Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. The book presents a critical analysis and evaluation of approaches to peace and conflict as a very limited strategy for preventing a return to violence in countries which have experienced protracted internal conflict, since these are often translated into rushing post-conflict societies towards liberal democracy and market economy. It discusses the dominant explanations on the origins of violent armed conflict. The book analyses the dominant models put forward at the international level to resolve conflicts and build peace, by stressing their limited agenda and priorities and the way in which they tend to obscure complex inequalities and dynamics that sustain and reproduce the same violent conflict they intend to prevent or terminate. It expresses that any sustainable strategy would imply recognising and addressing the complex material inequalities at stake, which in turn requires deconstructing simplistic views of ethnicity, religion and of the multiple actors.