Peace-Building after Violent Conflicts and the Need to Reform International Organisations. Views from The Hague

What makes International Peace-building efforts successful? Moving from a state of war to the rule of law in a post-conflict environment is indeed a difficult path and enduring conflicts in the Caucasus, the Balkans and elsewhere all demonstrate some of the inadequacies of current stabilisation efforts.

In examining the institutional experience of some of these operations, it becomes apparent that many peace-building endeavours are often constrained by their own structural inhibitions, making reform of International Organisations a pressing albeit difficult agenda.

The European Security Programme was pleased to host a lecture with Mr Hans Wesseling and Mr Joris Voorhoeve to discuss their perspectives on the reform of international bodies and establish what the International Community's best efforts should be with regard to successful peace-building operations.

Mr Hans Wesseling is Deputy Director of the Peace Building and Fragility Unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands. He studied International Law at the University of Leiden, fulfilled his Military Service from 1980-82 and joined the Foreign Office afterwards. Postings abroad included Jakarta, Moscow, Kiev, Zagreb, Tbilisi (OSCE) and London.

Mr Joris Voorhoeve is Professor of International Organisations at Leiden University and of International Security at the Netherlands Defence Academy. Former Defence Minister of the Netherlands between 1994 and 1998, he is also a member of the Dutch Council of State (Raad van State) providing advice to the Netherlands Government. Mr Voorhoeve is chair of Oxfam Netherlands and the European Centre for Conflict Prevention.