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Peacebuilding in the United Nations pp 231–271Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Functioning of the ‘New Elements’ of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture

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Part of the book series: Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies ((RCS))

Abstract

This chapter explores the working of the PBC, PBSO and PBF in their first few years of existence, seeking to identify traces of the liberal democratic peace to assess the extent to which they may have continued to influence the meaning of ‘peacebuilding’ in the UN milieu, providing a rationale, motivating, legitimating and enacting UN peacebuilding initiatives in post-armed conflict scenarios. It reviews the role of PBSO in providing technical assistance and coordinating policy processes, as well as overseeing the disbursement of PBF resources, and analyses concrete initiatives carried out within the framework of the PBC in its different configurations. Chapters 7 and 8 demonstrate that the establishment and functioning of those three entities have provoked little substantial changes in UN peacebuilding, having often contributed to reproducing and replicating the liberal democratic peace framework that informs the UN concept and practice of peacebuilding rather than necessarily provoking the concrete positive impact on the field that had been expected in the UN milieu at the time of the establishment of those entities. The reflections of the liberal peace framework in the UN contemporary understanding of and practice in peacebuilding attests to its prolonged influence in the Organisation’s approach to addressing the needs of societies emerging from armed conflict more than 20 years after An Agenda for Peace.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Policy and the Management Committees were created by Annan in 2005 to strengthen decision-making at the executive level in the Secretariat. Both consider issues requiring policy and/or strategic guidance and direction, with the former focusing on thematic and country-specific issues and the latter on internal reform and other management-related matters. The Policy Committee normally meets once every week and is constituted, among others, by the chairs of ECPS, ECESA, ECHA and UNDG, and the head of the DPKO (UN Doc. ST/SGB/2005/16).

  2. 2.

    For a somewhat similar inventory produced a decade earlier, see DESIPA (1996).

  3. 3.

    In addition to McAskie, other senior staff members in PBSO at the time, including in key positions ahead of PBC support and policymaking, were drawn from the ‘development’ and not the ‘peacekeeping’ side of the UN.

  4. 4.

    Unless otherwise stated, all figures in this section are in current US dollars and based on data retrieved from the website of the MPTF Office (2013). All figures for 2013 are as of 30 June 2013.

  5. 5.

    For evaluations of the PBF in general, see especially Ball and van Beijnum (2009) and OIOS (2008). Other evaluations, including on PBF support to initiatives on specific countries, are available on the PBF website (UNPBF 2013).

  6. 6.

    The IRF was previously known as the PBF Emergency Window (Window III), whilst the PRF was once divided between the PBF Window I (for countries on the PBC agenda) and Window II (for countries not on the PBC agenda, but declared eligible by the Secretary-General).

  7. 7.

    The first time the members of the PBC met was in an informal environment, during a one-day seminar jointly held by the then-International Peace Academy (IPA, currently International Peace Institute) and the CIC-NYU (see IPA and CIC 2006). It was not an official meeting of the PBC, but it ended up by serving as an informal meeting due to the presence of all the newly appointed members of the OC.

  8. 8.

    By a letter dated 27 February 2006 to the President of the General Assembly, the Permanent Mission of Sierra Leone submitted a request for the PBC to “operate” in the country (Permanent Mission of Sierra Leone to the United Nations 2006: 1). The Mission of Burundi reiterated the same desire on 8 June 2006 by means of a letter to the President of the General Assembly (Permanent Mission of Burundi to the United Nations 2006).

  9. 9.

    The Summary Records of the meetings are available as PBC/1/SLE/SR.1 (2007) and PBC/1/SLE/SR.2 (2007) for CSC-Sierra Leone, and PBC/1/BDI/SR.1 (2007) and PBC/1/BDI/SR.2 (2007) for CSC-Burundi.

  10. 10.

    A list of relevant events and meetings for each CSC in that year is available as Annex IV of UN Doc. A/62/137-S/2007/458.

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  1. United Nations, Kabul, Afghanistan

    Fernando Cavalcante

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  1. Fernando Cavalcante
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Cavalcante, F. (2019). The Functioning of the ‘New Elements’ of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture. In: Peacebuilding in the United Nations. Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03864-9_8

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