The Resolution of Civil Wars: Changing International Norms of Peace-Making and the Academic Consensus

ABSTRACT

Since the end of the Cold War, the belief that the international community has a responsibility to support negotiated solutions to civil wars has exercised an enduring influence on research and policy making. However, this belief has relatively recent roots. This article looks at how changing international norms have influenced the way academic researchers view civil wars and expect them to end. The lack of interest in solving internal conflicts during the Cold War was matched among academics by a focus on other security issues and a belief that most civil wars could not be negotiated, although a minority of scholars disagreed. After the Cold War, a new international regime for solving civil wars has emerged, with the active support of a large share of the academic community. However, scholars have also criticised the way Western priorities have shaped liberal peace-making attempts and reflected on the assumptions underlying international conflict resolution. Paradoxically, while the academic community has become increasingly optimistic, the post-Cold War approach has fallen into crisis, due to geopolitical transformations and a change in the nature of contemporary insurgencies. At the end of this article, I suggest new avenues for research in the changing international order.

Acknowledgements

My warmest gratitude goes to Nila Zarepour-Arizi, for helping me to extract the data from the UCDP dataset and compile the conflict termination table for this article. The anonymous reviewers and editors of Civil Wars gave enormous help in improving this article within the tight time frame required for the 25^th Anniversary Special Issue. Finally, Daniel was not only close to me during the intellectual journey that led to the draft of the article, but he patiently proofread the entire manuscript – I cannot thank him enough for his love and support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Notes on contributors

Giulia Piccolino

Giulia Piccolino is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Studies at Loughborough University. Her research focuses on internal conflicts and post-conflict politics.