Territorial Power-sharing and Inclusion in Peace Processes

Territorial Power-sharing and Inclusion in Peace Processes

Citation:

Wise, L. (2018). Territorial Power-sharing and Inclusion in Peace Processes (PA-X Report, Power-Sharing Series) [PA-X Report, Power-Sharing Series]. Global Justice Academy, University of Edinburgh.

Download the Territorial Power Sharing Report.

Summary: This research report provides information and analysis on when and how peace agreements provide for territorial power-sharing, and the implications for broader projects of social inclusion.

Key findings:

  • Territorial power-sharing in peace agreements includes federal or similar sub-divided forms of government, local or municipal government, autonomy, and other forms of ‘special status’.
  • During negotiations on territorial power-sharing, there are critical decisions that have implications for the type of inclusion on offer.
  • Territorial power-sharing arrangements have been reached mostly during peace processes relating to intrastate, identity-based conflicts across a variety of geographical contexts, including secessionist disputes.

Recommendations:

  • Analysis on how to ensure that power-sharing arrangements enable inclusion beyond the main conflict parties should question the conflict dynamic which the territorial power-sharing attempts to address, and anticipate lines of resistance.
  • Symbolic naming of the arrangements may be as contested as substance, and require creative approaches to ‘naming’.
  • Sequencing territorial devolution of power in stages, to build incremental agreement, can help build support for territorial power-sharing as a framework for a more inclusive state.
  • Creative techniques for formalizing ‘unsettlement’ may present opportunities to promote plurinational solutions to statehood.

Keywords: PA-X, peace agreements, peace processes, power sharing, inclusion, unsettlement

Return to search all publications