Gender, UN Peacebuilding, and the Politics of Space

The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (UNPBC) was established in December 2005 to develop outlines of best practice in post-conflict reconstruction, and to secure the political and material resources necessary to assist states in transition from conflict to peacetime. However, a 2010 review found that the hopes of the UN peacebuilding architecture had yet to be realized. Laura J. Shepherd draws upon original fieldwork that she conducted with the UNPBC to argue that the spatial politics of peacebuilding are not only gendered - such that they further marginalize and disadvantage indigenous populations in peacebuilding activities - but also perpetuate hierarchies that privilege the international over the domestic realms.