Civil War Conflict Resolution from the Perspectives of the Practitioner and the Academic

Abstract

Civil wars are particularly challenging to resolve via mediated negotiations. Practitioners and policy makers employ a variety of approaches to help move warring actors from war to peace. To assist in this process, peace researchers have examined civil war peace processes from a variety of perspectives. In doing so, scholars assume their research will be useful beyond simply accumulating knowledge. It has become evident, however, that the research has not in fact informed policy and practice. This article begins by examining the articles presented in this two-part special issue (April and July 2018) aimed at improving the scholar-practitioner divide. Practical lessons derived from the research are presented. These lessons are followed by a frank assessment of what practitioners need from scholars, as well as recommendations for better bridging this important theory-to-practice divide.

Third-party knowledge and success in civil war mediation

“…While having an intimate knowledge of both the disputants and the historical context in which the conflict is occurring may indeed generate preconceptions, it may inoculate mediators to misinformation provided by the disputants. Though mediators, particularly within the United Nations, often receive exceptional background information as they begin the mediation process (Nathan et al, 2018), this training may not be comprehensive enough to substitute for decades of background information collected by some in the diplomatic community.…”