"This book was refined and solidified especially during the international workshop on 'Reconstructing the Architecture of International Peacebuilding' held between 11th-13th September 2019 at the Global Asia Research Centre, Waseda University [...]." (Acknowledgments).

This book explores hybrid peacebuilding in Asia, focusing on local intermediaries bridging the gaps between incumbent governments and insurgents, national leadership and the grassroots constituency, and local stakeholders and international intervenors. The contributors shed light on the functions of rebel gatekeepers in Bangsamoro, the Philippines, and Buddhist Peace monks in Cambodia to illustrate the mechanism of dialogue platforms through which gaps are filled and the nature of hybrid peace is negotiated. The book also discusses the dangers of hybrid peacebuilding by examining the cases of India and Indonesia where national level illiberal peace was achieved at the expense of welfare of minority groups. They suggest a possible role of outsiders in hybrid peacebuilding and mutually beneficial partnership between them and local intermediaries.

This open access book explores common critiques in the literature of hybrid peacebuilding, especially the lack of connection between hybridity in theory and practice. Through using a complexity-informed framework, the foundation for introducing the mid-space actor typology is established. Mid-space actors as insider-partial mediators are perceived to be vital agents for peace processes in conflict-affected areas and thus can be important power brokers and focal points for outside actors. In this book, two insider views are examined through analysing mid-space actors in the peacebuilding process in Cambodia and in Mindanao, the Philippines. First, it explores the process of identity-building of Cambodian monks and how such a process enables or hinders the monks to bridge existing cleavages. Then, in the case study of Mindanao, the roles of civil society actors are considered. The next step is to introduce the outsider's perspective on hybrid peacebuilding and how Asian peacebuilding actors such as China and Japan are engaging with mid-space actors who provide key bridges in peacebuilding. Yuji Uesugi, Yuji is Professor at the Faculty of International Research and Education, Waseda University, Japan. Anna Deekeling is a researcher at the Graduate School of Social Science, Waseda University, Japan. Sophie Shiori Umeyama is a researcher at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University, Japan. Lawrence Mcdonald-Colbert is a researcher at the Graduate School of Political Science, Waseda University, Japan. .

This book examines the way in which peace is conceptualized in IR theory, a topic which has until now been largely overlooked. The volume explores the way peace has been implicitly conceptualized within the different strands of IR theory, and in the policy world as exemplified through practices in the peacebuilding efforts since the end of the Cold War. Issues addressed include the problem of how peace efforts become sustainable rather than merely inscribed in international and state-level diplomatic and military frameworks. The book also explores themes relating to culture, development, agency and structure. It explores in particular the current mantras associated with the 'liberal peace', which appears to have become a foundational assumption of much of mainstream IR and the policy world. Analyzing war has often led to the dominance of violence as a basic assumption in, and response to, the problems of international relations. This book aims to redress the balance by arguing that IR now in fact offers a rich basis for the study of peace.

This book examines the role of everyday action in accepting, resisting and reshaping interventions, and the unique forms of peace that emerge from the interactions between local and international actors. Building on critiques of liberal peace-building, it redefines critical peace and conflict studies, based on new research from 16 countries.

Hybridity on the Ground in Peacebuilding and Development engages with the possibilities and pitfalls of the increasingly popular notion of hybridity. The hybridity concept has been embraced by scholars and practitioners in response to the social and institutional complexities of peacebuilding and development practice. In particular, the concept appears well-suited to making sense of the mutually constitutive outcomes of processes of interaction between diverse norms, institutions, actors and discourses in the context of contemporary peacebuilding and development engagements. At the same time, it has been criticised from a variety of perspectives for overlooking critical questions of history, power and scale. The authors in this interdisciplinary collection draw on their in‑depth knowledge of peacebuilding and development contexts in different parts of Asia, the Pacific and Africa to examine the messy and dynamic realities of hybridity ‘on the ground’. By critically exploring the power dynamics, and the diverse actors, ideas, practices and sites that shape hybrid peacebuilding and development across time and space, this book offers fresh insights to hybridity debates that will be of interest to both scholars and practitioners. ‘Hybridity has become an influential idea in peacebuilding and this volume will undoubtedly become the most influential collection on the idea. Nuance and sophistication characterises this engagement with hybridity.’ — Professor John Braithwaite

The guiding principle of peacebuilding over the past quarter century has been "liberal peace": the promotion of democracy, capitalism, and respect for human rights in an effort to prevent a reoccurrence of the nationalism, fascism, and economic collapse that led to World War II. This tactichas been relatively successful in reducing war between countries, but it has failed to produce lasting peace at the local level. The goals of peacebuilding have changed over time and place, but have always been built around intervention, with the goal of creating "progress" in post-conflictcountries.As Oliver P. Richmond argues in this book, the concept of peace connects the imperial era with the liberal era, and now, neoliberal eras of states and markets, and perhaps with the developing era of technology and mobility. But recent studies have shown that only a minority of modern peaceagreements survive for more than a few years. All of this begs the question of the legitimacy and effectiveness of the liberal peace agenda, particularly for scholars looking at the historical development, justifications, and tools for intervention.This book examines the development of the "grand design" and various subsequent attempts to develop a peaceful international order, and its implications for the current international peace architecture. Richmond examines six main theoretical-historical stages in this process, which have produced asubstantial, though fragile, international peace architecture, always entangled with, and hindered by, what might be described as a counter-peace framework. He contends that post-WWII liberal peace, which has aimed to balance liberty with regulation through law, democracy, human rights, and freetrade, has recently given way to a retrogressive, technologically driven neoliberal peace, which is more oriented towards free trade, counter-terrorism and insurgency, surveillance, and state security. The Grand Design provides a sweeping look at the troubled history of peacebuilding in order toconsider what the next-stage, "post-liberal peace," might look like.