Introduction

One of the oddities of social science research has been that theories of development and theories of conflict have largely evolved in isolation from one another. This was especially odd since development economics as an academic subdiscipline and area of policy expertise emerged in a post-Second World War context defined by violent conflict. Moreover, the lens of development studies was firmly focused on the developing states, many of which were prone to conflicts relating to decolonisation, post-independence power struggles and proxy competition among Cold Warriors. The few development economists who considered the matter saw war as an interruption of development and surmised that development could not begin until war had ceased in a particular location (Thomas 2006: 186). As a result, most development specialists excluded countries experiencing violent conflict from their studies. In effect, conflict was written out of development.