Track II Peace Processes

Foreign ministries engaged in back-channel mediation required continuous assessment of a conflict through successive ceasefires. A cessation of hostilities was signed. The question across three years was whether the formal processes reflected conditions that could produce a durable settlement.

Networks across military commands on both sides, regional administrations, and ruling party structures documented what mediation frameworks could not capture. Senior officers acknowledged the desire for decisive victory but warned that their opponent would reconstitute. Government strategists confirmed: accept a ceasefire, launch dialogue, delay indefinitely. Famine became instrument rather than consequence. Tens of thousands who had trained abroad were denied the weapons they had been promised, and seized national army depots instead. A neighbouring state enlisted against the insurgency maintained forces in occupied territories after the agreement. By the third year, demobilised fighters were quietly recalled.

Reporting continued; what followed was repositioning for interstate war.