Economic Dimensions of Peacebuilding: The Lessons Learned - Essay Example

One may therefore describe the process of peace building as a “stable social equilibrium in which the surfacing of new disputes does not escalate into violence and war”1. The core of the peace-building process that can be derived from the definition proposed by John Paul Lederach, an eminent scholar in the field of peace-studies is a delicate concept that entails, nurtures, configures and develops sets of inter-related approaches, methods and programs that strive to transform unstable socio-political and economic situation in a region toward a peaceful stabilized environment.

2 Common sense tells that the detailed process of peacebuilding is an exhaustive agenda initiated by the issues of mainly military conflict and political unrest. During the nineties the world came across several crises and conflicts or protracted wars and as a consequence, post conflict reconstruction challenges. Examples may be cited from the case of Sudan, Somalia, Congo, Rwanda, Haiti, Mozambique and Afghanistan. In cases like the genocide of Rwanda the history has been marked by failures of international activities or responses to the conflicts.

The measures adopted have not only proved insufficient but also, in certain instances, they have been counter-productive. In this context, Dharam Ghai, the director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development in 1994 commented, “The rebuilding of war-torn societies calls for an entirely new approach to the theory and practice of development.”3 Hence a greater emphasis has been placed on peacebuilding and it has been accepted by the governments of donor nations, NGOs and multilateral institutions that violent conflicts in the developing nations would subdue the initiatives towards sustainable development.

Around eighteen conflicts since 1990 have been provoked by the exploitation of natural resources and researches have shown that