Conclusion: Lessons

What causes conflicts to diminish? Reviewing the diverse cases in this book led us to devise a list of five broad ‘ingredients’, which are part of most ‘recipes’ for diminution of conflict. These ingredients were far from being evenly distributed across our cases. The intensity of each ingredient varies; so too does the ‘method’ – the manner in which they blend. No single ingredient contains a key to peace, and some that seemed decisive in ending one conflict were entirely absent in others. Some ingredients – the use of force by governments, for example – that played a role in diminishing conflict in one place had the opposite effect in another. Yet where conflicts subsided and underlying dynamics of conflict were addressed, the same characteristics tended to recur – and their absence or weakness were common in those conflicts that seemed so intractable.