“Demilitarisation of conflict and society is crucial to building sustainable peace in countries emerging from the scourge of civil war. As longstanding conflicts come to an end, a variety of approaches are adopted by national governments and international agencies aimed at supporting processes
that facilitate this potentially volatile transition from formal peace to social
peace. At the heart of the exercise is the necessity of transforming the culture and the instruments of war – in particular, demobilising, disarming and reintegrating former combatants into society as well as ridding the wider society of arms. The experiences of controlled processes of demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration (DD&R) in the past two decades have demonstrated that DD&R must per force be regarded as a tool of development aid.”
