All too often, the effects of external intervention practices and local ownership of peace processes are two disctinct academic debates. However, in a course offered by the University of Freiburg’s political science department in the summer term of 2024, interim professor Tim Glawion brought these two issues together. In this resulting collection of student essays, the authors ask where the disconnect stems from, how it can be bridged and what the effects are of linking external intervention to local ownership. Using highly current and empirical cases stretching from Haiti to multiple African countries and East Timor, the students propose innovative ways of understanding people’s perceptions and how they struggle for their visions of peace, possibly through forms of resistance to the interveners who are supposedly there to help. These chapters demonstrate that students can contribute meaningful theoretical, empirical and methodological insights to academia from an early stage. A meta-reflection also reveals that the additional costs and effort required to produce such a student publication are worthwhile.
