Regeneration and peacebuilding in war-torn societies is a fast-growing area of interest in world politics. The book is an original and timely contribution to the study of post-conflict transition through an examination of various aspects of regeneration and detailed analysis of examples of intent. Four issues are highlighted in particular: - the legacies of modern conflict in the transitions to relative peace - the question of ownership and accountability in the interactions between internal and external actors - the need for coherent responses to regeneration - the importance of case-specific approaches. The book's purpose is to encourage students, policy-makers and practitioners (in governments, intergovernmental organisations, international and local non-governmental organisations) to understand and reflect on processes designed to promote social stability and relative peace - and to re-examine the nature of the tasks they confront and their responses. The authors represent perspectives from law, political economy, social work, development studies, anthropology and international relations.

As international attention focuses on the rebuilding of Afghanistan, this collection looks critically at the evolution and meaning of the core concepts underpinning aims and strategies for recovery: the key role of institutional development and capacity building in establishing good governance, based on collaboration between state, civil society and market; the empirical consensus, over many decades, for best practice in development; the acknowledgement that recovery of war-torn societies is a development challenge. It is also shown that, despite this understanding, operational practice continues to contradict these principles and lessons learned from proven experience.

Post-conflict economic reconstruction is a critical part of the political economy of peacetime and one of the most important challenges in any peace-building or state-building strategy. After wars end, countries must negotiate a multi-pronged transition to peace: Violence must give way to public security; lawlessness, political exclusion, and violation of human rights must give way to the rule of law and participatory government; ethnic, religious, ideological, or class/caste confrontation must give way to national reconciliation; and ravaged and mismanaged war economies must be reconstructed and transformed into functioning market economies that enable people to earn a decent living. Yet, how can these vitally important tasks each be successfully managed? How should we go about rehabilitating basic services and physical and human infrastructure? Which policies and institutions are necessary to reactivate the economy in the short run and ensure sustainable development in the long run? What steps should countries take to bring about national reconciliation and the consolidation of peace? In all of these cases, unless the political objectives of peacetime prevail at all times, peace will be ephemeral, while policies that pursue purely economic objectives can have tragic consequences. This book argues that any strategy for post-conflict economic reconstruction must be based on five premises and examines specific post-conflict reconstruction experiences to identify not only where these premises have been disregarded, but also where policies have worked, and the specific conditions that have influenced their success and failure.

The War-torn Societies Project has issued its first Occasional Paper, an annotated bibliography and essay, set in a conceptual framework covering post conflict rebuilding. The report takes stock of existing knowledge and experience in the field and identifies the most important projects and studies that address the problems of rebuilding. Taken together, the works discussed in this paper shed light on the complex challenges of reconciliation, reconstruction and the consolidation of often fragile peace arrangements. This essay is meant to be an operational and an analytical tool. It responds not only to the awareness that well trageted research can and should contribute to improving ongoing efforts, but also to pressing requests of policy makers and practitioners for knowledge and expertise on which they can ground their efforts and redefine their policies. The study is organized into chapters on international organizational capacities, security structures and political, economic and social rebuilding.