Partnerships for Peace: Peacebuilding Praxis and North-South NGO Relationships in Aceh and Timor Leste

Abstract

This thesis explores how NGO partnerships shape the nexus between peacebuilding theory and practice. It does so by examining how ideas about peacebuilding are exchanged between local and international NGOs working in partnership in Timor Leste and Aceh. In particular, it focuses on how tensions between the administrative structures of the international development system and the agency of individuals and the organisations for which they work influence the materialisation of ideas about peacebuilding in practice. In doing so, it engages with critiques of liberal peacebuilding, which illustrate that little space is offered to actors from the global South to contribute ideas to peacebuilding practice. By focusing in equal parts on the experiences and perspectives of Southern and Northern NGOs, this thesis provides insight into the role of Southern agency on the execution of North- South partnerships and on the development and transmission of peacebuilding ideas between organisations. Drawing on heuristic tools from peace and conflict studies, development studies and anthropology, this interdisciplinary project systematically investigates three styles of NGO partnership: contract relationships, partner driven relationships and networked relationships. By describing the mechanics of each of these approaches, this thesis explores the extent to which these partnership practices act as a conduit for the exchange of ideas. It does so by focusing on the ideas about peacebuilding held by the Northern and Southern NGOs in each of these relationships, their application of those ideas and the opportunities that existed for cross-fertilisation within these different modes of collaboration. The analysis of these three styles of partnership illustrates that both Northern and Southern NGOs contribute theoretical frameworks, practical experience and knowledge to their partnerships. The ability for the ideas of both Northern and Southern organisations to be enacted in practice is mediated by contextual factors, funding structures and the experiences and skills of individuals. This thesis argues that the intersection of these three vectors shapes the dynamics of power that exist within these relationships and plays a central role in determining which ideas become enacted in practice and the mechanisms by which this occurs.