Critical Evolutions in the Peacebuilding-Development Praxis Nexus: Crisis and Complexity, Synergy and Transformation

Abstract

Over the last 2 decades, the peacebuilding and development nexus has grown as a critical area of scholarship and practise. At the same time, the conflict landscape has evolved in complexity, incorporating fragility, violence, and humanitarian crisis, presenting ever greater challenges for analysis, framing, and effective policy and practise responses. This article reflects on the paradigmatic shifts in this nexus as introduced by scholar Peter Uvin in 2002. It explores the ways in which they are still in play, adaptations in response to contextual developments, and new paradigms that are rising as they more meaningfully diagnose and offer responses to our complex, inter-related crises. The article argues that the complexity facing our fields demands inter-paradigm learning, pluralism, and synergy, and the political will to adapt and act in accordance with the transformative measures required to tackle the structural and systemic nature of these crises.