Awards

• Winner of Winner, PEACE Best Female Scholar Book Award, International Studies Association.

Overview

A fundamental challenge plagues the global peacebuilding community. How can technocratic approaches to peacebuilding that are rooted in short-term, project-based execution of activities, further the longer-term transformative outcomes like altering young people's attitudes and beliefs about peace and violence? In response to this global challenge, in Peacebuilding Legacy, Sukanya Podder analyzes the long-term effects of peacebuilding programmes involving children and young people. Podder unpacks the concept of peacebuilding legacy through the lens of time, transformation, and intergenerational peace. Podder also develops unique qualitative cues for measuring legacy in terms of the institutional, normative, and organizational logics. If norms resonate strongly with the local context, they are likely to encourage strong retention and meaningful adoption over time. Successful institutionalization of project models through planned handover to successor national organizations, or government departments, holds the key to stronger local ownership. Organizational learning and reflection can support this process through a more strategic approach to programming, and through post-exit studies. Regarding attitude change, Podder found that, the media and peace education projects that targeted individuals' ingrained beliefs and values but overlooked the role of group social norms had only limited persuasive effects. To shift the values, practices, norms, and beliefs of the younger generation, the mindset of the older generation must also be targeted. Changes in the legal, political, economic, and other social institutions are critical for long-term and meaningful transformation. This requires adopting an ecological model of peace.

Full Product Details

9780192863980

Table of Contents

Reviews

Peacebuilding Legacy is essential reading for all who wish to enhance the effectiveness of peacebuilding initiatives * Professor Kevin Clements, Toda Peace Institute, and formerly Secretary General of International Alert, London * This is a timely and important book that honours the role of youth as partners, activists, and agents of change in peacebuilding * Professor Myriam Denov, McGill University * This book is packed with razor-sharp insights...it has a wonderful authenticity. It is highly recommended * Professor Roger Mac Ginty, Durham University * This fascinating book makes an excellent contribution to the field and genuinely moves the debate forward. * Professor Edward Newman, University of Leeds * This important study effectively offers an intergenerational perspective of sustainable peace and justice. It compels us to acknowledge and respond to the failures of technocratic forms of peacebuilding. * Professor Oliver Richmond, Manchester University *

It is a book which will make us think again about the potential for transformative peace that resides at the heart of technocratic peacebuilding. * Elke Krahmann, International Peacekeeping * This book is packed with razor-sharp insights that are sensitive to the tension between what institutionalized peacebuilding has to offer, and what communities coming out of conflict require. It has a wonderful authenticity that stems from deep fieldwork engagements. It is highly recommended and will have traction with both the academy and the policy world. * Roger Mac Ginty, Durham University, author of Everyday Peace: How So-called Ordinary People Can Disrupt Violent Conflict. * This fascinating book explores the contested legacies of international peacebuilding in post-conflict and conflict-prone societies. It provides a persuasive analysis of why quick-fix, externally defined peacebuilding can be problematic in terms of impact and ethics. The book presents a novel and compelling theoretical lens for understanding the long-term legacies of intervention. It makes an excellent contribution to the field and genuinely moves the debate forward. * Professor Edward Newman, University of Leeds, author of Understanding Civil Wars: Continuity and Change in Intrastate Conflict. * This important study provides deeply researched and closely argued, comparative insights into how dependent peacebuilding is on the dynamism and knowledge of young people. Yet they are often forgotten in both international politics and peace scholarship. This substantial contribution effectively offers an intergenerational perspective of sustainable peace and justice, one which aligns with cutting edge scholarship and praxis across several fields. The study illustrates how work on peacebuilding from different methodological traditions may be converging, to some degree, on how to understand and respond to the legacies, and to the failures of technocratic forms of peacebuilding. * Professor Oliver Richmond, Manchester University, author of The Grand Design: The Evolution of the International Peacebuilding Architecture. * Peacebuilding Legacy is a truly innovative book that will guide international non-governmental organisations, multilateral and other government agencies as they work with locals to build stable peace. It makes a very convincing case for long-term rather than short-term peacebuilding; draws attention to the centrality of coordination and peaceful strategizing, and the crucial importance of being guided by the locals as they resolve their own conflicts. Sukanya also focuses attention on the central role of youth in the design and implementation of peaceful processes. This book is essential reading for all who wish to enhance the effectiveness of peacebuilding initiatives. * Professor Kevin Clements, Toda Peace Institute, and formerly Secretary General of International Alert, London, co-author of Toward a century of peace: A dialogue on the role of civil society in peacebuilding. * What happens in post-war countries after they no longer make international news headlines, donors lose interest, and the humanitarian sector has relocated to the next conflict hotspot? Peacebuilding Legacy dives deep into the long-term effects of post-war peacebuilding on young people based on an in-depth analysis of current debates on liberal peacebuilding and a mixture of extensive academic field research and meta-synthetic approaches. Podder has written an important book that is essential for both the scholarly and practitioner communities. * Dr Krijn Peters, Swansea University, author of War and the Crisis of Youth in Sierra Leone. * This is a timely and important book. Drawing on case studies in Macedonia and Sierra Leone, this thoughtful and insightful book compels us to rethink peacebuilding in both theory and practice. Offering innovative strategies for sustainable, intergenerational, and transformative peace, Sukanya Podder honours the role of youth as partners, activists, and agents of change in peacebuilding. A must have for any collection on war and peace * Professor Myriam Denov, McGill University, author of Child Soldiers: Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front. * Meticulously presented and compellingly argued, this is a fundamentally important book. Peacebuilding Legacy is bound to change the way we think about liberal peacebuilding, its legacy and the accountability of donors, and international agencies to both global audiences and local communities. Sukanya Podder should be congratulated for shining such a clear analytical lens upon the centrality of work with children and young people for transformative peace and sustainable post-conflict futures. * Professor David Chandler, University of Westminster. Founding editor The Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding. *

This book is packed with razor-sharp insights that are sensitive to the tension between what institutionalized peacebuilding has to offer, and what communities coming out of conflict require. It has a wonderful authenticity that stems from deep fieldwork engagements. It is highly recommended and will have traction with both the academy and the policy world. * Roger Mac Ginty, Durham University, author of Everyday Peace: How So-called Ordinary People Can Disrupt Violent Conflict. * This fascinating book explores the contested legacies of international peacebuilding in post-conflict and conflict-prone societies. It provides a persuasive analysis of why quick-fix, externally defined peacebuilding can be problematic in terms of impact and ethics. The book presents a novel and compelling theoretical lens for understanding the long-term legacies of intervention. It makes an excellent contribution to the field and genuinely moves the debate forward. * Professor Edward Newman, University of Leeds, author of Understanding Civil Wars: Continuity and Change in Intrastate Conflict. * This important study provides deeply researched and closely argued, comparative insights into how dependent peacebuilding is on the dynamism and knowledge of young people. Yet they are often forgotten in both international politics and peace scholarship. This substantial contribution effectively offers an intergenerational perspective of sustainable peace and justice, one which aligns with cutting edge scholarship and praxis across several fields. The study illustrates how work on peacebuilding from different methodological traditions may be converging, to some degree, on how to understand and respond to the legacies, and to the failures of technocratic forms of peacebuilding. * Professor Oliver Richmond, Manchester University, author of The Grand Design: The Evolution of the International Peacebuilding Architecture. * Peacebuilding Legacy is a truly innovative book that will guide international non-governmental organisations, multilateral and other government agencies as they work with locals to build stable peace. It makes a very convincing case for long-term rather than short-term peacebuilding; draws attention to the centrality of coordination and peaceful strategizing, and the crucial importance of being guided by the locals as they resolve their own conflicts. Sukanya also focuses attention on the central role of youth in the design and implementation of peaceful processes. This book is essential reading for all who wish to enhance the effectiveness of peacebuilding initiatives. * Professor Kevin Clements, Toda Peace Institute, and formerly Secretary General of International Alert, London, co-author of Toward a century of peace: A dialogue on the role of civil society in peacebuilding. * What happens in post-war countries after they no longer make international news headlines, donors lose interest, and the humanitarian sector has relocated to the next conflict hotspot? Peacebuilding Legacy dives deep into the long-term effects of post-war peacebuilding on young people based on an in-depth analysis of current debates on liberal peacebuilding and a mixture of extensive academic field research and meta-synthetic approaches. Podder has written an important book that is essential for both the scholarly and practitioner communities. * Dr Krijn Peters, Swansea University, author of War and the Crisis of Youth in Sierra Leone. * This is a timely and important book. Drawing on case studies in Macedonia and Sierra Leone, this thoughtful and insightful book compels us to rethink peacebuilding in both theory and practice. Offering innovative strategies for sustainable, intergenerational, and transformative peace, Sukanya Podder honours the role of youth as partners, activists, and agents of change in peacebuilding. A must have for any collection on war and peace * Professor Myriam Denov, McGill University, author of Child Soldiers: Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front. * Meticulously presented and compellingly argued, this is a fundamentally important book. Peacebuilding Legacy is bound to change the way we think about liberal peacebuilding, its legacy and the accountability of donors, and international agencies to both global audiences and local communities. Sukanya Podder should be congratulated for shining such a clear analytical lens upon the centrality of work with children and young people for transformative peace and sustainable post-conflict futures. * Professor David Chandler, University of Westminster. Founding editor The Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding. *

Author Information

Sukanya Podder specializes in research and consultancy across various conflict-affected settings. Her research focuses on conflict actors, and conflict-affected populations including rebel groups, child soldiers, military peacekeepers, ex-combatants, and stateless populations. She has raised funding and conducted multi-country research projects, and developed courses on International Interventions for Peace and Statebuilding, Security Sector Reform (SSR), and Defence Engagement. She has consulted and advised INGOs; the UN and NATO in Liberia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Nepal. She has conducted capacity-building training for military partners on behalf of the UK Ministry of Defence in Namibia, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Bahrain, Malawi, and Egypt.

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