Mediation Perspectives: Settling an Armed Conflict with a Sworn Enemy

Author(s): Valerie Sticher
Series: CSS Mediation Perspectives
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zürich
Publication Year: 2021

Domestic conflicts are generally known to be difficult to settle. In Colombia, the government only reached a peace agreement with the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) in 2016, after more than half a century of fighting. But implementation is slow. In this CSS Blog, Valerie Sticher discusses how “social preferences for punishment” make it difficult for leaders to make concessions to an enemy. The author uses the Colombian case to show some of these dynamics and argues that peacebuilding must work at the grassroots level, transforming narratives and relations, even if peace agreements continue to be negotiated in elite settings.

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