Elgar Companion to Building Durable Peace

This timely Companion explores how peace is negotiated, implemented and sustained in the world’s most challenging conflict zones. Experts who have helped shape negotiations, post-conflict institutions and accountability mechanisms in peace processes across the globe, provide insights through firsthand reflections and case studies.

Covering nearly four decades of global peacebuilding in chronological order, the Elgar Companion to Building Durable Peace examines peace processes in a wide range of regional, political, and legal contexts. Chapters present a behind-the-scenes look at the mechanics and human dynamics of peace processes, examining strategies, compromises, successes, failures, and the legal innovations that have helped parties move from conflict toward durable peace. The contributing authors underscore the importance of legal expertise, the imperative of inclusion and the need to prepare for every phase of negotiation.

Providing practical lessons and reflections for future peacebuilders, this Companion is a vital resource for students and scholars of public international law, as well as professionals and policy-makers involved in all stages of shaping international peace.

Edited by Paul R. Williams, Rebecca I. Grazier Professor of Law and International Relations, American University and Founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group and Ryan Jane Westlake, Director, Peacebuilding Strategy and Policy, Public International Law & Policy Group, USA