Book Talk with Miranda Melcher: Securing Peace in Angola and Mozambique

Does it really matter what’s written on page 36, protocol V, section III, point 5 of a UN-endorsed peace treaty?

Join us as Dr Miranda Ruwart Melcher presents her new book, Securing Peace in Angola and Mozambique: The Importance of Specificity in Peace Treaties.

This book helps explain how and why there are such diverging outcomes of UN peace negotiations and treaties through a detailed examination of peace processes in the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Dr Melcher shows that seemingly small details – such as who wears suits, who has toothbrushes, and how specific words are translated between French and English – can and have delayed peace or contributed to restarting wars.

Following a presentation of the book, there will be time for a discussion of its key themes.

WHEN: 10:30 am – 11:30 am, Thursday 09 May 2024

WHERE: Teaching Room 07, Old College, Edinburgh University Law School

Please register to attend on Eventbrite.

About the book:

Securing Peace in Mozambique and Angola presents a detailed qualitative analysis of the peace treaties of the civil wars in Angola and Mozambique, analysing the text in comparative detail while also investigating and making arguments about the processes through which the treaties were negotiated, and how this impacted their implementation. In addition to using the treaties themselves, the book draws on previously unopened UN archives about peacekeeping missions in Angola and Mozambique, giving unique insight in on-the-ground peacekeeping in the 1990s and the evolution of what UN peacekeeping meant and means.

The book also:

• Combines UN archival material with interviews from key figures involved in negotiations, going behind closed doors to illuminate how peace treaties are actually negotiated
• Explains divergent outcomes for two long civil wars that have important similarities to many civil wars currently underway
• Traces how the end of the Cold War played out in proxy conflicts and explains why the end of the Cold War made some conflicts worse
• Offers an alternative option to the oft-implemented Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration (DDR) which has mixed outcomes and logic

Please register to attend on Eventbrite.

This event is organised by Peacerep.

This event is in person only.