A Ceasefire Can Stop the Shooting. The Injustice Can Survive It.
Since the end of the Cold War, more than 30 comprehensive peace agreements have been signed around the world, but few, if any, have succeeded in building a durable peace, according to an Aeon essay.
The dominant model, the essay argues, focuses almost exclusively on stopping direct violence through ceasefires, weapons handovers, disarmament and individual reintegration, on the assumption that democratic institutions and free markets will naturally produce lasting peace.
Its sharp claim is that peace as currently practised doesn’t break the cycle of injustice that leads to war in the first place.
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A ceasefire can be real and still be only the first layer. The hard question is whether the settlement touches the injustice that made the war.
The essay’s target is the assumption, not the institutions themselves: it says the dominant model assumes democratic institutions and free markets will naturally produce lasting peace. That is a more defensible critique than “elections are useless.”