Introduction: Peacebuilding and Reconstruction in Haiti

Abstract

The idea of ‘peacebuilding’ has been widely discredited in Haiti due to the application of an orthodox liberal approach in the 1990s and the limits of stabilisation since 2004. Revitalising ‘ refondation’, the transformative dimension of post-earthquake reconstruction, could connect that project to a more context-relevant concept of peacebuilding and especially to endogenous struggles for social justice. Drawing on critical constructivist theory and on the other contributions to this special issue, this introductory article suggests that there are possibilities to build the social basis for such changes, despite the alignment of forces in Haiti today.