Identity concessions in ethnic civil wars: When are they given and with what outcomes for peace?

Abstract

Creating a stable peace is now the key puzzle to resolve in ending civil wars. To date, research has focused on ‘hard’ political and military reforms included in peace agreements, and the impact of ‘soft’ concessions such as language rights, cultural rights or the right to religion have been largely ignored. When do states give these concessions and do they make a difference to peace outcomes? The article argues that the state grants these concessions to dilute ethnic grievances and accommodate the group, bypassing political demands, but gives them strategically to ethnic groups that are politically weak. The concessions have effects through the expressive, demarcating and relational impacts on the receiving group. The article uses original data on identity concessions in a comparison of conflicts with ethnic aims that ended in a peace agreement from 1989 to 2013. The findings show that concessions are given to larger ethnic groups that lack political power. If granted, identity concessions only make peace more durable when fully implemented. The article thus brings a novel contribution to the role of grievances in civil wars and to the settlement of civil conflicts.