Aid, Peacebuilding And The Resurgence Of War

How do wars end and what can external actors do to assist in this process? Close examination of the four-year Sri Lankan ceasefire and peace process offers some answers. This book, based on extensive fieldwork and over nine years of research, investigates the approach taken by the Sri Lankan Government and international donors to prioritise economic recovery in the hope that it would drive the 2002 peace process and build peace. Rather than a peace settlement, the outcome of this internationalised peace process was the bloodiest episode in Sri Lanka's 26-year conflict, and the defeat by the Government of the Tamil Tigers. Aid, Peacebuilding and the Resurgence of War provides an evidence-based account of the challenges that face the peacebuilding project, a critique of the liberal peace thesis, and highlights the tensions between the approaches of the traditional western-donors and new donors from emerging economies. It contributes to the policy/practitioner debate over best practice during conflict and to better understanding of the Sri Lankan civil war and its conclusion.