The Effects of Violence on Peace Processes

As recent events demonstrate, violence, especially ethnic violence, is exceptionally hard to extinguish. Cease-fires almost never bring a complete end to the killing, and formal peace agreements are more often than not undone by men unwilling to forsake the gun. As John Darby argues in this original, holistic, and comparative treatment of the subject, “even when political violence is ended by a cease-fire, it reappears in other forms to threaten the evolving peace process.”

Unlike most scholars, Darby focuses on peace processes that have involved actors other than the United Nations. He analyzes the nature and impact of four interrelated kinds of violence: violence by the state, violence by militants, violence in the community, and the emergence of new violence-related issues during negotiations. For each kind of violence, the author draws out the policy implications, suggesting how the “guardians” of the peace process can defeat would-be spoilers and change a culture of violence. The volume concludes by distilling five propositions on the relationship between violence and peace processes.

Insightful, concise, and highly readable, the book will engage the scholar, inspire the policymaker, and inform the student. In-depth profiles of the five featured cases (Northern Ireland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Israel-Palestine, and the Basque country) provide ample background and enrich understanding.

Darby's study analyzes the nature and policy implications of four interrelated kinds of violence that arise during peace processes: violence by the state, by militants, and in the community, and the emergence of violence-related issues during negotiations. In addition to reviewing the history of peace processes and discussing how violence can sometimes become a catalyst for peace, it includes profiles of five conflicts, in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the Basque Country, and the West Bank.

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John Darby is scholar in residence at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame. He was formerly professor of ethnic studies at the University of Ulster and founding director of INCORE. He was a senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in 1998.

Darby is the author or editor of nine books, most recently The Management of Peace (coedited with Roger MacGinty).