The quality of peace after Civil War

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to determine the impact of international intervention on state repression after civil war. After civil war, some leaders employ repression to establish political order. Understanding why one leader decides to use torture, political imprisonment, disappearances, and extrajudicial killings, while others carryout the task of state-building after war with little or no infringement of human rights may help to limit future repression. Choosing repression during an unstable post-conflict period may be an appealing option for leaders with few alternatives. However, constraints on a leader’s power can remove this strategic option from a list of policy alternatives; and international intervention may provide such a constraint. I argue international aid and international monitoring can, under certain conditions, compel leaders to use policies other than repression in post-conflict societies.