Delegative peacebuilding: Explaining post-conflict selective violence

Sally Sharif and Francy Carranza-Franco
Additional contact information
Sally Sharif: 8166University of British Columbia, Canada
Francy Carranza-Franco: Observatory of Restitution and Regulation of Agrarian Property Rights, Colombia

Conflict Management and Peace Science, 2026, vol. 43, issue 2, 157-182

Abstract: What explains selective violence against social and community leaders in the aftermath of war? This form of violence is often regarded as a spill-over product of wartime violence. We argue, however, that post-conflict selective violence occurs when the state delegates peacebuilding responsibilities to local leaders in areas of state weakness. Delegative peacebuilding describes a state's efforts to involve social and community leaders in peace programs in areas where its security apparatus or bureaucracy is weak or nonfunctional. Delegative peacebuilding mobilizes community leaders to implement state-led peace initiatives, making them focal points in the redistribution of power and resources. This positioning challenges the entrenched interests of local elites and armed groups, who often perceive these leaders as threats to their status as beneficiaries of the wartime status quo, thereby increasing their exposure to targeted violence. Our argument is grounded in immersive field research in Colombia, which has seen soaring levels of selective violence following the 2016 Peace Agreement. Employing a difference-in-differences design, we test the theory with original data on the assassination of social and community leaders (2014–2020).

Keywords: Civil war; peacebuilding; selective violence; statebuilding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/07388942251336643 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:compsc:v:43:y:2026:i:2:p:157-182

DOI: 10.1177/07388942251336643

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Conflict Management and Peace Science from Peace Science Society (International)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().