Conflict, Peace, Security and Development: Theories and Methodologies - Softcover

"Helen Hintjens and Dubravka Zarkov’s well-conceived edited volume offers a rich resource for deeper questioning and reflection on the conundrum of how best to promote and build peace and untie the knot that is development, peace and security. Lucid theoretical discussion, critical methodological approaches and in-depth case studies make this book invaluable for students, researchers and yes, also for policymakers." –Eleanor O’Gorman, University of Cambridge, UK

"Helen Hintjens and Dubravka Zarkov have edited an extraordinarily timely book. It critically compares different theoretical and methodological approaches in these incredibly complex fields, by arranging the substantive sections as a series of dialogues around contending approaches which relate to a challenging algebra of ethical and political choices. The result is an easily accessible entry for both undergraduate and postgraduate students into contemporary theories and the rather different praxis of engagement and intervention." –Steve Wright, Leeds Beckett University, UK

"This volume draws together a truly diverse set of theories and methodologies. Yet despite this remarkable range of perspectives, the contributions effectively cohere. The volume as a whole offers a significant contribution to peace studies." –Scott Gates, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Whilst classical approaches linked development with peace, security has become central to understandings of both war and peacetime. This book uniquely reflects on how to deal with the convergence of war and peace in the context of global economic and geo-political development. It addresses methodological challenges in contemporary approaches to conflict, violence, security peace and development.

Two dominant contemporary approaches are selected for debate on methodologies and ethical choices: rational choice and identity-based theorizing. The chapters are arranged as dialogues around contending approaches, to better understand how the inter-locking fields of violent conflict, peace, development and security can be researched and understood. The book considers how theoretical and methodological approaches relate to different ethical and political choices, including around engagement and intervention in the four interwoven fields. Theoretical, methodological and ethical issues emerge from the critical reviews of academic discourses and case-study based chapters from across the world, including Sri Lanka, Ghana, Colombia and Rwanda.

This book is an invaluable resource for postgraduate students and researchers in Development Studies, Conflict Studies, Peace Studies and Security Studies.