A peace-positive enterprise for the Global South: Problem statements and paths forward conceptualized through a mediation lens

Abstract Contemporary European and broader international policy posit within the liberal tradition the peacebuilding and development potential of the profit-seeking corporation, with attendant focus on incorporating MNC perspectives and needs into development narratives and strategies. However, conflict-affected places across the Global South are distinct across multiple dimensions, creating dilemmas for the establishment and sustainability of ethical businesses that contribute to peaceful and inclusive development but all the same must accommodate Northern financial, strategic, and operational logics. This conceptual paper explores these tensions. It is informed by interviews and convenings with diverse thought leaders across sectors concerned with business, human security, and peaceful development in Global South conflict contexts. These deliberations, combined with insights from the political economy of conflict, expose highly divergent understandings of how corporations may need to differ across more and less peaceful places. The problem statements constructed through a mediation lens and presented here can shift research and policy deliberation towards greater imagination of, and consensus on, the distinctive contours of future large-scale businesses that are more reliably able to advance peaceful and inclusive development in contexts of acute socio-political contestation. Such inquiry would help to decolonize scholarship as it adds nuance to policy debates.