Ideas matter. Thus, approaching peacebuilding efforts from an ideational perspective can contribute to a deeper understanding of their meanings and legacies. Traditionally, the liberal peace paradigm has been prevalent in peacebuilding, translating into programs, projects, actions, and agreements that model liberal norms, values, and practices. Among these sets of ideas, it is possible to identify beliefs about New Public Management (NPM), which affect how instruments like peace agreements are designed and codified. However, this relationship has not been thoroughly explored in the peacebuilding and public management literature, although both strive to achieve efficient and effective governance and peace. In response to this gap, this thesis examines, through text analysis, the degree to which the normative and bureaucratic legacies of NPM are present in the design of a comprehensive peace agreement. This required the selection of an empirical case that could deepen the understanding of what kind of public management NPM ideas are embedded and to what extent, hence the selection of the Colombian Peace Agreement, an example of the golden standard in comprehensive arrangements. The study systematically reviewed and codified the text of the agreement –578 provisions or stipulations– based on the presence and specificity of NPM-related doc-trines. The findings show the pervasiveness of bureaucratic legacies associated with strategic planning, performance audit of provisions, decentralisation, and the appointment of managers and high-level bodies to administer the implementation. However, ideas associated with financial control, competition and flexibilization of the public sector, were less relevant. The analysis also identified other ideas, which expand on the civilian input in the main bureaucratic doctrines. Thus, it provides a new insight to understanding peace in bureaucratic terms as the strategic expansion of institutional infrastructure with strong oversight mechanisms within peace agreements. This calls for a more careful review of the bureaucratic legacies and understandings present in peacebuilding efforts and how they could relate to other sets of ideas already reviewed in the literature, which could lead to further research shaping our understanding of peace through time and across contexts.

Twenty eight years ago there was a brutal war in Bosnia and Herzegovina between the three main ethnic groups in the country as a part of the bracke-up of Yugoslavia  (Balazs, 2008). This thesis analyses how the OHR has contributed to the reconciliation process in Bosnia and Herzegovina by looking at academic articles, information from local actors, analysing the local debate and semistructured interviews within the international community in BiH. Primarily, Bar-Tals conditions for reconciliation are used to measure how the OHR has contributed to the reconciliation process. It is clear that OHR has contributed positively to the reconciliation process however the process has been slow and some consider the reconciliation process to go in the wrong direction right now. To push the reconciliation process forward is explicitly not a part of the OHRs mandate however there is a lack of actors working with it and OHR has been a suitable actor to do so. However, the OHR have lost respect because they have not held people accountable when violating the OHR decisions. Additionally, the OHR is seen as anti-Serb by the Bosnian Serbs, even though it is unrightfully so this has resulted in there decisions occasionally leading to further polarisation between the ethnic groups. Thus, the OHR may not be the most suitable actor to push BiH forward in the reconciliation process in the future, however they are still needed to make sure that the peace agreement is followed to avoid another war. There is already extensive research on the reconciliation process in BiH and the OHR separately however there is very limited research on how the OHR have worked with the reconciliation process even though the research is relevant considering that there is an discussion on about how much influence the OHR should have in BiH and if they should remain in BiH (Hayat Media BiH, 2023). As well as to give the OHR an opportunity to learn from perilous mistakes and perfect their way of working with reconciliation.

In my thesis essay I have researched the impact of water management on the outcome of peace negotiation and treaty in the case of Israel and Syria. My research question was “How should the water resources of the Golan Heights be addressed in a coming peace treaty between Israel and Syria for this treaty to be sustainable?”. I emanated from the theory advocated by researchers Ohlsson, Homer-Dixon and Gleick, arguing that the detailed incorporation of water management in negotiations as well as in a final peace treaty between countries is crucial for these to be sustainable. I used this theory in analysing the extended data related to the two countries’ water resources and water policies, as well as two previous rounds of negotiation. I came to the conclusion that for any future negotiation to lead to a sustainable peace agreement between the two countries, it is crucial for them to establish very detailed stipulations on the shared water resources. Both Israel and Syria are in great need of accessing and controlling water resources, however Israel is much more dependent than Syria on the waters of the Golan Heights. When an internationally recognized borderline between the countries in the future will be established, it will by default be situated on or closely connected to vital water resources. Therefore the water management, including use of and withdrawal from these resources needs to be clearly regulated, otherwise conflict might rise again between the two countries. If water management would be included in the peace treaty in as thoroughly manner as the theorists suggests, this would enable the treaty to become sustainable, as well as make feasible the resolution of related conflicting matters.

In Northern Ireland, the Good Friday Agreement brought with it a great deal of attention and initiatives to construct and increase intergroup contact and shared spaces in an effort to reconcile divided nationalist/Catholic and unionist/Protestant communities. In the time following this peace agreement, the Belfast Giants ice hockey team was established, and in their 16 years as a team they have become one of the most attended spectator activities in Belfast, trending away from the tribalism, single-space, single-class, and single-gender dynamics of modern sport in Northern Ireland. This thesis research followed the supporters of the Belfast Giants throughout the 2015-2016 ice hockey season to better understand the encounters across historical divisions that are occurring in the Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) Arena. The research of this PhD thesis is directed by the concepts of social capital, intergroup contact, and civility. These concepts, when placed within the context of divided society, contribute to the thesis' guiding analytical framework, which offers thematic guideposts in areas of prejudice and anxiety, tolerance and trust, space and identity. Influenced by in-depth qualitative research that seeks to access local voices, this research takes the conceptual and analytical guidance into the stands of the SSE Arena. In this way, the unique 'side-by-side' methodology, which involved conducting interviews with the person in the seat to my left or right at Belfast Giants ice hockey games while immersing myself in the supporter community, emerged as not only a contribution to unearthing new voices in this oft-studied region, but also as an innovative contribution to qualitative methodological literatures. Beyond the methodological contribution, this thesis makes two further contributions to existing academic literatures on post-peace agreement relationships. The first of these is through the clear relationship between identity and space that are evident in its findings. Between the poles of conflict and reconciliation are the complex and simple interactions, which when placed in the SSE Arena at a Belfast Giants game illustrate the multi-layered and fluid nature of identity. The thesis finds the hockey arena is a space where a shared identity, 'the hockey family', materialises and includes nationalist and unionist populations. This shared identity is deeply connected to a physical place and activity that are situated outside the all-encompassing nature of division in present-day Belfast. However, within the unusual setting of an ice hockey arena in Northern Ireland there emerges ordinariness in encounter across historical cleavage, and from these mundane interactions comes the final contribution 'side-by-sidedness'. Influenced by supporters' willingness to sit side-by-side those on the opposite side of a historical division who they may not be willing to live beside, this theme is framed as a lightened encounter that challenges assumptions inherent in post-peace agreement settings. The research findings frame the SSE Arena as a site of sanctuary from polarised sectarian identities and activities, as well as a site of resistance from overarching peace agendas that push shared space and seek reconciliation. Side-by-sidedness exists in the everyday between these two poles. In highlighting this space between, this theme challenges the assumptions of 'face-to-faceness' that are inherent across the three concepts informing this thesis and through utilising notions of everyday peace and everyday division to include the relational, the spatial and the metaphorical, this thesis' meta-theme frames a new way of 'getting on with it' in the shadows of conflict.

Countries that have experienced civil war suffer a greater risk for new conflict than countries with no prior history of civil war. This empirical finding has been called a conflict trap where the legacy of previous war - unsolved issues, indecisive outcomes, and destruction – leads to renewed fighting. Yet, countries like Cambodia, El Salvador, Indonesia, and Mozambique have managed to overcome decade-long conflicts without relapse. This dissertation addresses this empirical puzzle by seeking to dismantle the conflict trap and look at microlevel explanations for civil war resolution and relapse. It adds to existing scholarship in three ways: first, by using disaggregated empirics on war termination and how fighting resumes; second, by exploring government agency in conflict processes; and third, by disaggregating rebel organizations. Essay I present original data on the start and end dates and means of termination for all armed conflicts, 1946-2005. Contrary to previous work, this data reveal that wars does not always end through victory or peace agreement, but commonly end under unclear circumstances. Essay II addresses how developments exogenous to the conflict influence governments’ decision to engage in a peace process. The results show that after natural disasters when state resources need to be allocated towards disaster relief, governments are more willing to negotiate and conclude ceasefires with insurgents. Essay III focuses on the post-conflict society, and posits that security concerns among former war participants will push them towards remobilizing into rebellion. The findings indicate that if ex-belligerent elite’s security is compromised, the parties of the previous war will resume fighting, while insecurity among former rank-and-file leads to the formation of violent splinter rebel groups. Finally, Essay IV seeks to explain why governments sometimes launch offensives on former rebels in post-conflict countries. The results show that internal power struggles provide leaders with incentives to use force against domestic third parties to strengthen their position against intra-government rivals. Taken together, this dissertation demonstrates that there is analytical leverage to be had by disaggregating the processes of violence in civil war and post-conflict societies, as well as the actors involved – both the government and rebel sides.

The quality of peace at the end of civil war has emerged as an important concept for understanding persistent security threats. This study seeks to bridge two well established fields by asking: Does the failure to implement a peace agreement encourage terrorism? I argue that the psychological effect of a failing peace agreement shapes the individual’s propensity to terrorism by enhancing the appeal of a frame which favors “radical” action to advance the group’s struggle for recognition. Terrorism can be simultaneously an emotionally driven response at the individual level, and a rational choice at the group level. This paper employs mixed methods. A cross-case study measures the spatial/temporal variation in peace settlement implementation and the intensity of terrorism between/within 34 post-accord settings. A within-case study leverages temporal variation to illustrate how four violent non-state actors responded to perceptions of salient loss at various points in the Mindanao peace process. While each organization used terrorism strategically, the strategies were not always linked to peace settlement implementation. This study advances understanding of the event-driven relationship between implementation failure and terrorism, the process by which “radical” frames convert an individual’s emotional reaction into political violence, and the dynamic integration of quantitative and qualitative research.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the relation between two highly relevant documents for the Colombian society: Firstly, The peace agreement between the Colombian Government and the FARC guerrilla. Secondly, the agreement of the authorities of the country to follow and pursuit the new Sustainable Development Goals – Agenda 2030 from United Nations. For this research, an extensive existing literature review was done. Throughout the empirics, the analysis looked at the relation between these two documents to show the level of compatibility for the Sustainable Development agenda in Colombia. This compatibility is important to determine as both documents have a vital importance for the Colombian Society. The first, Peace Agreement, as it is the text that aims to propose the political agenda after more than 50 years of conflict between the authorities and the FARC guerrilla. Secondly, the SDGs – Agenda 2030 is a political agreement that countries in the world will follow to contribute to the sustainability of the planet. Thus, after having the chance to review and analyze both documents, there exist clear synergies between both documents, with the exceptions of certain topics. It can be concluded that there is much room for being optimistic in the case of Colombia, but to keep in mind that the agreements are just that: the entrance to a route that now the whole country needs to take, the path of sustainability.

[pt] O ponto central das preocupações analíticas desta dissertação trata-se de observar variáveis na esfera doméstica de Israel capazes de restringirem suas decisões na arena externa, no âmbito das negociações de paz com a Organização para a Libertação da Palestina. Sendo assim, a avaliação da estrutura política desse país permite verificar que a fórmula de representação proporcional e o modo pelo qual interagem o Executivo e o Legislativo podem afetar questões nessa área. Ademais, o exame dos distintos posicionamentos dos governos de Ytzhak Rabin e Shimon Peres, e de Benjamin Netanyahu, no que concerne à segurança de Israel, revela a polarização entre os favoráveis a um Estado de Israel, seguindo as demarcações das fronteiras internacionalmente aceitas, como garantia à segurança e à democracia israelenses, e os defensores da extensão da soberania a regiões que correspondem à Terra de Israel (o histórico lar nacional judaico). Essa discussão reflete a polêmica sobre os territórios ocupados por aquele país em decorrência da Guerra dos Seis Dias em 1967 e, nesse sentido, vale considerar em que medida os diferentes padrões de comportamento desses governos, fundamentados em uma cultura política, delinearam as escolhas para a área externa e para a segurança de Israel. / [en] The focus of analysis in this dissertation is to observe those variables within Israel that can restrict the decisions on the external field, in the context of the peace negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization. In this light, the evaluation of the Israeli political structure indicates that proportional representation and the interaction between the executive and the legislative can affect its foreign policy. Besides, an examination of the different positions on Israel s security taken by the governments of Ytzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres and that of Benjamin Netanyahu reveals a polarization between those favorable to the State of Israel following the demarcations of internationally accepted frontiers as a guarantee of its security and democracy and the defenders of extending sovereignty over the places corresponding to the Land of Israel (the historical Jewish homeland). This discussion reflects the controversy about the territories occupied by that country as a result of the Six Day War in 1967 and, in this sense, it was also considered to what extent the different standards of behavior of those governments, founded on a certain political culture, underscored the choices on Israel s foreign policy and its security.

In 2016 the Colombian Government signed an historic peace deal with the main guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) after decades of armed conflict. In the same year Canada pledged $57.4M in development funding to help Colombia recover in the post-peace deal era. Since 2016 the Peace and Stabilisation Operations Program (PSOPs) alone has invested $35.3M in the country. With the launch of Canada's Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) in 2017, many of these initiatives unfolded in a new policy context and were characterised by commitments to make gender equality a priority. This study looks at the intersection of Canadian aid, transitional justice, and gender in Colombia through a feminist-institutionalist lens. It aims to assess the impact of Canadian-funded projects from these areas along a spectrum that varies from 'gendered transitional justice' to 'transformative transitional justice'. The thesis concludes that the impact of Canadian assistance is found in the in-between area of 'gendered transitional justice' and 'transformative transitional justice', characterized by some progress away from the status quo of 'gendered transitional justice', but without hitting the transformative mark. Through a feminist institutionalist lens, we argue that it is the complex socio-political landscape of Colombia overlaying the agency of Canada's implementing partners, their Southern counterparts and the agency of the donor, and the sum of these interactions that both enable and limit the full transformative capacity of the intervention and situate its impact somewhere in the middle.

This research project aims to analyse the current administrative/humanitarian model of the search for missing persons in the context of the Colombian conflict and to assess how it contributes to the transitional context in Colombia post-2016 Peace Agreement. Specifically, its contribution to truth, justice, reparations, and participation will be discussed. The two existing models of the search for missing persons will be briefly compared: the administrative/humanitarian model and the judicial model, based on existing literature and using examples from conflict or violent areas of Latin America. This is followed by the discussion of the Colombian model, set up in the 2016 Peace Agreement. Then, to examine how the administrative/humanitarian model of the search for missing persons contributes to the principles of the Agreement, the analysis is based on the semi-structured interviews of individuals who actively participate in search activities, including peace signatories, professionals in the field belonging to humanitarian organizations or independent NGOs and victims’ representatives. This is followed by recommendations to both the Colombian state and humanitarian organizations. The study argues that the mixed approach of the search in Colombia, which uses a hybrid system based on the complementarity of the judicial and administrative/humanitarian model, succeeds in supporting the principles of transitional justice, but that strengthening the support and commitment of the latter model proves the better avenue to provide answers on the fate and location of missing persons.