Introduction

Why are external-domestic interactions in peacebuilding of relevance? This first chapter provides an overview of why, and how, this book investigates the role of external-domestic interactions to explain post-war transitions in peacebuilding. It introduces the main explanations for stalled post-war transitions in the literature and then explains the key categories of the proposed ‘analytical framework of peacebuilding interactions’. This is followed by a brief sketch of the main argument that external-domestic interactions offer domestic elites opportunities to ‘capture’ peacebuilding for their domestic priorities. The chapter proceeds with the definition of key terms and an explanation of the methodological approach.