Stopping Wars Defining The Obstacles To Cease-fire

The first book-length attempt to catalog the reasons why some wars are so difficult to stop--even when both sides want the fighting to end.

The road from war to peace is a puzzling and uncertain one. To those who fight and die on it, it is seldom clear where the journey will end?and those responsible for finding the path are rarely more perceptive. Of the few signposts that exist, perhaps the most visible is the cease-fire. No war ends without one. Stopping Wars is the first attempt to catalog the reasons why some wars are so difficult to stop?even when both sides want the fighting to end.James Smith examines the problems encountered by protagonists as well as third parties attempting to achieve a cease-fire. Each chapter is devoted to a specific obstacle that Smith analyzes and then illustrates via in-depth case studies, drawing on such conflicts as the Iran/Iraq War, the Gulf War, and the Yugoslav wars. Smith assesses the role of third parties in trying to persuade people to stop fighting and examines what happens when obstacles to a cease-fire cannot be overcome.

Introduction -- The Long and Winding Road to Peace -- Belligerents During War -- Power and the Willingness to Settle: "Why stop now?" -- The Avoidance of Weakness and the Search for Strength: "WE will look weak" -- Political and Cognitive Dissonance: "We'd never get away with it" -- Making the Decision to Stop Fighting: "WE didn't consider it; THEY wouldn't listen; WE couldn't agree" -- Unbridgeable Divides and Uncontrollable Armies -— the Inability to Cease Fire: "We can't give them what they want; We can't stop fighting" -- The Cease-Fire Proposal -- Construction, Acceptance, and Failure: "WE can't make/accept the offer; the agreement didn't work" -- Third Parties and War -- Mediator Impartiality and the "Two-Hat" Dilemma: "You are not objective" -- The Imposed Cease-fire: "YOU can't make us" -- Conclusions -- The Road Ahead -- Notes on the Definition of "Cease-fire" -- "Why can't they just stop fighting?" -- Case Study Chronologies