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by the United Nations in Ango- concluded that “belligerent par- has undermined the confi dence in
la, Cambodia, Mozambique and ties generally enter the peaceke- the government and has helped to
Rwanda. He defi ned the spoilers as eping phase while keeping their plunge these areas back into cha-
“leaders and groups of individuals grievances and war goals intact. os and confl ict; however, he says
who believe that the peace emer- Each one of them tries to achieve that premeditated inaction and
ging from negotiations threatens in the shadow of the peace pro- malicious slowness in carrying out
their power, their worldview and cess what it failed to achieve in the the commitments taken in the pe-
their interests, and, to avoid this, phase of armed confl ict. (…) For ace agreements, are often nothing
they use violence to undermine the them peace is nothing more than more than a way of doing politics.
processes that try to reach it”. The the continuation of the war carri- As a result, including non-violent
defi nition subordinates the concept ed out by other means”. Being war behavior in the defi nition of “spoi-
of “spoilers” to the presence or ab- conducted by defi nition by violent lers” would widen the scope of the
sence of a peace agreement, and means, and being spoilers often defi nition to such an extent as to
not to activities that are carried out non-violent, the central question include all subjects who behave in
in a period prior to the agreement. is whether the defi nition of “spoi- a certain manner for political con-
Subsequently, in 2008, the United lers” can explicitly recognize and venience. In addition to this, legiti-
Nations incorporated the concept include non-violent behavior: in- mate disputes on points reached in
of “spoiler” into their peacekee- deed, if there is a general consen- the course of a peace processes do
ping doctrine, which defi nes “spoi- sus on the defi nition that identifi es not constitute a behavior of “spoi-
lers” as individuals or groups of in- “spoilers” as leaders, individuals lers” but may simply represent the
dividuals who believe that a peace or groups of individuals who be- pursuit of a legitimate interest.
process could threaten their power lieve that peace threatens their In order to fi nance so-called
and interests, therefore they will try power and interest and therefore “violent” behaviors, like insur-
to sabotage it. This defi nition omits act to sabotage it, the use or not rections, protests, terrorist attacks,
the use of violence as an essential of violent behavior is the subject of etc. “spoilers” often have to fund
element of the themselves by
spoiler, there- IN ORDER TO FINANCE SO-CALLED “VIOLENT” using non-vio-
fore in 2015 lent behaviors,
a report by the BEHAVIORS, LIKE INSURRECTIONS, PROTESTS, such as the mi-
High Level In- TERRORIST ATTACKS, ETC. “SPOILERS” OFTEN sappropriation
dependent Pa- HAVE TO FINANCE THEMSELVES BY USING of public eco-
nel on United nomic resour-
Nations Peace NON-VIOLENT BEHAVIORS, SUCH AS THE MI- ces by unfaithful
Operations de- SAPPROPRIATION OF PUBLIC ECONOMIC RE- offi cials, em-
fi ned the “spoi- phasizing once
lers” as those SOURCES BY UNFAITHFUL OFFICIALS, EMPHA- again that in the
who stand out- SIZING ONCE AGAIN THAT IN THE AREAS OF areas of confl i-
side the peace ct the boundary
process and CONFLICT THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN VIOLENT between violent
try to sabota- AND NON-VIOLENT BEHAVIORS REMAINS VERY and non-vio-
ge it, even by lent beha-
adopting vio- BLURRED AND SUBJECTIVE. viors remains
lent methods. very blurred
By specifying that “also” violent a heated debate among the par- and subjective.
methods exist, the Panel actual- ties. For example, Stedman reco- The defi nition of “spoiler” is the
ly stated that the adoption of gnizes the importance of non-vio- basis of any methodology that
non-violent methods can also con- lent behavior by “spoilers”, like in can be developed, and the lack
stitute a spoiler behavior. A more Afghanistan and Iraq, where cor- of a common defi nition of “spoi-
pragmatic view on the “spoilers” ruption and misappropriation of ler” by the organizations atten-
is provided by Jock Covey , who funds by corrupt public offi cials ding the conference was a recur-

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