| dc.description.abstract | Five years on since the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Sri Lanka is in transition. Having experienced a protracted war for nearly three decades, the country has shifted to a post-conflict nation-building phase following the successful conclusion of the Humanitarian Operations. While post-war peace is often taken for granted, the global experiences witness a relapse of war within a few years of the conclusion of violent conflicts. This phenomenon is stipulated by the 'conflict trap' theory. That is, post-conflict societies run a high risk of sliding back into armed conflict within five years after the conclusion of a war. Notably, the island nation has not witnessed a single terrorist attack since the decimation of the terror outfit, and any attempts to revive the armed struggle have been successfully thwarted thus far. To this end, the Sri Lankan case defies both the 'conflict trap' concept and the conventional experiences of many post-conflict nations around the world. Against this backdrop, this paper seeks to test the applicability of the theory to the Sri Lankan context. This requires assessing the potential relapse of a large-scale violent arms struggle in the island nation within the conceptual framework. The research purports that a resurgence of hybrid warfare and a terrorist outfit like that of the LTTE is highly unlikely in the current socio-political climate in the country. | en_US |
