Capacity-building has and continues to be the focus of considerable investment by international organizations in African countries. Most debates on capacity-building assume that a peaceful end-point can be reached if appropriate policies are implemented or if the right conditions are constructed.  The aim of this study is to explore the growing interest in norms in the field of peace and security in Africa using international peacekeeping training centers as case studies. The central question guiding the research is: How do international peacekeeping training centers create, diffuse and translate norms?  Building on the norm diffusion literature, the research analyzes the dynamics of norm contestation and the processes of translation and localization of externally-driven norms in African countries. The research employs a qualitative methodology using a combination of desk research and site-intensive techniques of inquiry such as semi-structured interviews and participant observation in two international peacekeeping training centers in Italy and Ghana. The research argues that capacity-building is multifaceted process where norms are composed and contested by multiple actors in different contexts, rather than a linear, top-down, and uni-directional process.The research contributes to security studies by analyzing the fragmented character of capacity-building and offering new theoretical insights into the knowledge production process that forms the core of capacity-building programs in African countries.