Peace as a Process

Abstract

Demilitarizing Politics: Elections on the Uncertain Road to Peace. By Terrence Lyons. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005. 232 pp., $49.94 (ISBN: 1-58826-393-2). Can enemies committed to killing one another during a civil war negotiate an end to the violence and live together in peace? The long and growing list of civil war peace agreements that have only briefly halted hostilities demonstrates that this is a challenging task. Pessimism concerning the viability of peace agreements has led some scholars to suggest that negotiated settlements, at least in some contexts, should be considered a less viable means of conflict management than either outright military victory (Luttwak 1999) or partition (Kaufmann 1996). Yet, the experiences of post-civil war states such as South Africa, Mozambique, and El Salvador demonstrate that peace can endure following a negotiated settlement. Previous research seeking to explain these instances of successful civil war resolution have focused on such factors as the role of peacekeepers (Walter 2002; Fortna 2004) and the creation of settlement provisions that provide for powersharing among the rivals (Hartzell 1999; Hartzell and Hoddie 2003). Although focusing on different mechanisms, these studies share the optimistic view that it is possible for former combatants to manage their disagreements and avoid a return to armed conflict. Terrence Lyons's Demilitarizing Politics shares the optimism of works emphasizing the potential for civil wars to be decisively ended through peaceful means. What makes this study a unique and important contribution to this …