Durable peace

Justice matters: peace negotiations, stable agreements, and durable peace

Attaining durable peace (DP) after a civil war has proven to be a significant challenge, as many negotiated agreements lapse into violence. Since the end of World War II, civil wars have occurred in all corners of the world, with a dramatic increase in frequency following the end of the Cold War particularly on the African continent. Many civil wars have been terminated with a peace agreement that ends the fighting. Justice preferences have been shown to guide the process and outcomes of negotiated exchanges. The preferences are both distributional and procedural. Findings from laboratory experiments show an overwhelming preference for equal allocations of resources. This chapter focuses attention on the impacts of procedural justice (PJ) and distributive justice on DP. Recent research by Hollander-Blumoff showed that courtesy, respect, and trust are the key components of PJ judgments. These findings suggest that PJ is a relational variable.