Territorializing Peace: How Do We Make Peacebuilding Territorial?

Policy Brief No. 9 War is a territorial process; thus, peace must be conceived as a process of territorial transformation. The Colombian Peace Agreement introduced a territorial dimension in the debates on peacebuilding. Translating the territorial approach into concrete policy, however, has been a challenge thus far. This policy brief describes the lessons learned in implementing territorial peace and makes recommendations regarding the design of peace agreements, their implementation, and their monitoring strategies. To materialize territorial peacebuilding, national governments should create mechanisms for local planning and execution, aimed at transforming socio-economic inequalities and inclusively paying reparations to victims of conflict. National governments, and more specifically, institutions evaluating accord implementation must answer three questions in their reports: (a) in which specific locations and to what extent peace agreement provisions are implemented; (b) how implementation changes spatiotemporally; and (c) how territorial transformations impact peacebuilding.