ABSTRACT
The challenges involved in consolidating peace in the aftermath of armed conflict are intimately connected to the nature and quality of the political settlement that brought the active or most violent phase of that conflict to an end. Societies subject to intervention and post-conflict peacebuilding since the early 1990s have typically witnessed high levels of violence after the formal end of armed conflict. Confronting post-conflict violence is a central challenge facing any peacebuilding endeavour. High levels of post-war violence are not inevitable, and the record of peacebuilding since the early 1990s makes it clear that the actions of outsiders have played a role, for better or worse, in influencing both the levels and the character of such violence. The trajectory of the two Congo wars of 'liberation' that began in the late 1990s offers a particularly striking example of the importance that economic agendas can have in shaping the dynamics of both armed conflict and post-conflict peacebuilding.
