By siding with minorities, fears and passions can be inflamed on the majority side. In the short-term, Western policy makers have empowered the wrong actors, like Kabila in the Congo. This is a major limitation, and perhaps why conflict prevention cannot be implemented in all countries. Still, there can be no development without stable security. Sometimes resources are not allocated because the issues have not been effectively presented to Congress.
Agencies are often generations apart on issues.
There need to be mechanisms to bridge the gap. Many development and humanitarian practitioners within cling to what they know. Government agencies in general need to understand among themselves that they can't handle the conflict beast on their own. We have no policy on the control of light weapons and the trade of light weapons. I don't believe that you can intervene in an area in a programmatic sense if you don't address the notion of light weapons control and cross-border transnational issues.