The term “peacebuilding” was conceived, first, as a nom and, consequently, it did not have a precise definition of what it should be in practice. Its formulation was a temptation by Galtung (1976) in providing an associative approach that could answer and identify what is the structure of peace. In this regard, the evolution of this concept was followed by the implementation of different strategies provided by the United Nations – peacemaking, peace enforcement, peacekeeping and peacebuilding – and by other precedent institutions, such as the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Even the term refers to an equal idea of what peacebuilding is, what are the differences and similarities between them in reference to their conceptualization and their practice on the ground? The present paper aims to discuss the concept of peacebuilding applied by the United Nations, through the establishment of its Peacebuilding Commission that was created in 2005; by the European Union through its External Action (EEAS), that was formally launched in 2011; and by the OSCE, through its Conflict Prevention and Resolution cell. The purpose is identifying the linkages between the UN, the EU and the OSCE regarding the institutionalization of the concept and its practice in order to open the debate not only for what can be learned from them, but mainly for the perspective that, once those institutions work individually and in partnership to achieve peace, their practice defines peacebuilding beyond what is conceived as a mission or as an operation and, in the scope of this paper, as a policy.
