ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts of key concept discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discusses some of the main challenges that emerge for those seeking to analyse conflict in the developing world and highlighting current debates and challenges in the policy world. The core aims of this book has been to outline the very close links that exist between policy and academic work in this area, but this raises an epistemological dilemma regarding analytical approaches to conflict, security and development in poor countries. In particular, authors have illustrated just how complex the real-world dynamics of security can be in places like Sierra Leone and Nepal and how they might not fit comfortably with some of the theories and models commonly used by political scientists in their analysis. Authors have tried to show that whilst this is critical, it is also extremely complex and there are often unintended consequences of external intervention within conflicts that are little understood.