Whose Peace?

This book examines local ownership in UN peacekeeping and how national and international actors interact and share responsibility in fragile post-conflict contexts. Local ownership is in many ways logical: if international actors build peace for local ones, then it will be viewed as externally imposed and hence illegitimate and unlikely to last. However, in practice, local ownership is often perceived to slow or impede the achievement of key peacekeeping tasks, and thus it is highly restricted on the ground. This book examines the repercussions of this paradox for both legitimacy and effectiveness, drawing on extensive field research with both UN staff and national actors in countries hosting UN peacekeeping operations.