Rethinking Peacebuilding in the Age of Populism

The end of the Cold War fundamentally reshaped a new liberal world order characterized by internationalism, democratic liberalism, and eco-nomic neoliberalism. The Cold War period also, however, unprecedentedly witnessed the explosion of violent conflicts and civil wars in developing countries, especially in Eastern Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia. Most recently, growing public grievances and skepticism toward liberal democracy and neoliberalism, compounded by eco-nomic decline and inequalities in the developed and developing countries alike, has been expressed not only in violent conflicts but also in nonvio-lent or occasionally violent populist politics. Modern liberal democracies around the world are now being threatened not by an external enemy, but an internal enemy called "populism."