ecdpm’s

Making policies work

Supporting peacebuilding

Cover - Yaseena Chiu-van ‘t Hoff

in times of change

a synthesis of 4 case studies

By Andrew Sherriff, Pauline Veron, Matthias Deneckere and Volker Hauck

September 2018
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................................iii
Acronyms .........................................................................................................................................................iii
Executive summary ......................................................................................................................................... iv
1. Purpose and approach of the study ...................................................................................................... 1
2. Trends in European policy and financial support to peacebuilding ....................................................... 2
2.1. International context of conflict and response ............................................................................ 2
2.2. Evolution of European policy support to peacebuilding ............................................................. 5
2.3. Evolution of European and international financial support to peacebuilding ............................. 9
3. What drives European support to international peacebuilding? .......................................................... 12
Geopolitical era .................................................................................................................................... 14
Domestic political culture and history .................................................................................................. 16
System of governance ......................................................................................................................... 19
Domestic events with an international dimension ............................................................................... 21
Major conflicts and instability ............................................................................................................... 22
Perspectives and influence of allies and other governments’ initiatives ............................................. 23
International commitments and norms relevant to responding to violent conflict ............................... 24
Conflict-related expertise ..................................................................................................................... 25
4. Key Findings ........................................................................................................................................ 26
4.1. Overall trends ........................................................................................................................... 26
4.2. Factors influencing support to peacebuilding ........................................................................... 27
5. Implications for future support to peacebuilding .................................................................................. 27
5.1. For the international peacebuilding community ........................................................................ 27
5.2. For the peacebuilding community in European countries ........................................................ 28
5.3. For philanthropic donors interested in peacebuilding............................................................... 29
5.4. Key areas of reflection for the peacebuilding community overall ............................................. 29
Annex 1. German, Swedish, UK and EU potential capabilities for peacebuilding ........................................ 31
Annex 2. Our methodology ............................................................................................................................ 35
Annex 3. Additional findings related to conflict, peace and security and peacebuilding as areas of ODA
spending .............................................................................................................................................. 37
Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................... 41

List of Figures

Figure 1: Trends on violent conflict and international responses .................................................................... 3

Figure 2: Policy frameworks relevant to peacebuilding and their evolution, 1991-2018 ................................. 7

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Figure 3: Disbursements by all OECD donors for conflict, peace and security and for civilian peacebuilding
(in billions of US dollars) ......................................................................................................................... 11

Figure 4: Factors that influence support to peacebuilding ............................................................................. 13

Figure 5: Disbursements by all OECD donors for purpose codes within conflict, peace and security (in
millions of US dollars) ............................................................................................................................. 37

Figure 6: Disbursements for civilian peacebuilding from Germany, Sweden, the UK and the EU (in millions
of US dollars) .......................................................................................................................................... 38

Figure 7: Channels of delivery for civilian peacebuilding for all donors (in millions of US dollars) ............... 39

Figure 8: Share of the different channels of delivery for civilian peacebuilding for all donors in 2007 ......... 40

Figure 9: Share of the different channels of delivery for civilian peacebuilding for all donors in 2016 ......... 40

List of Tables

Table 1: Spectrums of meaning in peacebuilding terminology ........................................................................ 5

Table 2: Top ten OECD donors to civilian peacebuilding, conflict prevention and resolution, 2007-2016 ..... 9

Table 3: ODA allocated to conflict, peace and security as a percentage of overall ODA ............................. 38

Table 4: ODA allocated to civilian peacebuilding as a percentage of overall ODA....................................... 39

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Acknowledgements
This initiative was funded by ECDPM through support of its institutional partners and Humanity United. It was
undertaken by a collaboration of ECDPM’s European External Affairs, and Security & Resilience
programmes. We are particularly grateful to Elise Ford and Alexandra Mairone of Humanity United for their
support, feedback and encouragement throughout the process. The authors additionally thank the more than
60 people we interviewed in connection with the case studies. We are grateful for the comments provided by
the peer reviewers, the detailed feedback on the case studies and first feedback on our identified eight factors
influencing support to peacebuilding from participants at our seminar in March 2018 (Sarah Bayne, Charlotte
Booth, Jörn Grävingholt, Henrik Hammargren, Joelly Jenny, Anna Penfrat, Sonya Reines-Djivanides, Mark
Segal, and Natasha Zupan). Their critical comments were very useful. Editorial support was provided by
Michelle Luijben and layout undertaken by Annette Powell, who also assisted in study logistics. Expert advice
on analysing ODA data was provided by Mariella Di Ciommo. Detailed internal peer review was provided by
Bruce Byiers, Virginia Mucchi, and Lidet Tadesse Shiferaw. Graphics were created by Robin van Hontem
and Yaseena Chiu-van’t Hoff. Former ECDPM staff members Greta Galeazzi, Cornelius Claeys and Damien
Helly were influential in the conceptualisation of the work and in the early drafts of the EU case study. All
errors, omissions and misinterpretations are those of the authors alone. We welcome feedback on the report
itself or its implications. Please send comments to Andrew Sherriff at [email protected]. Further details on the
initiative and other associated publications can be found at: http://www.ecdpm.org/changingpeacebuilding.

Acronyms
BMZ Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit
CSDP Common Security & Defence Policy
CRS Common Reporting System (OECD-DAC)
DAC Development Assistance Committee (OECD)
DEVCO International and Development Cooperation DG of the European Commission
DFID Department for International Development
DG Directorate-General of the European Commission
ECDPM European Centre for Development Policy Management
EEAS European External Action Service
EPRS European Parliament Research Service
EU European Union
FBA Folke Bernadotte Academy
GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH
HMG Her Majesty’s Government - UK
IEP Institute of Economics and Peace
MDG Millennium Development Goal
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
NGO non-governmental organisation
ODA official development assistance
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
SALW Small Arms and Light Weapons
SDG Sustainable Development Goal
SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
SIPRI Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
UN United Nations
UNSC United Nations Security Council
UK United Kingdom
US United States

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Executive summary
The world has experienced significant changes in the last few years, as a result of geopolitical and domestic
political dynamics that have evolved at a much faster pace. Europe has not been immune from these
changes. At the same time, violent conflict has been on the rise, requiring more effective responses. While
there has been much analysis on the characteristics of this changing world on the one hand, and on the need
to better tackle violent conflict on the other hand, there has been little reflection about how support from
European official actors for normative agendas like peacebuilding may evolve at the meta level. This is what
this study aimed to look at, by analysing past developments, amidst concerns that this support will diminish
or change.

Responding to violent conflict or the threat of violent conflict, either through support to peacebuilding or by
other means, is both a political and a bureaucratic choice by governments. Global policy commitments
and disbursements of funding for civilian peacebuilding have been rising in the last ten years as has
at a slower rate aid funding for peace and security overall. Yet it appears that support - and the quality
of support - to peacebuilding is in flux, as influential factors that usually take significant time to
evolve are all changing faster. This is true even among the most consistent supporters of peacebuilding
globally, and can be both a challenge and an opportunity.

Indeed, during the past 25 years, the international peacebuilding community has been broadly reliant
on a relatively small number of supporters, namely European countries and the EU institutions which
have played a highly influential role backing peacebuilding politically, through policy commitments and with
financial disbursements. This report synthesises findings of four case studies of European countries and
institutions active in peacebuilding support, namely Germany, Sweden, the UK and the EU institutions, which
together provided 47% of total peacebuilding-related ODA during the past 10 years.

While no choices appeared inevitable for any of the cases studied, in each we found eight recurring factors
that influenced support to peacebuilding throughout the 25-year period under analysis. By exploring these
factors, we can move beyond stock phrases like ‘lack of political will’, ‘capacity constraints’ or the
latest policy initiatives to gain a clearer sense of why and how commitments were adopted and the
degree of their implementation. Through our study, we identified eight key factors that will likely continue
to influence any future evolution in support to peacebuilding:

The geopolitical era

Official support for peacebuilding was almost non-existent before the end of the Cold War, and while
we are unlikely to return to an era of bipolar political competition, the current geopolitical flux will
profoundly affect political support to peacebuilding, as it has in the past. Though it is difficult to predict the
impact of these shifts, outcomes could include changing geographic priorities, attempts to co-opt
peacebuilding approaches, and recourse to ‘power politics’ to resolve conflicts with potentially smaller space
for non-governmental actors – while conflicts deemed non-strategic may be increasingly ignored.

The domestic political culture including history

The domestic political culture, history and the national ‘sense of place in the world’ are fundamental
characteristics that define support to peacebuilding. These did evolve in all of our case studies as
the domestic politics changed, albeit usually slowly. While support to peacebuilding has by no means been
a central consideration in this flux, the current changes in domestic political culture and the nature of national
politics have brought opportunities and threats not seen during the past 25 years.

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 The system of governance
The governance system defines the context and boundaries in which foreign and development
policy decisions are reached. This factor is rather different from the others because of its role in ‘filtering’ and
framing the political and bureaucratic choices that can be taken in support of peacebuilding. Systems of
governance do not easily bend to a peacebuilding logic which entails more bottom-up, flexible, speedy, long-
term, multi-actor, risk-taking and integrated action across government. They also explain why so much good
conflict policy has struggled to be implemented in practice.

Domestic events with an international dimension

These events (including terrorist attacks or irregular migration flows) - that touch upon or influence
the highest levels of national politics - have become more prevalent in the past five years and can partially
reset the foreign and development policy agenda, filtering down to influence support for peacebuilding.

Major conflicts and instability

Major conflicts or instability (in the neighbourhood or elsewhere) with geopolitical significance (e.g.
Iraq / Arab Spring) to or the direct involvement of one or more European countries (Afghanistan) may
influence overall conflict-related policy even if the conflicts themselves are geographically isolated.

Allies and other governments’ initiatives

While the perspectives and influence of allies, governmental partners and, in the case of the EU,
member states, appear to be less important than the first five factors, many policy commitments and
approaches to violent conflict can be traced back to policies and institutional innovations developed by others
they feel particularly close to. Policy and institutional innovations in countries such as the United Kingdom
and to a lesser extent Sweden are particularly picked up and somewhat mimicked by the other cases.

International commitments and norms

These commitments and norms relevant to responding to violent conflict, set at the UN or originating
from initiatives at the OECD-DAC level, also impact policy, concepts and framing. The case countries and
EU institutions themselves also played a role in supporting (often heavily) the creation of these norms, but
nevertheless we regard this as a less important factor in shaping support to peacebuilding that the previously
mentioned ones.

Conflict-related expertise
The rise of non-military and non-diplomatic responses to conflict on national and international
agendas has brought significant investment and increases in conflict-related expertise and knowledge. It is
no coincidence that in Germany, Sweden, the UK and the EU, expertise and networks outside government,
whether in academia, think tanks or specialist NGOs and wider civil society, were among the most influential
and respected globally.

Responding to change
We contend that, taken together, these eight factors explain why after 25 years of commitments,
peacebuilding is not yet at the heart of foreign and development policy decisions but still subject to their
dominant overarching trends. As the world moves towards a new geopolitical order, and domestic
politics evolve more rapidly, the international peacebuilding community will likely face significant
change in the nature of support. The peacebuilding community will need to raise its game to promote
new methods, approaches and champions to ensure the quality of support to peacebuilding is not
undermined. This will require engaging societies and opinion formers in different ways. The report concludes
with key areas for reflection for the peacebuilding community overall to respond to these challenges.

v
1. Purpose and approach of the study
Today’s need for effective responses to rising violent conflict coincides with the most significant
changes in the global and European environment in decades. As the world changes, there may rightly
be concern that support for normative agendas like peacebuilding 1 will diminish. Yet, for the past 25 years
support for international peacebuilding has not been static. It has evolved politically, institutionally, financially
and in policy terms. There remains, however, little independent policy analysis of what has driven
those changes, whether in terms of individual countries, donors or institutions. As part of ECDPM’s work on
the evolution of European foreign and development policy, we have decided to map those changes.

This study has three aims:

• It analyses trends in policy and financial support to peacebuilding based on four case studies:
Germany, Sweden, UK and the EU institutions.
• It identifies the most significant and consistent factors driving change and continuity over time in
European support for peacebuilding.
• In light of these trends and factors, it analyses implications for future support to international
peacebuilding.

During the past 25 years, a small group of European countries and the EU institutions have played a central
and highly influential role in the international system that supports peacebuilding politically, through policy
commitments and with financial disbursements. Indeed, the role of these actors has been so great that any
evolution or change in their support to peacebuilding would have significant implications for the global system
of response to violent conflict. Therefore, an analysis of the drivers of change within these countries and
institutions, particularly as they affect peacebuilding support globally, is both necessary and urgent for those
working in and outside governments and institutions concerned with responding to violent conflict (regardless
of whether they self-identify as part of a ‘peacebuilding community’ 2).

The case studies were selected following initial, wider research for several primary reasons:
• their consistent explicit policies and commitments to respond to violent conflict with clear peacebuilding
aspects;
• their relative importance in what constitutes the ‘European contribution’ to the global response to
violent conflict; and
• their comparatively large financial commitment (in comparison to other European and global actors)
towards international peacebuilding as measured by official development assistance (ODA) criteria,
both individually and collectively. 3

Our study analyses support to peacebuilding at the level of governmental institutions and the relation of
governmental institutions to non-governmental actors. Rather than assessing the quality, effectiveness or
impact of peacebuilding policies and programmes, we seek to map the evolution of the political and policy
framing of peacebuilding, as well as to identify institutional organisational and meta-level global funding
trends for peacebuilding activities. This leads us to focus on official commitments at the overall foreign and
development policy levels. There we pay particular attention to peace, security and development policies, as

1 For an explanation of the working definition of peacebuilding used in this report and the methodology, see annex 2.
2 The ‘peacebuilding community’ is understood to be made up of (i) organisations, such as international NGOs, think
tanks and research institutions, for which peacebuilding or peacebuilding approaches are a clear part of their primary
mandate, and (ii) individuals who self-identify with peacebuilding approaches and may work for (inter)governmental
or non-governmental organisations that also self-identify with peacebuilding approaches.
3 The subjects of our four case studies together provided almost half of all ODA to peacebuilding in the past 10 years
(2007 to 2016) (see Table 2). Annex 1 presents the potential capabilities for peacebuilding of each of the four cases.

1
well as institutional innovations (within governments) directly relevant to peacebuilding. Our approach is to
analyse why things are, rather than what they ‘should’ be or what would be ideal or optimal for
peacebuilding. Our starting point, therefore, was the political and bureaucratic context within each of the
case studies, rather than conflict contexts in which they intervened or the implementation of these policy
choices either continentally (e.g., in Africa), regionally (e.g., in the Middle East) or in a specific country (e.g.,
Syria).

This study goes beyond terms like ‘political will’ and ‘capacity constraints’ to examine the factors
that have influenced support for peacebuilding within the wider domain of foreign and development
policy. The study also helps trace the limitations of current approaches. Its intention, thus, is to offer a fresh
perspective and framing of the issues, based on independent policy analysis by an institution outside the
peacebuilding ‘community’.

We look at the evolution of support to peacebuilding from the late 1990s up to today, with a particular focus
on the past ten years. This longer-term perspective is born not out of a desire to engage in historical analysis,
but rather as an attempt to understand change. This is made possible by a large body of experience derived
from almost 25 years of political choices, policy commitments, institutional innovations and funding
mechanisms which have had significant global influence on policy responses to violent conflict and
specifically on support to peacebuilding. Detailed perspectives on policy evolution, changing narratives,
institutional set-ups and case-specific drivers of change are presented in the comprehensive case study
documents, and are not repeated here. 4

It is important in these times of accelerating global and national change dynamics to pose new questions
to those promoting peacebuilding. How might they position themselves and engage in an international order
that is seeing dramatic shifts?

2. Trends in European policy and financial support to

peacebuilding

2.1. International context of conflict and response

The world has seen an increase in violent conflict since 2014, following a trend of decline since the end
of the Cold War (See Figure 1). Conflict and fragility in the Middle East, North Africa, the Sahel and the Horn
of Africa have led to unprecedented levels of forced displacement since the end of the Second World War.
These developments have driven an increase in humanitarian spending. Yet, while analysis indicates that
the nature of conflict and violence is changing and old tools and approaches need rejuvenation, funding for
peacebuilding, while increasing, actually remains low. This is true particularly when compared to both
humanitarian aid and total development assistance and - even more so - to the cost of war and military
expenditure (IEP, 2017; Vernon, 2017; International Alert, 2017; UN and World Bank, 2018). Moreover, as
space for civil society declines in much of the world, 5 room for non-state-centred approaches to peace
and security is being further curtailed and challenged. Figure 1 presents global trends on violent conflict, the
political environment and governance alongside trends in funding for aid, humanitarian assistance and
peacebuilding.

4
The case studies will be launched from October to December 2018 and available on ECDPM’s website:
http://www.ecdpm.org/changingpeacebuilding
5 While the majority of countries with a ‘repressed’ or ‘closed’ civic space are in Africa and Asia, the CIVICUS Monitor
reports a “burgeoning civic space problem in the EU”, with half of EU member states having a ‘narrowed’ civic space
(CIVICUS, 2017).

2
Figure 1: Trends on violent conflict and international responses

3
4
2.2. Evolution of European policy support to peacebuilding

While several concepts and associated terms enter and leave policy circles at national, EU and multilateral
levels, 'peacebuilding' has been used consistently in the past 20 years. It is certainly a less prominent term
now than it once was, but it has nevertheless achieved more policy adherence than other terms that once
enjoyed popularity with civil society and academia, such as conflict transformation.

Nonetheless, the meaning and scope of peacebuilding, particularly in policy formulation and
implementation, remains ambiguous. Variations in definitions and understandings of peacebuilding can
be identified along a number of spectrums, as illustrated in Table 1. It is now widely acknowledged that the
transition from conflict to peace is seldom linear, but often marked by relapses into violence. Peacebuilding
in this sense is understood to cover efforts before, during and after violent conflict (see UN Security Council
Resolution 2282 and General Assembly Resolution 70/262). In addition, while earlier peacebuilding practices
were often based on a ‘liberal peace model’ geared towards pursuit of rapid democratisation, free and
globalised markets and rule of law through external intervention, the current praxis tends to favour more
locally grounded and participatory approaches to peacebuilding.

Table 1: Spectrums of meaning in peacebuilding terminology

Source: Schirch, 2008, p. 4.

Figure 2 below shows multilateral and bilateral policy developments relevant to peacebuilding over the past
20 years. In Europe, peacebuilding as both an approach and a goal in responding to violent conflict has had
to share space with other narratives and concepts related to peace and security. Some of these have
coexisted relatively harmoniously. For example, in Germany, the term ‘peacebuilding’ has traditionally been
used in close connection with ‘crisis prevention’ and ‘conflict resolution’. In Sweden, ‘human security’, ‘conflict
prevention’ and, most recently, ‘sustaining peace’ are concepts that resonate strongly, while ‘stability’ or
‘structural stability’ has gained ground in the UK. Other concepts produce more friction, either because they
put more emphasis on the ‘state’ rather than society or because they emanate from national interests rather
than collective security concerns or are more short-term than long-term. Concepts like ‘stabilisation’,
‘statebuilding’, ‘countering violent extremism’, ‘the security-development nexus’ and ‘crisis management’
have gained traction particularly in the UK and the EU.

5
In light of the changing global political dynamics the world is witnessing today, several European countries
recently updated their policies and commitments regarding responses to violent conflict. The UK,
Sweden, Germany and the EU Institutions have all released new relevant policies since 2015.6 All these
documents include peace-related commitments, either within stated foreign and development policies or in
new or revised policies specific to violent conflict. These policies and documents indicate a clear trend
towards greater appreciation of security actors, the need for non-state and state actors to work
together and an increasing focus on the nexus between global and national security.

The impetus for developing new conflict policies at both the EU and the national level seems to have come
from events and conflicts of geopolitical significance. Within the UN, too, there have been renewed initiatives,
led by Sweden and the UN Security Council, to put conflict prevention back on the agenda. This resulted in
UN Security Council Resolution 2282 on ‘sustaining peace’ (UNSC, 2016, p. 1), which was adopted by the
General Assembly as well. Yet few analysts would suggest that there has been a surge in popular, political
or diplomatic support to implement peacebuilding approaches.

These recent examples of bilateral and multilateral policy frameworks are not the first attempts to galvanise
more effective responses to violent conflict. Most of these policies (see figure 2) restate and reformulate
existing commitments, which themselves were only partially implemented. They have thus been met with
some scepticism by the peacebuilding community. And while there has been significant repackaging and
reuse of concepts such as ‘integrated’ and ‘comprehensive’ to describe approaches to violent conflict,
policies have not necessarily become more complex or encompassing.

6
The UK released the ‘National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015’ see (HM, 2015).
The EU published its ‘Global Strategy for the EU’s Foreign and Security Policy’ in 2016 (European Union, 2016). In
2017, Sweden produced its new ‘Strategy for Sustainable Peace 2017-2022’ (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2017). That
same year, Germany released its ‘Guidelines on Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace’ in 2017
(Federal Government of Germany 2017).

6
Figure 2: Policy frameworks relevant to peacebuilding and their evolution, 1991-2018

7
8
2.3. Evolution of European and international financial support to
peacebuilding

Despite global commitments, the number of donor countries investing significantly in peacebuilding remains
relatively small. Our four cases, alongside the United States and Norway, have been among the largest and
most consistent supporters of civilian peacebuilding since 2007 (Table 2). The Netherlands, Switzerland and
Denmark are other important contributors. 7

Table 2: Top ten OECD donors to civilian peacebuilding, conflict prevention and resolution, 2007-2016
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Average
rank
(rounded
to top 10)

United 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1
States ($349m) ($299m)

United 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 2 1 2
Kingdom ($115m) ($483m)

Germany 4 4 4 2 2 2 3 2 4 2 3
($77m) ($335m)

EU 8 3 3 5 4 3 2 3 3 4 4
institutions ($35m) ($241m)

Norway 3 5 5 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
($96m) ($92m)

Sweden 7 7 6 7 6 6 6 6 6 6 6
($51m) ($79m)

Netherlands 9 8 9 9 7 8 7 7 7 7 7
($31m) ($59m)

Switzerland 6 6 7 12 9 10 8 8 8 8 8
($66m) ($53m)

Denmark 14 18 16 10 10 9 9 9 10 9 9
($14m) ($46m)

United 21 17 13 14 11 11 10 10 9 11 10 =
Nations ($2m) ($30m)

Canada 18 11 8 8 13 14 14 16 12 13 10 =
($6m) ($18m)
Source: ECDPM analysis from OECD figures, CRS code 15220, in millions of US dollars. Gross disbursements in
constant 2016 prices.

7 In order to analyse financial resources for peacebuilding from OECD donors, we used the Creditor Reporting System
(CRS), and more specifically codes 152 ‘conflict, peace and security’ and its sub-code 15220 ‘civilian peacebuilding,
conflict prevention and resolution’. More details about the methodology can be found in annex 2.

9
Outside the top ten contributors, donors spend significantly less on peacebuilding. Indeed, in 2016, the 22
donors outside of the top ten represented only about 8% of total spending on peacebuilding. The
international peacebuilding community thus appears broadly reliant on a relatively small number of
donors, whose contributions have remained stable for at least the past ten years. Germany, Sweden,
the UK and the EU institutions provided 47% of total peacebuilding-related ODA during the past ten years.
When adding disbursements from Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark, we find that
‘European’ support amounted to 63% of all ODA for peacebuilding. That said, reliance on a small number of
governmental funders points to a vulnerability of the peacebuilding community to potential changes or shifts
in the politics and policies of these countries. Further, within the top ten, there are substantial differences: in
2016 the largest contributor, the UK, gave more than ten times the amount of the ninth-ranking Denmark.

From 2007 to 2016 there was an increase in ODA on ‘conflict, peace and security’. Although there were
fluctuations from year to year, since 2008 total contributions to this area have not fallen below US $2.7 billion
(see Figure 3). Yet, despite the rise of peace and security as a policy priority of Western donors, ‘conflict,
peace and security’ is still a relatively small area of ODA spending. It represents on average just 2% of total
aid from OECD donors, and from OECD-DAC members specifically.

Figure 3 shows that global disbursements for ‘conflict, peace and security’ rose by 61% from 2007 to 2016,
reaching a peak in 2009 after an increase of US $1 billion from 2007 to 2008 alone. Funding declined
thereafter, to US $2.7 billion in 2012, before rising again to reach $3.4 billion in 2016.

Increased funding was particularly evident for the EU institutions (403%), the UK (302%) and Germany
(273%), while Sweden’s disbursements under this area rose at the much lower rate of 24%. Interestingly,
over the same period (2007-2016), military expenditure increased by 8% in Germany and fell both in Sweden
and in the UK, by 1% and 12%, respectively (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2018).
Military expenditures, though far exceeding ODA disbursements for conflict, peace and security (for the
evolution of these disbursements see the four case studies), have remained rather stable in our case studies
over the past ten years. In contrast, ODA for conflict, peace and security has increased exponentially.

Within these overall flows, ‘civilian peacebuilding, conflict prevention and resolution’, a subsection of
conflict, peace and security, grew by 79% from 2007 to 2016, yet a dip was registered in 2011-2012, followed
by a rise, reaching US $1.9 billion in 2016 (about 1% of total aid) (Figure 3). Over the same period, total ODA
increased by 65%.

Figure 3 also shows 2016 as the highest year in the past ten for spending on peacebuilding. We see that
spending almost doubled during the past ten years. These ODA trends tell us that, in the current environment,
resources are available and on the increase, both in terms of overall ODA and ODA devoted specifically to
peace and security, including peacebuilding. Among our case studies, increased disbursements for civilian
peacebuilding, conflict prevention and resolution were particularly evident for the EU (a 577% increase from
2007 to 2016), the UK (a 320% increase) and Germany (a 335% increase), whereas in Sweden the increase
was ‘only’ 55% (Figure 6 in annex 3).

10
Figure 3: Disbursements by all OECD donors for conflict, peace and security and for civilian peacebuilding (in billions
of US dollars)

The three main channels of delivery for peacebuilding ODA disbursements in the last decade have been
1) public sector, 2) multilateral organisations and 3) NGOs and civil society. The public sector channel has
experienced ups and downs from 2007 to 2016, and while it has increased in absolute terms, its share among
the different channels has decreased from 31% to 23%. The share of peacebuilding ODA channelled through
multilateral organisations has remained fairly constant from 2007 to 2016 (although it has increased by 156%
in absolute terms). In absolute terms, disbursements channelled through NGOs and civil society have been
constant yet their share as a channel of delivery has decreased from 30% to 21% from 2007 to 2016. More
details about channels of delivery can be found in annex 3.

Another avenue of financial support is private foundations’ philanthropic spending on peace and
security, which reached $350.7 million in 2015, of which $20.5 million was categorised explicitly as
peacebuilding albeit using different criteria. This spending is significant, yet is considerably less than what
official donors disbursed collectively or individually. For example, the top 10 peace and security foundation
funders awarded $171,1 million in 2015 ($17,1 million per funder on average - Foundation Center and the
Peace and Security Funders Group, 2018) 8 whereas the top 10 OECD donors for conflict, peace and security
disbursed $2,603 million in 2015 ($260,3 million on average).

In sum, the increase in resources for peace and security in general and peacebuilding more
specifically is a positive development and shows that the availability of resources has been on the
increase. Although ODA spending for conflict, peace and security – and for peacebuilding – has remained
relatively low compared to other areas (2% of total aid compared to 7% for education, 15% for economic
infrastructures or 9% for government and civil society), the fact that peacebuilding funding rose significantly
in our four case studies is an important finding (see annex 3 and for more details on disbursements in each
of the countries, see the detailed case studies).

8 A significant degree of caution should be used on the figure for ‘peacebuilding’ as if an encompassing definition of
the term is used then a considerable part of the $350.7 million rather than just $20,5 million could be classified as
peacebuilding.

11
3. What drives European support to international
peacebuilding?
By ‘political’ we mean that decisions are made by politicians at the head of government and at the ministerial
level. By ‘bureaucratic’ we refer to the way an administrative system chooses to prioritise and interpret
political and policy choices and how it organises itself to follow through on the political choices made.

What factors influenced the political and bureaucratic choices made in our four case studies from Germany,
Sweden, the United Kingdom and the European Union institutions? The four cases revealed a number of
important differences, but also some broadly similar patterns and issues. While no choices appeared
inevitable for any of the cases studied, in each we found eight recurring factors that influenced the margins
of manoeuvre for political and bureaucratic choices. By exploring these factors, we can move beyond stock
phrases like ‘lack of political will’ and ‘capacity constraints’ to gain a clearer sense of why and how
policy commitments were adopted and the degree of the vigour influencing their implementation.

The eight factors that influenced support to peacebuilding throughout the 25-year period under analysis
derived from the four case studies are the following (see also Figure 4):

• geopolitical era;
• domestic political culture including history;
• system of governance;
• domestic events with an international dimension;
• major conflicts and instability;
• allies and other governments’ initiatives;
• international commitments and norms; and
• conflict-related expertise.

We further contend that these factors will likely continue to influence any future evolution in support
to peacebuilding. In our qualitative judgment from the research, the eight factors do not carry equal weight
in determining support to peacebuilding, nor are they neat, distinct areas with hard boundaries. Rather, they
represent aspects that blend into and influence each other.

12
Figure 4: Factors that influence support to peacebuilding

13
Figure 4 depicts the eight factors, suggesting how they may be linked and blend. All the factors influence the
system of governance, which itself imposes some boundaries on the choices made at the highest political
and bureaucratic levels. The system of governance itself is the third factor that enables or limits support to
peacebuilding. The political and bureaucratic choices made are reflected in foreign and development policy
and in other policy priorities, as well as in conflict-related policies and the concepts used to describe
responses to conflict (usually as a subcategory of foreign and development policy). These choices, once
made, impact the overall nature and level of support to peacebuilding.

Geopolitical era

The first influencing factor is the geopolitical era in contemporary history. Our analysis identifies it as the
most significant factor as it has the ability to set the tone and margins for manoeuvre for government priorities
and foreign and development policy overall. In the past 20 years, three distinct periods can be distinguished
that are relevant to support for peacebuilding: the post-Cold War era (1990-2001), the Global War on Terror
(2001-2011) and the shifting geopolitical order (2011-present).

Post-Cold War era (1990-2001)

The immediate post-Cold War era brought optimism that a liberal international order would prevail, alongside
a belief that greater effort should be made to prevent and resolve violent conflict. During the Cold War, foreign
and even development policy was used as a vehicle for geopolitical competition, and different world views
were promoted through active proxy wars and conflicts. The post-Cold War era offered opportunities for
action aimed at the creation of global public goods, such as a more peaceful world and opened up political
and financial space for support to peacebuilding. The increasing occurrence of intra-state conflict - rather
than inter-state wars - in this era, also led to more ‘interventionist’ approaches to peace that aimed to take
into account the importance of domestic political, socio-economic and cultural institutions in addressing the
root causes of violent conflict (see e.g. the 1992 UN Agenda for Peace). Non-violent, multi-actor responses
to violent conflict thus moved from the very margins of foreign and development policy increasingly to the
mainstream.

The end of the Cold War had a particular impact on Germany and the EU. Released from the geostrategic
gridlock of the bipolar world order that had dominated the second half of the twentieth century, the reunified
Germany was able to redefine its international role. Specifically, German involvement in NATO operations
in Kosovo in the late 1990s and later in Afghanistan signalled a gradual shift away from the doctrine of
‘renouncement of war’ that had determined German foreign policy since the Second World War (Gießmann,
2004). It also triggered a process of reflection on how a more engaged foreign policy could be reconciled
with Germany’s constitutional commitment to promoting peace worldwide. This led, ultimately, to adoption
and operationalisation of a German crisis prevention and peacebuilding policy (Bundesregierung, 2000).

Europe’s inability to prevent conflict in the Balkans and the genocide in Rwanda similarly played a major part
in the advent of a stronger peacebuilding and conflict prevention orientation in the EU. Thus, the 2001
European Commission communication on conflict prevention and the EU Programme for the Prevention of
Violent Conflicts (the ‘Gothenburg Programme’) set an ambitious agenda for a more central position for
conflict prevention in the EU’s external action. Conflict prevention was to be mainstreamed in EU
development programming. In parallel, the 2000s saw the operationalisation of the EU’s Common Security
and Defence Policy (CSDP), to allow the Union to act more autonomously on matters of peace and security
in its neighbouring regions, albeit only with unanimous approval of member states. Introduction of the CSDP
represented an important milestone in making the EU a more politically-engaged actor in the broad domain
of peace and security in the new geopolitical order. That said, conflict prevention and peacebuilding were not

14
usually the main priority of CSDP operations. Rather, CSDP mandates tended to focus on building civilian
and military security and justice sector capacities at the state level.

Global War on Terror (2001-2011)

A second major period was marked with the advent of the ‘Global War on Terror’ following the 9/11 attacks
in the United States. Though perhaps not truly global, the ‘War on Terror’ did have a significant impact on
political and bureaucratic choices throughout the world. In all of the cases analysed, it brought security
considerations more to the fore in foreign and development policy. Yet, many ideas regarding the importance
of responding to conflict non-violently endured, including approaches directly inspired by earlier thinking and
policy relevant to peacebuilding from the preceding period.

Despite a general scepticism regarding the Global War on Terrorism among the non-governmental
peacebuilding community, it did help put issues of violent conflict, fragility and peace more centrally on
European foreign policy agendas. Indeed, without it, it is unlikely that peacebuilding and peaceful responses
to conflict would have been so high on foreign and development policy agendas and increasingly seen as a
legitimate area for spending. Starting in 2009, for instance, the UK introduced a new focus on fragile states,
promising to allocate half of its ODA to these countries (the pledge was officially implemented in 2015). This
was accompanied by an emphasis on building peaceful states and societies, as evident in the work of the
UK Department for International Development (DFID). Likewise, in Germany an increased focus on
international security, global conflict and state fragility led the development ministry to formulate a strategy
for peacebuilding, including guidelines for making development aid more conflict-sensitive and peace-
oriented (BMZ, 2005). In parallel, the German Ministry of Defence introduced the notion of ‘networked
security’ in policy discourse, reflecting an emerging understanding of the added value of civil-military
coordination in responding to different phases of a conflict cycle (Wittkowsky and Meierjohann, 2011).

Nevertheless, the effects of the Global War on Terrorism differed quite markedly in Germany, Sweden, the
UK and the EU, underlining that responses were the product of conscious political choices, fed by different
narratives and priorities. In the UK, the preferred approach since the end of the 2000s has been
‘stabilisation’, a combination of integrated military and civilian actions. Similarly, Sweden’s 2008 strategy for
participation in peace support and security-building operations fosters integration of military and civil
elements. Here, however, conflict prevention measures, mediation and dialogue, which are traditional tools
of Swedish engagement, are more prominent than in the UK. Finally, the Global War on Terror had a major
impact on EU decision-making, as it created political momentum within the Union to define common security
interests and to formulate an approach to pursue these, leading to the 2003 European Security Strategy.
While this strategy focused largely on traditional security threats, such as international terrorism and weapons
of mass destruction, it also committed the EU to advancing ‘effective multilateralism’ and promoting a liberal
international order. In development policy, too, a focus on ‘fragility’ and the ‘security-development nexus’
gained traction in various EU policy documents. Yet, although the EU increased its funding to conflict-affected
countries, this did not bring about a real paradigm shift in approaches to conflict prevention and peacebuilding
(ADE, 2011).

Shifting geopolitical order (2011-present)

Politicians, analysts and commentators have argued recently that international relations are on the verge
of a significant geopolitical transition. Rising global powers such as China and the increased
assertiveness of Russia are said to form a challenge to the dominance of the Western-led liberal international
order. At the same time, the Trump presidency in the United States and Brexit present major disruptions of
the status quo from within the West. This suggests that we may be witnessing a transition from the post-Cold

15
War unipolar world order to a multipolar one, where competition between global powers is increasingly
common and old alliances, particularly Western ones, are more fragile. In addition, the impact of technology,
cyber warfare and hybrid threats are features of the new global era and call for new tools and approaches.

In light of such global shifts, concerns have been expressed by a number of analysts about the erosion of
the rules-based international order and multilateralist approaches of the past 50 years (see, Foreign
Affairs, 2018, & Roth M., & Ulbert C, 2018). These changes will likely influence responses to violent conflict,
and hence support to peacebuilding in the years to come. In Sweden, for instance, an increasingly assertive
Russia has driven various policy changes. This traditionally non-aligned country, strongly attached to non-
participation in military alliances, has reactivated conscription and increased its defence budget. It is
furthermore reconsidering its position regarding NATO membership. In parallel, threats to the international
order seem to have incentivised Sweden to engage even more in international fora, including on
peacebuilding issues. The UK sees the new challenges on the international stage primarily through the lens
of its own national security. The underlying idea here is that conflict and insecurity abroad impact security at
home. In Germany, policy no longer frames peacebuilding as merely a tool to project values. Rather, it is
also presented as a means to advance national interests, such as protecting its citizens and territorial
integrity, and stemming irregular migration and displacement (Federal Government of Germany, 2017). In
the EU, the emerging focus on ‘resilience’ in external action has been described as a less ambitious, more
pragmatic alternative that prioritises stability over transformative peacebuilding in a world that is becoming
less predictable (Wagner and Anholt, 2016).

At the same time, the loosening ties between the EU and the Anglo-Saxon world has been a significant driver
of renewed cooperation within Europe on matters of security and defence. Doubts about the US commitment
to NATO and worries regarding the consequences of Brexit (given the UK’s usual reluctance to support EU
cooperation on defence matters) have opened space for the remaining EU member states to explore deeper
military cooperation. For example, joint operational planning and capability development are now gaining
increasing consideration. This trend, if it continues, could change the face of EU external action, as Europe
is traditionally associated with ‘soft power’ tools such as enlargement, trade and development aid.

The conclusion is that the changing geopolitical environment significantly impacts the margins of manoeuvre,
the levels of ambition and the framing of support for peacebuilding within European foreign and development
policy. Official support for peacebuilding was almost non-existent before the end of the Cold War, and while
we are unlikely to return to an era of bipolar political competition, the current geopolitical flux will profoundly
affect political support to peacebuilding, as it has in the past. Though difficult to predict the impact of these
shifts, outcomes could include changing geographic priorities, attempts to co-opt peacebuilding
approaches, and recourse to ‘power politics’ to resolve conflicts with little space for non-
governmental actors – while conflicts deemed non-strategic may be increasingly ignored.

Domestic political culture and history

As the preceding section alludes to, the second factor framing peacebuilding responses is the domestic
political culture and ‘sense of place’ in the world. While support to international peacebuilding is by
definition undertaken outside the domestic political realm, these characteristics nonetheless explain why
such support has become a priority for some and how it is entwined with their own identity and history. This
factor explains why support to peacebuilding differs so markedly even among Western European countries,
for example, between France and Sweden.

Sweden is a small, non-aligned European country with a strong identity as a peaceful actor that does not
participate in military alliances. This creates space for a value-based approach to peace policy and to its

16
wider foreign and development policy. The country also has a strong tradition of support to multilateralism
and collective security and a belief that adherence to international norms benefits both national and global
security. These perspectives, derived from Sweden’s history and sense of its place in the world, have a huge
impact on how Sweden promotes and implements its support to peacebuilding. Longstanding, stable and
generous development assistance and active engagement on the global and European scene regarding
values and a normative agenda are clear Swedish characteristics. While successive initiatives and focuses
can be identified in relation to responding to conflict, depending on the political parties in power at any
particular time, Sweden’s core tenants have changed little over the past 50 years.

Following the Second World War, Germany developed a strong non-interventionist tradition and a
downplayed role as a foreign policy actor in its own right. Influential elements of German political culture
have remained strongly pacifist in orientation, as reflected in the country’s overall foreign policy. Germany
has sought to immerse itself in a united Europe and to be a good multilateral player. Despite being a major
economic power, its foreign and defence policy remained modest until recently. Today’s shifting global power
balances have made Germany increasingly responsive to calls to provide leadership within Europe and on
the global scene, regarding peace, security and development and as a defender of multilateralism and the
rules-based international order (see Federal Government of Germany, 2017).

The UK has a global political and colonial history, a nuclear and military power and a permanent seat at the
UN Security Council. It has a self-designated ‘special relationship’ with the United States, which is the only
superpower of the post-Cold War era. The UK has always seen itself as a global power, promoting liberal
and democratic values as well as its own security and economic interests. Though the UK’s relationship with
the EU has never been entirely harmonious, few expected Brexit to become a reality three years ago. UK
politics is more adversarial than consensual. An interventionist and ‘political’ foreign, defence and
development policy are characteristic of the UK’s view of its place in the world. The UK also displays a
boldness in developing and championing new approaches and reliance on knowledge and expertise in
responding to violent conflict. Also, more often than not, a majority one-party government has enjoyed
significant autonomy in setting the UK foreign and development policy agenda. 9

The EU is both a supranational and an intergovernmental entity. Since its creation, it has projected itself as
a promoter of peace and of economic well-being, both among its member states and across European
societies more broadly. The EU has pursued a policy of enlargement (taking in new members) as a way to
foster peace and stability on the continent, particularly through promotion of free trade and democratic reform.
While its development policy dates back to the Union’s creation in the 1950s, foreign and security policy are
newer elements. These remain very much works in progress in European integration. The EU has
traditionally prioritised commercial and economic interests through a robust and influential trade policy, while
also supporting ‘European’ values such as conflict prevention and a strong commitment to multilateralism
(as it is itself a product of these). While the changing global environment and much more difficult transatlantic
relations as well as Brexit have pushed the EU to become more of a security if not military actor, the
perception of the EU as a peace project focused on civilian ‘soft power’ remains very much alive. In foreign
and external aid policy, the EU institutions struggle to connect with European citizens and reconcile member
states’ differing interests, levels of ambition, geographic and thematic priorities and strategic cultures.

Our case studies demonstrated that political culture and ‘sense of place’ in the world are usually slow to
evolve and difficult to influence. Yet, they form the bedrock of political decision-making regarding foreign

9 The start of the New Labour period in the 1990s brought a number of innovations, such as creation of DFID and an
increased focus on conflict prevention as part of development policy. Since 2010, under the Conservative
government, a security focus has become more dominant and explicit, evidenced by the establishment of the National
Security Council.

17
and development policy and shape the available margins of manoeuvre in decision-making. They explain,
for example, why Sweden’s and Germany’s commitment to peacebuilding has transcended changes of
government. They also explain why Germany’s security commitments have always had strong civilian rather
than military elements. Political culture and sense of place similarly drive the centrality of national interests
in UK foreign and development policy, as well as certain normative values in the UK’s approach to violent
conflict. They explain why the UK has been unafraid to pursue military and interventionist approaches under
governments led by different political parties. The EU’s perception of itself as a civilian power with a strong
normative value-based agenda indicates why support to peacebuilding and conflict prevention has never
been fundamentally questioned, although it has coincided with other approaches and support levels have
fluctuated over time.

Yet, recent years have proven that political culture and sense of place can change. This opens the possibility
for both positive and negative evolution in support to peacebuilding. The UK’s place in the world is certainly
changing. Indeed, Brexit has made the country’s future position a topic of vigorous debate. Significantly
different views are heard within the body politic, across political parties and throughout society on what its
future should entail.10

The EU, which will lose a supporter of peacebuilding after Brexit, has made the political choice to increase
its security role through traditional security means. Yet, the EU’s civilian identity and soft power approach
and the constituency behind it will not disappear. Germany, both within Europe and domestically, is acting
on the need to develop a more robust and engaged foreign policy to match its strong global economic role.
It has shown moral leadership, too, in recent years on issues such as responding to irregular migration by
being more welcoming of refugees to Europe, although this has not been without controversy. Still, the recent
rise of right-wing populism in the country is already having considerable impact on the political debate
regarding migration as well as on aid and international cooperation. More continuity is found in Sweden,
though the political landscape there too is changing, with the rise of a more right-wing populist party. That
party does not share the country’s traditional worldview and has mobilised negative public opinion on issues
such as migration. This was quite clear in the run-up to the September 2018 election, as the Sweden
Democrats managed to impose their electoral agenda and law, order and immigration took over from the
economy and public services as the main issues at stake, pushing the other parties to toughen up their
stance (Fondation Robert Schuman, 2018).11 Indeed, while initially welcoming, Sweden has now enacted
tough migration and asylum policies. As a result, the political spectrum in Sweden also seems to have
evolved.

To conclude, national political culture and sense of place in the world are fundamental characteristics that
define support to peacebuilding. These did evolve in all of our case studies as the world around them
changed, albeit slowly. While support to peacebuilding has by no means been a central consideration
in this flux, the current changes have brought opportunities and threats not seen during the past 25
years. Understanding, engaging and adapting to this situation will present significant challenges for the
peacebuilding community.

10 At another level, some of the political choices made by UK governments, for example, to increase its aid budget to
0.7% of national income, have been met with a degree of hostility within the country. In the UK, aid spending does
not enjoy the same level of social consensus and support as, for example, in Sweden where aid contributions are
part of the ‘social DNA’. This example does demonstrate that choices that are not fully owned across society can
nonetheless be made where political leadership is strong and an effective coalition is mobilised.
11 Although the party achieved a lower score than forecast by the polls (17.5% compared to the expected 20 to 30%),
its score has grown by 4.7% since the last elections, strengthening its position as the country’s third biggest party.

18
 System of governance

The third factor framing peacebuilding support is the system of governance, both in general terms and in
relation to foreign and development policy specifically. The governance system defines the context in which
foreign and development policy decisions are reached and implemented. This factor is rather different from
the others because of its role in ‘filtering’ and framing the political and bureaucratic choices that can be taken
in support of peacebuilding (see Figure 4).

A clear illustration of this filtering and framing is the call for ‘integrated’, ‘comprehensive’ or ‘whole-of-
government’ approaches in peacebuilding and conflict response policies found in all of our case studies.
This reflects recognition of peacebuilding as a complex domain that cuts across foreign, security,
development and other policy domains, thus requiring cross-ministry or cross-sector collaboration of
government institutions. In practice, whole-of-government approaches have proven extremely difficult to
realise in all of the cases studied, despite numerous restatements and repackaging of policy commitments
over the past 20 years. Indeed, success in shaping comprehensive action for peacebuilding is severely
challenged by systems of governance that are not designed to work in an integrative way.

The constitutional autonomy of ministries in Germany and the independence of government agencies and
federal enterprises (e.g., the German development agency (GIZ) and the Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency (SIDA) in Sweden) do not lend themselves easily to integrative action. At the EU level,
too, the European External Action Service (EEAS), the Council of the European Union, the European
Commission and the European Parliament each have their own hierarchies, bureaucratic systems and
cultures. This is not a conspiracy against effective support to peacebuilding, but rather a reflection of
constitutional and administrative realities articulated in primary law or cross-governmental rules that are
rarely subject to fundamental revision.

In the EU, the institutional environment for peacebuilding is a direct product of the European integration
process itself. Peacebuilding in the EU occupies a space across the foreign and development policy domains.
This means it often falls through the institutional cracks between the supranational and intergovernmental
spheres of EU external action. Furthermore, peacebuilding in the EU is often held hostage by institutional
battles for control. The Commission, keen to retain its independence, steers clear of more political
approaches to peacebuilding that would require closer involvement of member states. The very priority of
peacebuilding support is a subject of diverging opinions among EU members. Moreover, the debate within
member states is often simplified - particularly at the higher political levels - to a choice between ‘hard’
security under the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) or ‘soft’ peacebuilding and conflict
prevention approaches. This bypasses the complex interrelations between both.

Governance systems also influence responses to violent conflict and support to peacebuilding through the
degree of flexibility and adaptiveness they allow for initiatives in fragile environments prone to sudden
change. Bureaucratic governance systems typically offer little leeway for working with non-traditional
stakeholders such as non-state armed groups. Changing approaches rapidly and taking political or financial
risks - particularly where public reputation and finances are considered to be at stake - are anathemas in
most bureaucratic governance systems.

In the face of this reality, those concerned with responding to conflict have devoted enormous efforts to the
creation of workarounds and achievement of incremental change. In Sweden, for example, the governance
system is characterised by ‘small’ ministries and autonomous agencies such as the Folke Bernadotte
Academy (the government agency for peace, security and development) and SIDA. This has limited,
however, integrated ways of working through shared financing instruments and cooperation between political

19
dialogue and development cooperation, though the importance of such links has been recognised in policy
frameworks for more than two decades. 12 Nonetheless, in Sweden incremental change has been
accomplished, especially under the Social Democrat-Green coalition, and cooperation is slowly emerging.

In 2004, Germany established an inter-ministerial steering committee for civilian crisis prevention, chaired
by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and comprising representatives from all other federal ministries. The
committee is mandated to coordinate implementation of Germany’s crisis prevention and peacebuilding
policy. Yet, its success in overcoming ministerial divisions remains mixed at best. Reasons are its limited
political and operational authority (for instance, it does not manage its own operational budget) and its low
visibility beyond a community of committed stakeholders. Indeed, in a fragmented institutional landscape,
peacebuilding usually remains a niche area for certain departments and dedicated staff members, with few
incentives for mainstreaming or comprehensive action despite clearly articulated policy commitments to it.

There may nonetheless be opportunities to seize when significant changes of governance do occur. A
watershed moment in the UK was the creation in 2001 of the conflict prevention pools funding mechanism,
which eventually became the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund in 2015. This significant institutional
innovation has driven cross-departmental collaboration and inspired other countries. In the EU, entry into
force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009 and subsequent creation of the EEAS changed the EU system of
governance, though the European Commission and member states retained their powers. Intense lobbying
by several European Parliament members, civil society organisations, think tanks and certain member states
led to the creation of a dedicated institutional home for peacebuilding policy within the EEAS. This came in
the form of the Division for Conflict Prevention, Peacebuilding and Mediation, recently reconstituted into a
new Division for Prevention of Conflicts, Rule of Law/Security Sector Reform, Integrated Approach,
Stabilisation and Mediation. In the absence of strong institutional incentives and high-level political
leadership, this division brings together thematic expertise in peacebuilding and puts it at the disposal of all
EU institutional entities by offering services and guidance on a demand-led basis. Other EU bodies have
established their own conflict and peace expertise hubs, including the Fragility, Resilience Unit of the
European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DEVCO) and
the Mediation Unit of the European Parliament. Despite such innovations, the EU’s institutional framework
has remained fragmented overall, and peacebuilding expertise and support capacities are still spread thinly
across EU structures.

To conclude, the system of governance is a factor that is usually slow to evolve, as it is rooted in
constitutional, primary law and long-held conventions. Systems of governance do not easily bend to a
peacebuilding logic, entailing more bottom-up, flexible, multi-actor, speedy, long-term, risk-taking and
integrated action across government. Yet, as globalisation increasingly challenges governmental systems
and constitutional realities (many of which date from the 1950s or earlier), there is perhaps now more scope
for change than in the past 25 years, particularly when coupled with changes in geopolitical era and sense
of place in the world. Understanding the role of governance systems brings a greater appreciation for why
so many sound conflict response policies, often with a strong peacebuilding dimension, have failed to be
effectively implemented in practice. Unless new conflict response policies acknowledge or seek to
change this reality, any new initiatives will likely be condemned to repeating the partial implementation of
the past.

12 This is not to dismiss that the peacebuilding community has always had a qualified support for integrated approaches
seeing them positive if they prioritise local ownership, long-term, multi-stakeholder, bottom-up approaches, while
being broadly critical if they perceived them as a back door to securisation and top-down pursuit of self-interest.

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 Domestic events with an international dimension

The fourth factor is domestic events with an international dimension that touch upon or influence the
highest levels of national politics. These events, which have become more prevalent in the past five years,
can partially reset the foreign and development policy agenda, filtering down to support for peacebuilding.
They are influential precisely because they relate to domestic rather than just international or ‘external’
politics.

An obvious example is the terrorist attacks in Europe that have strongly impacted responses to conflict since
the start of this millennium. In the UK especially, attacks since 2005 but particularly in 2016 have driven
political leaders to choose harder security and short-term responses in foreign policy. Even development
policy in the UK is now framed as ‘in the national interest’, much more than at any times since the end of the
Cold War. Aid is posited as a vehicle for tackling global challenges, such as the root causes of irregular
migration and the threat of terrorism, which directly threaten British interests.

The recent rise in the number of irregular migrants and refugees entering Europe, and the impact of
these inflows on politics in Germany, Sweden and the EU, has also sharpened the focus on conflict and
stability. Strategies to address such issues are now placed at the heads of government level in European
politics rather than within the political remit of foreign or development ministers. As a consequence, this factor
has the power to reorder priorities and change the framing of responses to violent conflict through foreign
and development policy. Domestic events evoke pressure for ‘quick wins’ from the political top, though such
politicians are not usually familiar with, or sympathetic to, the intricacies and long-term nature of the
peacebuilding process. This has been illustrated by Germany and the EU, which established, respectively,
‘special initiatives’ and EU Trust Funds as tools for quick decision-making and flexible aid disbursement. The
specific aim in these cases was to address the “root causes of irregular migration”, thereby adding an explicit
domestic objective to aid policies. Similarly, the UK’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund has received
increased resources and expertise to address the drivers of “transnational threats to stability”, such as
extremism and illegal migration (HM Government, 2015, p. 64). However, vast increases in spending
through such quick and flexible mechanisms risk limiting political interest and funding for longer-
term, more structural and sustainable support to peacebuilding, especially in countries and regions
farther away from Europe.

Here again, this response is a political choice, not an inevitability. Sweden, for example, took in a larger
share of asylum seekers than any other European country relative to its population in 2014 and 2015 and
also experienced a terrorist attack in 2017. This has not yet significantly impacted its approach to violent
conflict or diluted its commitment to peacebuilding to date, though it has impacted national politics in other
ways (for example, asylum laws have been significantly toughened and domestic attitudes towards
immigration are slowly changing, as demonstrated by the rise of a right-wing nationalist party). This is related
of course to the second factor we identified, namely the Swedish political culture, which has a longer history
of promoting peace.

The conclusion here is that there is a need for those with an interest in supporting peacebuilding to
engage actively in the narrative around public or policy responses to domestic events with an
international dimension. Counterterrorism strategies, for instance, can be designed with a peacebuilding
and prevention component, as in Sweden and as advocated by some peacebuilding NGOs in the UK. For
the peacebuilding community, this implies engagement with and deeper understanding of the drivers of
political action and public sentiment around domestic events. Choices, however, must quickly be made
in the immediate aftermath of an event about how far to go along with the prevailing political sentiment and
how much to try to promote a more nuanced understanding.

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 Major conflicts and instability

The fifth influencing factor is major conflicts or instability in the neighbourhood or

elsewhere, with geopolitical consequences. Such a conflict does not necessarily have to be ‘major’ in
terms of the number of inflicted deaths or devastation in the affected regions, countries or societies. Rather,
they are major in their relevance to foreign and development policy in the European countries potentially
supporting peacebuilding. Their importance usually arises from either their geopolitical significance or the
direct involvement of or impact on one or more European countries. Such conflicts may influence overall
conflict-related policy even if they are geographically isolated themselves.

The failure of the EU to mount a collective and effective response during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s
led to the genesis of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy and the CSDP missions. The Rwandan
genocide in 1994, as an abject failure of the international community and both foreign and development
policy, was another significant driver of change. Rwanda pre-genocide was considered a development
success story yet development aid contributed to conflict (see Uvin, P. 1999). The genocide provoked
significant rethinking, as it demonstrated that development cooperation could not be considered a priori a
safeguard against conflict. The Balkan conflicts and the Rwandan genocide significantly impacted the
first conflict prevention commitments of Sweden and the EU, developed in 1999-2001 and still cited today.
For Germany, its participation in the NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999 (Operational Allied Force) was a
significant break from its traditional post-World War II doctrine of ‘renouncement of war’.

The EU launched its first European Security Strategy in 2003, in part to clarify its own role following the lack
of EU agreement on intervention in Iraq and differing perspectives on the Global War on Terrorism, including
the United States’ new security strategy. Sweden’s engagement in Afghanistan raised questions about its
national strategy for participation in international peace support and security-building operations, which called
for integrated military and civilian actions. A later evaluation of this engagement recommended that military
operations and civilian efforts not be mixed. The UK’s experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, where it was a
military actor in the conflict, had significant impact on its support to and prioritisation of conflict response
within its foreign and development policy, particularly in relation to stabilisation. The outcome of the UK’s
inquiry into the intervention in Iraq (known as the ‘Chilcot Report’)13 resonated throughout the UK
government, in the sense of producing more realism on interventions. Germany’s military involvement in
Afghanistan induced a counteraction where the country’s 2004 plan for crisis prevention and peacebuilding
which emphasised the primacy of civilian means as a conflict management tool.

In all of the cases, particularly Germany and the EU, the fallout from the Arab Spring and events in Ukraine
had significant impact on foreign policy priorities, as conflicts close to EU borders have revealed the
failure of the EU’s neighbourhood policy to ensure stability for Europe. The marked rise and then drop
in interest in statebuilding as a concept to guide policy responses in relation to violent conflict globally can
similarly be explained by its perceived failure, in Iraq and Afghanistan, as was also evident in the more ‘light
footprint’ approaches focused on stability and containment adopted by European actors’ response to the
Arab Spring.

In our case studies, these types of conflicts and instability tended to drive securitisation, based on
stabilisation and protecting perceived national interests and own citizens’ security, rather than rejuvenated
global approaches to peacebuilding. A 2018 report on peace and security by the European Parliamentary
Research Service underlined that “[t]he security of the EU itself is addressed as part of stability and security
abroad, in particular in Europe’s immediate neighbourhood” (EPRS, 2018, p. 70). This again is a political
choice. While Sweden has taken some very specific measures to respond to what it sees as an increased

13 See, Report of a Committee of Privy Counsellors, 2016.

22
threat from Russia, it has not yet shifted its development policy and response to violent conflict towards a
greater emphasis on state security or ‘national interest’ considerations.

To conclude, any major conflict or instability that induces direct engagement - particularly militarily - or has
direct impact on a country or region has significance beyond the specific geographic context of concern at
that moment. Rather than taking each new conflict as a starting point, past experiences of conflict or instability
influence the choices made in the next, in political, bureaucratic and policy terms. Conflicts and instability
near a country’s own borders or with particular geopolitical significance to a country or region (e.g., Iraq,
Syria and Afghanistan) will therefore influence support to peacebuilding in the future. Yet, the shape this
influence takes is the outcome of political choices in which other factors are also at play, and which therefore
vary across different countries.

Perspectives and influence of allies and other governments’ initiatives

The sixth factor, albeit of lesser influence than the first five, is the perspectives and influence of allies,
governmental partners and, in the case of the EU, certain member states. This factor impacts
development policy trends and foreign policy, particularly commitments to non-military responses to violent
conflict.

Indeed, many policy commitments and approaches to violent conflict can be traced back to policies and
institutional innovations developed by either Sweden or the UK. Sweden has been a key norm-setter on
conflict policy. It formulated its own commitments in this area in a 1999 action plan on preventing violent
conflict. These have been replicated in many other countries’ policies. In 2001, the Swedish Presidency of
the EU worked with the EU institutions to drive forward the groundbreaking, in policy terms, EU Gothenburg
Programme for the prevention of violent conflicts. Since then, however, the EU institutions have been more
of a ‘fast follower’ than a leader, though it remains considerably more advanced than all but a few of its
member states. In 2017-2018, Sweden, Germany and Finland have been actively leading the development
of a strengthened civilian capacity for conflict prevention and management at the EU level. The idea here
was to balance recent advances in EU military cooperation, led especially by France, with non-military
capabilities. Allies’ wider influence on one another is also evident. France, as an influential European
country, is pushing Germany to think more about increasing its capacity for military responses. But these
urgings have also stimulated Germany to respond by bolstering its non-military and peacebuilding policies
linked to German political culture.

The UK has been an influential norm-setter in institutional innovations and capacities for responding to violent
conflict. The UK was the first to develop a specific ‘Stabilisation Unit’ and pooled funding mechanisms
earmarked for responding to violent conflict. These, such as the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, are
often cited as models of good practice. There has also been a degree of mimicry of institutional
initiatives and framing concepts, with those in one country influencing others. A recent example is the
desire expressed in Germany and the EU for dedicated units or government entities responsible for
stabilisation, following the UK’s example. The UK recruits and employs ‘conflict advisers’ with a particular
skill set and expertise. Similarly, the ‘countering violent extremism’ narrative was championed by the UK after
originating in the Netherlands around the middle of last decade, and has since been picked up in the conflict
policy of others. The 2016 Global Strategy for the EU's Foreign and Security Policy specifically and regularly
references peacebuilding. This was in no small part due to expertise from the UK, Nordic countries and civil
society inside and outside of the EU institutions. In another example, the Nordic countries have been
successful in pushing policy and institutional innovations related to mediation at the EU level. This led, for
example, to the establishment of a mediation support unit within the EEAS with seconded national experts
and to Council conclusions on mediation. This type of influence or mimicry is not confined to policy on

23
responding to violent conflict. It is common in foreign and development policy more widely. Indeed in
development policy, issues such as the importance of private sector development and a ‘results agenda’
have spread from one country to another, particularly across like-minded countries among which there is a
high degree of trust and similar Northern European political culture.

To conclude, the ideas of certain allies and partners can be particularly influential, especially at the level of
choices on conflict policy and their operationalisation. Yet this influence is most evident within just a
small group of ‘like-minded countries’ rather than across a larger segment of either EU allies, OECD
countries or the international community as a whole. Indeed, investments in such lead countries, with the
hope that innovations and influence will ‘filter through’ to the larger group, seem to have only limited effect,
albeit possibly an important one given how much these norm-setters and lead countries support
peacebuilding globally.

International commitments and norms relevant to responding to violent

conflict

The seventh factor is international commitments and norms relevant to responding to violent conflict.
These are set at the UN level and at other levels, such as that of the OECD-DAC, which is particularly active
in norm-setting for development policy and spending, including in peace-related domains. Even though our
case study countries put enormous effort into establishing international norms and policies to influence
support for peacebuilding, we nonetheless consider this factor to be of lesser importance than the first six.

The fact that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) did not have any specific commitment related to
conflict, security and governance was seen as a limitation within all of the cases studied. Germany, Sweden,
the UK and the EU actively promoted inclusion of Goal 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions in the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. These aims, part of the OECD-DAC agenda since the late
1990s, have been further refined by the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding, which
offers guidelines for pursuing them. The UN’s new ‘Sustaining Peace’ agenda - following from UN Security
Council Resolution 2282 and General Assembly Resolution 70/262 in 2016 - championed by Sweden among
others, and strongly supported by the EU and its member states, can be understood as an attempt to place
the non-violent side of responding to conflict back on the global agenda. Going hand in hand with the reform
agenda of the UN Secretary-General, these efforts have created momentum for conflict prevention and
peacebuilding as well as for a more coherent and integrated approach to peacebuilding at the international
level.

The particular challenge of this seventh factor is its agenda-setting power for the foreign and development
policies of our case studies. Indeed, considerations related to the first six factors can influence support to
peacebuilding and responses to violent conflict more prominently. Furthermore, international norms are likely
to be more fully adopted by states such as Sweden, which already enjoy a high degree of alignment between
the international language of norms and the domestic political culture. In all four of our cases, we found
substantial efforts to set or influence the global agenda. For example, each explicitly acknowledged the link
between conflict and development policy and had stimulated UN agencies and the World Bank to recognise
this connection. It has therefore been easier for them to adopt or reaffirm international norms, as they
themselves pushed for them in the first place. This ties in with actors’ own sense of their place in the world.
The UK would like to think of itself more as a norm-setter than a norm-taker including in developing policy
responses to conflict. The EU is committed to multilateralism and acknowledges the value of adopting and
promoting norms that its member states have already adopted on the global stage. Much of the EU’s own
conflict-related policy (e.g., its security sector reform) shows very close parallels to OECD-DAC language.
Germany would like to be seen as a good pupil of multilateralism. Sweden is an enthusiastic proponent of

24
international norms when they resonate with its own liberal values, particularly regarding peace, human rights
and democracy. As a relatively small power, it is much more reliant on the international institutions than a
country like the UK, for instance.

To conclude, while international norms related to peace, conflict and development are an important factor
influencing national conflict policies, a degree of realism is needed when judging how transformative or
influential international norms actually are beyond the small community of conflict experts and units within
lead governments. Yet, while the changing geopolitical environment seems certain to challenge international
norms, they will remain important, both in themselves and among an influential peacebuilding community in
support of multilateralism.

Conflict-related expertise

The eighth factor is conflict-related expertise. The rise of non-military and non-diplomatic responses to
conflict on national and international agendas has brought significant investment and increases in conflict-
related expertise and knowledge. 25 years ago, specific units dealing with non-military approaches to conflict
were extremely rare, and dedicated and professional ‘conflict advisers’ did not exist. These are now
established parts of the foreign affairs and development bureaucracies in all of the cases studied. Similarly,
most of the peacebuilding organisations that existed 25 years ago had small turnovers and staffs, and
professional umbrella networks were nascent at best. Though high-level policy commitments did exist or
were emerging, there was a lack of operational guidance on conflict analysis for instance, and no real
expertise and personnel positioned to drive change through or advise on peacebuilding.

The EU made a commitment to conflict sensitivity and conflict analysis in 2001, but it was not until 2011 that
it actually developed and approved guidance on the topic. The UK now has a dedicated cadre of ‘conflict
advisers’ that has grown in size from two to more than sixty over the past 20 years. They are based mostly
within DFID but are found across government. In Sweden, SIDA has progressively fine-tuned its conflict
sensitivity and analysis capability. In 2017, it released a ‘peace and conflict toolbox’. The expertise of
Sweden’s Folke Bernadotte Academy is increasingly drawn upon and recognised by the government. For
instance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned the Academy to analyse Sweden’s role in mediation,
to inform the creation of a ‘dialogue and peace processes’ support function within the conflict department of
the ministry. In Germany, the initial impetus to build up expertise came from the development ministry, BMZ,
which, as part of its 2005 strategy for peacebuilding, formulated guidelines for more conflict-sensitive
development actions. This was replaced in 2013 by the BMZ's strategy paper ‘Development for Peace and
Security’, which in turn led GIZ and the KFW Development Bank, to adopt a common methodology for peace
and conflict assessments.

These experts do not all see or have officially supporting peacebuilding as their primary purpose. Indeed,
much of their engagement relates to other issues in the conflict sphere, such as stabilisation, resilience,
security sector reform, crisis response and governance. The point is that, in the past, a lack of capacity or
lack of expertise and knowledge could legitimately be seen as a major obstacle to implementation of policies
supporting peacebuilding. Now, however, capacity and expertise are no longer lacking – although the
capacity is often marginalised, still not to scale, and is somewhat diluted in the pursuit of multiple goals.

Further, in reality, much conflict-related expertise and knowledge resides outside of government.
Expertise in civil society, think tanks and academia has been influential largely through its connection to
expertise within governments rather than through a direct route to political leaders or opinion formers. Ideas
and concepts developed outside governments, whether these regard ‘conflict sensitivity’, ‘strategic
peacebuilding’, ‘security sector reform’ or ‘peace process support’, have been taken up and adopted by

25
experts within governments, albeit more within the framework of conflict responses than in overarching
approaches to foreign and development policy. Influential personnel and expertise has also entered
government bodies from civil society. Exchanges of expertise were furthermore found between the EU and
our three case study countries. Whereas 25 years ago career prospects for an ‘expert’ in peacebuilding were
extremely limited, now it is possible to pursue a career as a conflict and peace specialist. Expert networks
and influential international non-governmental peacebuilding organisations have matured over the years,
though they themselves have inevitably been influenced by the political culture and policy and funding
environment from which they have emerged.

It is no coincidence that in our four cases expertise and networks outside government, whether in academia,
think tanks or NGOs, were among the most influential and respected globally. This relates both to the level
of experience and to the availability of funds and, oftentimes, a conscious policy by governments to develop
‘soft power’ ideas to influence others. Despite tensions between government officials and experts outside
government, constructive dialogues and interchanges have been frequent among staff at the expert level,
particularly when specialists from international NGOs approach government bodies. In some cases formal
structures have been established to facilitate government-expert dialogue, such as the German Advisory
Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding and the EU Civil Society Dialogue Network. These
provide platforms for sustained exchanges, though their ability to reach the highest levels of political and
even bureaucratic decision-making has remained very limited.

To conclude, expert networks, organisations and influential individuals, though constrained, have been highly
influential in keeping peacebuilding and non-violent approaches to conflict ‘on the agenda’ at the lower levels
of government and intergovernmental bodies. In all of our case studies, they were also instrumental in
adoption of existing norms. They were particularly active in driving and influencing policies and institutional
innovations related to conflict from outside government. Yet, the ability of this expert level to challenge or
influence relevant political choices overall seems limited. Even at the bureaucratic level experts have met
significant and persistent constraints. Indeed, they have had little influence on the decisions of top-level
foreign ministry bureaucrats, let alone political choices. This is a challenge that the peacebuilding community
must grapple with. The expert level will certainly remain important, but the past 20 years demonstrate that
this route alone has clear limitations for wider transformation.

4. Key Findings

4.1. Overall trends

After 25 years of commitments, peacebuilding is not yet at the heart of foreign and development
policy decisions. Support to peacebuilding is therefore still subject to dominant overarching trends in the
foreign and development policy domain.

The whole approach and concept of peacebuilding has had to jostle for space among other framing concepts
and approaches that have been popular in policy terms, such as ‘resilience’, ‘stabilisation’ and ‘fragility’. In
all our case studies we found a trend of increasing use of peacebuilding terminology in relation to promoting
the country’s own interests and own citizens’ security rather than global or human security. Nonetheless,
peacebuilding has been remarkably resilient while other terms and concepts have come and gone in foreign
and development policy or have less resonance today, such as conflict reduction or conflict transformation.
Key principles underpinning peacebuilding – such as it being multi-stakeholder, broader than just the state,
long-term, multidimensional, non-violent, and requiring context analysis and understanding – have been
either supported or undermined by the rise of other concepts and approaches.

26
The financial resources available for peacebuilding have broadly risen during the past ten years. Although
they are still not commensurate with the challenges, the actual amount of resources is significant.
Most organisations that are part of the peacebuilding community have grown as well. The issue at present
is therefore not a chronic lack of funds or a significant reduction in available resources globally. It is rather
about the ‘quality’ of funds; and this was a concern expressed by interviewees within governments as well
as in non-governmental agencies. Particular constraints were mentioned regarding funding flexibility, long-
term approach, restrictive geographic remit, or narrow sub-thematic focus (particularly on issues such as
countering violent extremism).

As demonstrated, the peacebuilding community still relies on a small number of official government
and intergovernmental donors. These donors have provided steady and significant financial support.
However, their limited number makes the peacebuilding community vulnerable to cuts and changes
in the thematic and geographical policies and priorities of these actors.

4.2. Factors influencing support to peacebuilding

No one factor adequately explains the evolution of support to peacebuilding in all of the cases, nor
can any single factor indicate how such support may evolve in the future. Yet, blended together, the eight
factors identified go a long way in explaining the dynamics driving change and continuity. The margins of
manoeuvre are most certainly influenced by the factors identified. However, how to respond to violent conflict
and support peacebuilding is still ultimately a political and bureaucratic choice.

The past 25 years have brought a number of conflict-related policy changes and innovations. Yet, while new
conflict-related policies and institutional innovations are to be welcomed, they inevitably run up against
the same two constraints that have hampered peacebuilding in the past. First is bureaucratic systems of
governance, which do not easily bend to a peacebuilding logic, which calls for more bottom-up, flexible,
speedy, long-term, risk-taking and integrated action across government. Second is the limited political
appetite for pursuing or prioritising peacebuilding approaches, rather than policy alternatives such as
security, development, crisis management, containment and humanitarian assistance in response to violent
conflict. This owes much to the national political culture and sense of place in the world. Indeed,
peacebuilding seems to be caught in a smaller and, some would say, shrinking ‘room’, where the walls
are made up of bureaucratic constraints, and the ceiling marked by political boundaries.

Support and the quality of support to peacebuilding is in flux, as influential factors that usually take
significant time to evolve are all changing faster. This is true even among the governments that have been
the most consistent supporters of peacebuilding globally, and can be both a challenge and an opportunity
depending on the factor and on how these changes are dealt with.

5. Implications for future support to peacebuilding

5.1. For the international peacebuilding community

Over the past 25 years, the peacebuilding community has not been naïve about the evolving situation
it faces. Whether within or outside government institutions, experts have busied themselves with the at times
Sisyphean task of creating a more enabling environment for support to peacebuilding. Or they have moulded
creative workarounds to overcome what they saw as shortcomings of the current system. The increase in
financial and specialist human resources devoted to peacebuilding has been in large part thanks to this work.
Yet, most of the emphasis has been on engagement at the expert technical level, where there is a

27
willing audience speaking the same language and sharing a common commitment to the principle of
constructive engagement. The effort has been in improving the technical dimensions of peacebuilding without
ensuring this is accompanied by backing of adequate political weight. It has been difficult, and even deemed
risky, to engage with wider constituencies within Western countries, or with opinion leaders in the wider
foreign policy realm and leaders of political parties and senior politicians in ways that could be seen as
‘political’. Even senior officials charged with supporting peacebuilding within governments have limited space
and ability to engage and change either the political culture or the system of governance because the topic
has not had popular or consistent top-level political support.

So while there is undoubtedly much work still to be done at the expert level, and engagement at this
level still provides a way to connect with and support often isolated and frustrated change agents within ‘the
system’, our analysis suggests that transformational change – towards prioritising peacebuilding in a
changing world – will not come from leveraging expertise alone. Engaging with and understanding wider
societal dynamics and interests, including those in the foreign policy realm and among political
leaders - beyond addressing global coalitions of the like-minded - will be necessary in order to influence
the political culture and ‘sense of place’ in the world and calls for targeted, political and societal
interventions.

It is perhaps the principles underpinning peacebuilding (multi-stakeholder, multidimensional, long-term,

based on context analysis), rather than the term peacebuilding itself that should be promoted and sought.
This could allow for greater buy-in from actors that do not have significant knowledge or understanding of
peacebuilding but are still likely to support its foundation. It would also allow for other terms and approaches
to be assessed by these same principles and to push back against the co-option of peacebuilding to more
securitised approaches.

As the world moves towards a new geopolitical era, the international peacebuilding community will face
profound change. It cannot continue to rely entirely on those who have been consistent supporters of
peacebuilding in the past. There is the need for new champions and more diversity in political, policy
and financial terms. This will not be easy. The lack of diversity among those supporting peacebuilding is a
significant weakness for the community. Its vulnerability is more starkly evident now than before, though the
financial sums in support for peacebuilding involved paradoxically at this point have never been larger. Thus
efforts should focus on improving the ‘quality’ of the financial support given and on communicating
why such changes are necessary, rather than seeking simply ‘more’ resources.

The analysis would suggest that those concerned with supporting peacebuilding will have to adopt new
strategies, tactics and methods.

5.2. For the peacebuilding community in European countries

The geopolitical era and political culture were found to be shifting in all four of the cases in our analysis,
putting existing governance systems under increasing pressure. This, however, presents opportunities that
could be seized for positive change in support to peacebuilding. Peacebuilding communities with strong
legitimacy and networks, such as those in Germany, Sweden, the UK and the EU 14, have the greatest interest
and most significant chance of effectively navigating this evolving environment and safeguarding support for
peacebuilding in these places but cannot do it alone. Particularly if they can find within themselves or other
flexible resources to take this path. The changes now underway require a profound rethink of national and

14 While this study did not focus on support to peacebuilding by other European countries, such as Norway, the
Netherlands and Denmark, indicators point to broadly similar challenges for them as well.

28
EU engagement in promoting peacebuilding, or at least new avenues to complement the past and
present paths. The expert route, so long favoured by peacebuilding organisations because of its efficiency
and the willingness of the audience, needs to be complemented by more political types of engagement,
making the case for peacebuilding approaches that engage societies and political leaders. This calls for
new networks, new alliances and different types of engagement with opinion leaders and a better
understanding of concerns and views within societies as they relate to peacebuilding. It calls for direct
engagement in debates, not just on conflict-related policy development and implementation, but on the
wider issue of how countries see their place in the world. If the trends identified in this report are visible
in other European countries there will be a general need for engagement with wider society, with opinion
leaders and with high-level politicians as countries reassess their priorities at this geopolitical crossroads in
Europe.

5.3. For philanthropic donors interested in peacebuilding

Although philanthropy plays an important role in supporting peacebuilding, it was not the focus of this study
as this support does not reach the same level financially and particularly politically as the case study countries
and the EU noted here, either collectively or individually. Philanthropy in itself cannot directly make up for
any negative changes in political or financial support given by these official donors to peacebuilding even if
there were to be a significant upgrade and focus within the philanthropic community towards peacebuilding.
Yet philanthropy in its support to peacebuilding is values-led and is not subject in the same way to the eight
factors that we identified as impacting government support. It can take risks, engage in supporting more
political work (within limits), be more flexible, swifter and creative than official donors, yet can also back
issues or approaches that are less fashionable in governmental policy circles if it chooses to. Philanthropy
has a long history of not only supporting implementation but also advocacy work and more creative ways of
influencing opinion formers and narratives. Independent critical analysis of government policies and the
politics and bureaucratic drivers behind them have been somewhat hampered by the fact that governments
themselves do not tend to fund political analysis or advocacy for which they or other allied governments are
the focus. This is a role that has to be covered elsewhere.

In response to the challenges mentioned, there is undoubtedly a role for non-official and philanthropic
support, for example, think tanks, civil society and the media, for engagement in societal action towards
politicians and opinion leaders. Going beyond the expert level in the peacebuilding community will require
new types of flexible resources, as well as innovation and experimentation and different coalition-building.
Not all initiatives will yield immediate results, and therefore patience will be required. Some initiatives will be
politically risky and thus by their very nature not conducive to government support. There is of course a
danger that rather than focusing support on downstream implementation (including supporting local civil
society peacebuilding), philanthropic donors may turn increasingly inwards to confront challenges within their
own countries of origin, yet this has to be balanced by reflecting on what would occur if negative trends would
not be countered.

5.4. Key areas of reflection for the peacebuilding community overall

Beyond the analysis presented, this report hopefully raises a number of questions of reflection within the
peacebuilding community in Europe and beyond on how to respond. While there are many questions that
arise, some structure is put forward to guide discussion.

29
Change as an opportunity or threat?

Are shifting global politics and the chances of a new geopolitical era an opportunity or threat? Does it open
up opportunities for a more globally democratic and diverse approach to peacebuilding that is less reliant on
the West for support or are potential changes likely to weaken peacebuilding globally? Are there things that
the peacebuilding community can do to maximise the chance for more positive outcomes?

Making the case for support to peacebuilding differently?

What is the most effective way to make the case for peacebuilding in the current political era that will connect
with society and decision-makers? Is there a need for new evidence to make the case for peacebuilding
more digestible in countries that traditionally support it? Or is the decision to support peacebuilding an
emotional choice that requires different methods of engagement?

Getting political at home?

Should international peacebuilders seek to start playing a more proactive role in shaping political perspective
and public opinion on conflict within their own countries that support peacebuilding? If so, how? Should the
community engage more in the political sphere and in national debates that do not necessarily relate directly
to conflict or peacebuilding but wider foreign and development policy? What role can new mobilisation and
communication approaches play, and what risks are associated with going down this path?

How to address structural challenges?

What barriers or impediments might prevent peacebuilders and peacebuilding organisations from plotting a
new course? What structural changes might be needed to support this more political approach to
peacebuilding (e.g. funding diversification, new coalitions and networks, more political organisations and
umbrellas, new types of engagement strategies with new tools)? What further independent policy analysis
from outside the peacebuilding community would be useful?

30
Annex 1. German, Swedish, UK and EU potential capabilities for peacebuilding

31
32
33
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Annex 2. Our methodology

Overall approach

The authors also recognise that there is a degree of conceptual vagueness around the term ‘peacebuilding’.
There is no single agreed definition of ‘peacebuilding’, but instead different interpretations and uses of the
concept exist. ‘Peacebuilding’ as a term also has to compete with other, partially overlapping terms such as
‘stabilisation’ or ‘resilience’ in policy discourse. For methodological reasons, this paper uses the approach to
peacebuilding from the original OECD DAC Guidelines on Conflict, Peace and Development Cooperation as
a working definition (1997: 86, emphasis added):

Peacebuilding and reconciliation focuses on long-term support to, and establishment of, viable
political and socio-economic and cultural institutions capable of addressing the root causes of
conflicts, as well as other initiatives aimed at creating the necessary conditions for sustained peace
and stability. These activities also seek to promote the integration of competing or marginalised
groups within mainstream society, through providing equitable access to political decision-making,
social networks, economic resources and information, and can be implemented in all phases of
conflict.... Peacebuilding involves both long-term preventive measures and more immediate
responses before, during and after conflict.

This definition has informed the qualitative analysis of this study, as it has been used as a baseline to assess
how the meaning and use of peacebuilding terminology in Europe differs among different actors and how it
has evolved over time. While other definitions exist, the attraction of this definition is that all the cases were
OECD-DAC members and it dates from the start of the period of analysis in the 1990s.

In carrying out this work, we assessed primary documentation such as policy statements complemented by
analyses, commentaries, articles, reports and evaluations from academia, civil society, think tanks and in
some cases parliaments and quasi non-governmental bodies. Overall we analysed more than 400
documents, details of which are presented in the respective case studies. In addition, we undertook 46
interviews with some 60 people (details of those interviewed will be available in the case studies), comprising
current and former policymakers, experts from think tanks and research institutes, and civil society
representatives in different parts of Europe.

Based on data collected through the literature review and interviews, a first draft of each case study report
was prepared and peer reviewed internally by ECDPM colleagues. Preliminary findings and conclusions were
presented at a workshop held 12 March 2018 with ten academics, former officials and civil society
representatives, all experts on the peacebuilding policies of the UK, Sweden, Germany or the EU institutions.
The expert seminar served two purposes. First, participants were invited to critically assess the draft case
study reports and provide feedback. Second, the seminar provided a platform for discussion of our broader
cross-cutting analysis of the research results and the implications of our findings for future peacebuilding
support from Europe as presented in this synthesis.

The current study was necessarily limited in scope. While the findings reported here reflect a synthesis of
the case studies, it would be a mistake to assume that the eight factors had similar weights in each of the
cases or that they could be easily extrapolated to other cases, such as the United States or a donor country
without a history of support to peacebuilding without further research. There also remains a need to build
further evidence ‘bottom-up’ from conflict impacted countries and communities. Future research could focus,
for example, on a particular geographic conflict context, such as a region like the Sahel or a country like the
Democratic Republic of Congo. Or it could look at a wider cross-section of countries supporting peacebuilding

35
support from Europe, for example, including the Netherlands or Norway as a countries with a history of
supporting peacebuilding and France as a country that does not. Though desirable, both these avenues of
research were beyond reach in this phase of the work within the available resources.

Approach to aid statistics

We additionally analysed financial flows based on OECD-DAC data since 2007, both global figures and those
for the individual cases (section 2.3). In the OECD-DAC financial reporting scheme, called the Creditor
Reporting System (CRS), funding related to conflict, peace and security is reported under code 152. It
includes security system management and reform; civilian peacebuilding, conflict prevention and resolution;
participation in international peacekeeping operations; reintegration and small arms and light weapons
(SALW) control; removal of landmines and explosive remnants of war; and prevention and demobilisation of
child soldiers. The subcode 15220 ‘civilian peacebuilding, conflict prevention and resolution’ includes
funding for two purposes: (i) support for civilian activities related to peacebuilding, conflict prevention and
resolution, including capacity building, monitoring, dialogue and information exchange; and (ii) bilateral
participation in international civilian peace missions and contributions to civilian peace funds or
commissions.15 We made the methodological choice to analyse the evolution of disbursements for both code
152 and code 15220 by Germany, Sweden, the UK and the EU institutions over the past ten years, and to
identify the top contributors to code 15220 only.

This approach was chosen to provide as accurate as possible a picture of donor financial support to
peacebuilding. Yet, it is not without inherent flaws. First, OECD-DAC CRS codes 152 and 15220 are not
perfect indicators. The first encompasses activities that some may view as beyond the realm of
peacebuilding, such as SALW control and removal of landmines. The latter may be perceived as too narrow.
Also it relies on coding of project by officials of the donors concerns who could have very different
understanding of what constitutes civilian peacebuilding, conflict prevention and resolution.

Second, our focus on ODA limits the scope of our financial flows’ analysis to the amounts that donors actually
reported to the OECD-DAC. As a consequence, the figures may give an incomplete picture. Costs involved
in, for example, political engagement in peace processes may be left out. Furthermore, administrative
considerations may lead actors not to report certain expenses. For example, some funding under the EU’s
Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace, which is the EU instrument most directly related to
peacebuilding, is not reported to the DAC as ODA for such reasons as is much of the funding under the UK’s
Conflict, Security and Stability Fund.

Besides, to avoid double counting, projects are allocated to a single purpose code on the basis of the
activities that comprise the largest share of the project. Some ODA spending relevant to peacebuilding will
certainly have been missed by looking only at codes 152 and 15220 (Dalrymple, 2016). Indeed, a 2011
comprehensive evaluation of European Commission support to conflict prevention and peacebuilding using
a different methodology (taking key terms from the European Commission’s own 2001 Conflict Prevention
policy framework) and using the European Commission’s own internal project database came to a vastly
different figure than that derived from the CRS code alone (see ADE, 2011).

Despite its flaws, we chose this approach for three main reasons: (i) availability and accessibility of data, (ii)
the association with the working definition of peacebuilding adopted in this paper and (iii) comparability of
figures both over time (corrected for inflation) and between donors. The authors are open to further more
detailed research on the ODA in the future should there be a strong demand for such analysis.

15 Financing of military equipment and services as well as anti-terrorism activities are excluded from ODA reporting
(OECD-DAC, 2016). Thus code 15220 excludes engagement in military strategy and defence cooperation.

36
Annex 3. Additional findings related to conflict, peace and security and
peacebuilding as areas of ODA spending

Civilian peacebuilding (code 15220) represents some 50% of spending on conflict, peace and security
(code 152) by all OECD donors, and 52% of such spending by DAC countries. This share is particularly
high in the UK and Germany, with, respectively, 72% and 66% of funds for conflict, peace and security going
to civilian peacebuilding on average. Those figures are 55% for Sweden and 40% for the EU institutions.
This may reflect the fact that ‘peacebuilding’ as a category covers a broader range of activities than the other
codes related to peace and security. Peacebuilding is a wide category that includes support to peace
processes, political negotiations, conflict sensitivity, mediation, resilience initiatives, support to local
governance and capacity building for civil society (Dalrymple, 2016).

Figure 5 presents the evolution of peacebuilding and other codes related to conflict, peace and security. The
growth of code 152 between 2007 and 2008 is explained in part by the increase in resources for security
sector reform, which quadrupled in that period, while other codes, such as small arms and light weapons
(SALW) control and mine clearance dropped considerably over the past decade. Yet, while security sector
reform is the second most important conflict-related purpose code, disbursements for this code are still far
below resources allocated to civilian peacebuilding, conflict prevention and resolution.

Figure 5: Disbursements by all OECD donors for purpose codes within conflict, peace and security (in millions of US
dollars)

2,000

1,800

1,600

1,400

1,200

1,000

800

600

400

200

-
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Peacebuilding Security sector reform

Peacekeeping SALW control
Mine clearance Child soldiers
Source: developed by the authors from CRS data (code 152)

37
Figure 6: Disbursements for civilian peacebuilding from Germany, Sweden, the UK and the EU (in millions of US
dollars)

500

400

300

200

100

0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

UK Germany EU Sweden
Source: developed by the authors from CRS data (code 15220)

Among our case studies, Sweden and the UK allocated the largest percentage of their total ODA to conflict,
peace and security in 2016, at 4% and 5%, respectively. Similarly, among our case studies, the UK allocated
the largest share of its total ODA to civilian peacebuilding (4%) in 2016.

Table 3: ODA allocated to conflict, peace and security as a percentage of overall ODA

Source: developed by the authors from CRS data (code 152)

38
Table 4: ODA allocated to civilian peacebuilding as a percentage of overall ODA

Source: developed by the authors from CRS data (code 15220)

Figure 7: Channels of delivery for civilian peacebuilding for all donors (in millions of US dollars)

Source: developed by the authors from CRS data (code 15220)

39
Figure 8: Share of the different channels of delivery for civilian peacebuilding for all donors in 2007

Figure 9: Share of the different channels of delivery for civilian peacebuilding for all donors in 2016

40
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Case Studies for the Project:

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the United Kingdom, Maastricht, ECDPM.

46
About ECDPM
The European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) is an independent ‘think and
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Since 1986 our staff members provide research and analysis, advice and practical support to
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benefits from additional funding from Humanity United.

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