Since its beginnings at the end of the Cold War, liberal peace-building has become
increasingly coterminous with state-building. Its results have been mixed, both in
terms of securing the peace at the level of the state, and, where local communities are
concerned, often leaving unpeaceful conditions in place. In recent years practitioners
and researchers have increasingly turned to the local level of society to better
understand those processes that generate violence and those that contribute to peace.
The creation of peace infrastructures – networks of institutions spanning all levels of
society that contain the expertise of conflict resolution and which address conflict –
has been proposed as a way of addressing the shortcomings of peace-building at the
local level.
This thesis is a pioneering critical investigation of the relationship between liberal
peace-building and peace infrastructures. The relationship is guided by statism, the
under-theorised ideological underpinning of contemporary peace-building. The thesis
argues that the model that has come to dominate the discourse and practice is deeply
statist, and that this typically sees peace infrastructures deployed as a more efficient
means to liberal peace-building, rather than harnessing its transformatory potential to
rethink some of the underlying assumptions of peace-building itself.
Through a qualitative study of the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (Peaceful and
Prosperous Community – PAMANA) programme of the Philippine government, this
research shows, first, the limitations of a centrally planned peace infrastructure
oriented towards state-building in attempting to transform society. The emergence of
diverse forms of engagement with the programme in villages illustrates its
hybridisation, and resultant tendency to deviate from its planners’ intended
outcomes. Second, it puts the internal contradictions of state-building in a stark light,
revealing the inherently fragmented and conflictual nature of the state. The internal
contradictions of state-building are not incidental, but rooted in the fundamental
tenets of contemporary peace-building. The thesis shows that the potential of peace
infrastructures to transform peace-building is diminished when deployed as a statebuilding project
I certify that the ideas, field work, analyses, and conclusions reported in this thesis
are entirely my own effort, except where otherwise acknowledged. I also certify that
the work is original and has not been previously submitted for any other award,
except where otherwise acknowledged.