NOREF - Revision or revolution?

Home > Book reviews > Revision or revolution?

Author

Kristoffer Lidén

works on the project “Liberal Peace and the Ethics of Peacebuilding” at the International Peace Research Institute (PRIO), Oslo. He holds a MA in Peace and Conflict Studies, and is a PhD candidate in Philosophy and member of the Ethics Program at the University of Oslo. Lidén is editor of the For...
More

Related publications

Book review - Hamas: The Islamic Resistance Movement: Carmen López Alonso , 25 October 2011
Liberal Peace in Question: Politics of State and Market Reform in Sri Lanka: María Villellas Ariño , 6 August 2011
Pernicious parallels in US war policy: Mariano Aguirre , 6 January 2011
Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding: Moving from Violence to Sustainable Peace: Madalena Moita , 9 November 2009
Building Peace: Practical Reflections from the Field: Necla Tschirgi , 22 October 2009
Engaging the Muslim World: Sana Majeed , 9 August 2009
Africa. The Politics of Suffering and Smiling: David Sogge , 5 August 2009

Download full text

Revision or revolution?

Kristoffer Lidén , 2 May 2010

Summary

These two books balance on the brink of a paradigm shift in peacebuilding theory. While The Dilemmas of Statebuilding keeps an even keel, Whose Peace? leans awe-inspiringly forward. Weighty contributions in The Dilemmas leave the impression that it is the normative expectations to the outcome of peacebuilding operations – human rights, democracy and development – that ought to be altered.

In contrast, Whose Peace? seeks to adapt the theoretical premises of peacebuilding to these emancipatory objectives. This distances the latter book from the ‘operational realities’ of contemporary peacebuilding, but challenges problematic assumptions that currently underpin the very conception of these realities.