ABSTRACT
Political economy appears frequently in explanations for the conflicts of the 1990s to which peacekeepers and interventionists were dispatched. Political economy is also a key to problematising peacebuilding. This chapter argues that the general prescription for peacebuilding economies, with modification for local contexts, is derived from a neoliberal vision: corporate peace. Cultural differences between peacebuilding hosts and foreign interventionists shape normative justification for interventions because the international tries to improve the local. The strategy is applied with reference mainly to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) but also Kosovo to critique a political economy of international peacebuilding that assumes a linkage between capital and peace, but which adversely affects workers and those with precarious livelihoods. Legacies of conflict enhanced the agency of war entrepreneurs who could determine the implementation of external governance priorities, such as economic liberalisation. Their capital in weapons, followers, network links and wealth from predation and exploitation strengthened new and reinvigorated old bosses.
