Political settlements in peacebuilding and statebuilding

Political settlements have recently become the subject of engaged conceptual and strategic debate among some development agencies and donor countries. At a time when donor agencies have begun to overcome the traditional separation between peacebuilding activities and external engagement to rebuild functioning states (i.e., state building), political settlements might provide a useful lens to bridge conceptual differences and ambiguities that remain between the two fields. In particular, the settlement lens holds the promise of bringing a longer timeframe to the thinking about peace accords, and considerations of social accommodation to the way state building is conceptualized.