Publication

The wars of the 1990s confirm a basic finding from the study of civil war termination: "peacemaking is a risky business." The greatest source of risk comes from spoilers - leaders and parties who believe that peace emerging from negotiations threatens their power, worldview, and interests, and use violence to undermine attempts to achieve it. This research is a first step towards understanding the spoiler problem in peace processes and evaluating the appropriateness and effectiveness of different strategies of spoiler management. It argues that spoilers differ by goals they seek and their commitment to achieving those goals.