Why peace fails: The causes and prevention of civil war recurrence, by Charles T Call
| Date | 01 March 2014 |
| Published date | 01 March 2014 |
| Author | Joe Landry |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702014521752 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
International Journal
2014, Vol. 69(1) 118–127
!The Author(s) 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/0020702014521752
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Book Reviews
Book Reviews
Charles T Call
Why peace fails: The causes and prevention of civil war recurrence
Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2012. 328 pp., $34.26 (paper)
ISBN: 978-1-5890-1894-5
Reviewed by: Joe Landry, Carleton University
Interstate war has been steadily declining over the past few decades, while intras-
tate war has been on the rise. Civil wars are now the most common form of human
armed conflict and account for an appalling number of deaths, injuries and forced
displacements, especially in the developing world. Charles T. Call aims to answer
the question of why, after a civil war has shown every sign of ending, some reignite
while others stay stagnant. In order to address this puzzle, Call uses regression
analysis techniques on a newly updated data set of civil wars, constructing a new
variable based on wars that recur after at least 1 year of widespread peace. Along
with his quantitative analysis, Call also presents an in-depth case study of the civil
war in Liberia, as well as 14 ‘‘mini’’ case studies of the other countries in his data
set that have experienced civil war recurrence. Moreover, he examines cases in
which war did not recur to uncover the decisive factors that might explain why
peace endures in certain contexts.
Call’s central argument is based on the notion of ‘‘political exclusion.’’ Political
exclusion denotes ‘‘the perceived or actual deprivation of an expected opportunity
for former warring parties, or the social groups associated with them, to participate
in state administration, through either appointed posts or elected office’’ (4). Call
explains that this factor plays a critical role in determining whether or not peace
will be consolidated after civil war; he goes so far as to conclude that it acts as a
‘‘trigger’’ for war recurrence. On the other hand, political inclusion, in the form of
power-sharing agreements, can act as a catalyst to bolster peace. Call presents a
thorough and well-thought-out argument and uses a tried and true mixed-methods
research strategy: quantitative statistical analysis buttressed and nuanced by
contextually rich case studies. As both an academic and practitioner, Call is well
positioned to contribute to the debate on this important topic.
While there has been a great deal of scholarship addressing the causes of civil
war, less attention has been focused on civil war recurrence. Previous research on
recurrence has focused on structural factors rather than the role of leadership and
the weight of key decisions leading to civil war recurrence. With this contribution
to our understanding of civil war recurrence, Call has bridged that gap, as his
argument addresses elite behaviour. He explains how leaders choose to include
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