The article explores the United Nations approach to peacebuilding in Guinea‑Bissau following the 1998‑1999 armed conflict in the country. Despite efforts from the United Nations and other international actors, the country seems still far from achieving the sustainable peace advocated by intervenors. The main hypothesis herein sustained is that this limitation is due to the strong basis of the UN approach on the liberal peace framework. This framework is particularly marked by the (usually top‑down) promotion of fundamentally liberal values and practices to post‑armed conflict situations. It is thus argued that the limitations of the UN approach to peacebuilding are to be found not only in the implementation or operationalization of specific policies, but also in their own design.