ABSTRACT
This chapter presents selected theoretical insights on hierarchies and stratification processes in wartime. It highlights how one particular strand of statebuilding policies, guidelines on economic reconstruction, frames key challenges associated with post-war economic recovery. The chapter pulls out three underlying assumptions present in these guidelines and contrasts each of these with the situation in one particular post-war focus: the province of Balkh in northern Afghanistan after 2001. The first assumption underpinning the reports is that a radical break with the past can be possible and that it should be a central aim of local and foreign actors seeking to trigger reform. The second theme in multilateral policies is that there is a bias towards assessing disparities between the warring factions and pre-war patterns of social exclusion. The third assumption associated with the multilateral reports is the notion that political and economic spheres can be conceptualised as two distinct entities.
