Please consult the paper edition of this thesis to read. It is available on the 5th Floor of the Library at Call Number: Z 9999 P65 D53 2007This paper argues that the historical origins of the modem nation-state structure are based in part on economic processes, which give contemporary nation-states a specifically economic set of features and characteristics. As a result, there is a real but little understood economic security component of international relations that is increasingly recognized by competing schools of academic thought, including the realist school, which has historically been hesitant to acknowledge such issues as a feature of the international system. The paper further suggests that an understanding of economic security has significant
implications for the theory and practice of post-conflict reconstruction in contemporary
nation-states. However, CUlTent reconstruction practice fails to explicitly acknowledge
the reality of the economic security dimension, although it sometimes recognizes the role
of economic security in an implicit way, resulting in a disturbing separation of policy and
practice that weakens overall reconstruction efforts. A stronger understanding of the
economic security paradigm allows the international community to identify and adopt
those development and reconstruction practices that are most effective in the field, and
thereby offer the greatest opportunities to strengthen and stabilize state security in postconflict environments. The paper concludes by identifying and endorsing specific
reconstruction strategies and practices that, by incorporating an understanding of the
economic security paradigm, are best positioned to enhance the security-building process
in post-conflict environments