IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/compsc/v40y2023i2p162-186.html

Democratization as an impetus for peace talks in civil wars

Author

Listed:
  • Barış Arı

Abstract

Costs associated with recognizing an internal armed challenger as a legitimate bargaining partner deter governments from initiating peace talks. Yet peaceful termination of conflict requires formal negotiations between the belligerents. This article presents evidence that democratic reforms provide a window of opportunity for peace talks. Democratic reforms represent an opportunity to break away from the past policies of the state and render the conflict as an artifact of the preceding authoritarian institutions. The article contributes to the research field by enhancing our ability to predict negotiations. It also highlights that democratic reforms can be undertaken during an ongoing civil conflict.

Suggested Citation

  • Barış Arı, 2023. "Democratization as an impetus for peace talks in civil wars," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 40(2), pages 162-186, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:compsc:v:40:y:2023:i:2:p:162-186
    DOI: 10.1177/07388942221081792
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/07388942221081792
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/07388942221081792?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Karl DeRouen & Ishita Chowdhury, 2018. "Mediation, Peacekeeping And Civil War Peace Agreements," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 130-146, February.
    2. Moravcsik, Andrew, 1997. "Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International Politics," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(4), pages 513-553, October.
    3. Walter, Barbara F., 1997. "The Critical Barrier to Civil War Settlement," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(3), pages 335-364, July.
    4. James Raymond Vreeland, 2008. "The Effect of Political Regime on Civil War," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 52(3), pages 401-425, June.
    5. Jakana Thomas, 2014. "Rewarding Bad Behavior: How Governments Respond to Terrorism in Civil War," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(4), pages 804-818, October.
    6. Carter, David B. & Signorino, Curtis S., 2010. "Back to the Future: Modeling Time Dependence in Binary Data," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(3), pages 271-292, July.
    7. James D. Fearon, 2004. "Why Do Some Civil Wars Last So Much Longer than Others?," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 41(3), pages 275-301, May.
    8. Kirssa Cline Ryckman & Jessica Maves Braithwaite, 2020. "Changing horses in midstream: Leadership changes and the civil war peace process," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 37(1), pages 83-105, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Justin M. Conrad & Kevin T. Greene & James Igoe Walsh & Beth Elise Whitaker, 2019. "Rebel Natural Resource Exploitation and Conflict Duration," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 63(3), pages 591-616, March.
    2. Desha M. Girod, 2015. "Reducing postconflict coup risk: The low windfall coup-proofing hypothesis," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 32(2), pages 153-174, April.
    3. Lars-Erik Cederman & Manuel Vogt, 2017. "Dynamics and Logics of Civil War," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 61(9), pages 1992-2016, October.
    4. Minnie M Joo, 2025. "Resolving bargaining problems in civil conflicts: Goals, institutions and negotiations," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 62(3), pages 722-737, May.
    5. Robert Ulrich Nagel, 2021. "Gendered preferences: How women’s inclusion in society shapes negotiation occurrence in intrastate conflicts," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 58(3), pages 433-448, May.
    6. Govinda Clayton & Han Dorussen, 2022. "The effectiveness of mediation and peacekeeping for ending conflict," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 59(2), pages 150-165, March.
    7. Casey Crisman-Cox, 2018. "Enemies within," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 62(8), pages 1661-1685, September.
    8. Julia Palik & Mauricio Rivera Celestino & David Gomez-Triana & Nicholas Marsh & Ida Rødningen, 2025. "Disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration in peace agreements (1975–2021): Introducing the DDR dataset," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 62(7), pages 2454-2465, December.
    9. Magnus Lundgren, 2017. "Which type of international organizations can settle civil wars?," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 613-641, December.
    10. Flores Thomas Edward, 2014. "Vertical Inequality, Land Reform, and Insurgency in Colombia," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 20(1), pages 5-31, January.
    11. Corinne Bara, 2018. "Legacies of Violence," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 62(9), pages 1991-2016, October.
    12. Jiwon Lee, 2016. "Settlements in the Civil Wars of Myanmar and Sri Lanka: The Success, Failure and Deception of the Peace Process," Millennial Asia, , vol. 7(1), pages 63-76, April.
    13. Matthew Fuhrmann & Jaroslav Tir, 2009. "Territorial Dimensions of Enduring Internal Rivalries," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 26(4), pages 307-329, September.
    14. Kazuhiro Obayashi, 2014. "Information, rebel organization and civil war escalation: The case of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 17(1), pages 21-40, March.
    15. Zorzeta Bakaki, 2020. "The Joint Effect of International and Domestic-Level State Capacity on Civil War Risk," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-14, May.
    16. Joel Blaxland, 2021. "Thinking outside the (temporal) box to explain protracted intrastate conflict," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 58(6), pages 1271-1283, November.
    17. Vita Roy, 2018. "Managing Resource-related Conflict," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 62(5), pages 1044-1071, May.
    18. Andreas Mehltretter, 2022. "Arming for conflict, arming for peace? How small arms imports affect intrastate conflict risk," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 39(6), pages 637-660, November.
    19. John C. Anyanwu, 2014. "Oil Wealth, Ethno‐Religious‐Linguistic Fractionalization and Civil Wars in Africa: Cross‐Country Evidence," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 26(2), pages 209-236, June.
    20. Fiedler, Charlotte, 2015. "Towers of strength in turbulent times? Assessing the effectiveness of international support to peace and democracy in Kenya and Kyrgyzstan in the aftermath of interethnic violence," IDOS Discussion Papers 6/2015, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:compsc:v:40:y:2023:i:2:p:162-186. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://pss.la.psu.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.