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Scholars have argued for decades about the relationship between biological sex and organized violence, but feminist analysts across numerous disciplines have documented the range and variety of gendered roles in times of war. In recent years, research has brought new understanding of the rapidity with which ideas about masculinity and femininity can change in times of war and the role of militarization in constructing and enforcing the meaning of manhood and womanhood. In the post–Cold War period, "new wars" ( Kaldor 1999 ) have mobilized gender in multiple ways, and peace-building is often managed by external humanitarian organizations. A strange disconnect exists between the massive body of scholarly research on gender, militarism, and peace-building and on-the-ground practices in postconflict societies, where essentialized ideas of men as perpetrators of violence and women as victims continue to guide much program design.

After more than a decade of experience and research on financing arrangements in post conflict countries and fragile states, a consensus has emerged on at least one matter. The core objective is to build effective and legitimate governance structures that secure public confidence through provision of personal security, equal justice and the rule of law, economic well-being, and essential social services including education and health. These governance structures are necessary to ensure that countries do not turn, or turn back, to violence as a means of negotiating state-societal relations. This paper discusses a number of the weaknesses in current financing arrangements for post conflict countries and fragile states, with a focus on Official Development Assistance (ODA). We argue that tensions persist between business-as-usual development policies on the one hand and policies responsive to the demands of peace building on the other. The preferential allocation of aid to 'good performers,' in the name of maximizing its payoff in terms of economic growth, militates against aid to fragile and conflict-affected states. If the aim of aid is redefined to include durable peace, the conventional performance criteria for aid allocation lose much of their force. Compelling arguments can be made for assistance to 'poor performers' if this can help to prevent conflict. Yet the difficulties that initially prompted donors to become more selective in aid allocation remain all too real. Experience has shown that aid can exacerbate problems rather than solving them.

The article considers the contribution that wealth-sharing arrangements can make to the consolidation of postconflict transitions. It considers the general role of wealth sharing in peace processes before providing a comparative analysis of case studies of the peace processes of Sudan (North-South) and Indonesia (Aceh). It then draws lessons on how wealth sharing can become a more effective instrument for postconflict transitions.

Truth telling has come to play a pivotal role in postconflict reconciliation processes around the world. A common claim is that truth telling is healing and will lead to reconciliation. The present study applies recent psychological research to this issue by examining whether witnessing in the gacaca, the Rwandan village tribunals for truth and reconciliation after the 1994 genocide, was beneficial for psychological health. The results from the multistage, stratified cluster random survey of 1,200 Rwandans demonstrate that gacaca witnesses suffer from higher levels of depression and PTSD than do nonwitnesses, also when controlling for important predictors of psychological ill health. Furthermore, longer exposure to truth telling has not lowered the levels of psychological ill health, nor has the prevalence of depression and PTSD decreased over time. This study strongly challenges the claim that truth telling is healing and presents a novel understanding of the complexity of truth-telling processes in postconflict peace building.

Truth telling has come to play a pivotal role in postconflict reconciliation processes around the world. A common claim is that truth telling is healing and will lead to reconciliation. The present study applies recent psychological research to this issue by examining whether witnessing in the gacaca, the Rwandan village tribunals for truth and reconciliation after the 1994 genocide, was beneficial for psychological health. The results from the multistage, stratified cluster random survey of 1,200 Rwandans demonstrate that gacaca witnesses suffer from higher levels of depression and PTSD than do nonwitnesses, also when controlling for important predictors of psychological ill health. Furthermore, longer exposure to truth telling has not lowered the levels of psychological ill health, nor has the prevalence of depression and PTSD decreased over time. This study strongly challenges the claim that truth telling is healing and presents a novel understanding of the complexity of truth-telling processes in postconflict peace building. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright holder.]

This article challenges claims to neutrality and impartiality of aid interventions in Afghanistan, arguing that the war on terror intrudes on postconflict peace building and reconstruction interventions in Afghanistan, specifically in the southern and eastern parts of the country where a virulent insurgency has reemerged. In these regions, aid interventions are deeply entangled in active insurgent and counterinsurgent politics as aid settings are often used to wage ideological, cultural, and political campaigns over Afghans in order to demonstrate victory. This article argues that Afghan women are caught on the frontlines of this "aid battlefield," both as "nation builders" celebrated by the U.S. administration as examples of liberal-imperial victory and as "nation betrayers" of their culture and traditions for their participation in internationally facilitated programs. I suggest that feminists need to be aware and wary of the ways that aid projects are co-opted by foreign and local militarized masculinities that collectively perpetuate insecurity and violence against Afghan women.

This paper develops two claims that follow from two general conclusions from recent re-search on peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction. The first is that international peacebuilders are fairly good at ending violence and at producing stability, but are less talented at creating liberal states. In order to understand why, Section I develops the concept of the "peacebuilders' contract", which is intended to map the kinds of strategic interactions that are likely to unfold between peacebuilders and local élites and capture why these interactions are likely to favour the status quo preferred by local forces. Following on the general recognition that international peacebuilders are limited in what they can produce, the second conclusion concerns the need for peacebuilders to be more strategic in their thinking and to be satisfied with producing small victories that can sup-port the emergence of decent governments which provide the foundations for future movements towards a positive peace. These observations and their implications are applicable not only to post-war interventions, but also to the broader international agenda of fixing states.

In this book, Graciana Del Castillo draws on theory, her own experiences as senior economist in the Cabinet of the United Nations secretary-general and as an International Monetary Fund staffer, and qualitative case studies to critically reconsider the challenges of postconflict economic reconstruction. The core argument is as follows. Countries making the shift from war to peace face a multipronged transition in the economic, legal, political, social, and security sectors. Given this multifaceted transition, economic reconstruction is fundamentally different from the "development as usual" approach taken by the international community to address typical socioeconomic challenges faced by peaceful developing countries. Instead, economic reconstruction in postconflict countries is a "development plus" challenge, meaning that these countries face the same challenges as other developing countries plus the added challenge of achieving reconciliation and peace. Del Castillo concludes that many post–Cold War reconstruction efforts have failed because of the development as usual approach to reconstruction, a lack of comprehensive planning, insufficient aid and assistance, and the inadequacies of international organizations (e.g., the United Nations and international financial institutions) in dealing with the challenges of reconstruction.

Foreword / Terje Rød-Larsen -- The Security-Development Nexus / Necla Tschirgi, Michael S. Lund, and Francesco Mancini -- Poverty and Violent Conflict: Rethinking Development / Sakiko Fukuda-Parr -- Environment, Conflict, and Sustainable Development / Richard A. Matthew -- Demographic Challenges to the State / Richard P. Cincotta -- The Security Paradox in Unified Yemen / Laurent Bonnefoy and Renaud Detalle -- Beyond the Conflict Trap in Somalia / Kenneth Menkhaus -- Anatomy of State Fragility: the Case of Guinea-Bissau / Joshua B. Forrest -- Namibia: a Success Story? / Gretchen Bauer and Christiaan Keulder -- The Security-Development Crisis in Guyana / Perry Mars -- At the Crossroads of Hegemonic Powers: The Kyrgyz Republic / Anara Tabyshalieva -- Conflict and Postconflict in Tajikistan / Shirin Akiner

Considers one way of improving evidence collection in postconflict countries via UN Panels of Experts & truth & reconciliation commissions, attending to how they can better their cooperation with courts without running afoul of their independent mandates.

This article discusses women's roles as victims, perpetrators, and peacemakers in armed conflicts in contemporary Sri Lanka. It covers such phenomena as rape as a weapon of war, women IDPs, "war widows," female‐headed households, women suicide bombers, mothers for peace, and feminist peace activism. The article points out that aggression and victimization need to be understood as occurring across ethnicity and gender as well as within ethnic and gender groups. Contributing toward a political economy perspective, the article considers the complex intersection of gender, ethnicity, caste, and social class within the confluence of local, regional, and international forces. The article concludes by emphasizing the need to broaden the social class and local bases of feminist peace activism and to formulate an integrated gender‐, ethnicity‐ and class‐sensitive policy agenda for postconflict development in Sri Lanka.