Introduction

This introduction outlines the book’s main argument that peace processes across the world have become systematically blocked in the post-Cold War era, indicating the emergence of proto-systemic counter-peace processes. Indeed, the dominant trend towards stagnation, reversal and collapse of internationally-sponsored attempts to create peace shows that peacemaking is failing. The chapter sketches the international peace architecture (IPA), which the subsequent analysis shows as being entangled with counter-peace processes. Subsequently, some preliminary examples of failed peacemaking and some initial reflections on tactical blockages hint at the scale, scope and effectiveness of contemporary counter-peace processes. The chapter concludes by introducing the structure of the book and its research questions.