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Termination Spoiling: Sabotage and Obstruction

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Fighting Over Peace

Part of the book series: Rethinking Political Violence ((RPV))

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Abstract

By qualitatively examining the impact of various types of spoiling, Chap. 4 shows that most termination spoilers are simply too weak to derail the peace agreement on their own, and in many cases, their behavior is anticipated, blunting any effect they might have on popular opinion. Most are ignored by insiders, though in some cases, outsiders use spoiling to demonstrate their power and importance, which leads to them signing separate peace agreements with the government in the future. Termination spoiling presents a danger to peace only when outsiders are acting on behest of a government that is disinterested in complying with the agreement or key powerful actors were excluded from the initial accord.

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  1. Department of Politics, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts, USA

    Andrew G. Reiter

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Reiter, A.G. (2016). Termination Spoiling: Sabotage and Obstruction. In: Fighting Over Peace . Rethinking Political Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40102-7_4

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