No.1 Coordinating Peacebuilding and Counterinsurgency for Sustaining Peace: Responding to Armed Conflict and Violent Extremism in Mozambique

As peace and security actors face increasing challenges to respond effectively to crises in complex and fragile settings, this study examines how the coordination between peacebuilding and counterinsurgency (COIN) may enhance prevention, stabilization, and sustaining peace in complex systems. The study reviews emerging peacebuilding approaches and modern COIN strategies, arguing that further coordination between both methods reveals additional pathways for sustaining peace in the face of multiple challenges. It examines Mozambique’s case, where an Islamic insurgency coexisted with a small-scale recurrence of civil war and concludes that pragmatic and adaptive peacebuilding approaches – when combined with effective COIN principles that recognize the importance of non-military methods – will enhance the coordination between peace and security actors in contexts affected by both traditional armed conflicts and the rise of violent extremism.

Keywords: armed non-state actors, complexity, counterinsurgency, Mozambique, peacebuilding