This paper explores the origins of the United Nation’s (UN) Peacebuilding Architecture (PBA) with a specific focus on the reasons for its creation at a particular point in time (2005). The paper is concerned with the negotiation dynamics and what those involved in negotiations at the time hoped they would achieve. It thus starts by placing the PBA in context: the specific historical moment that made the creation of PBA possible and, at the same time, shaped it in ways that may in retrospect appear far from satisfactory. In preparing the paper, the author conducted informal interviews with individuals that were part of the negotiation process towards the PBA.1 The key points recurring in the conversation were about the international politics of the moment, the UN’s institutional restrictions and possibilities, and the role of vested state interests. This brief paper will not aim to examine the successes or failures to deliver and what the expectations of those involved were at the time. It will begin with a brief description of the PBA, followed by a discussion of the context in which the design was negotiated and the flaws that this context evidently produced.