Enlightening the Heart of Darkness: UN perceptions and their relation with local agency in peacebuilding

Abstract: Perceptions have the capacity of indirectly shaping agendas and affecting behaviours. It is a concept briefly touched upon in peacebuilding research, as a tool of tracing dominant practices of international interveners. This paper aims to contribute to this literature, by analysing how perceptions of the UN relate with lacking local agency in peacebuilding practice. In a case study of MONUC’s intervention in the DRC, this link is supported by Autesserre’s theories of peacebuilding cultures and knowledge hierarchies. The UN perceives peacebuilding as mainly a statebuilding mission; the DRC as inherently violent and dysfunctional; and the conflict as predominantly a consequence of illegal natural resource exploitation. Our findings suggest that these perceptions – reinstated in dominant peacebuilding cultures – reinforce marginalisation of the knowledge and opinions of local actors.