The Quest For Viable Peace: International Intervention And Strategies For Conflict Transformation

The Quest for Viable Peace develops a simple and essential ideathat security is necessary for peace to become viable and that peace must pay for it to endure. The authors have much to share on how to plan intervention operations effectively; indeed this volume will serve as a manual for establishing priorities in such operations. It should be read not only by planners and practitioners but also by U.S. policymakers who remain unconvinced that the effort is worthwhile and/or unaware of the steps to take in devising such operations. Mark Baskin Senior Associate Center for International Development SUNY The Quest for Viable Peace is a first-rate contribution to the literature on this vitally important topic. Thoroughly researched it deserves to be widely read discussed and indeed acted upon. Mats Berdal Professor of Security and Development Department of War Studies Kings College London Taking international operations in Kosovo as its starting point The Quest for Viable Peace broadens our understanding of the nationbuilding process as a whole and provides valuable guidelines for the conduct of future such missions. Campaign analyses of this sort which look equally at the military and civil elements of an operation through its entire length are essential building blocks in the development of a much-needed national and international doctrine for the conduct of such missions. Jock Covey Mike Dziedzic Len Hawley and their coauthors move us closer to that goal illuminating both the recent past and the near future as they do so. James Dobbins Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center RAND Corporation Success in any stability operation depends on weaving the various civilian and military lines of effort together like strands of a rope. The campaign plan needs to ensure that all dimensions are brought into play: not only security but also the political economic and humanitarian aspects. Peace support operations are a test of patience understanding and endurance; perhaps the most difficult task is to establish the rule of law where none previously existed. The Quest for Viable Peace captures all of this vividly and comprehensively not least in its use of the hard-won lessons acquired by the British Army in Northern Ireland. I commend it to all those civilians and soldiers alike who have an interest in peace support operations. General Sir Michael Jackson Chief of the General Staff British Army Presenting an excellent set of essential strategies for building durable peace by means of intervention this volume is a prodigious extremely high-quality valuable work. It should occupy a prominent position in the literature of peace operations. Robert B. Oakley U.S. Ambassador (Ret.) International intervention in failing states that threaten peace and security does not by itself make the world safer. Too often when intervening forces are unable to change the circumstances that breed violence the intervention stalls and old animosities reignite. If international intervention is to be effective its first task must be the attainment of viable peace. As the editors of this groundbreaking volume explain viable peace is achieved when the capacity of domestic institutions to resolve disputes peacefully overtakes the powerful motives and means for continued violent conflict. Getting to this point quickly demands the careful design and coordinated implementation of four mutually reinforcing strategies to moderate political conflict defeat militant extremism inculcate the rule of law and establish a political economy that reduces rather than ignites conflict. Drawing on their firsthand experience of Kosovo the contributorsall seasoned practitioners and policymakersidentify the concrete challenges that must be confronted and lay out the practical steps that must be taken to transform a society habituated to violent conflict in