ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the growing involvement of non-governmental organisations in the international security arena since the end of the Cold War, exploring why and how they have taken on a range of new roles under the rubric of “international security” including public diplomacy, Track Two negotiations, community reconciliation, post-conflict peacebuilding, and peace advocacy. The NGO literature tends to assume that such third party organisations are part of civil society, defined as separate to the public and private sectors. Geopolitical change prompted several important shifts in understanding and framing war, peace, and interventions. Assessments of the legitimacy and effectiveness of liberal peacebuilding and NGO roles within it varied radically. Critical theorists argued that liberal interventionism was a thinly disguised form of imperialism serving to extend and entrench Western capitalist interests in the Global South. NGO engagement in peacebuilding has been associated with broader changes in the composition and characteristics of civil society in conflict-affected regions.
