Peace accords in Northeast India: journey over milestones

Accord, an international review of peace initiatives. Highlights, 2022

Implementing peace accords is essential for sustaining peace and preventing recurrence of violence. But implementation often hits blockages and meets resistance, and is prone to delay, breakdown and collapse. Conciliation Resources as part of the Political Settlements Research Programme convened a series of online joint analysis workshops in 2020 in which practitioners, policymakers, donors, conflict parties, civil society and analysts collectively explored alternative avenues to navigate obstacles and maintain momentum in implementation, including case studies from Afghanistan, Colombia and Ethiopia. This Accord Spotlight presents some key reflections, findings and recommendations drawn from workshop discussions.

2017

Functional and Dysfunctional Themes in Successful Peace Agreements Arising From Intractable Conflicts by Sharon Catherine Ryan MA, University of Alberta, 1990 BComm, University of Alberta, 1984 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy College of Management and Technology Walden University March 2017 Abstract An important challenge facing humanity today is to determine how to resolve intractable conflicts. Intractable conflicts are intensely violent conflicts that are difficult to resolve and last at least one generation. The purpose of this study was to explore the themes leaders used in resolving intractable conflicts by writing peace agreements, whichAn important challenge facing humanity today is to determine how to resolve intractable conflicts. Intractable conflicts are intensely violent conflicts that are difficult to resolve and last at least one generation. The purpose of this study was to explore the themes lea...

Armed Conflict Survey, 2018

The term 'peace process' captures a wide range of different phenomena primarily related to the (mostly) international management of intra-state conflicts. As a label, it has been applied to processes at the end of which some form of peace had actually been achieved (such as in Northern Ireland), as well as to processes that are outright failures, including extreme cases like Rwanda where a peace agreement in 1993 became the precursor of a genocide in 1994. Between these extremes, however, a third type of peace process can be identified that would be better described as protracted, and which can take the form either of a serial failure to make a negotiated agreement last (such as the situation in South Sudan since late 2013), or of processes that are caught in more or less stable ceasefires without achieving a sustainable conflict settlement (such as Ukraine). This categorisation is admittedly crude: the great variety of actors involved, the relationships they have with each other and the types of agreements that they achieve (or not) speak to the uniqueness of each such process, but underneath the specifics of each situation, there are important commonalities that many peace processes share and that are worth exploring in an effort to understand the causes of both success and failure. Broadly defined, a peace process might be understood as the process towards a non-military solution sought by the respective parties to a conflict, often supported by international involvement. Yet the local and international commitments that are necessary to achieve durable peace are not always sincere or sustained; they can be undermined by domestic and/or third parties; and they may suffer from unrealistic expectations that, if unfulfilled, cause peace processes to stall or collapse back into violent conflict. Given the human and material costs of conflict and its

International Organization, 2003

2012

This paper elucidates on the concept of a peace process and its spoilers in the context of IndiaPakistan relations. The author argues that the peace process which started in 2003 has had its twists and turns, but there has been a renewed energy since 2011. The different approaches to the problems between the two countries, the trust deficit, and the spoilers can derail the process again. The author makes use of existing theoretical formulations on the problem of spoilers. The purpose is not to accuse either side of not doing enough, but to point to issues that will be decisive to the future of the process itself.

isara solutions, 2018

The Indian Union has dealt with numerous protracted, violent and seemingly-intractable conflicts in the decades since Independence. From the violence of Left Wing Extremism and the ongoing conflict in Jammu and Kashmir to the more promising examples of Tripura and Mizoram, there have been a variety of experiences. As such, the Indian state's experiences with addressing internal armed conflicts have a lot to offer to both international and domestic conflict resolution academia as well as practice. The Mizoram case study is possibly one of the most compelling as it shows a true transformation from violent conflict to lasting peace. The Mizoram Accord is one of the most referred-to peace agreements in Indian conflict resolution literature because it has held up to the test of time and continues to be the cornerstone of the state's commitment to democracy. This paper examines the lifecycle of the conflict in Mizoram, the Indian state's approach to addressing the insurgency and the lessons and takeaways from the peace process and peace agreement in Mizoram.

2011

After focusing in on the environmental dimension of peace and conflict studies in our previous issue, this spring issue of the Review pulls the lens back once again to take in a broader sweep of the discipline. The articles compiled in this collection should, therefore, be treated individually, as each provides a distinct insight into an issue of its own framing, informed by a particular, though typically interdisciplinary conceptual grounding. Still, there are some common themes across the issue-pointing less to a shared ideological or philosophical doctrine so much as an intellectual curiosity and a willingness to challenge perceived truths, characteristics which extend far beyond individual disciplines, and indeed, academia itself. One such theme is intervention (whether by state, NGO, economic, or other social actors), and the motivations, implications, and ethics involved in social engineering or activism of any kind. Often, intervention is accompanied by a competition of narratives, and some of the following articles have engaged with this process head on, especially Lachica's analysis of the 1999 intervention into East Timor, which contextualizes the Australian government's policies within a clear theoretical understanding of state behaviour in the international arena. Others approach the issue from another angle, as it were, such as Ahmed's research findings on gaps between the theory of ethical intervention espoused by many NGOs working in Pakistan (embodied by the recent development of peace and conflict impact assessments), and the realities experienced by those on the ground. Although it is far less central to the argument, the theme of intervention appears again in Ikuomola & Okunola's analysis of factors inhibiting greater gender-balance and democratic participation in Nigerian politics, in terms of the political machinations of "godfathers", for example, and again in Cui's exploration of Sino-Japanese relations in light of increasing environmental cooperation, which touches on the issue of official development assistance, among several others. Of course, all of these articles evoke multiple themes, some more fundamental than intervention, such as the intersection of identity and politics, and the relative weight of economic factors in the mechanics of conflict escalation, protraction, and resolution. This latter theme is the explicit focus of the final research article in this collection, Thornton & Gude's analysis of peace agreements in Colombia, which argues for the greater consideration of economic factors in future peace negotiations. I am grateful to all of our contributors, including Nieto and Mapuva for their book reviews, as well as our board of editors, and, of course, our readers. As always, your comments and contributions are more than welcome, please direct all correspondence to

ASPR Report No 5, 2020

This research draws on discussions held at two Joint Analysis Workshops in October and November 2019 organised by the Political Settlements Research Programme (PSRP). The workshops were held in cooperation with The British Academy (BA) and the Rift Valley Institute (RVI). In total, over 100 participants from 25 countries involved with or researching on local peace agreements contributed to thematic discussions. The research also draws on the PA-X Peace Agreements Database (www.peaceagreements.org), a database of all peace agreements at any stage of the peace process from 1990 to 2019. The database is fully searchable and supports both qualitative and quantitative examination of peace agreements.

2015

In the 1990s, a number of protracted armed conflicts were finally ended. This period can be described as a paradigmatic shift with regards to how armed conflicts are brought to an end. When the logic of the Cold War no longer hindered the United Nations (UN) to intervene, the number of UN peace operations rose dramatically and became more comprehensive. In addition, conflicts increasingly ended through negotiated settlements rather than military victory. The peace processes of the 1990s gave rise to great optimism that negotiations and peacebuilding efforts, often with considerable international involvement, would bring sustainable peace to war-affected countries. The outcomes of these peace processes, however, appears to be far from unanimously positive. Today, 20 years after the war endings of the 1990s, it is therefore imperative to critically analyze and evaluate these peace processes and their long-term results. What is the situation like today in countries where conflicts ende...

Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, 2020

Peace Negotiations and Processes: Nature, Approaches and Challenges (Journal of Conflict Early Warning and Response, Vol.1 No.1 Sept-Dec. 2015, pp. 97-106), 2015

Peace negotiations often seek to resolve protracted conflicts and provide a vision for inter-group or interstate relations at the local, national and regional level. This is done through reaching a peace accord or agreement. As agreements are reached on key issues, the foundations of peace are strengthened. Nevertheless, for peace to take root, negotiations are an important starting point. In many cases, the negotiation efforts fail and recourse to more violence follows. After careful examination, it turns out that sometimes the approaches and strategies applied to such peace negotiations add up to factors that cause either their failure or even the failure of the agreements that culminate from them. This article therefore examines negotiation as a tool for conflict prevention, management and resolution. It explores the nature, elements and processes of an effective peace negotiation which has its ultimate goal of establishing a sustainable peace agreement and consequently building durable peace.