In 1992, the world stood at a pivotal moment. The Cold War had ended, and the international community faced a new era of complex internal conflicts that demanded fresh approaches to peace. Against this backdrop, UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali released a groundbreaking document that would reshape how the world thinks about building peace. An Agenda for Peace introduced concepts that remain central to peacebuilding efforts today, particularly the idea that achieving lasting peace requires much more than simply ending violence.
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Boutros-Ghali’s vision for sustainable peace
When the Security Council met at the level of heads of state in January 1992, it asked Boutros-Ghali to provide recommendations on how the United Nations could strengthen its capacity for preventive diplomacy, peacemaking, and peacekeeping. His response went far beyond what was expected. An Agenda for Peace outlined a comprehensive framework that included a revolutionary new concept: post-conflict peacebuilding.
Boutros-Ghali characterized peacebuilding as action taken to reinforce and strengthen peace structures, aiming to prevent societies from sliding back into conflict. He positioned it as a distinct phase that follows peacemaking and peacekeeping, focusing on building sustainable institutions and relationships. What made his vision particularly significant was his emphasis that social peace-grounded in democratic practices, rule of law, and transparency-is just as crucial as strategic or political peace. This meant that simply stopping violence was not enough; societies needed to address the underlying conditions that had allowed conflict to emerge in the first place.
The document also introduced clear distinctions between related concepts. Preventive diplomacy aimed to stop disputes from becoming violent conflicts. Peacemaking focused on bringing hostile parties to negotiated agreements. Peacekeeping involved deploying personnel to maintain ceasefires and peace agreements. And peacebuilding went beyond all of these, creating structures that would sustain peace over the long term.
NGOs expand the peacebuilding framework
While Boutros-Ghali’s framework positioned peacebuilding as a post-conflict activity, many non-governmental organizations developed a broader interpretation. NGOs came to understand peacebuilding as an umbrella concept that encompasses the entire spectrum of peace-related activities-from early warning systems and violence prevention to peacekeeping operations, humanitarian assistance, and ceasefire agreements.
This comprehensive view emerged from the practical realities that organizations faced in conflict zones. They recognized that the boundaries between different phases of conflict are rarely clear-cut. Early warning systems might detect brewing tensions, but those same communities might simultaneously need humanitarian aid and reconciliation processes. NGOs working in local communities found themselves uniquely positioned to identify deteriorating conditions that could lead to conflict, making them crucial actors in prevention efforts.
The NGO perspective emphasizes that peacebuilding activities can and should occur before, during, and after violent conflict. This approach recognizes that communities need support across the entire conflict cycle, not just in the aftermath of violence. Grassroots organizations, middle-range leaders, and local initiatives became central to this broader understanding of peacebuilding work.
Creating positive peace: the ultimate goal
At the heart of both Boutros-Ghali’s vision and the expanded NGO framework lies a crucial concept: positive peace. This idea, developed by peace theorist Johan Galtung, fundamentally challenges traditional notions of what peace means.
Galtung distinguished between negative peace and positive peace. Negative peace simply refers to the absence of direct violence-when guns fall silent and fighting stops. While this is necessary, it is not sufficient for sustainable peace. Positive peace, in contrast, means the absence of both direct and structural violence. Structural violence refers to social systems and institutions that prevent people from meeting their basic needs and reaching their full potential. It includes economic inequality, political oppression, discrimination, and lack of access to education or healthcare.
The goal of peacebuilding, therefore, is to create a stable social equilibrium where new disputes do not escalate into violence. This state of positive peace is characterized by the absence of physical and structural violence, the elimination of discrimination, and self-sustainability. It requires transforming not just behaviors but also the underlying structures and systems that generate conflict.
Self-sustaining peace systems
Scholars like John Paul Lederach have further developed the concept of sustainable peacebuilding. Lederach emphasized that peacebuilding must go beyond traditional diplomacy, which often focuses on top-level leaders and short-term objectives. Instead, he advocated for a holistic approach that involves multiple levels of society and takes a long-term perspective.
Lederach’s framework stresses the need to create an infrastructure that empowers resources within a society while maximizing contributions from outside. This means building local capacity for conflict resolution, strengthening relationships across dividing lines, and creating processes that can adapt and regenerate over time. Peace becomes sustainable when communities develop their own mechanisms for managing conflicts constructively.
Luc Reychler, another pioneering scholar in this field, introduced the concept of sustainable peacebuilding architecture. His work emphasizes the need to understand and build the various structures required for lasting peace-political, economic, security, and social systems that work together to prevent violence and promote well-being. Reychler argued that winning a war can be relatively quick, but winning the peace is far more complex and time-consuming.
From theory to practice
The evolution from Boutros-Ghali’s initial framework to today’s comprehensive understanding of peacebuilding reflects hard-learned lessons from conflicts around the world. Post-Cold War conflicts in Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and elsewhere demonstrated that military intervention and traditional peacekeeping were insufficient to prevent violence from recurring.
Modern peacebuilding efforts now integrate multiple dimensions. They address economic development to reduce inequality and create opportunities. They strengthen democratic institutions and the rule of law to ensure justice and accountability. They promote reconciliation processes to heal historical wounds. They build security sector capacity while ensuring civilian oversight. And they work to transform cultural attitudes that perpetuate violence and discrimination.
The challenge remains immense. Creating positive peace requires addressing deeply rooted structural inequalities, transforming power relationships, and building trust among groups that have experienced violence. It demands long-term commitment and resources that often exceed what the international community is willing to provide. Yet the framework established by An Agenda for Peace and expanded by NGOs and scholars provides a roadmap for this essential work.
The path forward
Thirty years after An Agenda for Peace, the fundamental insights remain valid: sustainable peace requires more than stopping violence. It demands building just social, political, and economic structures. It needs the participation of people at all levels of society. And it requires patience, commitment, and a willingness to address root causes rather than symptoms.
The expanded understanding of peacebuilding as an umbrella concept that includes prevention, conflict resolution, and post-conflict reconstruction provides a more realistic framework for addressing today’s complex conflicts. By focusing on creating positive peace-societies free from both direct and structural violence-peacebuilders work toward a world where conflicts are resolved constructively and all people can realize their full potential.
What do you think? How might communities in your own context work toward building positive peace by addressing both direct violence and structural inequalities? What role can ordinary citizens play in creating the self-sustaining peace systems that scholars like Lederach and Reychler describe?
References
- https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/145749
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Agenda_for_Peace
- https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/peacebuilding
- https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/resources/pwks5.pdf
- https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/terminology
- https://espace-mondial-atlas.sciencespo.fr/en/topic-insecuritypeace/article-4A08-EN-positive-and-sustainable-peace.html
- https://gsdrc.org/document-library/violence-peace-and-peace-research/
- https://www.johnpaullederach.com/2023/03/building-peace-sustainable-reconciliation-in-divided-societies/
- https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-40208-2
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