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Abstract

Peace agreements remain one of the key tools to ending violent conflict, yet there is little analysis on their implementation. Extant approaches tend to focus on implementation viewed as non-recurrence of violence, failing to capture the political nature of peace agreement implementation, with complex contestation and re-negotiation among multiple actors involved in it. The research re-frames peace agreements as complex policy documents aimed at creating social change rather than simple contracts between two parties. The shift provides a novel theoretical perspective, bringing to the fore the processes of contestation and (re-)negotiation as central to implementation. The thesis provides a theoretical framework identifying four distinct implementation logics – two of which build on existing approaches to implementation as compliance or non-recurrence and implementation as the fulfilment of specific tasks or mandates, and two of which bring new perspectives, framing implementation as a process of building and re-shaping institutions and social movements. The thesis maps out the logics using evidence from national and local implementation in Colombia, as well as an analysis of an original dataset created by the author, which includes over 300 gender provisions from 23 peace agreements signed around the world between 1990 and 2020. By centring the voices of Colombian women activists, it also brings to the fore the role of social mobilization and feminist movements in building peace and implementing policy documents.

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