SIWPS Member Séverine Autesserre suggests a new explanation for why international peace interventions often fail to reach their full potential in her new book Peaceland: Conflict Resolution and the Everyday Politics of International Intervention.

Based on several years of ethnographic research in conflict zones around the world, it demonstrates that everyday elements – such as the expatriates’ social habits and usual approaches to understanding their areas of operation – strongly influence peacebuilding effectiveness.  These common attitudes and actions enable foreign peacebuilders to function in the field, but they also result in unintended consequences that thwart international peacebuilding efforts.

Through an in-depth analysis of the interveners’ everyday life and work, Peaceland proposes innovative ways to better help host populations build a sustainable peace.

Peaceland is published by Cambridge University Press.  Find out more information about the book here.  Purchase Peaceland here.