CSCW: Civil Peace (2003-2012)

The main aim of this group is to explore the conditions that constitute and promote civil peace. This entails analyzing the processes of conflict resolution as well as the social, economic, and political conditions that lead to civil peace. To better understand long-term peacebuilding, we focus on the development of institutions that can serve to mitigate or supplant the conditions that cause and sustain armed civil conflict, for instance transitional governance, transitional justice and various forms of power-sharing.

Civil peace is more than the absence of war. It describes a condition of enduring social, economic, and political stability, such that the thought of taking up arms against one’s government becomes inconceivable. The working group will feature the study of both conflict resolution and long-term peacebuilding.

As a means of studying conflict resolution, experts in bargaining theory will be paired with case study experts to identify procedures that can successfully lead to the end of organized armed violence. For example, we will evaluate the degree to which some of Brams & Taylor’s procedures in Fair Division (Cambridge University Press, 1996) can be applied to civil war. We will also apply other game-theoretic models of bargaining to the resolution of civil conflict.

To better understand long-term peacebuilding, we will focus on the development of institutions that can serve to mitigate or supplant the conditions that cause and sustain armed civil conflict. Peace depends essentially on the laying down of arms. Yet, obtaining a ceasefire or the signing of a peace treaty may not be enough to ensure peace. Without addressing the economic, social, and political conditions that led to the conflict, armed conflict is likely to erupt again and again. In this regard, we will be examining the institutional basis of civil peace.