Ceasefires: Stopping the Violence and Negotiating Peace

A policy-relevant study of when and how ceasefires lead to peace

Almost all intrastate conflicts involve ceasefire agreements, yet little is known about which factors make a ceasefire effective in stopping violence and ultimately ending intrastate conflict.

Ceasefires explores the complex relationship between the ceasefire and political negotiation processes and examines how they can either reinforce or impede each other. Case studies from the joint perspectives of practitioners and scholars cover conflicts in Bosnia, Burundi, Colombia, Darfur, El Salvador, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sudan North/South, and Syria.

This in-depth analysis of ceasefires offers a unique framework for future mediators and negotiators as well as scholars of the intrastate peace process to enable them to identify a spectrum of potentially acceptable ceasefire agreements and sequencing approaches.

Govinda Clayton, PhD, is a mediation support manager and thematic lead on ceasefires and security arrangements at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. Simon J. A. Mason, PhD, heads the Mediation Support Team at the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich. Valerie Sticher, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Political Science at the University of Zurich. Andreas Wenger, PhD, is professor of international security policy at the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich.