Trust and Prospective Reconciliation: Evidence From a Protracted Armed Conflict

Traditional approaches to international aid deal with post-conflict risks focusing on external safeguards for peacebuilding, leaving local social enhancers playing a subsidiary role. Trust has long been highlighted as a key factor that can positively affect sustainable peace efforts by reducing inte...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of peacebuilding & development 2020-12, Vol.15 (3), p.298-315
Main Authors: Casas-Casas, Andrés, Mendez, Nathalie, Pino, Juan Federico
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Civil war
Conflict
Foreign aid
Hostility
International conflict
National reconciliation
Peace
Peace negotiations
Prosocial behavior
Reconciliation
Safeguards
War
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Traditional approaches to international aid deal with post-conflict risks focusing on external safeguards for peacebuilding, leaving local social enhancers playing a subsidiary role. Trust has long been highlighted as a key factor that can positively affect sustainable peace efforts by reducing intergroup hostility. Surprisingly, most post-conflict studies deal with trust as a dependent variable. Using a cross-sectional multi-method field study in Colombia, we assess the impact of trust on prospective reconciliation in the midst of an ongoing peace process. We find that trust in ex-combatants and in government increases the likelihood of having positive attitudes towards future reconciliation and willingness to support not only the peace process but reconciliation activities after war. We offer evidence supporting the idea that rather than drawing exclusively on economic and military capabilities, investing in local governance infrastructures that promote prosocial behaviour and positive belief management in the pre-reconciliation face offers a complementary alternative to help societies exit civil wars while tackling barriers to peacebuilding efforts in the initial stages of a post-conflict.
ISSN:1542-3166
2165-7440
2165-7440
1542-3166
DOI:10.1177/1542316620945968