ABSTRACT
The road from war to peace is a puzzling and uncertain one. To those who fight and die on it, it is seldom clear just when the journey will end; those responsible for finding the path are rarely more perceptive. It seems likely that at least some of the difficulties encountered, however, will be common to virtually all cease-fire negotiations, whether between or among non-state or extra-state actors, nations and nation-states. These difficulties, strewn like rubble across the path to peace, come up time and time again, and if attempts at stopping wars are to be consistently successful, they need to be identified and addressed. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book attempts to understand what stops wars from ending. It also attempts to catalogue the most common barriers to successful cease-fires in international and civil wars.
