Idea of Hybridity: Building Peace & Security in Aftermath of Civil War

HOW USEFUL IS THE IDEA OF HYBRIDITY FOR BUILDING PEACE AND SECURITY IN THE AFTERMATH OF CIVIL WAR?
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How Useful is the Idea of Hybridity for Building Peace and Security in the Aftermath of Civil War?
Introduction
Civil wars are the armed and hostile conflicts that mainly occur between the armed factions of a country's civilian population. Civil wars have been one of the most devastating forces for a government throughout the twentieth century, as approximately 187 million people have died as an outcome of these conflicts since 1900 (Nagdy and Roser, 2022). However, the most devastating aspect of a civil war is the ensuing anarchy, chaos, and economic and social downturns after the end of the conflict. The persistent political and economic stability after a civil war tends to lead to another civil war within a short span of time; therefore, formulation and implementation of policies are mandatory to accomplish lasting peace after a civil war. One of such strategies that became popular in the 1980s is the promotion of liberalization based on developing democratic norms in societies torn with civil conflicts. However, practical implementation of such peacebuilding strategies exposed the newly democratized governments to even more violent civil wars spells.
According to a scholar, the focus of international peacebuilding organizations is only on rectifying the working mechanism of a form of government is the primary cause of their failure. In this process, peacebuilding efforts often ignore the political, social, and ethical aspects of society that significantly contribute to sparking a conflict (Westendorf, 2016). Because of the failure of liberal peacebuilding initiatives to restore lasting peace in the aftermath of a civil war, scholars and political scientists have become more interested in the effectiveness of hybridity to accomplish this goal. Hybridity is a concept in social and political sciences that involves the unification of two social, political, or economic entities in society to accomplish a common goal. Many political scientists and scholars have verified that the involvement of international and grass-root level local communities leads to the emergence of composite and mutually dependent social norms and practices that ultimately lead to lasting peace in a society (Popplewell, 2019, p. 3).
One of the successful implementations of integrated working of international and local communities is the mutually beneficial association between the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the Lebanese Armed Forces, leading to significant and lasting security sector reforms and guaranteed lasting peace (Newby, 2017, p. 1). Similarly, one research conducted on 46 civil wars that occurred between 1945 and 2005 to find out ways to accomplish lasting peace after the civil war also validates that international intervention to provide guarantees to belligerent parties also proves successful in imposing lasting peace by reducing fears of the local communities (Mattes and Savun, 2009, p. 738). Another scholar, Ronal Paris, also argues that establishing democratic institutions by the mutual partnership of international and local communi...