Oliver Walton

Conflict, peacebuilding and NGO legitimacy: National NGOs in Sri Lanka1, Analysis

This paper explores the growing role of national NGOs in the interventions of western governments in conflict-affected regions. Using three case studies of national NGOs working in Sri Lanka, it focuses on the complex relationships between national NGOs, donors and a range of domestic stakeholders. These relationships involved competing demands, interests and expectations and were characterised by tensions, reversals and trade-offs. The paper argues that although donors have increasingly favoured national NGOs in their peacebuilding interventions, these organisations have been particularly vulnerable to crises of legitimacy. This tendency has disrupted NGO programmes and limited the capacity for donors to meet stated objectives.

The Limits of Liberal Peacebuilding: International Engagement in the Sri Lankan Peace Process

Abstract This essay explores international engagement in the Sri Lankan peace process between 2002 and 2008. The internationalization of peacebuilding in Sri Lanka is analysed as part of a broader international shift towards a model of ‘liberal peacebuilding’, which involves the simultaneous pursuit of conflict resolution, liberal democracy and market sovereignty. The essay provides a detailed and disaggregated analysis of the various exporters, importers and resisters of liberal peacebuilding, with a particular focus on the contrasting ways in which the United National Front (UNF) and the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) regimes engaged with international actors. It is argued that an analysis of the Sri Lankan case provides a corrective to some of the core assumptions contained in much of the literature on liberal peacebuilding. Rather than viewing liberal peacebuilding as simply an hegemonic enterprise foisted upon countries emerging from conflict, the essay explores the ways in which peacebuilding is mediated through, and translated and instrumentalized by, multiple actors with competing interests – consequently liberal peacebuilding frequently looks different when it ‘hits the ground’ and may, as in the Sri Lanka case, lead to decidedly illiberal outcomes. The essay concludes by exploring the theoretical and policy implications of a more nuanced understanding of liberal peacebuilding. It is argued that rather than blaming the failure of the project on deficiencies in its execution and the recalcitrance of the people involved, there is a need to look at defects in the project itself and to explore alternatives to the current model of liberal peacebuilding.

Peace building without using the word “peace”:National NGOs' reputational management strategies during a peace–to–war transition in Sri Lanka

This article examines the reputational management strategies of national nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) involved in peace-building work in Sri Lanka between 2006 and 2007, a transitional period when the cease-fire was unraveling and the NGO sector was facing a “crisis of legitimacy.” It traces the structural and proximate causes of the crisis and analyzes some of the ways in which NGOs were able to counteract the negative impacts that this criticism had on their legitimacy. This analysis challenges the mainstream view of NGO legitimacy as stable, unidimensional, and capacity-based by emphasizing the contested, highly politicized, and politically symbolic nature of NGO legitimacy in the Sri Lankan context. It also highlights the way in which national NGOs reframed and adapted peace-building agendas of international actors, challenging the popular view that liberal peace building functions hegemonically and that NGOs are compelled to follow the strategies of their international funders.

Mediating the margins: the role of brokers and the Eastern Provincial Council in Sri Lanka’s post-war transition

Abstract This article explores the political dynamics surrounding the Eastern Provincial Council during Sri Lanka’s post-war transition. We show that decentralisation constituted an intervention in conflict, rather than a solution to it. It creates new institutional arenas to re-negotiate centre-periphery relations, resulting in new forms of political mobilisation. There are crucial spatial dimensions to these contentions: it involves contested territorialisation of power, scalar manoeuvring, and boundary drawing. These are explored in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province, with particular reference to the role performed by brokers in mediating centre-periphery relations, through and alongside the Provincial Council.

Beyond disaster framing: exploring multi-mandate INGOs’ representations of conflict

Abstract This article examines how and why multi-mandate INGOs represent contemporary armed conflicts in particular ways. Based on empirical analysis of NGO communications and interviews with staff, it finds that these organisations typically adopt a two-track approach to representing conflicts. They use mainstream media to present consequence-oriented accounts to the general public, while utilising alternative channels to represent more nuanced depictions of conflict to more targeted audiences. These alternative forms of communication often aim to disrupt the dominant narratives of conflict produced by influential policy or media actors. Decisions about how to represent conflict are shaped by organisations’ histories, identities and funding relationships.

Learning lessons or unearthing truths?:Using evidence to inform mediation policy

This article assesses the potential for evidence-informed policymaking in the field of mediation. It argues that one of the key barriers to evidence-informed policymaking in this area is the disjointed character of the existing literature and finds that methodological and theoretical tensions lie at the heart of policy debates around mediation. While differences in theoretical, epistemological and normative perspectives of the existing research have made it difficult for policymakers to draw clear conclusions from the available evidence, the article nevertheless identifies a degree of convergence around certain key themes such as the importance of legitimacy in determining conflict outcomes and the benefits of combining quantitative and qualitative methods. It concludes by highlighting the importance of policy experimentation, evaluation and building capacity for policy learning in mediation policymaking.