Why has multilateral peacebuilding in conflict-ridden states emerged as a depoliticized practice that rarely engages with local actors and agendas? And why has depoliticization persisted despite continued criticisms? Claiming Impartiality offers an innovative answer to the puzzling persistence of depoliticization in post-war peacebuilding that focuses on the institutional mandates, interests, and practices of those international and bilateral organizations that design and implement most peacebuilding interventions. 

Drawing on and expanding a Bourdieusian field perspective, the book examines international organizations as actors in multiple fields of global governance. Using the case studies of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Timor-Leste, it traces the emergence and transformation of peacebuilding practices by leading international and bilateral organizations during the first two decades of the field’s existence. The organizational lens highlights the tensions that exist between the objectives of simultaneously acting as a peacebuilding organization and as a peacekeeping, humanitarian, or development organization whose practices are to varying degrees committed to observing the twin principles of impartiality and neutrality. By thinking through these sometimes contradictory roles, the book offers new insights into how these organizations sideline questions of political agency in favor of expanding their influence into related fields of global governance. Claiming Impartiality discusses the future of peacebuilding and explores avenues for addressing political challenges to peace itself.

Andrea Warnecke is Assistant Professor in International Relations and European Studies at Leiden University.

Contents

List of Abbreviations: ix

Foreword: xv

Acknowledgments: xvii

1 | Introduction: Peacebuilding, Politics, and Institutional Agency: 1

2 | Peacebuilding Organizations as Actors in Multiple Fields of Global Governance: 18

3 | Reconstructing the Early Peacebuilding Field: 47

4 | Conflict, Contestation, and the Transformation of Peacebuilding “Best Practice”: 80

5 | The Making of a Practice I: UNDP, DfID, and Multilateral Peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1995–2005: 113

6 | The Making of a Practice II: UNDP and Multilateral Peacebuilding in Timor-Leste, 1999–2010: 148

Conclusion: 185

Postscript 2025: Reimagining Impartiality Beyond Liberal Hegemony: 195

Appendix: List of interviews: 201

Notes: 207

References: 221

Index: 245