Federalism as a Tool of Conflict Resolution

This book looks at the growing use of federalism and decentralization as tools of conflict resolution, providing evidence from several case studies on the opportunities and challenges that territorial solutions offer. Federalism has been used as a tool of conflict resolution, but it is difficult to implement and often overshadowed by wider concerns. Territorial solutions must be considered to transform conflict and bring peace, but federalism alone cannot be enough.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 106 pages
Publication date: 25 September 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Looking at the growing use of federalism and decentralization as tools of conflict resolution, this book provides evidence from several case studies on the opportunities and challenges that territorial solutions offer when addressing internal conflicts within a variety of countries.

Federalism has been used as a tool of conflict resolution in a number of conflict situations around the world. The results of this have been mixed at best, with some countries moving slowly to the paths of peace and recovery, while others have returned to violence. This volume looks at a number of case studies in which federalism and decentralization have been promoted in order to bring opposing groups together and protect the territorial integrity of different countries. Yet, it is demonstrated that this has been incredibly difficult, and often overshadowed by wider concerns on secession, de- and re-centralization, geopolitics, and geoeconomics. While federalism and decentralization might hold the key to keeping war-torn countries together and bringing hostile groups to the negotiation table, we nevertheless need to rethink under which conditions territorial autonomy can help to transform conflict and when it might contribute to an increase in conflict and violence. Federalism alone, so the key message from all contributions, cannot be enough to bring peace – yet, without territorial solutions to ongoing violence, it is also unlikely that peace will be achieved.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Ethnopolitics.

Weight: 453g
Dimension: 246 x 174 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367692995