Peacebuilding: Insights from a Bibliometric Analysis

Peacebuilding is a critical field in both research and practice, aimed at fostering sustainable peace. Over nearly five decades since its inception, a lack of comprehensive, visually oriented analysis has limited our understanding of key developments and future trajectories. To address this gap, this study employs Citespace bibliometric analysis to elucidate the current status, evolution, and future trends of peacebuilding research. Our results indicate that peacebuilding has garnered increasing annual attention and that institutional and scholarly collaborations are globally dispersed. Researchers have focused significantly on liberal, post-liberal, and illiberal peacebuilding, highlighting ongoing debates over bottom-up versus top-down approaches. Furthermore, the field is inherently multidisciplinary, spanning international relations, political science, development studies, and area studies. Building on these findings, we construct a knowledge framework and propose future research directions. Looking ahead, we anticipate further interdisciplinary collaboration, as well as efforts to address research gaps and integrate new theoretical approaches.