The End of Civil Wars: How to Make Peace Stick

In recent decades, civil wars have caused more deaths than any other form of organized mass violence. Between 2000 and 2010, an extraordinary 90 percent of civil wars were recurrences of earlier wars, according to the World Bank’s 2011 World Development Report.

Why are civil conflicts so difficult to resolve, and why do they have such a high rate of recurrence? Does a return to violence or the success of peace depend on peacekeeping missions, or on whether a peace agreement ended the violence? What are the different roles for external and national actors in helping foster a society that can resolve its conflicts without returning to mass violence? These are some of the major challenges to contemporary peacebuilding.

This event will bring together experts on civil war, the success of post-war peace agreements, and deeply divided societies to discuss the key elements that contribute to the success or failure of post-civil war peace, including:

post-war political agreements, especially the effects of excluding or including parties to the conflict both in governance and in security institutions, such as the military and police;
the role of international diplomats and mediators;
economic arrangements in peace agreements;
the role of peacekeeping missions.

An array of cases will be discussed.

Speakers

Charles “Chuck” Call, Presenter
Associate Professor, American University, and former Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow (2008-2009)
Caroline Hartzell, Presenter
Professor of Political Science, Gettysburg College and former Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow (2010-2011)
Lise Howard, Presenter
Assistant Professor of Government, Georgetown University, and current Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow
Ambassador Robert Loftis
former Acting Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS) at U.S. Department of State, current USIP Interagency Professional in Residence;
Pamela Aall, Moderator
Provost, USIP’s Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding