What Kind of Peace? Conflict Termination, Peacebuilding Strategies, and the Post-Civil Conflict Environment

Abstract

Peace is often defined as the “absence of violence” which not only relegates it to the residual effect, but impacts how we understand the impact of different post-conflict elements. Though there is acknowledgment that conflicts terminate in different ways, very little is understood regarding the impact of that termination on the long-term peace outcomes. Utilizing a dependent variable that treats the post-conflict environment as more than a residual effect is necessary for better understanding the impact of conflict termination. Peacebuilding strategies are an important part of recovering from civil conflict and yet the connection between the way a conflict ends and the long-term peacebuilding outcomes remains under explored. To understand the impact of the way in which the conflict is terminated on post-conflict peacebuilding success, this dissertation addresses the topic through a mixed methods approach. Chapter one introduces the dissertation, it’s purpose and an outline of the chapters. Following that, Chapter two reviews the literature on why civil conflicts recur and the dynamics that impact the post-conflict environment. It also addresses the creation of the term “peacebuilding” and its use in both scholarly and practitioner work. Chapter two concludes with the finding that a gap exists between connecting our understanding of the impact of conflict termination on long-term peacebuilding. Chapter three outlines the problems which must be addressed in the post-conflict environment and provides a new framework for understanding why different levels of peacebuilding success might be achieved. Chapter four contains empirical analysis of the a new dataset, the Post-Conflict Peacebuilding Index designed to provide a new dependent variable on which to test termination theories. Chapter five contains a qualitative approach to understanding the impact of terminating a conflict through peace agreements by looking at two cities and their experience with post-conflict peacebuilding. The concluding chapter summarizes the contribution of the dissertation and provides suggestions for future work. Overall, I find that conflicts terminated through peace agreements are more likely to result in peacebuilding success because the agreement itself provides the agenda and removes the uncertainty that comes with either rebel or government victory. The use of a non-binary dependent variable provides additional insight into conflict termination and the post-civil conflict peacebuilding process.