Publication

Once a civil war formally draws to a close, what is the ideal institutional way to prevent or manage future conflicts? The most common answer has been to set up power-sharing structures that span the political, military, territorial, and economic dimensions of a state. Bad move, says this analysis. What should be set up are power-dividing institutions – i.e., those that limit the scope of government authority and establish a wide-ranging system of checks and balances that keep the competing interests within a country in check.