Combining the insights of a seasoned practitioner with the academic rigor of a meticulous policy and risk analyst, Graciana 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 Secretary-General António Guterres assumes leadership in January 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 social aspects of the war-to-peace transition, this book focuses on “the economic transition” – that is, “economic reconstruction” or “the political economy of peace” – which, in the author’s view, is the much-neglected aspect of peacebuilding. The book argues that rebuilding war-torn states effectively has acquired a new sense of urgency as extremist groups increasingly recruit people by providing jobs and services to those deprived of them due to government and economic failures.
Based on past lessons and best practices of the last quarter of a century, the author makes recommendations to move forward and improve the record. It will be of great use to students and scholars of peacebuilding, as well as policymakers in national governments, donor countries and international organizations involved in peacebuilding, statebuilding, and development.
Graciana del Castillo is senior fellow at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of several boards. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University where she was adjunct professor, senior research scholar, and associate director of the Center for Capitalism & Society. She has published extensively and is the author of Rebuilding War-Torn States (2008).
Álvaro de Soto (author of the Foreword) is a former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.