Businesses as the new peacebuilders?

The emergence of the new UN paradigm of 'Business for Peace' hinges on the claim that corporations can be peacebuilders. But how exactly are corporations supposed to address the root causes of conflict?

In an article for the Harvard International Review, DIIS researcher Peer Schouten, Jason Miklian from PRIO and consultant Brian Ganson provide an overview of the most common assertion on how businesses contribute to peace. While acknowledging the potential of efforts to hold corporations accountable for making positive impacts in conflict-affected areas, the authors also show the difficulties of establishing when and how these assertions actually hold. Schouten: 'Most people feel a deep sense of unease with the idea that multinational corporations should be involved in something as sensitive as peacebuilding. Yet, big corporations are present in all conflict zones anyway. Do we want to limit ourselves to make sure they 'do no harm' or require them to do more? And how can we measure corporate impact on peace?'

The article concludes that in order to answer these questions, we need to move from the boardroom to the battlefield and conduct grounded research into the perceptions of local populations in conflict zones, those who ought to benefit most urgently from corporate actions that claim to bring peace.