Give Peace and Reconciliation a chance - Explaining the Changes in Norwegian Peace and Reconciliation policy

The end of the Cold War brought several important changes to the field of peace and reconciliation. The United Nations Security Council became less paralyzed by Cold War politics and more conflicts were solved through negotiated solutions. For Norway, the end of the Cold War brought the possibility to enter into peace and reconciliation efforts. In this thesis I answer the research question “In what ways has the Norwegian peace and reconciliation policy changed since 1990 and what can explain these changes?” In order to answer this research question, I apply three key concepts from the theory of historical institutionalism, critical junctures, antecedent conditions and path dependency, to pinpoint moments of change in the Norwegian peace and reconciliation policy. In addition, I apply public policy theory on problem definition, agenda-setting, policy implementation, evaluation, change and convergence in order to understand what can explain the changes we observe. The research design of this thesis is a single-case process tracing research design. This research design offers the possibility to understand the development of the Norwegian peace and reconciliation policy and trace changes back in time by using process tracing as a tool. The analysis showed that there were several different types of changes that had occurred since 1990. One antecedent condition was found; the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Three critical junctures were located; the initial formation of a Norwegian peace and reconciliation policy, the linking of the peace and reconciliation policy to the development policy and the end of Norway’s involvement in the peace process in Sri Lanka. Additionally, we observed path dependency throughout the years from 1990 to 2020. The causes for these changes are many. Some are exogenous sources for change outside Norway’s control, like policy development in the United Nations. A second source for change in the peace and reconciliation policy is the evaluation of Norway’s efforts in peace processes. A third example of change is policy convergence. Combined, these changes made the Norwegian peace and reconciliation policy a much broader, more institutionalized and inclusive policy from 1990 to 2020