Violence and Reconstruction

Book excerpt: This is the first book to focus on the effects of violence in internal conflicts after peace agreements have been signed. Since the mid-1990s many peace processes, including those in Israel-Palestine, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Northern Ireland, have stumbled or reverted to different forms of violence while seeking to implement formal peace agreements. In all these cases the persistence and forms of violence have been main determinants of success or failure. Violence and Reconstruction adopts a four-part analysis, examining in turn violence emanating from the state, from militants, from destabilized societies, and from the challenge of implementing a range of issues including demobilization, disarmament, and policing. Seven of the leading scholars working on peace processes have focused their experience and expertise to explore in detail each of these aspects of postwar violence.