This book deals with the question how institutional reform can contribute to peacebuilding in post-war and divided societies. In the context of armed conflict and widespread violence, two important questions shape political agendas inside and outside the affected societies: How can we stop the violence? And how can we prevent its recurrence? Comprehensive negotiated war terminations and peace accords recommend a set of mechanisms to bring an end to war and establish peace, including institutional reforms that promote democratization and state building. Although the role of institutions is widely recognized, their specific effects are highly contested in research as well as in practice. This book highlights the necessity to include path-dependency, pre-conflict institutions and societal divisions to understand the patterns of institutional change in post-war societies and the ongoing risk of civil war recurrence. It focuses on the general question of how institutional reform contributes to the establishment of peace in post-war societies. This book comprises three separate but interrelated parts on the relation between institutions and societal divisions, on institutional reform and on security sector reform. The chapters contribute to the understanding of the relationship between societal cleavages, pre-conflict institutions, path dependency, and institutional reform. This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, development studies, security studies and IR.

Security Sector Reform (SSR) remains a key feature of peacebuilding interventions and is usually undertaken by a state alongside national and international partners. External actors engaged in SSR tend to follow a normative agenda that often has little regard for the context in post-conflict societies. Despite recurrent criticism, SSR practices of international organisations and bilateral donors often remain focused on state institutions, and often do not sufficiently attend to alternative providers of security or existing normative frameworks of security. This edited collection explores three aspects that add an important piece to the puzzle of what constitutes effective Security Sector Reform (SSR). First, the variation of norm adoption, norm contestation and norm imposition in post-conflict countries that might explain the mixed results in terms of peacebuilding. Second, the multitude of different security actors within and beyond the state which often leads to multiple patterns of co-operation and contestation within reform programmes. Third, how both the multiplicity of and tension between norms and actors further complicate efforts to build peace or, as complexity theory would posit, influence the complex and non-linear social system that is the conflict-affected environment. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.

Security Sector Reform (SSR) remains a key feature of peacebuilding interventions and is usually undertaken by a state alongside national and international partners. External actors engaged in SSR tend to follow a normative agenda that often has little regard for the context in post-conflict societies. Despite recurrent criticism, SSR practices of international organisations and bilateral donors often remain focused on state institutions, and often do not sufficiently attend to alternative providers of security or existing normative frameworks of security. This edited collection explores three aspects that add an important piece to the puzzle of what constitutes effective Security Sector Reform (SSR). First, the variation of norm adoption, norm contestation and norm imposition in post-conflict countries that might explain the mixed results in terms of peacebuilding. Second, the multitude of different security actors within and beyond the state which often leads to multiple patterns of co-operation and contestation within reform programmes. Third, how both the multiplicity of and tension between norms and actors further complicate efforts to build peace or, as complexity theory would posit, influence the complex and non-linear social system that is the conflict-affected environment. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.

This book deals with the question how institutional reform can contribute to peacebuilding in post-war and divided societies. In the context of armed conflict and widespread violence, two important questions shape political agendas inside and outside the affected societies: How can we stop the violence? And how can we prevent its recurrence? Comprehensive negotiated war terminations and peace accords recommend a set of mechanisms to bring an end to war and establish peace, including institutional reforms that promote democratization and state building. Although the role of institutions is widely recognized, their specific effects are highly contested in research as well as in practice. This book highlights the necessity to include path-dependency, pre-conflict institutions and societal divisions to understand the patterns of institutional change in post-war societies and the ongoing risk of civil war recurrence. It focuses on the general question of how institutional reform contributes to the establishment of peace in post-war societies. This book comprises three separate but interrelated parts on the relation between institutions and societal divisions, on institutional reform and on security sector reform. The chapters contribute to the understanding of the relationship between societal cleavages, pre-conflict institutions, path dependency, and institutional reform. This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, development studies, security studies and IR.

In den letzten Jahrzehnten ist ein Wandel im Kriegsgeschehen zu verzeichnen, der sich auch auf die Kriegsforschung auswirkt. Prozesse der staatlichen Entgrenzung und Denationalisierung fuhrten zu neuen Formen der Kriegsfuhrung. Damit verbunden sind auch eine Regionalisierung und Transnationalisierung von Krieg und die Entstehung von regionalen Konfliktsystemen. Diese sind gekennzeichnet durch interdependente gewaltsame Konflikte unter Beteiligung unterschiedlicher Akteure, die auf verschiedenen Handlungsebenen aufgrund von gegensatzlichen Interessen miteinander konkurrieren und/oder in komplexen Netzwerken miteinander interagieren. Das Phanomen der regionalen Konfliktsysteme wurde bislang jedoch nur unzureichend theoretisch erfasst und nur vereinzelt empirisch erforscht. Dieses Forschungsdesiderat ist der Ausgangspunkt fur die Untersuchung. Sie ist geleitet von zwei zentralen, interdependenten Forschungsfragen: Welche strukturellen Rahmenbedingungen ermoeglichen das Auftreten regionaler Konfliktsysteme und der daran beteiligten Gewaltakteure? Auf Grundlage dieser Erkenntnisse untersucht die Autorin, welche Faktoren zu einer tatsachlichen Ausbreitung kriegerischer Gewalt in Regionen fuhren. In diesem Zusammenhang werden auch die Gewaltdynamiken und die Interaktionen der Akteure sowie die Motive und Intentionen ihres Handelns betrachtet. Zur Beantwortung dieser Fragen wird ein theoretisches Konzept auf sozialkonstruktivistischer Basis entwickelt, das die bisherigen theoretischen Schwachen im Umgang mit regionalen Konfliktsystemen ausgleicht. Von besonderer Bedeutung sind das Zusammenspiel von Konflikt, Region und Sicherheit und die daraus resultierende OEffnung der methodologischen wie auch der Akteursperspektive. Das theoretische Konzept der regionalen Konfliktsysteme wird mit Hilfe einer multi-Value Qualitative Comparative Analysis (mvQCA) anhand der Kriege mit regionaler Komponente in Sub-Sahara Afrika seit dem Ende des Kalten Krieges getestet.