Funded by the German Foundation for Peace Research, ZIF conducted a research project from 2007-09 on Local Ownership in Peacebuilding Processes in Failed States: Approaches, Experiences, and Prerequisites for Success. An Empirical Study of Peace Operations in Kosovo (UNMIK) and Liberia (UNMIL).

Violent state failure, in conjunction with international terrorism and organized crime are major threats to international security in the 21st century. The stabilisation and reconstruction of failed states constitute great and largely new challenges to successful conflict management by the international community. One central question for peace and conflict studies is thus how sustainable, enduring peace settlements can be established in failed states.

However, the record of peacebuilding has been mixed so far. The question of how peacebuilding processes should be conceptualised and implemented to be effective and sustainable is as of yet largely unresolved. Deficient sustainability is one of the main problems of these processes. Researchers as well as practitioners argue that the mixed results of peace operations are to a large extent due to the lack of “local ownership”. One main reason for this is the inadequate empirical knowledge of the problems of local ownership and its implementation.

The key research questions are:

• What approaches for the implementation of local ownership do currently exist in peace operations?
• What lessons can be drawn to increase the sustainability of peacebuilding processes?

Conclusions about how local ownership is being implemented will be generated through an inductive, qualitative analysis, of two multidimensional peace operations: UNMIK (United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo) and UNMIL (United Nation Mission in Liberia). Both cases will be analysed in a comparative study to enable conclusions which can be generalized. For reasons of practicability, the project will focus on two core areas in each peace operation: Rule of law and elections. Both are defined as particularly relevant for peace operations in failed states, especially on the question of local ownership, and the sustainable stabilization of governance structures.

Besides a couple of preparatory and accompanying expert workshops and roundtables, the research team visited both countries altogether six times between 2007 and 2008 to conduct field research, including about 100 semi-structured interviews with local and international actors.


Workshops and Expert Seminars

• Local Ownership in Peacebuilding Processes in Failed States. Approaches, Experiences, and Prerequisites for Success, Expert Meeting, 20–21 April 2007, Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF), Berlin
• Researching Local Ownership in Peacebuilding Processes in Failed States. Workshop on Approaches and Methods for Empirical Studies in the Field, 10-11 December 2007, Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF), Berlin
• Local Ownership and the Rule of Law in Liberia. Experiences with Justice and Law Reform, Roundtable, 13 November 2008, The Cape Hotel, Monrovia
• Local Ownership in Practice. Lessons from Liberia and Kosovo, Expert Roundtable, 3 June 2009, Permanent Mission of Germany to the UN, New York
• Local Ownership in Practice. Lessons from Liberia and Kosovo, Validation Workshop, 16-17 June 2009, Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF), Berlin

Publications

• Final Report: Tobias Pietz/Leopold von Carlowitz: Ownership in Practice. Lessons from Liberia and Kosovo, Forschung DSF No. 29
• Leopold von Carlowitz: Local Ownership in Practice: Justice System Reform in Kosovo and Liberia, DCAF Occasional Paper No. 23, Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF)
• Winrich Kühne (in cooperation with Tobias Pietz, Leopold von Carlowitz and Tobias von Gienanth): Peacebuilding Processes in Failed States – How to Improve Local Ownership?, paper prepared for the 2008 International Studies Association (ISA) Congress, San Francisco, March 2008
• Leopold von Carlowitz: Local Ownership and the Rule of Law in Liberia, in: Law in Africa, vol. 11, 2008, pp. 71-81
• Tobias Pietz und Leopold von Carlowitz: Local Ownership in Peacebuilding Processes in Failed States, ZIF Report 12/07

As of August 2011