ABSTRACT
If there is one requisite condition for stopping a war, it is that the people in charge must have some willingness to try and end it. Unless someone can force the warring parties to stop - a difficult task, rarely attempted - there will be no cease-fire until the belligerents themselves see it as a viable option. The difficulty, however, is that there is always the question of how much bargaining power is gained by any particular victory or set of victories, and it is this relative assessment of power which figures so prominently in the decision to cease fire. Before going on to discuss the effect of intervention and political recognition on belligerent willingness to cease-fire, this chapter examines one more case in detail the October War of 1973 in order to gain a fuller appreciation of the relationship between belligerent perceptions of power, victory, and cease-fire.
