Stability of Peace Processes and Factors that Influence them: the Case of Liberia

This article deals with the issue of the peace-building process in countries with long-standing civil wars and the factors that might influence such processes. Based on my analysis, I identify two types of factors that might influence the peace process: power-sharing arrangements as an institutional factor, and attitudes of internal actors of the peace process as an agency factor. In this article I analyze the peace-building process in the West African country of Liberia. The peace-building process is analyzed through the study of the two main peace treaties signed to end the Liberian civil war in the 1990s: the Treaties of Abuja and Accra. In the analysis, I focus mainly on the extent to which the peace treaties incorporate the elements of power-sharing as well as the motivations, decision-making, and behavior of internal actors involved in the peace building process during the implementation of the peace treaties. The goal of this analysis is to reveal which dominant factor influenced the stability of the peace-building process in Liberia.