The Liberal Peace Theory as a Solution for Post-Conflict Zones: A Theoretical Analysis

Abstract

The current situation in post-conflict zones illustrate that liberal statebuilding policies as well as critical perspectives are inadequate to build sustainable and viable alternatives. Critical concepts - such as hybridity, everyday peace and local-centred- as well as the liberal peace thesis, have become a kind of orthodoxy in the literature. Although these critical concepts offer alternative human-centric solutions, in most conflict zones they seem inapplicable due to harsh and violent socio-political and economic conditions. This article makes an in-depth analysis of the Liberal Peace Theory as the facilitator of contemporary peacebuilding experiences and justification of the liberal interventions. The paper aims to illustrate the necessity of a contingency approach which considers the contextual differences of various post-conflict zones. This contingency approach rejects the orthodoxy of the liberal peace theory and its justifications as well as its criticisms having hegemonic perspectives in the literature.

Keywords

• liberal peace theory
• peacebuilding
• statebuilding
• post-conflict
• liberal barış teorisi
• barışinşası
• devletinşası
• çatışma-sonrası