Application

Pierre Du Toit

Professor
Univerity of Stellenbosch, Department of Political Science
Post-Settlement Settlements
South Africa

I am currently a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Stellenbosch. My research interests are in the field of ethnic conflict and conflict resolution with special focus on the role of the state as an institution both of conflict and conflict resolution and on the dynamics of negotiation. I am a member of the International Political Science Association as well as the South African Association for Political Studies. In 1992 I was awarded a fellowship from the Jennings Randolph Programme for International Peace at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington DC.

Selected Publications:

State Building and Democracy in Southern Africa - Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Washington DC, United States Institute of Peace Press, 1995.
"South Africa: In Search of Post-Settlement Peace." In John Darby and Roger MacGinty, Eds. The Management of Peace Processes, London, Macmillan, 2000.
South Africa's Brittle Peace - The Problem of Post-Settlement Violence. Basingstoke, England, Palgrave, 2001.

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Post-Settlement Settlements

The study focuses on the durability of peace settlements. How can these settlements be crafted to ensure that they remain effective instruments for dealing with unforeseen, unanticipated conflicts that arise long after the issues at stake with the original settlement have been dealt with?

It is argued that in some cases settlement failure occurs as parties approached negotiation from different cultural perspectives. This leads to fundamental disagreements about the importance of the rules of good faith, and the status of contract. Another source of failure lies in dealing with the problem of incommensurables. This undermines the fairness of the original exchange, putting the legitimacy of the entire settlement at risk. When the settlement itself loses validity, the need for a post-settlement settlement arises.

The research design comprises a comparison of three cases, each in a different phase of post-settlement conflict. Malaysia's early settlement of 1956/7 ended in anti-Chinese riots in 1969, and was revisited and revised in 1971. Zimbabwe's 1980 settlement has collapsed comprehensively, and is an acute case of the problems of incommensurables that are still not addressed by a post-settlement settlement. South Africa already shows early signs of a settlement under stress.

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