During the Cold War, external aid was a significant component of East–West rivalries with each side influencing their allies through economic support and resources. With the new World Order and increase in the number of protracted intra-state conflicts, external aid was increasingly considered as integral to peacebuilding. Peacebuilding, a term popularised in the 1990s, went beyond the dominant model of managing conflicts and instead focused on addressing their root causes. The changing pattern of conflicts required the international community to focus on new intervention strategies to end violent conflicts based on negotiated agreements, leading to a peace process and followed by peacebuilding strategies to transform them. A peace process can be considered as a mechanism or a set of processes whereby the parties involved attempt to avoid destructive conflict by using different techniques such as diplomacy, mediation and negotiation. Defining the concept, Saunders argues that a peace process is more than conventional diplomacy and negotiation. It encompasses a full range of political, psychological, economic, diplomatic and military actions woven together into a comprehensive effort to establish peace. The term ‘peace dividend’ has been broadly defined as social, political and psychological benefits that accrue as an outcome of a peace process. From this view, external aid is channelled into peace dividends to transform a conflict by social and economic development and therefore a significant component of peacebuilding. It is also hoped that economic growth and prosperity can create incentives on the ground by convincing people that they are stakeholders in the peace process, thereby increasing public support.