ACCORD Pedacekeeping and Peacebuilding Advisor, Cedric de Coning, has recently published an article in Stability: International Journal of Security & Development, entitled “Understanding Peacebuilding as Essentially Local”.
Stability is a new open-access and peer-reviewed journal focused on issues broadly pertaining to the security-development nexus, including peace, conflict, criminality, development assistance, humanitarian action and so on. In some ways the journal is unique – for instance, in having a one-month peer-review process, publishing work quickly and actively disseminating articles to relevant policymakers and practitioners. Their articles are also free to access.
“On a recent visit to Mogadishu I was again confronted with the tension between local ownership and international self-interest. On the one hand was the Somali President, who wanted to assert his sovereign authority and lead the peace process according to his vision for Somalia. On the other hand, there was a powerful but diverse international community that has the resources necessary to enhance peace, though such resources were accompanied by a set of ideas concerning what the Somali President should be doing. Officially everyone claimed to support the Federal Government of Somalia, but in reality each outside nation and organisa- tion is engaged in Somalia for its own strategic political, security and economic needs and interests…”
Download the article here.
