Editorial from ROAPE Volume 26 Number 81
Ending Endemic Violence: Limits to Conflict Resolution

Endemic violence and ‘new wars’ in Africa since 1990 not only differ in character from old wars, but have proved far more difficult to resolve. Attempts to bring about the end of the conflict, achieve a lasting peace, establish a sound basis for economic and social reconstruction, and begin processes of reconciliation - taken individually or collectively, these have resulted far more often in failure than in success. By contrast, efforts at conflict resolution in the late 1980s and, very early 1990s were, although flawed, generally successful - with the obvious exception of Angola. The last of these Cold War-related resolutions, that in Mozambique, is discussed in Graham Harrison's contribution to this issue.