Whose Peace? Critical Perspectives on the Political Economy of Peacebuilding

This book examines the much-neglected question of what constitutes a political economy of peace after civil conflicts and who controls it.The advent of the UN's Peacebuilding Commission signals a growing international interest in reconstruction during and after conflict. It is original in that it tackles the question of what constitutes a political economy of peace. Currently, how it might be constructed is either assumed to be self-evident and unproblematic or simply ignored. It examines key cross-cutting issues, themes and cases that will provide a more holistic and comprehensive approach to peacebuilding. It provides critical perspectives on peacebuilding that reach beyond the technicist approach of international financial institutions and the liberal peace formulae of cadres of international capital.The book provides critical perspectives that reach beyond the technical approaches of international financial institutions and proponents of the liberal peace formula. It investigates political economies characterized by the legacies of disruption to production and exchange, by population displacement, poverty, and by 'criminality'.