ABSTRACT
The chapters in this volume focus principally on the peacemaking process following a conflict, principally those conflicts that occur within states. Often, central to this peacemaking process is a change in the political system governing a post-conflict society. Historically, these changes in the political institutions in states afflicted with conflict are instigated or shepherded by third party actors, such as the United Nations, the major power states, or states neighboring the state experiencing the internal conflict. During, but principally following, the Cold War, the democratization of former autocratic states was argued to be an important component of a general strategy to prevent the recurrence of intrastate conflicts, as well as cultivating political systems that would have beneficial regional effects.
