Challenges Of Peace Implementation

This fascinating collected volume explores the relationship between world conflict, political unrest and the driving forces of Capitalism and Globalization.

Divided into four sections on conceptualization, peacemaking, peacebuilding, and norm development and monitoring, this volume analyzes various strategic choices and consequences resulting from NGO's dilemmas in peacebuilding interventions, relating to participation in peace negotiations, the development of post conflict institutions, as well as neutrality in monitoring and advocacy of norm development.

Mel Flowers' "Conflict Resolution: Peace Implementation in New Wars" offers an assessment of the phase immediately following the signing of a peace agreement. It contributes knowledge to the understanding of the challenges to peace processes during peace implementation and identifies factors that are decisive or necessary for a successful peace implementation in the context of a new war. The author argues that a high quality of the peace agreement and high international interest and commitment are critical for implementing a peace accord in a difficult conflict environment. The dynamics of the Liberian civil wars (1989-1996 and 1999-2003) illustrate the subject-matter.

Most recent works about the efforts of local communities caught up in a civil war have focused on their efforts to remain places of security and safety from the violence that surrounds them—neutral peace communities or zones. This book, in contrast, focuses on local peace communities facing new challenges and opportunities once a peace agreement has been signed at the national level, such as those in South Africa, the Philippines, Burundi, East Timor, Sierra Leone, and the present peace process in Colombia between the FARC and the Colombian Government. The communities’ task is to make a stable and durable peace in the aftermath of a violent civil war and a deal on which local people have usually had little or no influence. Such agreements seek to involve them in both short and longer term peace-building, and expect local communities to cope with problems of armed ex-combatants, IDPs and refugees, law and order in the absence of much state presence, high unemployment and the need for widespread and massive reconstruction of physical infrastructure damaged or destroyed during the war. How local communities have coped with the demands of “peace” is thus the theme that runs through each of these individual chapters, written by authors with direct experience of grassroots communities struggling with such “problems of peace.” ​

Many ceasefires and peace agreements in civil conflict are initially unsuccessful. Whilst some give way to renewed and often escalating violence, others have become interminably protracted leading to lengthy negotiations in which concessions are rare. Given the huge material and human costs of a failed peace process, the international community has a strong interest in helping these processes succeed and addressing threats to their implementation. This publication focuses on the groups and tactics (referred to as 'spoilers') that actively seek to obstruct or undermine conflict settlement through a variety of means, including terrorism and violence, drawing upon experience from Northern Ireland, the Basque region, Bosnia, Colombia, Israel/Palestine, Cyprus, the Caucasus and Kashmir. It explores the concept of 'spoiling' and spoiling behaviours from a broad range of interests involved (including rebel groups and insurgents, diasporas and governments), considers how this can be addressed, and demonstrates how ill-conceived or imposed peace processes can themselves contribute to the problem.

One of the most significant challenges facing the international community today is how to secure stability and rebuild societies emerging from civil wars. International peace-building missions have been deployed in a range of countries emerging from civil war. The empirical record of international efforts to advance peace has been mixed. While some post-war countries have made significant strides towards peace and democracy, other countries have experienced a return to war. In yet other cases the outcome has been a partial implementation of peace where new conflicts have been generated in the process. In this book a group of experts discuss the conflictual dimensions of peace-building. The authors specialise in various aspects and cover several themes such as 'frozen conflicts' and 'unending peace processes'; the efficiency of peacekeeping operations in promoting democracy, and individual and collective dimensions of justice and reconciliation.