Administrative Theory & Praxis

Peacebuilding and Public Administration: Exploring the Common Work of Co-Laboring Strangers

Peace studies as an academic subject emerged in the aftermath of WWII. Initially emerging as a complement to International Relations and focused on preventing war between and within states, the field has grown to include examinations of peacekeeping operations, interpersonal conflict, structural inequalities, systemic oppression and power, movements for human rights and social justice, development and environmental conflict, and peacebuilding and cultures of peace (see Stephenson 2010). Those trained in peacebuilding/peacekeeping/conflict studies find careers in conflict resolution, restorative justice, social work, family court, civil rights advocacy, peacekeeping, international development and diplomacy---they work at local, national and international levels in community-based organizations (CBOs), local governments, international agencies, and NGOs – the sorts of institutions and organizations that are either core to the study of public administration or key partners to public administrators in collaborating on innovative 21^st century solutions to key challenges (O’Leary, 2015).   Moreover, recent efforts to operationalize and comparatively measure levels of peace across countries (e.g. the Institute for Economics & Peace Positive Peace Index) argue for “well-functioning government” as one pillar of positive peace and estimate such indicators such as “Government Effectiveness.”

Over the same period, public administration as a field has moved beyond the limited mid-20^th century focus on effectively implementing policy with efficiency and economy.   A necessary attention to equity as an additional value pillar of the discipline, an increased attention to the complexity of “wicked” problems and the resulting necessity of drawing on a diverse network of potential partnerships to meet goals of good governance have pushed public administrators to consider questions and varieties of power and oppression as well as seek more diverse skillsets for collaboration not only within public institutions but beyond.     

Yet these two fields with striking similarities of both inquiry and sphere of action have, for the most part, been strangers to each other when it comes to academic inquiry.  A search for keyword “peace” in the public administration field journals Public Administration (0), Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (0), Public Administration Review (0), American Review of Public Administration (1) and International Journal of Public Administration (2) yielded a total of 3 hits.   Likewise, a keyword and abstract search for “public administration” in the peace studies journals Cooperation and Conflict (1/1), Conflict Management and Peace Science (0/0), Journal of Peacebuilding & Development (0/0), Journal of Peace Research (0/2) and Journal of Conflict Resolution yielded 1 hit by the first measure and 3 by the second.

There are notable exceptions.  In 2007, the University of Konstanz (Germany) organized a conference entitled, “Public Administration meets Peacebuilding: Peace Operations as Political and Managerial Challenges”. The conference emphasized issues of “coordination, leadership, and learning as managerial and political challenges” related to peacebuilding work.  In 2010, The United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) published a report that claimed, “effective public administration is vital for peace”. The report said, “no progress can be made in promoting peace, development and protection of human rights unless appropriate governance and public administration institutions are established”.  Peacekeeping operations organized by the United Nations or other international bodies have also been an occasional site of inquiry for public administration scholars (e.g. Paananen, S., Puustinen, A., Raisio, H., & Jalonen, H. (2022).)  In 2019 in ATP, Rissler & Shields, citing theorists John Galtung, Jane Addams and John Paul Lederach, argued for positive peace as a potential touchstone for public administration scholars and practitioners & Bah and Emmanuel (2020) provided a key case study from Burundi in relation to peacebuilding costs.  But the benefits and insights of examining this shared terrain remain largely unexplored.

Administrative Theory & Praxis

(ATP) has a legacy of pointing to shared theoretical terrain that interconnects overly siloed disciplines.  In 2025, as the world marks 80 years since the founding of the United Nations (a global peace movement that became an institution) and the United States marks six decades since the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts (often seen as a culmination of the Civil Rights Movement and the transfer of its goals into the realm of policy and public administration), there is no time like the present to ask whether these co-laborering strangers might not be better off as partners.  To this end, we invite submissions that will lead to papers, commentary, and dialogues to examine places where public administration and peacebuilding operate on shared terrain.  

Questions and topics of interest can include, but are not limited to:

• Case studies of situations where public administration comes into contact with peacebuilding/conflict transformation. Examples include peacekeeping operations; Interagency or intergovernmental cooperation; Community mediation as alternatives to the criminal or civil courts; Community organizing and feedback on public initiatives; Truth, Reconciliation, and Racial Healing Commissions; Community relations with military or police.
• Exploring the theory and praxis intersections of:
  • Peace Studies, Democracy, and Public Administration.
  • Non-violence, (positive) peace and Public Administration
• Discussions of the administration of peacebuilding praxis. Explore the who, what, and how of peacebuilding and/or peacekeeping policy design and implementation.
• Theoretical research at the intersection of conflict transformation, reconciliation, and administration. Rethinking the normative value of conflict in the context of administration.
• Exploring relationships between positive peace, social equity, and PA theories used to make sense of diverse democracies, including critical race theory (CRT), feminism.
• Dialogues on ethics, peace, and public administration.
• Narratives and framing of peace and violence in PA theory and praxis.
• Frameworks to guide practitioners in developing positive peace and conflict engagement in public service.