This is a review article of two books that respond to convergences and turning points in how societies undergoing peacebuilding processes respond and engage with such processes. The two books demonstrate that these interventions are not an overpowering and coherent strategy, and even less so a practice. They suffer constraints and blowbacks in such a way that their moral, political and even military power is not as hegemonic or universally applicable as it was once portrayed in the literature. The different use of �challenges� and �resistance� to conceptualise these constraints and blowbacks points to the need for further research on how different actors interact beyond their role as interveners, peacekeepers or local actors.