In a world continuously scarred by war, the work of peacemakers has never been more demanding or important. Across the globe, mediators, diplomats and conflict resolution experts are toiling away—often behind the scenes—to reach the agreements that end wars. While there may be disagreement about what exactly peace looks like, there is universal agreement that we need to strive and work toward it.

But there is much more to peacemaking than bringing adversaries to the table. The success of any peace process depends on the ability to deal with issues that are sometimes intractable and that require time to resolve. In this section the building blocks examine the nature of these intractable issues. They include strategies for power sharing, election monitoring and nation building—the type of social-structural provisions that often are needed to ameliorate intractable conflict and that have to be built into peace agreements.

One of the biggest challenges is motivating leaders to agree to negotiate with each other, especially if they have committed serious violations in the course of their war. This is a challenge that I encountered personally when I negotiated with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE (non-state military organisation) in Sri Lanka. I had to balance the desire of the LTTE leadership for a just settlement with their need to negotiate a way out of genocidal warfare and reclaim their homeland. I also had to weigh the extent to which they would view my engagement in talks with them as a sign of weakness and change their strategy accordingly.