The peacemaking role of independent commissions: The role of institutional design

After a peace agreement is signed, many key peacebuilding tasks remain. Issues of mistrust between former combatants and the difficult compromises which must be made as the agreement is implemented can lead to conflict recurrence. We examine whether commissions can help to overcome these problems. Commissions provide a forum for specific challenges to be addressed in a less adversarial way. We argue that the institutional design of a commission is crucial in allowing it to support conflict non-recurrence. Although previous research highlights the importance of power-sharing in commissions, we propose that broader inclusion is necessary. Using the Independent Commissions in Post-Conflict Societies dataset, we find that rules for international involvement, consensus decision-making and monitoring/verification significantly lower the likelihood of conflict recurrence, whereas, surprisingly, domestic inclusion rules have no effect. As commission design is malleable, our findings provide practioners with levers which they can engage to help support the non-recurrence of conflict.