Mechanisms for Dialogue: A Contribution to Preventing Civil War Recurrence

Dr Argyro Kartsonaki, Dr Giuditta Fontana and Professor Stefan Wolff

Dr Argyro Kartsonaki is a researcher at IFSH and co-editor of the OSCE Insights. (c) IFSH

Around 40 percent of civil wars resume within ten years after the signing of a peace agreement. This suggests that setbacks and relapses into violence are the norm when trying to resolve such conflicts. In this paper Dr Argyro Kartsonaki, Dr Giuditta Fontana and Professor Stefan Wolff identify measures in peace agreements that can mitigate the effects of civil war recurrence. The authors call these measures Mechanisms for Dialogue (MfD).

MfD are provisions in peace agreements that enable the belligerent parties to continue engaging with each other beyond the signing of a peace accord. MfD entail Platforms for Engagement, Implementation Reviews and embedded Dispute Resolution Provisions. The main purpose of such measures in peace agreements is to keep parties engaged throughout, beyond and after the conclusion of a peace process. The aim is to provide continuity in communication between the conflict parties, create a sense of accountability between them and toward mediators, and offer an embedded course of action to prevent civil war recurrence.

You can read the full paper here.