Africa in general and sub-Saharan Africa in particular, continues to experience armed conflicts engineered by political elites that cause untold suffering and underdevelopment. The many years of armed confrontations often end in military stalemates. Consequently, peace negotiations are often the only viable alternative to end armed conflicts. However, peace negotiations processes are hard to organize and conduct and its failure often leads to re-start of armed conflict with disastrous effects. The factors that bring warring parties to the negotiations until an agreement is reached leading to long term political settlement in Africa are the subject of this thesis. The thesis uses two case studies: the successful North-South Sudan peace negotiations process that led to the signing of Comprehensive Peace Agreement on January 9, 2005 and the failed 2008 Juba peace talks to resolve the Northern Uganda conflict. This thesis explores what factors when available and applied at an appropriate time will enable peace negotiations to succeed in resolving an armed conflict leading to long term political settlement. The research was able to identify effective mediation, composition and character of negotiating teams, the outsiders, the pre-negotiating conditions, and the management of the peace process as essential factors for any peace negotiations process to succeed. The study found out that the leadership of warring parties and financial resources that support the peace process do not have significant effect on the outcome of the peace negotiations process. The study concluded that no single essential factor contributes more than others to the success or failure of peace negotiations. They all contribute equally to make negotiations succeed or fail.

ADA 547411 Approved for public release; Distribution is unlimited. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the student-authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency. References to these studies should include the foregoing statement.