The EU as a global police officer?

Dept of International Development, Maynooth University

EU efforts at peacebuilding and alignment with SDG 16 https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal16 to promote peaceful and inclusive societies

Large scale international interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and South Sudan have not delivered peaceful states. 

Nor have international efforts turned Mali, CAR or other conflicted affected countries into stable and prosperous countries. Supporting peaceful and accountable states takes time, is difficult and suffers setbacks. Often the lack of progress has been based on ‘insufficient ownership’ of the peacebuilding process by local actors. The problem is that local ownership cannot be generated from the outside. Ultimately it depends on the political calculations made by local leaders, based on their values and interests. 

The fate of countries are in the hands of elites – not only those in charge of govts, but elites at all levels of society. Nudging them towards peace must start by understanding what incentives they have to either block or drive change. 

This means redoubling efforts to engage with all actors on the ground, aligning all instruments behind the single goal of supporting sustainable peace, and accepting that not all change is possible at the same time. 

Where efforts have been most successful has been when they have focused on building existing local capacity for peaceful interaction. The challenge for missions is encouraging how positive leadership at local level can be supported and integrated into the wider aspects of societal governance. 

 In 2017 the Chief of Policy and Best Practices in UN Dept of Peacekeeping Office and Field Support, New York called for a different approach to peacebuilding. Perhaps some of her thoughts are pertinent. 

She outlined her interest in rethinking the drivers of conflict such as the impact of inequality rather than poverty. 

How do we tackle the problem of lack of trust between the state and society? 

In future she advocated that more focus was needed on the subnational and building trust with the community. 

 
How can the EU align with SDG 16 https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal16 to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels? 

 

Sean McGearty Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation 

 Sean Mc Gearty has 25 years’ experience in peacebuilding as an analyst, policy advisor, trainer and evaluator and has worked in a number of fragile and conflict affected countries including Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, South Sudan, Cyprus and West Africa. He has a strong track record of working to support peace processes with expertise in conflict analysis, mediation and the facilitation of dialogue processes. He has worked with a range of actors in complex environments including political leaders, civil society, ex-combatants, victims and traditional and religious leaders. Sean has extensive experience in the design and delivery of training in mediation and conflict analysis and has delivered training on behalf of the EU in Armenia, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Brussels and Ireland. 
He has expertise in the evaluation of peacebuilding, reconciliation and governance initiatives and has conducted evaluations on behalf of the EU, the UNDP, the African Union, the United States Institute for Peace, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the International Fund For Ireland. He is a member of the Board of the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation (Ireland) https://glencree.ie/

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The EU as a global police officer?

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