Does an individual’s exposure to personal violence during civil war tend to make them more “angry” and anti-peace, or more “weary” and pro-peace? Despite the fundamental nature of this question and its potential consequences for conflict duration, termination, and recurrence, it remains largely unanswered. This paper examines the effect of exposure to direct violence faced by Darfurian civilian...

1989 to 2002 can be categorized as internal conflicts or civil wars.1 Most occurred in underdeveloped countries plagued by widespread insecurity, bad governance, illiteracy, poor health, and the absence of basic infrastructure in transportation and communications. Peace, once obtained in these places, has proved difficult to sustain. Thirty-one percent of conflicts resume within 10 years of the...

Ultimately, in a conflict it is the ability of those parties in conflict to resolve their differences that is decisive in a negotiated war-to-peace transition. Strong national capacities for dialogue and mediation support the conflict transformation potential of a society. This requires institutional mechanisms that can provide the necessary support structures, for instance through ‘Infrastruct...

International relations scholars have developed many theories to describe the evolution and existence of international conflicts. One important idea is the “democratic peace,” which argues that democracies are less likely to engage in conflict with each other. However, much of the work testing democratic peace theory has been static and does not address dynamic, causal mechanisms by which democ...

Drawing on literature from Anthropology, Economics, Political Science and Sociology, an interdisciplinary theory is presented that links the rise of contractual forms of exchange within a society with the proliferation of liberal values, democratic legitimacy, and peace among democratic nations. The theory accommodates old facts and yields a large number of new and testable ones, including the ...

In the current high-profile conflict within Colombia, women account for the majority of civilian victims. It has been argued that the inclusion of women in peace-building processes may help increase the scope and sustainability of the subsequently achieved peace. However, most women victims of conflict (WVCs) achieve public visibility simply because of their suffering, not because of their pote...