Sandra Pogodda - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Sandra Pogodda

Asian International Studies Review, 2025

In the 21st century, peacemaking is subject to a changing international order in which rising pow... more In the 21st century, peacemaking is subject to a changing international order in which rising powers play a growing role. China's mediation in Myanmar's civil war is a case in point since the international peace architecture has little access to the conflict. This paper contrasts divergent theoretical assumptions on the impact of multipolarity on peace processes with an in-depth examination of China's mediation strategy. For analysts of the emerging multipolar order, this research indicates that the optimistic assumptions of Mignolo's pluriversal and Acharya's multiplex theory might not be met by the rise of new actors in peacemaking. Instead, China's mediation in Myanmar suggests that multipolarity favors geopolitics at the expense of emancipatory movements. China's growing involvement in peace processes worldwide confirms recent scholarship on the lack of conflict resolution tools in the multipolar order. This shortcoming renders multipolarity prone to instability and condemns emancipatory movements to permanent subjugation.

Global Studies Quarterly, 2025

With the publication of Agenda for Peace the UN system opened its peace interventions up to criti... more With the publication of Agenda for Peace the UN system opened its peace interventions up to critiques that allowed a tentative incorporation of ethnographic, feminist, and rights-based approaches. Yet, subsequent efforts to reform the International Peace Architecture (IPA) have been more limited. A critical analysis indicates that legitimate political claims from outside Western understandings of peacemaking have been marginalised, despite the growing prominence of non-Western discourses. A liberal or constructivist approach might suggest such differences can be bridged and that a multipolar order might well develop a capacity for peacemaking. In the emerging multipolar order, the 'liberal alignment' appears to have broken down. This paper critically evaluates the potential for peacemaking in a liberal aligned order versus a multipolar misaligned order. In the former, a stalemate dynamic of peacemaking tends to emerge, whereas the misaligned version typically generates an oppressive and unstable victor's peace. Another difference lies in the engagement with critical scholarship: the response of liberal peacemaking to feminist, ethnographic, postcolonial, environmental, and post-liberal critiques was limited and ultimately insufficient.

Rethinking peace and conflict studies, 2023

This agenda-setting series of research monographs, now more than a decade old, provides an interd... more This agenda-setting series of research monographs, now more than a decade old, provides an interdisciplinary forum aimed at advancing innovative new agendas for peace and conflict studies in International Relations. Many of the critical volumes the series has so far hosted have contributed to new avenues of analysis directly or indirectly related to the search for positive, emancipatory, and hybrid forms of peace. Constructive critiques of liberal peace, hybrid peace, everyday contributions to peace, the role of civil society and social movements, international actors and networks, as well as a range of different dimensions of peace (from peacebuilding, statebuilding, youth contributions, photography, and many case studies) have been explored so far. The series raises important political questions about what peace is, whose peace and peace for whom, as well as where peace takes place. In doing so, it offers new and interdisciplinary perspectives on the development of the international peace architecture, peace processes, UN peacebuilding, peacekeeping and mediation, statebuilding, and localised peace formation in practice and in theory. It examines their implications for the development of local peace agency and the connection between emancipatory forms of peace and global justice, which remain crucial in different conflict-affected regions around the world. This series' contributions offer both theoretical and empirical insights into many of the world's most intractable conflicts, also investigating increasingly significant evidence about blockages to peace. This series is indexed by Scopus.

The EU and crisis response, 2021

European Journal of International Relations

Peace processes and international order are interdependent: while the latter provides the normati... more Peace processes and international order are interdependent: while the latter provides the normative framework for the former, peacemaking tools and their underlying ideology also maintain international order. They indicate its viability and legitimacy partly by meeting local claims as well as though the maintenance of geopolitical balances. In the emerging multipolar order, the international peace architecture (IPA), dominated by the Liberal International Order (LIO), is contested through counter-peace processes. These processes contest the nature of the state, state-society relations, and increasingly international order itself. This paper investigates the tactics and strategies of regional actors and great powers, where they engage in peace and order related activities or interventions. Given the weakness and inconsistency of the IPA and the LIO, such contestation leads to challenges to international order itself, often at the expense of the claims of social movements and civil society networks.

Review of International Studies, 2023

In the face of the current decline or spectacular collapse of peace processes, this article inves... more In the face of the current decline or spectacular collapse of peace processes, this article investigates whether peace has become systematically blocked. It investigates whether the ineffectiveness of an 'international peace architecture' (IPA) can be explained by a more potent counterpeace system, which is growing in its shadow. It identifies counterpeace as proto-systemic processes that connect spoilers across all scales (local, regional, national, transnational), while exploiting structural blockages to peace and unintended consequences of peace interventions. It elaborates three distinct patterns of blockages to peace in contemporary conflicts across the globe: the stalemate, limited counterpeace, and unmitigated counterpeace. Drawing on the counterrevolution literature, this research asks: Have peace interventions become the source of their own undoing? Which factors consolidate or aggravate emerging conflict patterns? Are blockages to peace systemic enough to construct a sedimentary and layered counterpeace edifice?

Investigating the relationship between governance and conflict resolution in India and the EU

Manchester University Press, 2017

Chapter 1 discusses the relationship between governance and conflict resolution in India and the ... more Chapter 1 discusses the relationship between governance and conflict resolution in India and the EU. It finds a lot of similarities between the two entities especially in terms of their concern for democratic credentials and institutional design, increasingly based on neo-liberal principles. Both India and the EU give primacy to statebuilding in their conflict resolution strategies and emphasise the importance of development and bureaucracy in the process. The authors find that one of the main differences between the two entities is in the security measures they undertake. While the EU has a more relaxed approach to security policy, India puts emphasis on the use of hard security measures, seeing itself as a unitary sovereign actor rather than a quasi-federal entity (as with the EU). This is also one of the most common critiques of India’s efforts in producing conflict resolution, along with the inefficiency of its governance and the corruption that surrounds it. The EU can be partl...

This chapter investigates how liberal peacebuilding has responded to and intervened in the revolu... more This chapter investigates how liberal peacebuilding has responded to and intervened in the revolutionary processes that unfolded in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings. In particular, it focuses on the tensions between the liberal peace’s orthodox and emancipatory strands by asking: Which role has liberal peacebuilding been playing in the postuprising period? Does it help or hinder revolutionary agency in the Arab region? By trying to understand different types of continuous revolutionary agency (here called “everyday state formation”), the chapter aims to close a gap in peace and conflict studies’ local turn. It argues that the disjunctures between revolutionary agency and liberal peacebuilding interventions run so deep in some areas that the latter risk appearing as counterrevolutionary practices.

Introduction: The contradictions of peace, international architecture, the state, and local agency

Peace Formation versus Everyday State Formation in Palestine

Post-Liberal Peace Transitions

This chapter examines the emergence of everyday state-formation movements. With the peace process... more This chapter examines the emergence of everyday state-formation movements. With the peace process discredited through the abuse of the power imbalance between the conflict parties, pockets of local agency in Palestine have shifted their emancipatory struggle from peace towards creating the conditions for a viable and inclusionary state. The chapter then introduces and analyses the concept of everyday state formation as the capacity — and limitations — of non-violent grassroots movements to delineate the political space of an emerging state by pushing back external coercive power and the governmentality of pacification. Everyday state formation illustrates the internal tensions of contemporary statebuilding: without reconciliation across multiple scales — local to global — the complex interactions of structural, governmental, and subaltern power will tend to build societal fragility into emerging state structures.

Peacebuilding, 2021

Recent critical academic work in Peace and Conflict Studies has concentrated on the agential aspe... more Recent critical academic work in Peace and Conflict Studies has concentrated on the agential aspects of peace but has somewhat neglected structural issues and the different types of power that may be an obstacle to peace. Yet, for peace to take root, to be emancipa- tory and truly transformative, it seems that issues of hard power, geo- politics and the structures of states, societies and economies need to be re-addressed in a new set of contexts. This special issue concen- trates on how peace scholarship and agendas can be furthered in an era of realism, hard power, the primacy of geopolitics, nationalism, authoritarianism and unfettered capitalism. This article explores the fluid and multifaceted relationship between power and peace, while also introducing the contributions to this special issue.

Conflict, Security & Development, 2021

While often caused by conflict, crises are treated by the EU as a phenomenon of their own. Contem... more While often caused by conflict, crises are treated by the EU as a phenomenon of their own. Contemporary EU crisis management represents a watering down of normative EU approaches to peace- building, reduced to a technical exercise with the limited ambition to contain spillover effects of crises. In theoretical terms this is a reversal, which tilts intervention towards EU security interests and avoids engagement with the root causes of the crises. This paper develops a novel crisis response typology derived from con- flict theory, which ranges from crisis management to crisis resolution and (critical) crisis transformation. By drawing on EU interventions in Libya, Mali and Ukraine, the paper demonstrates that basic crisis management approaches are pre-eminent in practice. More pro- mising innovations remain largely confined to the realms of dis- course and policy documentation.

Cooperation and Conflict, 2020

This article explores the relationship between contemporary revolutionary agency, domestic reform... more This article explores the relationship between contemporary revolutionary agency, domestic reforms and liberal peacebuilding in the aftermath of the Arab Uprisings. In particular, it focuses on the tensions between the liberal peace's orthodox and emancipatory strands by asking: Does liberal peacebuilding support or hinder revolutionary emancipation in the Arab region? The article aims to close a gap in PCS scholarship by delivering insights into contemporary revolutionary processes (here called 'everyday state formation'). After elaborating the disjunctures between revolutionary agency and liberal peacebuilding interventions in the spheres of statebuilding, development and democratisation, many peacebuilding interventions appear as counterrevolutionary practices.

Academic scholarship displays a curious disconnect between two trends, connecting peace and gove... more Academic scholarship displays a curious disconnect between two trends, connecting
peace and governance issues. At the same time when conflicts tended to shift inwards
(from inter-state to civil wars), global governance approaches seemed to decentre the management
of peace and conflict outwards (from the nation state to international forums).
This paper investigates this disjuncture by examining the European Union and India’s
governance strategies in different conflict contexts. It studies whether their strategies
operate close to the global governance model and/or whether they are able to connect
with and effectively support local peace initiatives in conflict-ridden areas.

Third World Quarterly, Jun 2015

With Palestine gaining increasing international recognition for its sovereignty aspirations, this... more With Palestine gaining increasing international recognition for its sovereignty aspirations, this paper investigates the ongoing Palestinian state formation process. It examines in how far grassroots movements, domestic political leaderships and international actors have promoted or undermined intra-Palestinian unity and societal consensus around the rules, design and extent of a future Palestinian state. The paper introduces the novel concept of everyday state formation as a crucial form of grassroots agency in this process. Moreover, it illustrates the internal tensions of contemporary statebuilding: without reconciliation across multiple scales - local to global - the complex interactions of structural, governmental, and subaltern power, tend to build societal fragility into emerging state structures.

Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais no.104, Sep 2014

Numa inversão das políticas anteriores, as agências de desenvolvimento têm vindo a ajustar cada v... more Numa inversão das políticas anteriores, as agências de desenvolvimento têm vindo a ajustar cada vez mais as suas intervenções às culturas locais. Neste artigo, analisa‑se a forma como em Timor‑Leste a cultura tem sido interpretada, processada e incorporada em programas de desenvolvimento das Nações Unidas (ONU). Que tipo de concessões fazem as agências de desenvolvimento? Quais são os limites neste processo de hibridização e será que este implica uma renegociação das abordagens de desenvolvimento ou apenas concessões unilaterais? O artigo argumenta que os esforços das agências da ONU para aumentar a sua sensibilidade cultural nas operações em Timor‑Leste tinham claras limitações e não conseguiram refletir a cultura local em toda a sua diversidade. Nesta complexa interação entre variantes de cultura local, assimetrias de poder e ortodoxia internacional, as agências de desenvolvimento estão simultaneamente um passo atrás, na sua compreensão da cultural local, e um passo à frente, em termos do seu poder para definir as regras de envolvimento.

Democratization, Jun 2012

In recent years, the liberal state-building agenda, in which foreign policy objectives such as de... more In recent years, the liberal state-building agenda, in which foreign policy objectives such as democratization, state-building, and national security are regarded as mutually reinforcing elements of a broader peace-building strategy, has come under criticism for its internal contradictions, its epistemology, and its unintended consequences on the ground. In the case of Palestine, these three objectives of Western foreign policies have never gone hand in hand. Rather, the history of state-building and democratization in
Palestine reads like a drama in three acts: a period of authoritarian state-building, followed by democratization during a period of state demolition, and finally the current phase of competing undemocratic institution-building in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This contribution examines whether those policy objectives have indeed been incompatible in Palestine and how Palestine’s major donors have dealt with perceived trade-offs. The
subsequent analysis explores to what extent external and internal actors’ policy shifts have shaped and partially undermined the project of democratic state-building in Palestine.

European Union (EU) interventions in conflict countries tend to focus on governance reforms of po... more European Union (EU) interventions in conflict countries tend to focus on governance
reforms of political and economic frameworks instead of the geopolitical context or
the underlying power asymmetries that fuel conflict. They follow a liberal pattern
often associated with northern donors and the UN system more generally. The EU’s
approach diverges from prevalent governance paradigms mainly in its engagement
with social, identity and socio-economic exclusion. This article examines the EU’s
‘peace-as-governance’ model in Cyprus, Georgia, Palestine and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
These cases indicate that a tense and contradictory strategic situation may arise
from an insufficient redress of underlying conflict issues.

The rise of India and the EU as global actors ‘governmentality’. This article asks whether has sp... more The rise of India and the EU as global actors ‘governmentality’. This article asks whether
has sparked growing interest in their peace- there is sufficient consistency across either
building approaches. This paper compares actors’ governance interventions to even
the objectives and effects of the EU’s and
speak of a distinct ‘strategy’ or ‘governance
India’s engagement in different conflict
culture’. It illustrates the close relationship
contexts within and alongside their
between governance and conflict response
borders. It examines whether their practices
initiatives but finds that the relationship is
of conflict resolution or peace-building strive
for more than conflict management or often dysfunctional.

This paper is interested in the meanings and implications of technocracy for the development and ... more This paper is interested in the meanings and implications of technocracy for the development and maintenance of peace. It aims to illustrate how the bureaucratic imperative explains much about the ascendancy of certain actors to positions of prominence on the peacebuilding landscape, and the types of activities that these actors engage in.