Institutions And Human Security In The Post-Conflict Development Of Liberia: 2003 – 2011

ABSTRACT One of the significant challenges confronting the international community in the post-Cold War era is dealing with intra-state conflicts in various parts of the world, particularly in Africa. In addressing this issue, it has also become essential over time, to address the question of what states must do upon the cessation of hostilities to prevent a recurrence of the conflict. Consequently, post-conflict development, including the rebuilding of infrastructure, political and social institutions, demobilizing, disarming and reintegrating ex-combatants and generally creating conditions for sustained development has according to Krause & Jütersonke 2005 become the ‘core business’ of the international humanitarian and development community. This has created a peacebuilding industry that seeks to prevent recidivism in violent conflicts. While there have been successes, there have also been significant failures in this regard. In 2003, Liberia brought to an end a fourteen year old civil war with the signing of a comprehensive peace accord. With a legacy of institutions shattered by war and long periods of mal-governance Liberia began a process of post conflict development aimed at addressing the human security needs of its people. The main objective of the study is to examine human security in the post conflict development of Liberia from an institutional perspective. A critical aspect of this is to interrogate the extent to which the record of human security is deepening historic socioeconomic inequalities and how that threatens the sustainability of Liberia’s post-conflict development. The research hypothesised that the floundering state of institution building in postconflict Liberia is likely to foster uneven results in human security, re-establish socio-economic inequalities, and engender negative consequences with the potential of instigating relapse into violent conflict. The research findings noted that, whilst Liberia has made tremendous efforts at building institutions to advance various components of human security, there is still a lot of  socio-economic inequality between the various counties. The continued spatial inequality is undermining the sustainability of post-conflict development. This will cause Liberia to relapse into conflict.