Theorising a principled basis for engaging business in peacebuilding

Businesspeople and enterprises may be influential stakeholders with important resources, incentives and ideas in efforts to secure and consolidate peace. They are not necessarily less legitimate or more political actors than the civil society groups with whom donors and others routinely interact. If so, there is an argument that external authorities and agencies with a peacebuilding mandate should, with relevant host authorities, consider cooperative strategies with responsible business actors in pursuit of that mandate. The post-2015 development agenda illustrates greater donor and institutional focus in engaging the private sector. Yet this engagement has not typically been theorised, couched in notions of power and legitimacy and agency, or given a principled underpinning. What is at stake in closer, more cooperative development and conflict-management relationships with business in fragile settings? Does the ambivalence some peacebuilders might have towards engaging with business indicate problems of appropriateness? Is it really so obvious that the for-profit motive should affect the legitimacy of business as a peace stakeholder? Can one justify closer relations or would peacebuilders simply risk undue influence, picking winners, or other undesirable outcomes?