“A CONTINUING CYCLE OF VIOLENCE”?: PEACE-RELATED NGOS IN LEBANON THROUGH A DECOLONIAL LENS

Abstract

Lebanon is well known in the post-conflict context because of its civil war from 1975-1990 and is widely described as “the continuing cycle of violence.” This evaluation allows the remarkable development of ‘conflict resolution’ and ‘ peacebuilding’ activities, which are understood as crucial to overcoming the situation and bringing peace, not only by the international actors but also by the local Lebanese. However, it is unclear how the Lebanese understand ‘peace’ and ‘security.’ Here, we can find a black box regarding peace and violence in Lebanon. This black box should be unpacked first before starting off a discussion regarding peace work and the solution to violence. This thesis particularly attends to the Lebanese peace-related NGOs and explores how they formulate and define the idea of violence as a problem for peace. For the examination, this thesis particularly employs the decolonial lens to closely look at the power dynamics between the international donors and the local NGOs for the local NGOs’ activities. Thus, this thesis aims at answering the question of whether it is possible for the local peace-related NGOs to conceive decolonial peace and, if so, where the space for the possibility can be found. through the investigation of international donors’ discourse and the local peace-related NGOs’ situations.