Since the end of the Cold War and the terrorist attacks of 9/11, conflict and war have become central to policy discourses on development. The re-discovery of intra-state,‘ethnic’,‘religious’, and ‘communal’conflicts has led policy makers to realise that sustainable development is impossible in the face of violent conflict (Boutros-Ghali 1995: 7). However, acknowledging interdependence between security and development does not imply that existing policy approaches in the two areas can simply be merged. Superimposing development approaches on conflict can lead to a ‘de-politisation’of conflict and an overreliance on ‘technocratic’conflict solutions (Jönsson 2006: 4); designing development policy through the lens of national security risks ignoring the moral universality of individual rights to development. Therefore, an alternative theoretical frame is needed that acknowledges the links between development and violent conflict, as well as their particularities.