Brief Description
This volume analyzes the context, dynamics and key players shaping Nepal's ongoing peace process.
Learn More about the Book
Since emerging in 2006 from a ten-year Maoist insurgency, the People's War, Nepal has struggled with the difficult transition from war to peace, from autocracy to democracy, and from an exclusionary and centralized state to a more inclusive and federal one. The present volume, drawing on both international and Nepali scholars and leading practitioners, analyzes the context, dynamics, and key players shaping Nepal's ongoing peace process. While the peace process is largely domestically driven, it has been accompanied by wide-ranging international involvement, including initiatives in peacemaking by NGOs, the United Nations, and India, which, throughout the process, wielded considerable political influence; significant investments by international donors; and the deployment of a Security Council-mandated UN field mission. This book shines a light on the limits, opportunities, and challenges of international efforts to assist Nepal in its quest for peace and stability and offers valuable lessons for similar endeavors elsewhere."
About the Book
Since emerging in 2006 from a ten-year Maoist insurgency, the People's War, Nepal has struggled with the difficult transition from war to peace, from autocracy to democracy, and from an exclusionary and centralized state to a more inclusive and federal one. The present volume, drawing on both international and Nepali scholars and leading practitioners, analyzes the context, dynamics, and key players shaping Nepal's ongoing peace process. While the peace process is largely domestically driven, it has been accompanied by wide-ranging international involvement, including initiatives in peacemaking by NGOs, the United Nations, and India, which, throughout the process, wielded considerable political influence; significant investments by international donors; and the deployment of a Security Council-mandated UN field mission. This book shines a light on the limits, opportunities, and challenges of international efforts to assist Nepal in its quest for peace and stability and offers valuable lessons for similar endeavors elsewhere."
Review Quotes
1. "Six years ago, the overthrow of the Nepalese monarchy and a negotiated peace brought the self-declared (but not Chinese-endorsed) Maoist insurgents into government in Nepal. Today, the country is stuck. The parties are deadlocked, the police and the courts are ineffective, and the bureaucracy is corrupt. Despite an agreement to merge forces, the army and the insurgents sit in separate camps, poised to resume fighting. A promised new constitution is overdue. The rural poverty, bonded-labor practices, and social and political exclusion of ethnic and caste minorities that sparked the insurgency remain unaddressed. Some benefit was gained from international aid efforts and two now-terminated UN missions, one focused on human rights and the other on peace monitoring -- but not enough to create momentum. Nepal s giant neighbors, China and India, contend for strategic position with little concern for Nepal s complex internal problems. The book s deeply informed contributors from the diplomatic, nongovernmental organization, academic, and journalistic worlds look hard for rays of hope, but they find few."
--Foreign Affairs"
