	International Online Training Program On Intractable Conflict
	Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, USA

Peacemaking

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Conflict theorists often use three terms--peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding-- that are easily confused. Peacekeeping means keeping people from attacking each other by putting some kind of barrier between them. Often this barrier is made up of neutral soldiers--peacekeepers--from the UN or a group of neutral nations. The soldiers do nothing to settle the disputant's differences or help negotiate a peace agreement--they simply keep the two sides apart.

Peacemaking is the process of forging a settlement between the disputing parties. While this can be done in direct negotiations with just the two disputants, it is often also done with a third-party mediator, who assists with process and communication problems, and helps the parties work effectively together to draft a workable peace accord. Usually the negotiators are official diplomats, although citizens are getting involved in the peacemaking process more and more. While they do not negotiate final accords, citizen diplomacy is becoming an increasingly common way to start the peacemaking process, which is then finalized with official diplomatic efforts.

However, peacemaking is not the final step in the peace process. As both the situations in the Middle East and Bosnia so well demonstrate, it takes more than a peace accord to bring peace to a region. The peace accord is just a beginning, which must be followed by long-term peacebuilding--the process of normalizing relations and reconciling differences between all the citizens of the warring factions.

Techniques of peacemaking vary greatly and are beyond the scope of the material we can present here. However, the fundamental techniques used include negotiation, mediation, official and unofficial, or "track two" diplomacy all of which are described in more detail in other sections.

Links to Examples of Peacemaking:

Mediating the Oslo Accords on the Middle East: This is a brief description of the peacemaking role played by Norway, which facilitated the negotiation of the peace accord between the Palestinians and the Israelis in 1995.

Chester Crocker -- Lessons on Intervention: This article examines the pros and cons, as well as the "hows" of international diplomatic intervention in ethnic conflicts.

William Zartman and Saadia Touval -- International Mediation in the Post- Cold War Era: This article examines international mediation, investigating (among other things) why and when official diplomats decide to act as mediators in other countries' disputes (and how well this works).

A Conversation On Peacemaking With Jimmy Carter: This article describes the successful Track One diplomacy that occurred at Camp David when Sadat and Begin negotiated the Israeli-Egyptian peace accords.

Harold Saunders -- Prenegotiation and Circum-negotiation: Arenas of the Peace Process: This article describes four phases of the peace process from official peacemaking through unofficial peacebuilding and discusses the relationships between them.

Jay Rothman -- Conflict Management Policy Analysis: This is an account of official diplomacy between Israel and Egypt following the Camp David Accords.

David Morris -- Keeping but not Making Peace: The UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus: This article compares peacekeeping with peacemaking and illustrates how sometimes peacekeeping can deter peacemaking.

David Stuart -- United Nations Involvement in the Peace Process in El Salvador: This article discusses the peacemaking process in El Salvador.