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The international architecture of peacebuilding and statebuilding, with the United Nations' efforts central among them, is currently responding to a shift from 'analogue' to 'digital' approaches in international relations. This is affecting intervention, peacebuilding and development. This article analyses the potential that these new digital forms of international relations offer for the reform of peacebuilding – namely, the enhancement of critical agency across networks and scales, the expansion of claims for rights and the mitigation of obstacles posed by sovereignty, locality and territoriality. The article also addresses the parallel limitations of digital technologies, as well as the risk of co-optation by historical and analogue power structures, existing modi operandi and agendas of the United Nations, and other international actors. We conclude that though aspects of emerging digital approaches to peacebuilding are promising, they cannot yet bypass or resolve older, analogue conflict dynamics revolving around the state, territorialism, and state formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking stock of critical peace research and agonistic politics, this article revisits the Basque conflict to examine the role of the state's counterterrorist narrative and that of the Basque civil society in the elimination of violence. It argues that violence could have ended sooner if Spanish governments had sought to engage with the non- and antiviolent independentist discourse of broad sectors of the Basque society, rather than criminalizing it as they rightly did with the radical/extremist nationalists. Had they done so, they could have capitalized on Basque civil society's strong antiviolent and anti–Euskadi Ta Askatasuna discourse to marginalize the terrorist organization and its networks of support. The article presents a framework that makes possible the marginalization of militancy and extremism in cases where the state accepts to negotiate the legitimacy of the demands of non- and/or antiviolent nationalists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at a project involving nine internationally acclaimed street artists who agreed to make murals in Oslo, following the 22 July 2011 attacks. Resting on the art project's aims ('to promote universal human rights and to counter the intolerance and xenophobia that can give rise to violence and justify terrorism') and the art community's reaction, the article argues that street art's visibility and agency offer alternative ways of thinking about, and approaching, international relations (IR). The article examines the streets as the space where artists express and engage the 'everyday'; and as the medium that allows artists to bring art to the public (as opposed to galleries or exhibitions the public chooses to visit). We argue that the incorporation of street art's spatiality and aesthetics into 'everyday IR' supports more critical frameworks that (a) expose the exceptional logic(s) of illiberal governance; (b) enable the visibility of marginalised and/or dissenting voices in society; and (c) explore experimental, eclectic and creative approaches of doing/thinking everyday security, community and peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the volume of research exploring the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for destructive purposes (terrorism, crime, war propaganda) on the one hand, and development (ICT4D) on the other hand, very little has been said about the role that traditional, and especially new social media, can play for the transformation and prevention of conflicts. This paper recognises ICTs as a tool, thus accepting their multi-level and multi-dimensional potential in the transformation as well as the intransigence and promotion of conflict. The paper seeks to explore: (a) whether ICTs can empower marginalised actors to transcend the peacebuilding and statebuilding processes, and lead to a more locally-owned, more representative transformation of the conflict; (b) whether ICTs can foster more hybrid forms of peace; and (c) whether they can be co-opted as a platform by donors to promote their agendas and impede resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the citizen journalism Web site Groundviews, which aims to demonstrate and promote pluralist, progressive, inclusionary discourses and policies in Sri Lanka, and its role in peacebuilding of the country. Topics discussed include the Voices for Reconciliation (VfR) project, it serves as the portal for initiatives that seek to change attitude and narratives of the conflict, and the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in postconflict peacebuilding.

Tellidis, Ioannis. (2012) The End of the Liberal Peace? Post-Liberal Peace vs. Post-Liberal States. International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2486.2012.01137.x [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on "Peacebuilding," a peer-reviewed journal that is published by Taylor & Francis Group. Topics include the journal's role as a venue for debate, critique, and advancement of knowledge on peace and conflict and peacebuilding, its mission to contribute to the de-institutionalization and de-centralization of peace research, and the journal's link with the International Association for Peace and Conflict Studies.