8 Albrecht Schnabel and Anara Tabyshalieva
increase of public attention, academic focus and political and policy commitment on comprehensive peacebuilding activities before, during and after violent conflict. They have observed a “huge upsurge in activity in conflict prevention, conflict management, diplomatic peacemaking and post-conflict peacebuilding activity . . . with most of this being spearheaded by the UN itself (but with the World Bank, donor states, a number of regional security organisations and literally thousands of NGOs playing significant roles of their own)”.13 In fact, this book project benefited from such increased attention: it could draw on the insights of experienced researchers and peacebuilding practitioners, was initiated and supported by a UN institution (the United Nations University) and was sustained by applied policy research and training institutions (swisspeace and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces) throughout its completion. Yet despite – and in large part because of – the attention given to conceptual thinking and practical applications of peacebuilding instruments and approaches, we are far from a full understanding and the capacity to apply peacebuilding strategies and techniques to their full potential. As Fisher and Zimina note: While the evidence suggests that peacebuilders have made some considerable inroads, despite accompanying ambivalences and confusions . . . the peacebuilding community – all those who see themselves as working for peace, justice and development – needs to start getting its own house in order if it is to match up to the intensifying challenges. It needs to have further conversations about “peace writ large” . . . Whose peace are peacebuilders working for? Is such work regarded as “transforming” – seeking ultimately to challenge the unsustainable, unjust status quo and bring about profound change towards greater justice and wellbeing? Or is it essentially “technical” peacebuilding, focused on project-bound locations and time-scales and trusting that the bigger picture will look after itself?14
Our book addresses one particular flaw in the design and application of peacebuilding, which still stymies efforts to maximize its potential to strengthen, advance and thus build peace: the general tendency to underestimate, underutilize and purposely marginalize women’s roles in peacebuilding activities at local, national and international levels. In that sense peacebuilding needs to do more to contribute to the “transformation” of society, in the spirit of Fisher and Zimina. While our book focuses mainly on post-conflict peacebuilding activities, many of its lessons and suggestions have similar relevance for peacebuilding activities at all phases of the conflict cycle or, more appropriately, of the peace and conflict dynamics that characterize interactions between individuals, communities and their states.15