during or immediately after conflict — a military/security function.
- Peacemaking: diplomatic efforts to bring warring parties to a negotiated agreement — mediation, negotiation, and peace talks (e.g. the Oslo Accords, the Dayton Agreement).
- Peacebuilding: the longer-term, structural work that follows — rebuilding institutions, addressing root causes, promoting