Contributed articles.

The Author Is A Long Serving Diplomat And A Close Friend Of Many Players Who Guided The Nation`S Destiny, He Gives Us A Ring-Side View Of The Goings On In The Bloody Drama Of The Ethnic Tamil Strife For Identity. There Is A Momentous Meeting With Ltte Chief, Prabhakaran And A Special Chapter On India`S Clumsy Interference Which Ended In The Tragic Assassination Of Rajiv Gandhi. He Makes A Fervent Plea For Tolerance And Brotherhood In Fellow Sri Lankans So That The Country Can Go Back To Living Justly And In Peace.

Between 1983 and 2009 Sri Lanka was host to a bitter civil war fought between the Government and the Tamil Tigers, which sought the creation of an independent Tamil state. In May 2009 came the war's violent end with the crushing defeat of the Tamil Tigers at the hands of the Sri Lanka Army. But prior to this grim finale, for some time there had been hope for a peaceful end to the conflict. Beginning with a ceasefire agreement in early 2002, for almost five years a series of peace talks between the two sides took place in locations ranging from Thailand and Japan to Norway, Germany and Switzerland. To End a Civil War tells the story of trying to bring peace to Sri Lanka. In particular it tells the story of how a faraway European nation--Norway--came to play a central role in efforts to end the conflict, and what its small, dedicated team of mediators did in their untiring efforts to reach what ultimately proved the elusive goal of a negotiated peace. In doing so it fills a critical gap in our understanding of the Sri Lankan conflict. But it also illuminates in detail a much wider problem: the intense fragility that surrounds peace processes and the extraordinary lengths to which their proponents often stretch in order to secure their progress.

Includes a collection of official documents related to the ceasefire agreement of 2002.

This book details the manner in which Sri Lanka has missed numerous opportunities to secure peace between its two principal ethnic communities and how the intractable ethnic conflict has placed the country in a dire state. It provides an institutionalist explanation to the conflict, examines the Sinhalese-Tamil divisions that were exacerbated due to linguistic nationalism, and evaluates the extent to which the island’s political structure encouraged ethnocentrism. It also makes clear how such ethnocentrism has contributed to illiberal democracy and political decay. Furthermore, the book analyzes how both military and political strategies have failed to end the ethnic war and provides a structural explanation for the LTTE’s resistance to accept a negotiated peace, which would require the group to step back from its stated goal of creating a separate state. India’s shifting policy vis-à-vis the conflict is also examined in the context of its contrasting responses and postures—intervention in the 1980s and non-intervention currently.

As one of South Asia's oldest democracies Sri Lanka is a critical case to examine the limits of a liberal peace, peacebuilding and external engagement in the settlement of civil wars. Based on nine years of research, and more than 100 interviews with those affected by the war, NGOs, and local and international elites engaged in the peace process.

The present book uses Sri Lanka's failed attempt at negotiating peace with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, to examine the politics of state and market reforms towards liberal peace. Sri Lanka is seen as a critical case that demonstrates key characteristics and shortcomings of liberal peace, vividly demonstrated by internationally facilitated elite negotiations and donor-funded neoliberal development.