Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: There are fewer conflicts around the world today than 10-15 years ago. Many of the conflicts that have ended in recent years have been concluded by a peace agreement. During the years 1989-2004, formal peace agreements were signed in one-third of all conflicts. Still we know very little about these agreements. To better understand the relation between the conflicts, their termination and the peace agreements the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) has collected new data on all peace agreements signed 1989-2004 in conflicts recorded by the program. This paper sets out to present the new data on peace agreements. In order to do that a way to categorize the agreements and trends in the data is presented.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: When policy-makers form foreign policy on issues such as international trade they are concerned about pressures from domestic interest groups as much as they are concerned about maintaining security or economic balance of power. Game theorists have used the metaphor of �two-level games� to describe these relationship between foreign policy and domestic political concerns. I want to use the metaphor of a �two-level game� to develop a model of public deliberations during a peace process. In this model, the relationship between the elite level negotiations and the �public peace process� are the two levels of this game. Nevertheless, while game theory attributes to the players only an instrumental conception of reason and takes their preferences as given, this model allows players to examine and change their preferences. In the process of exchanging arguments to achieve their own goals, participants come to examine and re-evaluate the frames by which they understand their present situation and their corresponding interests. Thus, while elites engage in peace negotiations for their own reasons, they make arguments to their publics that existing justifications for maintaining a state of enmity are no longer valid. Yet, in so doing they unleash a deliberative process that can escape the frames of discussion intended by elite.
New developments in both critical theory and peace studies create a theoretical opening that allows the developing of tools to deal with such questions. The �deliberative� turn of critical theory and the �public� turn of peace studies allow us to conceptualize and discuss the interactions between the �diplomatic talk� that takes place among elites and deliberations in the public sphere about the public�s relationship with both the former enemy and the elite. I examine the �dialogical mechanisms� (a metaphor I borrow from James Bohman) that set to work in the public sphere once the elite considers the possibility of identifying the former enemies as allies or friends. These dialogical mechanisms, I argue, add up to a shift in the manner the public interprets the discourse that regulates its relationship with the elite toward what I call, following Paul Ricoeur, �hermeneutics of suspicion.� Thus, the peace process generates a need for the public to re-examine the terms of understanding that defined its relationship with the former enemy, but this same process might also lead the public to re-examine the terms by which it understand its relationship with the elite.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In many conflict-affected countries around the world, there are a multitude of actors who are working to reduce and prevent conflicts, ranging from civil society actors to track I diplomats. Several countries around the world have created government sponsored offices and/or initiatives to facilitate peace negotiations between conflicting parties (including the government). These include institutions such as the High Commissioner for Peace in Colombia and the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process in Sri Lanka. To date there has been little research and writing about the work of government sponsored institutions in facilitating a reduction to conflict. This paper will explore how commissioners or secretariats for peace function within conflict environments, what are their roles and impacts on the conflicts.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: That the knowledge produced by IR has a performative capacity is nowadays a commonsensical position – not only among constructivists. Representations of social science are not only descriptions of the world, but also construct (or perform) the world being

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Since the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995, Bosnia and Herzegovina has been maintaining a fragile peace. But it is still difficult to say that the seriously divided country has eliminated causes of war. Thus the international presence established as a result of the Dayton Peace Agreement including NATO's peacekeeping force called SFOR are remaining, although reduction in size has been taking place. This paper attempts to reevaluate the ten years of peace-building activities in Bosnia and contemplates the prospect for durable peace. The paper focuses on the lead agency in the civilian sphere in Bosnia, the Office of the High Representative (OHR), while looking at its relationship with other international and local organizations. By assuming Bonn powers, the OHR has exercised various overriding authorities, which is a source of various criticisms. The paper examines the OHR's activities from the perspective of its peace-building strategies, especially, the rule of law, which the incumbent High Representative proclaims as his top priority.