ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 examines the case of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). The arrival of UNTAC signalled the end of recurring political instability and violence in Cambodia’s history. It is also the advent of a large-scale international peacebuilding mission when the United Nations (UN) oversaw the administration of its member state. The conduct of liberal peacebuilding and local involvement in the contexts of the 1993 election, the Khmer Rouge tribunal, the moratorium on logging, and the clearance of landmines are given particular attention in this chapter. UNTAC’s top-down and shallow implementation of liberal peace without substantive political transformation and lacking inclusive local involvement did not produce a holistic peace. The exclusive and politicized local involvement in peacebuilding produced a negative peace controlled by the political elite and lacking the elements of democracy, human rights, justice, and good governance.
