Building Everyday Peace in Kirkuk, Iraq: The Potential of Locally Focused Interventions

By exploring how, when and by whom acts of everyday peace and conflict are performed, this paper highlights how interventions can be developed to limit the drivers of conflict and maximize the drivers of peace. A more thorough understanding of these issues allows for the development of policies that are better targeted to reduce inequalities between ethnosectarian groups and develop local peace. The paper offers recommendations for both local and international peacebuilders, highlights why donors should fund locally focused peacebuilding efforts, and encourages national actors to develop inclusive security solutions. Thus, it is relevant to those working on peacebuilding in Iraq, those working on local peacebuilding, and those interested in how the ‘local turn’ in peacebuilding literature can inform policy.