The Politics of Post-war/post-Conflict Reconstruction

Shalmali Guttal argues that post-conflict/war reconstruction is not simply about rebuilding lives and societies after periods of violent conflicts, crises and upheavals. Reconstruction is about establishing a market based capitalist economic system, twinned with a political regime that is willing to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Development (Society for International Development) 2005-09, Vol.48 (3), p.73-81
Main Author: Guttal, Shalmali
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Capitalist economy
Collaboration
Covert operations
Democracy
Economic Models
Economic reform
Economic Systems
Financial institutions
Governance
Human rights
Humanitarianism
International finance
Liberal democracy
Market Economy
Nation building
Neoliberalism
NGOs
Nongovernmental organizations
Planning
Political regimes
Politics
Post-conflict reconstruction
Privatization
Reconstruction
Regulation
State failure
War
Wealth
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Summary:Shalmali Guttal argues that post-conflict/war reconstruction is not simply about rebuilding lives and societies after periods of violent conflicts, crises and upheavals. Reconstruction is about establishing a market based capitalist economic system, twinned with a political regime that is willing to promote and defend free market-capitalism. She proposes that the hallmark of the 'reconstruction model' is neo-liberalism - an unregulated, market economy, liberal democracy, free flow of private capital, privatization, removal of domestic regulations and economic protections, and 'good governance', which in practice means that the fledgling state's responsibilities are re-oriented towards facilitating and protecting free market conditions for creating wealth, much of which is expropriated by private sector actors from outside the country and/or consolidated by national elites.
ISSN:1011-6370
1461-7072
DOI:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100169