ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses the conceptual development of the term "peacebuilding", as defined in Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali's An Agenda for Peace and its use in contrast with the concept of "preventive diplomacy". It discusses the concept of "an integrated approach to human security" and analyzes how these concepts have evolved over time and across institutions. The book analyzes the path from war to peace, including the four distinct aspects of the war-to-peace transition: security (or stabilization), political (or governance), social (or national reconciliation) and economic (the economics of peace or economic reconstruction). It focuses on the economics of war, the economics of conflict resolution, the economics of peace, and the economics of development and the nonlinear connection between these phases. It also analyzes how "peacebuilding" evolved from Boutros-Ghali's conceptualization to its operationalization in the field and its actual performance.
