ABSTRACT
This synthesis discusses critical responses to liberal peacebuilding which contend that international peacebuilders generate a ‘virtual peace’ in post-conflict environments as an alternative academic tool which seeks to explain both the vast gap between international representations and local experiences and the implications of this gap. The paper looks at three ways of thinking about the virtual politics of peace: as a misrepresentation of peacebuilders, a hyper-reality of the illusion of global governance and as a social practice integral to the practice of international development, and concludes with some implications for reflexive peacebuilders who seek to move beyond the reproduction of virtual peace in post-conflict societies.
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