Building Peace or Aiding Violence?: NGOs, Armed Conflict, and Peacebuilding

by Jonathan Goodhand

While NGOs' role in advocacy and agendasetting is fairly widely accepted, their peacebuilding activities are more controversial and have come under increasing scrutiny--not least from the NGOs themselves. As the number of NGOs, and their role in conflict situations, has grown exponentially, they have found themselves increasingly strained to find an appropriate balance between competing demands for relief, development, human rights and peace work, and between their own roles and that of other international and national actors. In this important study, which is firmly grounded in seven case studies, Goodhand ably situates the role of NGOs in peacebuilding within the dynamics of contemporary conflicts and the evolving complexities of international peacebuilding. His study promises to become a valuable resource for the Peacebuilding Commission and other practitioners in their interaction with civil society. It also stands to make a significant contribution to current debates about the appropriate role of external actors in peacebuilding and our collective understanding of what it genuinely takes to build peace.

238 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2006