Building Peace or Buying Time?

Abstract

Recurrent violent conflict undermines the human development of millions: what takes decades to build, can take seconds to destroy. The challenge is to find an effective way of engaging with states to assist in the transition from war to peace. This is the main problem that this book has addressed. It has investigated the post-Cold War policy of peacebuilding where international donors assist war-affected states to rebuild and develop in such a way that war will not recur. While helping other states in this transition is morally the right thing to do, there is now a sense among donors, particularly since 9/11, that the instability created by protracted civil wars poses a real threat to their own. In Sri Lanka, during the Norwegian-negotiated ceasefire, peacebuilding was the overarching policy approach adopted by the main donor organisations. The peace process was unusual because the donors took a prominent role, prioritising economic recovery issues in the hope that a peace dividend would encourage widespread support for a negotiated settlement.