Book Review: Liberal Peace: On Conflict, Gender, and Peacebuilding (Democratic Republic of Congo Case Study)

Abstract

Liberal Peace: On Conflict, Gender, and Peacebuilding presents a critical examination of the liberal peace model of peacebuilding, particularly its application in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The book comes in eighteen chapters and covers diverse areas of peacebuilding in the context of DRC-Chapter 1: Democratic Republic of Congo’s Conflict and Gendered Nature, Chapter 2: Interventionism and the Responsibility to Protect, Chapter 3: Ontological Underpinnings of the Conflict, Chapter 4: Addressing Gender Issues Locally and Internationally, Chapter 5: Rape, Women’s Bodies versus Resources, Chapter 6: Gender Exclusion and Exploitation as Capitalist and Colonial Hangovers, Chapter 7: No Permanent Allies but Permanent Interests, Chapter 8: The Institutionalisation of GBV, Chapter 9: Socially Entrenched Culture of Violence: Authors’ Testimonies and Congolese Women’s Peacebuilding Initiatives, Chapter 10: National and Global Politico-Economic Factors, Chapter 11: International Conspiracy against the DRC Africa’s Typical Replica, Chapter 12: Rape as the Weapon of Capitalism, Chapter 13: The Internalisation of Rape, Chapter 14: Prostitution, Chapter 15: When Liberal Peace Fails, Chapter 16: Forces Behind the Conflict, Chapter 17: Human Rights Vs Security , Chapter 18: Whose Human Rights? Interesting, each chapter of the book comes ends with discussion questions probably intended to broaden and deepen reader’s insights into the issues covered in the chapter. Students of Peace and Conflict Studies (PCS), International Relations, Political Sciences, Public Administration, Sociology, Economics, Political Economy, Social Works, Environmental and Resource Management, etc. would find the content of this book useful. Thus, the multidisciplinary content of the book makes it appealing to the social science and development discourse.