Policy Papers - June 14, 2001

Implementing Peace Agreements in Civil Wars: Lessons and Recommendations for Policymakers

Stephen John Stedman

 

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Between late 1997 and early 2000, Stanford University's Center for International Cooperation (CISAC) and the International Peace Institute conducted research to better understand the determinants of successful peace implementation. The CISAC-IPI project on peace implementation focused on three primary issues: 1) An evaluation of international actors and their strategies of peace implementation; 2) An evaluation of various sub-goals of peace implementation (e.g., demobilization, disarmament, refugee repatriation, human rights, reconciliation etc.) and their relationship to overall implementation success; 3) A search for low-cost, possible high-payoff opportunities for linking short-term implementation success to long-term peacebuilding. The project studied every peace agreement concluded between 1980 and 1997 in which international actors were assigned a prominent role in implementation.