ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses peace building that refers to efforts to identify and support structures that tend to strengthen and solidify peace in order to avoid a relapse into conflict. It shows that some of the most sweeping critiques of liberal peace building have rested on dubious claims and logic. These include the conflation of post-conquest and post-settlement peace building; un-nuanced analogies of peace building and colonialism or imperialism; definitions of the liberal peace that are too broad; mischaracterisations of the peace building record, and the oversimplifications of the moral complexity of peace building. Most of those who have criticised the economic dimensions of liberal peace building have called for less aggressive adjustment strategies in order to reduce the destabilising effects of rapid marketisation, but have not rejected the idea of economic liberalisation itself in part because economic growth is important to the long-term success of peace building. The chapter argues for a rethinking and rebalancing of liberal peace building critiques.
