Policy Insight, Volume 1, Issue 5, October 2007: Shaping the Policy Priorities for Post-Conflict Reconstruction

1989 to 2002 can be categorized as internal conflicts or civil wars.1 Most occurred in underdeveloped countries plagued by widespread insecurity, bad governance, illiteracy, poor health, and the absence of basic infrastructure in transportation and communications. Peace, once obtained in these places, has proved difficult to sustain. Thirty-one percent of conflicts resume within 10 years of the initial ceasefire. African conflicts are even more prone to reignite: Half of African peace restorations last less than a decade.2 In response, the United Nations (UN), the United States, and other international players revamped their approaches in the 1990s, expanding peace-building activities and adding “multidimensional,” military-based peace enforcement to their traditional focus on humanitarian relief, infrastructure restoration, and political rehabilitation.3 But the policy challenges are immense. This Policy Insight examines one of the most pressing issues in post-conflict reconstruction: how to prioritize and sequence political, social, and economic policies to enable post-conflict countries to sustain peace and reduce the reoccurrence of violence.