The International Sources of Strategic Peacebuilding

The literature on strategic peacebuilding emphasizes the comprehensive and multidimensional elements) — ie, the full tools and capacities of the outside world (governments, NGOs, international organizations) — that must be brought together to tackle problems of violence and war. The question this paper asks is, given this vision of strategic peacebuilding, what type of international order (defined in terms of norms, institutions, relationships, capacities, etc.) is most supportive of this vision? In answering this question, we can look both backward and forward. Looking back, what aspects of international order have emerged over the decades and centuries that have facilitated and reinforced the ability of states and the international community to pursue strategic peacebuilding? And what sorts of reforms and transformations of international order might strengthen the willingness and capacity of states and the international community to better act as strategic peacebuilders?