Publication

This paper examines the time and dollar costs of post-conflict rebuilding in Liberia, Mozambique, Solomon Islands and East Timor. The author estimates that, even under the most optimistic assumptions, it would be decades, possibly generations, before post-conflict states are ready to see donors leave. The paper concludes that lengthy engagement of externals in post-conflict states is critical to the creation and maturation of institutions necessary to prevent a rollback into state failure on the departure of the interveners.