Open research questions in Peacebuilding and International Security

What the literature leaves open

• To advance the conceptual framing of these potential tensions between Northern conceptions of the corporate role in peacebuilding, the realities of Global South conflict contexts, and alternative future possibilities, the paper draws on some 50 conversations with diverse thought leaders concerned with pathways of economic development and peacebuilding in contexts of pronounced conflict and persistent fragility. In international organizations these included leaders in development, peacebuilding, business environment reform, and investment promotion; in the private sector, both managers of corporations as well as those involved in evolving efforts to develop finance for peace; in national governments, central bank governors and those in finance ministries and treasuries concerned with inbound investment; and in civil society, leaders of labor unions, community advocates, human rights defenders, and peacebuilders. Complete confidentiality was requested by a number of senior respondents in sensitive positions and thus afforded to all. Open-ended inquiries invited informants to share their conclusions about inter-relationships between corporations, conflict and peace, and inclusive development in the contexts with which they were familiar. A goal was to move past the question about whether MNCs are in the aggregate good or bad that seems to remain so pronounced in policy debates and the literature. Focus was rather on identification of the critical issues confronting policy makers, advocates, and leaders across sectors with respect to organized business in peacebuilding factors are most environments. Which contextual salient? What specific choices do actors face? How does the pathway elected likely influence peace and development outcomes? Insights gleaned from such a process are evidently not determinative. But they should have a high level of content validity—that is, capture the problem framing and perceived levers for action—from participants’ perspectives. Analysis followed the stages of thematic narrative analysis, beginning with immersion, inductive coding, development of thematic tensions, and comparison of cases. Thematic refinement and composition of analytic narratives continued as co-productive conceptualisation, combining diverse perspectives, experience, and expertise with authors and participants on equal footings. Issues of broad concern were clarified through two roundtable discussions organized for UN Peacebuilding Commission member states and interested parties that included multiple expert inputs.

  A peace-positive enterprise for the Global South: Problem statements and paths forward conceptualized through a mediation lens · 2026 · DOI

• Future research should consider how moral visions take shape and influence how vulnerable people access services in the aftermath of other contexts of cultural trauma, such as pandemics, authoritarianism, and the intersec- tion of multiple traumas. Future research should consider how high turnover and burnout among legal aid center staff lead to variations in the moral vision’s salience (Guhin 2016). Further, what is considered “resolved” in dispute resolution remains unclear, especially when there are clear power differences between the parties.

  Social cohesion governance: legal aid strategies in Rwanda · 2026 · DOI

• Findings reveal that legitimacy alone is insufficient unless accompanied by enforceability, inclusivity, and rapid linkages to early warning systems like CEWARN.

  Pathways to Stability: Rethinking Alternative Dispute Resolution and Conflict Prevention Management in the Horn of Africa · 2026 · DOI

• Based on the empirical evidence presented in this study, the following actions are recommended: • Prioritising SSR as a Governance Catalyst within the R-ARCSS Framework Given the study's finding that SSR implementation explains 65.9% of the variance in governance quality, policymakers should move beyond treating SSR as a mere "train-and-equip" exercise. It is recommended that the R-ARCSS implementation committee explicitly link security milestones to administrative benchmarks. Specifically, the government should prioritise the unification of forces not just for stability, but as a prerequisite for restoring civil administration in conflict-affected states, thereby leveraging the security-governance nexus identified in the data. • Bridging the "Military-Civilian Perception Gap" through Community-Centric Reform security models. This The ANOVA results revealed that military officers perceive significantly higher benefits from SSR than civilians (p < 0.01). To address this disparity, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defence should pivot from institutional-focused reforms to includes human the "Security-Community establishment of other Liaison Committees" and municipalities, technical professionalism noted by officers translates into visible safety dividends that can be measured and felt by the civilian populace.

  The Security-Development Nexus: Evaluating the Impact of Security Sector Reform on South Sudan’s State-Building · 2026 · DOI

• vary and The statistical divergence between military and civilian groups underscores a critical "perception gap" that reflects the varying proximity to security dividends. While military personnel view SSR through the lens of technical modernisation and improved organisational command elements that directly enhance their professional environment, the significantly lower scores among civilians suggest a degree of scepticism or detachment from the tangible benefits of reform. This disparity implies that SSR in South Sudan has been perceived more as an internal institutional adjustment for the armed forces rather than a broader social good that enhances human security for the general populace. state researchers apparatus. For Furthermore, the high F-value (8.42) suggests that the security-development nexus is not experienced uniformly; rather, it is mediated by one's role within the and policymakers, this highlights a risk of "institutional insularity," where reform success is measured by internal military efficiency while failing to achieve the external legitimacy required for long-term stability. Consequently, be for SSR implementation strategies must transformative, bridge this gap by translating technical military reforms into visible, community-level safety improvements that align with civilian expectations and build broader societal consensus. to DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS The results of this study demonstrate a strong consensus among respondents that security sector reforms (SSR) significantly contribute to South Sudan’s development, particularly in improving governance, establishing law and order, and rebuilding citizen confidence. These perceptions align with existing literature, such as North et al. (2017) and the OECD (2017), which emphasise that effective security institutions are foundational to social stability and socio-economic progress.

  The Security-Development Nexus: Evaluating the Impact of Security Sector Reform on South Sudan’s State-Building · 2026 · DOI

• Consequently, future research should focus on how to ensure the sustainability of the current security governance model, how to preserve existing achievements in security governance, and how to fundamentally address issues of external dependency while strengthening regional autonomy in the context of Africa's security governance transition. For example, in cases where security conflicts are rooted in historical ethnic tensions or territorial disputes between member states, the AU's ability to intervene is limited by the need to respect national sovereignty and avoid exacerbating divisions.

  A study on the transformation of security governance models in africa driven by a "sense of community": a case study of counterterrorism in Somalia · 2026 · DOI

• However, the analysis also highlighted a key limitation: events reported at the county or Payam level, where a precise settlement was not named, were necessarily assigned to the administrative centre or a central point. Events in remote, underpopulated areas, particularly in the vast swamp regions of the Sudd or the arid borderlands, are likely under-reported compared to occurrences near major population centres or along accessible transport corridors.

  A Curated, Multi-Source Event Dataset for Computational Analysis of Conflict and Peacebuilding in South Sudan · 2026 · DOI

• regarding experience communication processes, coordination, and mediation within the ASEAN Way including mechanism, dynamics during the Thailand– Cambodia conflict.

  Understanding the ASEAN Way in the Thailand–Cambodia Border Conflict: Insights from Structuration Theory and the Four Flows Model · 2026 · DOI

• For Cameroonian President Paul Biya to find a lasting solution to the Anglophone problem and bring lasting peace to Cameroon, the following recommendations should be observed: i. The government has to engage in a genuine discourse that would engage all stakeholders in Cameroon, particularly those in the Anglophone region and with separatist movements ever again. Contrary to the UNSC’s focus on present threats, this dialogue should encompass the attacks on the rights of the Anglophone population in the past. Hosting forums is an effective way how to restore the trust between the government and the communities that are affected by it. ii. Implement Decentralization Reforms: Any attempts at resolving the issue of political exclusion within the Anglophone regions require the government to consider conducting decentralization policies that would give the local leaders more central power to make decisions. iii. Address Socioeconomic Disparities: The government cannot afford to neglect investment in the Anglophone regions due to existing imbalances in socioeconomic development. This entails investing in infrastructure, education and health and or coming up with job offers. In concentrating on concerns of socioeconomic nature, it can ease some of the kinds of frustrations that fuel the conflict and show its concern for the lives of persons in the country. iv. Strengthen Civil Society Engagement: There is a need for the government to involve civil society organizations in the process of rebuilding the nation. These organizations, in effect, are key interface entities between the government and the local populations and may assist in tracking the pace of reform processes. This is one of the reasons why civil society should be empowered in any manner and in every possible way within the framework of the Constitution. If these recommendations are implemented, then the Biya administration, in particular, and the government in general, can avoid the flawed approach to dealing with the Anglophone crisis. For Cameroon to be transformed into a united and peaceful entity with every citizen in a position of being 86 doi.org/10.65826/IJPCR.1.2.2026.32 Vol. 02, Issue 01, pp. 75-88, 2026 International Journal of Peace and Conflict Research (IJPCR) listened to, respected and assisted, then it has to come up with meaningful reforms and genuine dialogue sessions.

  Assessing the Role of President Paul Biya of Cameroon in conflict Management: The ‎Case of His End of Year Speeches from 2016 to 2020 · 2026 · DOI

• Based on the findings of this study, the subsequent the recommendations strengthening of local governance as a peace-building institution in the Somali Region: • The local governance institutions in the Somali Region need to be strengthened in terms of having the administrative and financial resources necessary to prevent and manage conflicts effectively regarding • The effectiveness of the collaboration between local and customary government institutions indicates the need to institutionalize such cooperation. • The ability of local governance institutions to develop the trust of the community relies on the level of community participation in governance activities. Community consultations, dialogue forums, and decision-making processes need to be formalized. • The integration of peace-building activities with social and economic development will help to reduce social tensions created by economic deprivation. • The development of effective early warning and monitoring systems will allow local governments to anticipate potential social conflicts and take steps to prevent them. • The development of inter-local dialogue will help to resolve local tensions. The local governments in the region should be active in organizing and facilitating inter-local peace initiatives. 9 6 CONCLUSION This study examined the role of local governance in the • Enhancing the accountability of local government institutions and establishing performance indicators https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/jpsir Page J. Polit. Sci. Int. Rel. 3(1) 65-70, 2026 for local governments will increase the accountability of local governments. REFERENCE Aalen, L., & Tronvoll, K. (2020). The end of democracy? Curtailing political and civil rights in Ethiopia. Review of African Political Economy, 47(164), 1–20. African Union. (2023). African governance report 2023: Strengthening local governance for peace and development. African Union Commission. Berhanu, K. (2023). Hybrid governance and peace processes in pastoral societies: Evidence from Ethiopia’s Somali Region. Conflict, Security & Development, 23(1), 45–67. Dickovick, J. T., & Wunsch, J. S. (2019). Decentralization in Africa: The paradox of state strength. Lynne Rienner Publishers. International Crisis Group. Mac Ginty, R., & Richmond, O. P. (2013). The local turn in peace building: International actors and local dynamics. Routledge. Mehari, T. (2022). Political transition and organization- based reform in Ethiopia after 2018. African Affairs, 121(483), 215–234.

  The Role of Local Governance in Peace-Building: The Case of Somali Region, Ethiopia · 2026 · DOI

• The study may be limited in a number of ways. One potential limitation may be the availability of reliable and comprehensive data at a local level. Administrative data may be lacking in some areas, and some regions may be relatively inaccessible. Second, the sensitivity required for political issues within public discussions may impact the willingness of people to participate in interviews or discussions. Third, while the Somali Region of Ethiopia has diverse social and cultural patterns within it, findings in the zones or woredas in which research is conducted may not always be reflective of the whole region. Fourth, limitations in time and resources may restrict the scale of field work that can be conducted, and the number of stakeholders that can be included in interviews or discussions. However, valid and reliable findings will be sought with appropriate sampling and triangulation.

  The Role of Local Governance in Peace-Building: The Case of Somali Region, Ethiopia · 2026 · DOI

• The versatility of these projects in informing about and advancing EU foreign policy goals, such as resilience-building in the European Southern Neighbourhood (ESN), remains under-researched.

  Empowering the Southern Neighbourhood through research-intense projects: the untapped EU’s public diplomacy potential · 2025 · DOI

• While the vast majority of current debates and research focus solely on the cooperative dimension of the CSDP in the framework of multilateralism and regionalism, the topic of the EU's engagement with local stakeholders is scarcely explored.

  THE MUTLISTAKEHOLDER INITIATIVE APPROACH TO EUROPEAN CRISISMANAGEMENT. CIVILIAN CSDP AND ENGAGEMENT WITH LOCAL NONSTATE ACTORS · 2024 · DOI

• Under the framework of SDG 16, namely Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, one key underexplored area of inclusion relates to the means of ensuring access to justice through the equitable governance of scarce resources, and mechanisms to promote equal and structural access to opportunities across society.

  Scarcity and instability: Transforming societies through equitable distribution mechanisms · 2024 · DOI

• While results for FDI are inconclusive, ODA results imply that there is a strong association between periods of recovery and ODA (as a percentage of GDP) when recovery periods coincide with the presence of a PKO, and again much stronger for transformative PKOs.

  Peacekeeping and Economic Recovery from Conflict · 2022 · DOI

• A major limitation of this study is its reliance on only the perspectives of the elders of the community without recourse to the voices of people who appear before the ritual processes, to appreciate how they feel about the blood ritual with respect to their hope and expectation when they appear before the process for solace and solution.

  Blood ritual: An indigenous approach to peacemaking among the Bimoba people of northern Ghana · 2022 · DOI

• Peacekeepers are seen as a UN tool for promoting domestic changes in host countries, but little is known about the political consequences when officers return home.

  Engagement of Military Peacekeepers in Brazilian Politics (2011–2021) · 2022 · DOI

• The article finds that the UK government failed to implement structural conflict prevention for three key reasons: because the concepts were not well defined or communicated, because priorities were quickly drawn to more urgent problems, and because the approach was not institutionalised within departments or country offices.

  Implementing conflict prevention: explaining the failure of UK government’s structural conflict prevention policy 2010-15 · 2021 · DOI

• This article addresses this gap in research through employing a comparative case study between the Naivasha peace process between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement that led to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 and the Abuja peace process between the Government of Sudan and the Darfurian rebels that led to the Darfur Peace Agreement in 2006.

  He who pays the piper, calls the tune? Non-African involvement in Sudan’s African-led mediation processes · 2019 · DOI

• Abstract This article aims to rekindle the debate on the politics of aid in the increasingly common – yet still under-studied – authoritarian and low-intensity conflict settings, detailing the case of Ethiopia in 2016, when a 50-year drought coincided with a wave of protests and a state of emergency.

  The humanitarian theatre: drought response during Ethiopia's low-intensity conflict of 2016 · 2019 · DOI

• Yet, while existing research tends to focus on the coercive and state-building functions of UN PKOs, their concrete local activities with community leaders and populations remain, empirically and theoretically, understudied.

  United Nations Peacekeeping Locally: Enabling Conflict Resolution, Reducing Communal Violence · 2019 · DOI

• Due to its remote location, language barriers and the overall complexity of judicial trials, the proceedings of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) are generally not well known nor positively perceived in Rwanda.

  Discussing community-based outreach activities by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda · 2017 · DOI

• As an under-explored aspect of international peace efforts, the article, while guided by the overall question of whether or not the concepts of ‘hybrid peace’ and ‘recourse to localism’ can be operationalised, argues that bringing the peacekeepers and their training back in is critical to these debates.

  Adding peacekeepers to the debates of critical liberal peacebuilding: new insights from the perspective of peacekeeping training in Africa · 2016 · DOI

• As national reconciliation is limited to the reconstruction of infrastructures, the master narrative of the ‘New Angola’ is also physically imposed on the urban cityscape; similarly, any substantive political dialogue about the war is precluded as a threat to the ‘gains of peace’, which are measured again in purely material terms of the built environment.

  2002, Year Zero: History as Anti-Politics in the ‘New Angola’ · 2015 · DOI

• Since the end of the Angolan conflict in 2002, the ruling Movemento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) party has been promoting a ‘master narrative’ of ‘peace and reconstruction’, through which the Angolan conflict is re-signified as a merely technical issue, and the question of ‘national reconciliation’ is limited to the reconstruction of infrastructures.

  2002, Year Zero: History as Anti-Politics in the ‘New Angola’ · 2015 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Peacebuilding and International Security

• Saving liberal peacebuilding · Review of International Studies · 2010 · 317 citations
• Making humanitarian relief networks more effective: operational coordination, trust and sense making · Disasters · 2005 · 154 citations
• The past and future(s) of environmental peacebuilding · International Affairs · 2021 · 152 citations
• International Peacebuilding and Local Success: Assumptions and Effectiveness · International Studies Review · 2017 · 132 citations
• The Extraordinary Relationship between Peacekeeping and Peace · British Journal of Political Science · 2020 · 120 citations
• The Rhetoric and Reality of Localisation: Refugee-Led Organisations in Humanitarian Governance · The Journal of Development Studies · 2020 · 91 citations
• Business under Fire · Journal of Conflict Resolution · 2013 · 87 citations
• Emancipating Transitional Justice from the Bonds of the Paradigmatic Transition · International Journal of Transitional Justice · 2014 · 72 citations
• IO Mediation of Interstate Conflicts · Journal of Conflict Resolution · 2008 · 71 citations
• The State and International Development Management: Shifting Tides, Changing Boundaries, and Future Directions · Public Administration Review · 2008 · 71 citations

Most recent work

• Oslo and post-Oslo generations: failed peace processes and peacebuilding perspectives · Peacebuilding · 2026
• Mediation in a fragmented world: competing approaches and enduring practices · Peacebuilding · 2026
• Artificial Intelligence-Powered Conflict Early Warning Systems: Potential and Limitations: Post-CPA and Beyond · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
• A Computational Analysis of Conflict Dynamics and Peacebuilding Narratives in South Sudan: A Natural Language Processing Approach · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
• The Role of Local Governance in Peace-Building: The Case of Somali Region, Ethiopia · Journal of Political Science and International Relationship · 2026
• Nordic Countries and African Peacebuilding: Values-Based Foreign Policy and Its Contradictions: Community-Based Perspectives · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
• Learning Lessons About Aid Effectiveness in Post-War Contexts · Southeastern Europe · 2026
• Pleading for peace: Sri Lanka, Kosovo, and the press releases of ceasefire monitors · Global Change, Peace & Security · 2026
• A Spatial Analysis of Peacekeeping Training Centres: Power, Practices and Knowledge Production · Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding · 2026
• With a little help from my ‘ordinary friends’: relationships, networks, and resilience in Masisi, North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo · Disasters · 2026

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