Chapter 22 Chapter Summary

This chapter provided an overview of how the relationship between conflict and development has been understood and analyzed in social science. It identifies two main strands. One strand views the lack of development as a cause of conflict and therefore sees development as a cure; the other conceives of development as generating conflict or as a conflictual process in itself. The chapter examined various attempts to make a causal link between underdevelopment and conflict, whether underdevelopment has been understood as the absence of economic opportunities or democracy, as inequality, or as ethnic diversity. The chapter then discussed conservative and radical claims that development might be associated with conflict. The conservative version warns against the destabilizing effects of rapid development, while the radical view understands development as an often-violent redistribution of resources and power, calling to attention the violent past of Western capitalism.

Finally, the chapter considered international efforts—often called “peace-building”—to help reconstruct societies emerging from violence. Today, peace-building operations premised on the assumption that development and “state-building” are necessary tools to recover from violent conflict might be ceding ground to a more realist position, which sees large-scale transformation of war-torn societies as difficult or costly. Instead, from this viewpoint, conflict-ridden societies need to seek solutions in local and ostensibly traditional structures.