Date of Award:

5-2015

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Political Science

Committee Chair(s)

Colin Flint

Committee

Colin Flint

Committee

Damon Cann

Committee

John Stevens

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War, outright military victories in civil wars have been rare. As a result, the number of peace agreements designed to end civil wars in the post-Cold War era has increased exponentially compared to the entire Cold War period. However, according to some statistics, about a third of those peace agreements failed to secure postwar peace. These failures to get warring parties to live up to their peace agreements not only restarted armed conflict, but they also escalated the violence. Therefore, this project is aimed to explore why some civil war settlements break down within months whereas others produce a lasting peace in the aftermath of civil wars in the post-Cold War era. By using a newly compiled dataset, this thesis examines the conditions under which international mediation can help warring parties design and implement negotiated settlements and their subsequent impact on the durability of post-civil war peace. The statistical results suggest that not all international mediation can produce a pacifying effect on the postwar peace. Only those peace agreements designed and implemented with the help of an international mediator are more likely to sustain longer peace.

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