Conflict Resolution in Crisis : Investigating Dispute Resolution Mechanisms in Times of Post-Agreement Crisis

Sammanfattning: As the problem of civil war is almost exclusively a problem of repeat civil war, this study seizes on the role peace agreement mandated dispute resolution mechanisms play in promoting agreement resilience to crisis. Despite the growing focus on prevention and sustaining peace, dispute resolution mechanisms in peace agreements remain understudied. This thesis contributes to this research gap asking, under what conditions do dispute resolution mechanisms promote post-agreement crisis resilience? This study argues that dispute resolution mechanism characteristics of structural adaptability and peace infrastructure integration promote post-agreement crisis resilience. Utilizing a structured focused comparison, this study examines all partial or comprehensive peace agreement mandated dispute resolution mechanism cases in the UCDP Peace Agreement Dataset 1975-2011 which experience post-agreement crisis and contain peacekeeping. Results show partial support for the hypotheses that dispute resolution mechanism structural adaptability and peace infrastructure integration promote post-agreement crisis resilience. Findings as well carry several limitations and also point towards the significance of other explanatory factors most notably peace agreement type.