United Nations

Although research demonstrates that peacekeeping missions, on balance, have a good track record, many of the practices, habits, and narratives that shape peacebuilders’ efforts on the ground are counterproductive. This, at least, is the argument put forward by Séverine Autesserre, researcher and associate professor at Columbia University, after conducting several years of ethnographic research in conflict zones around the world. In her book Peaceland: Conflict Resolution and the Everyday Politics of International Intervention, Autesserre explains how expatriates often live lives that are largely separated from the populations they are trying to help, and how this can undermine the very notion of local ownership that is key to the success of peacebuilding missions.