Since the turn of the 21st century the principle of local ownership has substantially changed the rhetoric within the development sector and corresponding international peacebuilding interventions. It is uncontested that local ownership is a necessary principle to ensure sustainability peace through interventions. The EU’s externally policy statements have strong references to the importance of this local aspect, however, despite the strong rhetoric the EU have struggled to live up to this principle in its operationalization and implementation of its interventions. The dissertation argues, by using EUCAP Nestor as evidence, that the discrepancy between the local ownership rhetoric and implementation is driving by a political rationality of advanced democracies, and not by the host states. The thesis draws on a document analysis conducted through a Foucauldian genealogical analysis and a regime of practices analysis. Three arguments are on that basis presented. First, the local ownership principle echoes the colonial governance structure of indirect rules. Second, local ownership is in practice operationalized through a top-down approach driven externally. Thirdly, the EU’s efforts to implement local ownership are inhibited by the politics and policy-making procedures of CSDP.