Title
Document Type
Encyclopedia Article
Publication Date
10-2016
Department 1
Political Science
Abstract
Civil wars typically have been terminated by a variety of means, including military victories, negotiated settlements and ceasefires, and “draws.” Three very different historical trends in the means by which civil wars have ended can be identified for the post–World War II period. A number of explanations have been developed to account for those trends, some of which focus on international factors and others on national or actor-level variables. Efforts to explain why civil wars end as they do are considered important because one of the most contested issues among political scientists who study civil wars is how “best” to end a civil war if the goal is to achieve a stable peace. Several factors have contributed to this debate, among them conflicting results produced by various studies on this topic as well as different understandings of the concepts war termination, civil war resolution, peace-building, and stable peace.
Copyright Note
This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
DOI
10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.31
Version
Version of Record
Recommended Citation
Hartzell, Caroline. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, s.v. "Civil War Termination." Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://politics.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-31
Required Publisher's Statement
Original version available from the publisher, Oxford University Press.
Included in
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