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...

Combining the insights of a seasoned practitioner with the academic rigor of a meticulous policy and risk analyst, del Castillo discusses the major obstacles to peacebuilding that need to be removed before war-torn countries can move towards peace, stability, and prosperity. As a new UN Secretary-General assumes leadership in 2017, a top priority must be to address the bleak peacebuilding record where over half of the countries under UN watch relapse back into conflict within a decade.

While policy debate and the academic literature have focused on the security, political, and...

Combining the insights of a seasoned practitioner with the academic rigor of a meticulous policy and risk analyst, del Castillo discusses the major obstacles to peacebuilding that need to be removed before war-torn countries can move towards peace, stability, and prosperity. As a new UN Secretary-General assumes leadership in 2017, a top priority must be to address the bleak peacebuilding record where over half of the countries under UN watch relapse back into conflict within a decade.

While policy debate and the academic literature have focused on the security, political, and...