From war to peace: what determines the success (failure) of third-party interventions? comparative analysis of mali and sierra leone

From War to Peace: What Determines the Success (Failure) of Third-party Interventions? Comparative Analysis of Mali and Sierra Leone The end of the Cold War have not brought peace to all parts around the globe. In fact, our society is facing even more challenges that threaten to our international security. The best evidence of it - international community‘s response to humanitarian crisis, i.e. it is almost impossible to imagine a civil war that is not shaped by third-party interventions. However, most of the times such efforts to ensure peace and stability turns into paradoxical logic: interventions can contribute to longer and heavier civil war rather than successful conflict resolution. Thus, the main purpose of this Bachelor Thesis is to reveal what determines the success of third party interventions. While it is true to say that plenty of factors (e.g. ethnic fragmentation, historical context, etc.) can contribute to the duration of a civil war, this study seeks to focus namely on the role of third-party interventions. In order to achieve this goal, the following hypotheses are formulated: the success of the civil war is determined by the strategy of the intervention (H1), by the moment when decision to start an intervention is adopted (H2), the number of veto players that are involved into the conflict (H3). Study relies on the experiences of Sierra Leone and Mali – two African countries that were thrown into a civil war and requested help from international community. However, Sierra Leone is now in a sustainable transition from war to peace while Mali is struggling to achieve that. The research begins with a briefly sketching of the historical background of conflicts in Sierra Leone and Mali, and then moves to the detailed UN official documentation analysis. This approach helps to track intervention strategy and evaluate its effectiveness. The main argument is that only coherent and comprehensive strategy that focuses not only on peace-enforcement, but also on nation-building, economic growth, reconciliation of civilians and addresses root causes of the conflict can help to achieve sustainable and long-lasting peace. The case of Sierra Leone also proves that international community working together can make a huge influence towards the peace and security around the world. As a result, the strategy of intervention plays a very important role in achieving peace and stability after a civil war. The findings suggest that the moment of intervention, however, is not the main factor that determines the outcomes of a conflict. Although third parties intervened Sierra Leone quite late, their operation ended successfully. Opposite scenario was in Mali - even though third parties intervened soon after the conflict started, the peacekeeping operation is considered as a failure. Nonetheless, it is worthy to note the impact of military intervention, which is usually the breaking point that either ends the violence once and for all (Sierra Leone), or contributes to further deterioration of the conflict (Mali). Last but not the least conclusion, is that the number of veto players is very significant factor that determines whether the ensured peace and stability will last long. The analysis show that the conflicts with more veto players are going to be lengthier since it is more difficult to reach a compromise that would be acceptable to all sides of the conflict (Mali). The small number of veto players can bring completely different results. The reference could be made to the case of Sierra Leone, where the small number of key players contributed to the easier conflict resolution and self-sustaining peace. The road from war to peace is always full of obstacles and sometimes third parties must step in in order to help achieving this goal. In the face of the growing number of conflicts around the world, the analysis of Sierra Leone and Mali can be valuable contribution to the peace and conflict studies