The Central American Peace Process, 1983-91 - Sheathing Swords, Building Confidence (Hardcover)

The Contadora peace process and the Arias/Esquipulas II Peace Plan that evolved from it represent a historic turning point for Central America and its relationship with both the inter-American system and the United Nations. The creation of UN peacekeeping and treaty-verification operations in Central America was unprecedented, as was the co-operation between the UN and the OAS in supervising the demobilisation and resettlement of guerilla forces. In this book, Jack Child examines the peace from the first Contadora meeting in January 1983 through to the signing of the breakthrough agreement between the government of El Salvador and the FMLN in late 1991. His principal focus is on the verification of the Central American peace accords, the peacekeeping operation mounted by the United Nations, and the use of confidence-building measures to create trust between the parties to the various conflicts. Of particular interest is his conclusion that the approaches to conflict resolution taken in Central America have considerable relevance for the search for solutions to other conflicts and for the slowly evolving movement to create zones of peace in the Western Hemisphere.