Life after War

Delving into the lives of ten Ivoirian citizens in the aftermath of the Ivoirian Civil War, this book sheds new light on how ordinary people contribute to post-conflict peacebuilding, and how it impacts their day-to-day lives.
Ex-combatants contemplate the glory days of the conflict and how they have struggled to reintegrate into a post-conflict society which they feel does not want them. Survivors explain the challenges of returning home after war and dealing with trauma in a country where their families have been torn apart. Civilians discuss the ways that they have helped to build peace and the power that their knowledge of the local context has had on peacebuilding. Soldiers explore the difficulty of integrating rebels into the military at the end of a war and the ongoing challenges that this poses to military cohesion.
Taken together, these stories highlight the need for peacebuilding programmes to ditch one-size-fits-all approaches in order to grapple with the specific social dynamics in post-conflict countries. This is essential reading for researchers and students of peacebuilding, international development and African studies, as well as for practitioners the world over.

Jessica Moody received her PhD in War Studies at Kings College, London, and works all over the world as a freelance political risk and peace-building consultant. She collaborates with an array of think tanks and politics risk consultancies, including IHS Markit, Assynt Group, and the United States Institute of Peace. She has also written op-eds for Foreign Policy, African Arguments and World Politics Review.

Foreword
Acknowledgements
Map of Cote d'Ivoire
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Methods, Ethics and Biases
Chapter 3: War and Peace in Cote d'Ivoire
Chapter 4: Brice - Disarmament in Duekoue
Chapter 5: Fatima - Journalism in a War Zone
Chapter 6: Moussa - The Religious Side of Peacebuilding
Chapter 7: Mamma Celeste - Pragmatic and Traditional Peacebuilding
Chapter 8: Seydou - Security Sector Reform in the Ivoirian Armed Forces
Chapter 9: Safiatou - Trauma and Peacebuilding
Chapter 10: Sidiki - Reintegration Challenges for an Ex-Combatant
Chapter 11: Yannick - DDR Dilemmas
Chapter 12: Awa - Surviving War and Peace
Chapter 13: Ange - Refugee to Politician to Peacebuilding
Chapter 14: Implications and Conclusion
Bibliography
Primary Source Documents
Secondary Sources