ABSTRACT
This chapter explains Postwar rather than post-conflict because as the cases of Liberia and Sierra Leone will illustrate, while war has ended old and new social conflicts have persisted. It explains why the architects of the Lome and Accra peace agreements sought to burden Postwar Sierra Leone and Liberia with the liberal peace recipe and not any other type of peace such as social democratic or socialist. The chapter argues that the liberal peace paradigm has the potential to expand economic policies that in the long-run will exacerbate economic marginalization among the poor, increase poverty and foment grievances and social justice which could under certain circumstances contribute to social and in some instances violent conflicts. It introduces some of the major criticisms levied against this type of sequencing of postwar peace building. Liberal peace building exemplifies an inherent tension between liberalism and issues of social justice and redistribution including social welfare of the poor and marginalized.
