This paper questions the continued relevance of peacebuilding within external interventions in Africa. For peacebuilding to be relevant means not only dealing with the causes of conflicts passed, but also engaging with the harbingers of violence. These harbingers are the effects of inequality, prolonged through networks of obligation within patronage-based political systems that encourage the ambitious to harness localised grievances and conditions of impoverishment, and translate these into violence. If current trends prevail, future conflicts in Africa will be about the collective denial of individual rights in order to maintain and extend current configurations of power.

About the author

Lauren Hutton is an independent consultant with more than 10 years’ experience working on peace and security in Africa. She has worked for think tanks such as the Institute for Security Studies and the Netherlands Institute for International Relations (Clingendael), as well as operational agencies such as the Danish Refugee Council and Danish Demining Group. Lauren holds a Master of Politics degree from the University of the Western Cape and is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Johannesburg.

This paper has been made possible by support from Department for International Development. The ISS is also grateful for support from the following members of the ISS Partnership Forum: the governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the USA.