Miranda Melcher. Securing Peace in Angola and Mozambique: The Importance of Specificity in Peace Treaties. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2024. 258 pp. $35.95. Paper. ISBN: 9781350407961.
Year: 2025
Type: book-review
Abstract: The Importance of Specificity in Peace Treaties is a rigorous and timely contribution to the field of peace and conflict studies, offering a fresh lens through which to analyze postconflict transitions.Melcher, through a thorough comparison of the peace processes in Angola and Mozambique, presents a convincing argument that the specificity-or lack thereof-of clauses in peace agreements is a crucial factor in deciding whether peace is maintained or breaks down.Based on factual data, this book contributes significantly to our knowledge of how peace is implemented in both countries.The book, which is divided into six chapters, opens with a theoretical and methodological framework that establishes the tone for the empirical case studies that follow.In the introduction, the author contends that a major, yet underexplored, challenge facing researchers is our limited understanding of how civil wars come to an end-particularly the increasingly prevalent type that continues for years or even decades.She notes that this problem is compounded by the fact that far less scholarly attention has been devoted to the dynamics of civil war endings than to their causes.To address this gap, the book centers on the most common type of civil war termination-the negotiated settlement-as opposed to cases in which one side secures a clear military victory.It seeks to answer three core questions: (1) why are civil wars lasting longer; (2) what are the numerous stumbling blocks to successfully negotiating peace treaties; and (3) why do some peace treaties, once signed, nonetheless fail to be implemented?Still in the introduction, the author outlines a framework for addressing these questions through the analysis of real-world attempts to end civil wars.Melcher argues that more civil wars today conclude through negotiation rather than outright military victory, a shift that alters the necessary conditions for ending conflict.She further explains that this increased complexity elevates the act of signing a peace treaty to a significant and difficult milestone-one that momentarily aligns competing interests in a single document.Finally, she suggests that these combined factors make the conditions under which a peace treaty can successfully bring an end to civil war appear almost functionally unattainable.Chapters Three to Five compare the peace processes of Angola (1975( -2002( ) and Mozambique (1975( -1992)), with the aim of demonstrating that peace agreements dealing with security issues must include realistic timelines and acknowledge logistical challenges.One of the most consistent implementation failures in
Source: African Studies Review
Author: Dercio Tsandzana
Institution: Eduardo Mondlane University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4413996877