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AbstractPeacebuilding policies and practices represent strong attempts by external actors to exercise power in postconflict settings. Yet the extensive theoretical treatments of power in International Relations remain somewhat disconnected from empirical analyses of peacebuilding, and how external actors exercise power is under-conceptualised in the literature. Likewise, the literature on forms of resistance by local actors is seldom examined as an exercise of power in itself, and as part of a multidimensional relationship of power/resistance between external and local actors. This article thus theorises the different dimensions of power/resistance, with a detailed focus on an exemplary case – international efforts at peacebuilding in Burundi – that spans more than twenty years. It deploys a tripartite conception of both to analyse the ways in which different forms of power and resistance can be uncovered in peacebuilding practices, We demonstrate this via an analysis of postconflict peacebuilding in Burundi, and in particular the longer-term efforts of local actors to overtly and covertly bend and fuse peacebuilding practices to their own ends.

Peacebuilding policies and practices represent strong attempts by external actors to exercise power in postconflict settings. Yet the extensive theoretical treatments of power in International Relations remain somewhat disconnected from empirical analyses of peacebuilding, and how external actors exercise power is under-conceptualised in the literature. Likewise, the literature on forms of resistance by local actors is seldom examined as an exercise of power in itself, and as part of a multidimensional relationship of power/resistance between external and local actors. This article thus theorises the different dimensions of power/resistance, with a detailed focus on an exemplary case - international efforts at peacebuilding in Burundi - that spans more than twenty years. It deploys a tripartite conception of both to analyse the ways in which different forms of power and resistance can be uncovered in peacebuilding practices, We demonstrate this via an analysis of postconflict peacebuilding in Burundi, and in particular the longer-term efforts of local actors to overtly and covertly bend and fuse peacebuilding practices to their own ends. ; publishedVersion ; Peer reviewed

The human security agenda is described as the latest attempt to challenge state-centered conceptions of security. It has served to open debates on humanitarian intervention as well as the responsibility of sovereign states to protect their populations. Within the range of broad to narrow conceptions of human security, there is agreement that security from imminent threat of violence is a valid goal, but other goals of broader conceptions, especially at the declaratory level, create unease among states, including the US, that perceive human security as encroaching on their sovereignty & freedom of action. This article seeks to ascertain the extent to which human security has been integrated in institutional discourses & practices by examining the human security concerns reflected discursively by the UN mission in Haiti (UNMIH), 1993-1995, & the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), 2003-2005. They conclusions are mixed, but they are not meant to be an indictment of the human security framework. Rather, they are intended to introduce some caution in its implementation. The case of Haiti, where little long-term change has been effected by these missions, calls for a reevaluation of what can realistically be achieved in a given situation. Tables. J. Stanton