Since the end of World War II many peace agreements have been signed between belligerents but not all have resulted in stable and enduring peace. In addition, the process of achieving such an agreement can take a long time and is often characterized by multiple negotiating steps. Some of these processes have been aspirational and pledge-focused, while others have focused on technical and implementation issues. These differences have led to the development of different types of peace agreements.
A peace treaty, also known as a peace settlement or peace treaty, is an official legal document that ends the state of war. It is important to note that the legal state of war continues even when actual fighting has stopped because the belligerent parties are still legally defined as enemies.
The most common type of peace agreement is the full agreement, which involves all the parties in a conflict working to negotiate a comprehensive solution to their dispute. This solution must address all the issues that are driving their conflict. The Kroc Institute maintains a database, the Peace Accords Matrix, that tracks 51 themes across all comprehensive peace agreements.
Another kind of peace agreement is the partial agreement, which only addresses some of the issues in a conflict. This is often an interim agreement that will be replaced by a more enduring peace treaty in the future. An example of a partial peace agreement is a ceasefire, which can be used to provide humanitarian relief and help displaced people.