During the 1990s, a new type of peace process emerged, one primarily driven by internal negotiators and by optimism that international violence was in decline. In 1991 and 1992 the number of interstate and intrastate armed conflicts exceeded 50. This had diminished to 30 or fewer in 2003 and 2004. In many of these cases, war was succeeded not by peace but by a stalemate, harried by intermittent violence, economic struggle, crime, persistent suspicion, and public dissatisfaction. Agreements signed in Israel-Palestine (1994), Colombia (1999), Eritrea-Ethiopia (2000) and elsewhere have collapsed into violent confrontation. Even in South Africa, Guatemala and El Salvador, often regarded as among the most enduring peace agreements, post-war recovery has been undermined by high crime and low economic growth, themselves partly the consequences of the war.

This disappointing record of post-accord reconstruction is the backdrop to the three books emerging from the Kroc Institute’s Research Initiative on the Resolution of Ethnic Conflict (RIREC). Published by Notre Dame Press (www.undpress.nd.edu), the books identify and explore three aspects of the post-war landscape: truth-telling, youth, and violence. The editors are John Darby, Kroc director of research and professor of comparative ethnic studies at Notre Dame; Tristan Anne Borer, associate professor of government at Connecticut College; and Siobhán McEvoy-Levy, assistant professor of political science at Butler University.

Among the major findings of the series:
If societies coming out of periods of violent conflict do not publicly deal with their legacies of violence, history is likely to repeat itself — and the very act of uncovering the truth about the past can deter political violence in the future. So conclude contributors to Borer’s Telling the Truths: Truth Telling and Peace Building in Post-Conflict Societies. These experts from the fields of political science, law, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, and theology examine how truth telling contributes to the elements needed for sustainable peace: reconciliation, human rights, gender equity, restorative justice, the rule of law, the mitigation of violence, and the healing of trauma.

Youth are the victims of violence as often as they are the perpetrators, both during and after wars. McEvoy-Levy’s book, Troublemakers or Peacemakers? Youth and Post-Accord Peace Building, explores the attitudes, needs, lived experiences, and social and political roles of young people in periods of transition in internal armed conflicts. Contributing authors develop theories and policy recommendations based on research in Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Guatemala, Colombia, Angola, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, and Israel/Palestine. They conclude that greater and more imaginative involvement of youth through participatory, inclusive processes of reconstruction can reduce the effects of violence and enhance post-war stability.

Despite common preconceptions to the contrary, post-war violence is more often strategic than spontaneous. That necessitates a nuanced understanding of the motives and methods used by the state and its opponents, if peace is to prevail. Darby’s book, Violence and Reconstruction, adopts a four-part analysis, examining in turn violence emanating from the state, from militants, from destabilized societies, and from the challenge of implementing a range of policies including demobilization, disarmament, and policing. Contributing scholars draw attention to the increased willingness of the state to turn to militias in order to carry on violence by proxy; to the importance of distinguishing between the stated aims and actions of different militant groups; to a post-war rise in violent conventional crime; and to the importance of the restoration of civil society.

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