How does the design of peace settlements most effectively secure citizen support?
CPIDEPS (Citizen Preferences in the Design of Effective Peace Settlements) received funding by the US Institute of Peace to answer this question. The project marks an important first step in identifying information negotiators can use to better integrate citizen preferences into the design of peace settlements. Currently, peace settlements fail to incorporate public opinion due to lack of nuanced information on the preferences of citizens concerning the various compromises contained within the agreements. Initiated in October 2017, the project involves conjoint survey experiments conducted in Northern Ireland and Cyprus. It seeks to find the most effective way of designing peace settlements, which are based on citizens support. The analysis of the data collected in the surveys have informed decision-makers with a better basis for understanding the preferences of citizens.
Based on this research, a transferable set of methods and insights could apply to other post-conflict settings. Our project aims to support international organizations, governments and NGOs to use public opinion surveys to better estimate comprehensive peace packages that affected citizens find acceptable. We have also developed a novel visualization toolkit that allows stakeholders and the general public to estimate public levels of support for packages linking concessions and incentives as well as offer dedicated negotiations and mediations training sessions for stakeholders and members of the public (please contact us if you are interested in any of the above).
Please see below presentations from this project and related events: