¹I would like to thank the Fulbright New Century Scholars 2002–2003 Working Group 1 for critical comments and encouragement, particularly Pratush Onta, Dan Rabinowitz and Courtney Jung. Needless to say they are not responsible for any shortcomings.

Abstract

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake analyses the politics of representation embedded in international development, reconstruction and peace building discourse and practice in the wake of war and natural disasters. Using the experience of Sri Lanka, she focuses on the emergence of violence as focus of development discourse at the end of the Cold War and argues that socially, politically and culturally insensitive reconstruction policies can morph into blue prints for renewed conflict and violence years or decades later. Analyzing local–global power and knowledge hierarchies in the post-conflict and tsunami reconstruction process in Sri Lanka, she suggests the need for a new paradigm for reconstruction as well as a structural adjustment of the international peace and reconstruction industry in the global south.