Protean power and adaptive governance in EU peacebuilding: engaging hybrid actors in a fragmented European neighbourhood

Abstract In an uncertain and fragmented neighbourhood, the EU’s approach to peacebuilding increasingly needs to deal with countries where the state is absent or dysfunctional. This raises the question of how to engage with a growing range of hybrid actors that perform important governance functions that are traditionally associated with states. Against this backdrop, this article examines the EU’s capacity to adapt its peacebuilding institutions and practices for engaging hybrid actors, which often involves political and legal constraints. In theoretical terms, the article bridges between works on ‘protean power’ and ‘adaptive governance’, which provides for flexibility, polycentric learning and adaptive foresight. In so doing, it shifts attention to the transformative process of converting a protean power response of improvisation and innovation into more durable, institutionalized adaptive governance arrangements and practices. Empirically, the article traces the EU’s reliance on adaptive governance practices in its peacebuilding efforts in Palestine and Lebanon, where hybrid actors like Hamas and Hezbollah have early on represented intricate challenges for EU peacebuilding.