Contingent antidotes to civil conflict: A comparative case analysis of development projects as conflict drivers and mitigators

In the aftermath of Cold War, aggrandized civil wars in developing countries were met with internationally regulated development projects centered on the framework of statehood. To this day, the success of these projects remains heavily contested in scholarly literature. The following paper attempts to engage with this debate by conducting a comparative research analysis on the respective failure and success of two distinct international development projects administered in Afghanistan and Indonesia. Based on secondary research findings, it posits that the potential of development projects to reduce conflict is contingent upon de facto program functionality subject to duration, participation, normative coherence, and local context capacity.