New public financial management in liberal peacebuilding discourse: the Palestine-Israel conflict and the World Bank

This paper delves into the discursive recontextualization of New Public Financial Management (NPFM) in the context of peacebuilding, reshaping the dynamics between the donor community, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority. Utilizing Fairclough’s dialectical relational version of Critical Discourse Analysis (2003, 2013) as a methodological framework, we extend the NPFM literature by broadening our understanding of how diverse discourses—particularly NPFM rooted in neoliberalism and peacebuilding—are brought together in a specific relationship for the purpose of transmission (Fairclough, 2009). In addition, this study advances our comprehension of the dialogic nature of NPFM, exploring the extent to which other voices are represented, excluded, or suppressed in the examined texts. The paper sheds light on the role of international agencies, exemplified by the World Bank, in transposing development discourses—a theme explored in previous research (Alawattage & Wickramasinghe, 2019; Jayasinghe & Uddin, 2019). Furthermore, we contribute to the literature by highlighting that peacebuilding serves as a space for influential actors, such as donor agencies, to exert their influence.