Critical Theory and the Politics of Peace

This chapter outlines the development of the concepts of peace, peacebuilding, and statebuilding’s relationship with critical theory, and what this means for the development of peace formation. The latter is a more contextually sensitized, ethico-political and everyday praxis also connected to policy doctrines, the state framework, and the international architecture. Indeed, it is formative of such political frameworks. We argue that critical theory has made very significant contributions in holding peacebuilding and statebuilding praxis to account and creating a platform for the emancipatory expansion, perhaps via peace formation from below and cognizant of postcolonial renderings of power. In theory, this allows for a more substantial and critically oriented praxis of peace, one which may influence global politics as statist, neoliberal, and geopolitical frameworks lose their legitimacy.