One of the significant challenges confronting the international community in the post-Cold War
era is dealing with intra-state conflicts in various parts of the world, particularly in Africa. In
addressing this issue, it has also become essential over time, to address the question of what
states must do upon the cessation of hostilities to prevent a recurrence of the conflict.
Consequently, post-conflict development, including the rebuilding of infrastructure, political and
social institutions, demobilizing, disarming and reintegrating ex-combatants and generally
creating conditions for sustained development has according to Krause & Jütersonke 2005
become the ‘core business’ of the international humanitarian and development community. This
has created a peacebuilding industry that seeks to prevent recidivism in violent conflicts. While
there have been successes, there have also been significant failures in this regard. In 2003,
Liberia brought to an end a fourteen year old civil war with the signing of a comprehensive
peace accord. With a legacy of institutions shattered by war and long periods of mal-governance
Liberia began a process of post conflict development aimed at addressing the human security
needs of its people. The main objective of the study is to examine human security in the post
conflict development of Liberia from an institutional perspective. A critical aspect of this is to
interrogate the extent to which the record of human security is deepening historic socio-
economic inequalities and how that threatens the sustainability of Liberia’s post-conflict
development. The research hypothesised that the floundering state of institution building in post-
conflict Liberia is likely to foster uneven results in human security, re-establish socio-economic
inequalities, and engender negative consequences with the potential of instigating relapse into
violent conflict. The research findings noted that, whilst Liberia has made tremendous efforts at
building institutions to advance various components of human security, there is still a lot of
socio-economic inequality between the various counties. The continued spatial inequality is
undermining the sustainability of post-conflict development. This will cause Liberia to relapse
into conflict.