ABSTRACT
This chapter critically examines the notion of a 'post-liberal' and hybrid peacebuilding paradigm. It argues that the utilisation of the 'local', as both normative framework and analytic concept, constructs a problematic binary of international–local. The chapter examines how the figure of the local has been constructed and utilised in both academic work and policy reviews. The narrative of local ownership serves in the production of the image of a modern, enlightened, liberal 'international' while justifying the logic of intervention to begin with. The chapter focuses on the treatment of the local in two reviews of peacekeeping and peacebuilding conducted in 2015–the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations and the Advisory Group of Experts, which reviewed the whole of the UN peacebuilding architecture. It also examines how 'gaps' are shaped and informed by gendered and raced logics, identities and categories. The chapter suggests that militarised security-seeking practices remain prioritised and valued, over and above those seen as more consensual or passive.
