Peace agreements in the 1990s: what are the outcomes 20 years later?Show others and affiliations
2015 (English)Report (Other academic)
Abstract [en]
In the 1990s, a number of protracted armed conflicts were finally ended. This period can be described as a paradigmatic shift with regards to how armed conflicts are brought to an end. When the logic of the Cold War no longer hindered the United Nations (UN) to intervene, the number of UN peace operations rose dramatically and became more comprehensive. In addition, conflicts increasingly ended through negotiated settlements rather than military victory. The peace processes of the 1990s gave rise to great optimism that negotiations and peacebuilding efforts, often with considerable international involvement, would bring sustainable peace to war-affected countries. The outcomes of these peace processes, however, appears to be far from unanimously positive. Today, 20 years after the war endings of the 1990s, it is therefore imperative to critically analyze and evaluate these peace processes and their long-term results. What is the situation like today in countries where conflicts ended in the 1990s? What has become of the peace? In this paper, the long-term outcomes of peace processes that took place in the 1990s are evaluated through brief analyses of a number of cases,demonstrating that the nature and quality of peace today show great diversity. The paper also includes a conceptualization of the "peace triangle" aimed at distinguishing between different forms of peace, as well as a study of the relationship between peacebuilding and democracy in UN peace operations in the 1990s, concluding that outcomes with regards to democratic development in the intervened countries are generally poor.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Umeå, 2015. , p. 30
Series
Umeå Working Papers in Peace and Conflict Studies, ISSN 1654-2398 ; 8
Keywords [en]
Peace processes, peace agreements, peace triangle, peace operations, Namibia, Guatemala, Mindanao, Myanmar/Burma, Bosnia and Herzegovina
National Category
Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalisation Studies)
Research subject
Peace and Conflict Research
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-113660OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-113660DiVA, id: diva2:887947
Conference
Workshop on the outcomes of the war endings of the 1990s, Umeå University, 4-5 November 2015
2015-12-222015-12-222020-08-25Bibliographically approved