Framework for Analysis

Abstract

This chapter outlines the research design informing the book, outlining the main questions addressed and providing an analytical ‘toolkit’ for answering them. After defining the core elements analysed in the book, namely the liberal democratic peace framework and the concept of peacebuilding, it theorizes about the dynamics through which the latter came into life influenced by the former in the context of the United Nations as well as the implications of this process for the UN approach to societies affected by armed conflicts. Finally, the methodological strategy adopted for the proposed analysis is also articulated in this chapter, according to an understanding that constructivist-inspired research should develop both subjective and objective knowledge about social reality.