Description
Herbert C. Kelman observed that “parties can not enter into a peace process without some degree of mutual trust, but they cannot build trust without entering a peace process” (200: 640). And yet, Henry Kissinger blamed the failure to press home the United States’ nuclear advantage over the Soviet Union in the 1950s on the belief that trust was a necessary condition for negotiations to begin. So, is it possible for participants to enter peace process, negotiate and successfully conclude a peace agreement, without some degree of mutual trust? Does distrust necessarily disrupt a peace process? Drawing on empirical and theoretical evidence, this paper examines whether entrenched distrust between some, or all of the participants is an inevitable part of a peace process and investigates, if so, whether there intentional efforts which can be taken to minimise the negative impact of distrust on peace processes.
