Post conflict recovery and peace building

Civil wars are the most common type of large scale violent conflict. They are long, brutal and continue to harm societies long after the shooting stops. Post-conflict countries face extraordinary challenges with respect to development and security. In this paper we examine how countries can recover economically from these devastating conflicts and how international interventions can help to build lasting peace. The author revisits the aid and growth debate and confirms that aid does not increase growth in general. However, the author finds that countries experience increased growth after the end of the war and that aid helps to make the most of this peace dividend. However, aid is only growth enhancing when the violence has stopped, in violent post-war societies aid has no growth enhancing effect. The author also find that good governance is robustly correlated with growth however the author cannot confirm that aid increases growth conditional on good policies. The author examines various aspects of aid and governance by disaggregating the aid and governance variables. The author's analysis does not provide a clear picture of which types of aid and policy should be prioritized. The author finds little evidence for a growth enhancing effect of UN missions and suggests that case studies may provide better insight into the relationship between security guarantees and economic stabilization.