Description
'The rhetoric of transformation in transitional justice seems to be everywhere. Padraig McAuliffe takes this agenda down to its roots and exposes unproven or wishful assumptions that fail to connect with conditions in actual post-conflict settings. This bracing and powerful book, massively researched and tightly argued, throws down a gauntlet and defines an agenda for future research. McAuliffe's book is a singular and outstanding intervention in the transitional justice field.'- Margaret Urban Walker, Marquette University
Despite the growing focus on issues of socio-economic transformation in contemporary transitional justice, the path dependencies imposed by the political economy of war-to-peace transitions and the limitations imposed by weak statehood are seldom considered. This book explores transitional justice's prospects for seeking economic justice and reform of structures of poverty in the specific context of post-conflict states.
Systematic and timely, this book examines how the evolution of contemporary civil war, the modalities of peacemaking and peacebuilding, as well as the role of grassroots forms of justice, condition prospects for tackling the economic roots of conflict. It argues that discourse in the area focuses too much on the liberal commitments of interveners to the exclusion of understanding how interventionist impulses are compromised by the agency of local actors. Ultimately, the book illustrates that for transitional justice to become effective in transforming structures of injustice, it needs to acknowledge the salience of domestic political incentives and accumulation patterns.
Transitional justice scholars will find this book indispensable as the first consideration of transitional justice and economic transformation from the perspective of the domestic political economy. Both peacebuilding and development specialists will also benefit from its wealth of lessons to be learned.
