This work asks how the concept of ‘fragment state’ can be used to improve peace process design and implementation. The project will interact with a strong practical component of rapid reaction and in-time support of peacemaking and peacebuilding work, as well as direct peacemaking engagement of PeaceRep partners in Afghanistan, Ethiopia/Ogaden, Iraq, Sudan, and Syria.

• What actors and support mechanisms support national peace processes, and to what extent can we anticipate implementation issues and support parties to negotiations to ‘pre-design’ solutions into agreements?
• How do people perceive peace processes and how do they think they can work more inclusively?
• How to engage hold-out actors and difficult partners in peace processes?
• How do design choices relating to any interim arrangement affect how the process unfolds, and who is included?
• How can constitution-making processes that seek to institutionalise peace process commitments be better supported?
• When and how are peace agreements implemented? How do parties build ‘political trust’ in diversity over time, what role do third parties play, and when and how does developing political trust shape understandings of identity?
• What is the strategic relationship between peacemaking and peacebuilding at the international, regional, national, and local level?