Download PDF: The Impact of Spoilers on Peace Processes and Peacebuilding (159.2 kB)
With preparations underway for the new UN Peacebuilding Commission, it is important to consider
how to deal with spoilers as a threat to peace and security. This policy brief considers the sources and impact of ‘spoilers’ and ‘spoiling’: groups and tactics that actively seek to hinder, delay, or undermine conflict settlement through a variety of means and for various reasons. The authors take a broad approach to the concept of spoiling and consider a wide range of actors as potential spoilers: not only rebel groups and insurgents, but also Diasporas, governments, and other entities. The authors demonstrate that imposed or ill-conceived peace processes can themselves sow the seeds of spoiling, but that spoiler violence does not necessarily indicate that a peace process is doomed to failure.