Evaluating recent trends in peacebuilding research

Peacebuilding is a complex and multidimensional exercise thatencompasses tasks ranging from the disarming of warring factionsto the rebuilding of political, economic, judicial and civilsociety institutions. It utilizes a variety of actors, ideally,in the construction of a culture of peace to replace a structureof violence. Ever since Johan Galtung coined the term ‘peacebuilding’back in the 1970s, there have been very few attempts to fleshout the essence of this concept. It is only recently, beginningwith Boutros Boutros-Ghali's use of the term in his An Agendafor Peace and continuing with the efforts by the UN and regionalbodies to develop sustainable approaches to reconstructing war-tornsocieties that greater attention has been given to this idea.This article critically analyzes broad trends that can be discernedfrom the literature, in rethinking peacebuilding and in bridgingthe chasm between the concept and practices undertaken in itsname.