Peacebuilding seeks to resolve conflicts by addressing the root causes. Yet the dominant Liberal Peace approach has faced growing criticism for its limited attention to local conditions, state capacity, and the developmental foundations of peace. Against this background, Developmental Peace has emerged from the evolving peacebuilding practices of the Global South. It conceptualizes development through three dimensions—economic growth, effective governance, and the human right to development—and traces the transition from conflict economy through stability to sustainable peace.

Developmental Peace understands peace as both the goal and part of the process of peacebuilding. This processual understanding distinguishes it from approaches that treat peacebuilding as a predetermined institutional endpoint. It asks what kind of development contributes to what kind of peace, at what phase, and under what conditions. Drawing on extensive interviews and field research in China, South Sudan, and the Horn of Africa, the book brings together diverse local and international perspectives to advance a new framework for understanding plural pathways to sustainable peace.