ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the normative and institutional underpinnings of the Western notions of the security and justice sector, and offers an account of how these are discursively constructed, rather than being evidence based. The three elements of this vision were also manifest in particular practices, most notably in security sector reform (SSR), disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR), and rule of law (RoL) programmes. Burundi became a focus country for the UN Peacebuilding Commission; the World Bank made it eligible for the Multi-Country Demobilization and Reintegration Programme (MDRP) for DDR; the European Union and a host of bilateral donors all played significant roles in DDR, SSR, and RoL programming. The post-conflict peacebuilding project in Burundi was subject to the same intense international engagement as in Sudan, albeit with somewhat different dynamics. Peacebuilding interventions, while ambitious in their social engineering scope, are often just moments in a much longer process of social and political change.
