The role of justice in negotiation

This chapter discusses the role of justice in negotiation between rival parties and the durability of peace agreements. It draws on research about group negotiation processes and agreements to end civil wars, mostly during the early 1990s. Hypothesized relationships between the presence and importance of distributive justice (DJ) in the agreements, and their durability, were first explored with multiple methods (see also the chapter by Koeszegi and Vetschera, this volume). The difficulty of the conflict environment was shown to have the strongest impact on durability. However, the DJ principle of equality was found to reduce the negative impact of difficult environments. An emphasis on equality was also associated with more forward-looking agreements, which were found to be more durable than those that were backward looking. (See also the chapters by Nurmi, Klamber, Kilgour and Hipel, Turel, and Yuan, this volume for modeling approaches to issues of justice and fairness.) Next, the presence and importance of procedural justice (PJ) were examined in the negotiation processes that led to the signing of the peace agreements. Significantly more durable agreements occurred when a process based on PJ led to agreements that emphasized equality. This focus on process is similar to the analyses conducted by the authors chapters (See also the chapter by Koeszegi and Vetschera, Kersten and Lai, this volume). A close examination of how the equality principle was applied revealed that agreements based on provisions of equal treatment and/or equal shares were particularly durable. The chapter concludes with a discussion of tactics used by third parties to produce durable agreements, and lessons for policy

Can international interventions secure the peace?

The international community uses a number of interventions to make and build peace. How effective are these interventions? What works and what does not? Some of the commonly advocated interventions have been assessed in large-n studies.This article provides an overview of the current knowledge and highlights the uncertainties. Although there is no evidence that development aid helps to prevent wars in general, aid stabilizes post-war situations. There are also a considerable number of studies suggesting that UN Peacekeeping Operations do indeed keep the peace. Although there are fewer studies, there is some emerging evidence that arms embargoes do restrict arms transfers to conflict zones and thus help to make conflicts less deadly. This suggests that internationally binding rules on arms transfers and the use of private military and security services are effective means of conflict management. On the other hand, the evidence arising from the analysis of mediation and sanctions is mixed. They are frequently used third-party interventions, often in conjuncture with other interventions. However, our knowledge about the optimal policy mix of economic, diplomatic and military interventions is still limited.publishe

Wars without borders: Conditions for the development of regional conflict systems in sub-Saharan Africa

How and under what conditions does war spread into regions and do regional conflict systems evolve? These systems are defined as geographically bound spaces of insecurity, ones that are characterized by interdependent armed conflicts in which a plurality of actors who concur and/or interact within complex networks, and on different levels of action, participate. The regionalization of armed conflict is conceptualized as either the geographical diffusion to a new territory or as the escalation of violence within the very same territory, with the involvement therein of a multiplicity of actors. The processes of diffusion and escalation of civil war in potential and existent regional conflict systems in sub-Saharan Africa between 1989 and 2010 are analyzed with the help of a multivalue Qualitative Comparative Analysis (mvQCA). By using such a QCA, it is possible to compare several different cases and produce results that go beyond the ones thus far discovered from small-N analyses. By comparing 12 cases it is also possible to identify the causal relationships and interactions between variables. The analysis shows that, in the cases compared, four specific conditions lead to a regional spread of violence: economic networks sustained through the support of neighboring countries; an intervention on the part of the government; militarized refugees; and, non-salient regional identity groups