International intervention in internal wars has gained a degree of legitimacy in the post-cold war world, but in practice it is still problematic. Response to these conflicts has remained mainly diplomatic -- and belated. Is there anything international actors can do to prevent, or at least ameliorate, such conflicts? Are conflict-prevention measures already being applied, and sometimes succeeding so well that we are unaware of their effectiveness? If so, what can we learn from them? In this book, Robert A. Muscat, a veteran international development expert, attempts to answer these questions by examining nine cases in which the work of development agencies exacerbated or ameliorated the root causes of conflict.

Part 1 Conflicts, Causes, and Economic Development; Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Conflicts Fought, Conflicts Avoided Nine Cases; Chapter 3 Development and Conflict; Part 2 Toward an Agenda for Conflict Prevention; Chapter 4 Relevance and Assessment; Chapter 5 Inducing Nonviolent Politics and Conflict Management; Chapter 6 Economic and Sector Policies; Chapter 7 Persuasion, Leverage, and Sanctions;

Robert J. Muscat is a development economist with experience as a practitioner and scholar. He has worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Thailand, Brazil, and Kenya. As the agency's chief economist, he was economic adviser to the Thai development planning agency and the Malaysian Ministry of Finance and was planning director for the U.N. Development Programme. He has consulted for U.N. agencies and the World Bank. Among his publications are books and monographs on reconstruction, technical assistance, food aid, nutrition and development, population, and other subjects. He has been a visiting scholar at Columbia's East Asian Institute and at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University.