Civil Society Building Peace in the European Neighbourhood: Towards a New Framework for Joining Forces with the EU

Abstract

Within its own borders, the European Union (EU) is certainly a peace project. However, its external security and stability imperative does not make it a peacebuilding project in the neighbourhood and beyond by default. The official EU institutions have political and conceptual limitations that prevent them from meaningfully engaging with and addressing state formation conflicts. This paper addresses the disconnect between the European Union and the civil society operating in the field of peacebuilding at the level of theories of change underlying policies, strategies and activities with the aim of transforming and resolving conflicts. Theories of change are elicited from the reflections and experiences of CSOs and from the main documents that concern conflicts and peacebuilding in the European Neighbourhood. It proposes a new framework for the forecast and assessment of the impact of CSOs on peacebuilding, which can be considered by the EU institutions for building strategic partnerships with international and local civil society to enhance conflict transformation in the European Neighbourhood.

Keywords: European Union, Conflict, Peace